After a delay of nearly a year, the Health ministry has approved harsher pictorial warnings for cigarettes and tobacco products that will be implemented from December this year. The warnings will carry gory mouth and lung cancer pictures on cigarette packets and tobacco pouches.

The Health ministry issued a notification on Saturday to provide for strong pictorial warnings for both smoking (cigarettes, bidis, cigars etc.) and smokeless or chewing forms of tobacco products.

Submitting to the demand of the tobacco industry, however, the Health ministry said that these graphics will be changed every two years instead of every year.

The civil society welcomed the move, saying the graphics will be effective in controlling tobacco use. "The new warnings are better than the current ones. The effort has to be recognised since it took the government long to come up with the warnings," Bhawna Mukhopadhyay, executive director of Voluntary Health Association of India (VHAI) said.

The state government and the Karnataka Private Medical and Dental Colleges Association have resolved the row over post-graduate seats in private medical colleges.

A memo filed in the high court by the association and the government gave out details of the new seat matrix.It said 33% of the seats earmarked under the government quota will remain undisturbed, while the remaining 67% seats will be distributed under the management quota. About 17% of management quota seats will be earmarked for Karnataka students and 25% of the seats will be distributed on the basis of the general merit list prepared by Comed-K. The remaining 25% of the management quota seats will be filled by NRI candidates and institutional preferences. Fresh counselling will be conducted for the 67% seats under the management quota.Following the filing of the memo, the high court on Friday disposed of the petition.

Source : DNA India

Washington. May 24 (ANI): A new research from New Queensland University of Technology (QUT) has shown that a mushroom used in Asia turned out to be completely successful in suppressing prostate tumour development in mice during its early trials.


A compound, (PSP), which is extracted from the 'turkey tail' mushroom, was found to suppress tumour formation in mice, according to an article by Dr Patrick Ling, from the Australian Prostate Cancer Research Centre-Queensland and Institute for Biomedical Health and Innovation (IHBI).

During the research trial, which was done in collaboration with The University of Hong Kong and Provital Pty Ltd, transgenic mice that developed prostate tumours were fed polysaccharopeptide (PSP), which was extracted from the turkey mushroom, for 20 weeks.

According to the findings, no tumours were found in any of the PSP-fed mice, whereas mice not given the treatment developed prostate tumours.

Dr Ling said that the results could be an important step towards fighting a disease.

Read more: Prostate Tumor Battle Gets New Boost With 'Turkey Tail' Mushroom - Page 2 http://www.medindia.net/news/Prostate-Tumor-Battle-Gets-New-Boost-With-Turkey-Tail-Mushroom-85482-2.htm#ixzz1NR0dEWUR

Source : www.medindia.net

AHMEDABAD: There may be more trouble in store for Kesar Sal medical college. The Ethics Committee of the Medical Council of India (MCI) recently held a meeting to probe the allegations that some of the college faculty members are running private practices during college hours.

The complainant, a city-based doctor, has accused the teachers of showing more interest in their private practice than in conducting classes. As many as 22 teachers have been named in the complaint, some of whom are renowned medical practitioners of the city.

An MCI source said, "The committee met on May 10, and a decision to scrutinize declaration forms of the college teachers was taken. Action will be initiated against those found guilty of running private practices during college hours. At the time of employment, the teachers pledged to serve full time, which means that they cannot take up private practice during college hours, between 9 am to 5 pm."

The complainant has alleged that several of the college faculty members are pursuing private practice even during college hours.

The dean of the college could also face punitive action if anyone is found guilty since all the authorization for full-timers is done by him. For the faculty members, it will mean that the MCI can cancel their registration for two years. During this period, they shall be barred even from private practice. In the past, MCI penalized 280 college faculties and police complaints were also lodged against them by the council members.

A source in the state education department said, "This problem is not limited to Kesar Sal. Employing doctors who engage in private practice as members of the teaching faculty is a common practice."

Source : Times Of India

Results from the largest cross-sectional national allergy study ever conducted, to be released later this week, show that allergies have increased in America, but that most of the increase was due to two environmental allergens, ragweed and mold. The study, based on nearly 14 million test results from more than 2 million patient visits, is believed to be the largest to suggest that increased prevalence of the two allergens, which have been associated with climate change, are largely responsible for an increase in allergies in the United States.

The Quest Diagnostics Health Trends™ Report, Allergies Across America™, from Quest Diagnostics (NYSE: DGX), evaluates results of ImmunoCAP® specific Immunoglobulin E (IgE) blood testing to 11 common allergens, including common ragweed and mold, two house dust mites, cats and dogs, and five foods. A high IgE sensitization level for a specific allergen tested is highly suggestive of an allergy, although physicians also evaluate symptoms, medical history and other factors in order to clinically diagnose an allergy.

In the study, sensitization rates to common ragweed and mold increased the most of the 11 common allergens evaluated over a four-year period. Sensitization to common ragweed grew 15% nationally while mold grew 12%. By comparison, sensitization to the 11 allergens combined increased 5.8%.

"We believe this is the first large national study to show that the growing prevalence of allergies, suggested by other studies, is largely due to increases in environment-based allergens previously associated with climate change," said Stanley J. Naides, M.D, medical director, immunology, Quest Diagnostics. "Given concerns about a warming climate, additional research is needed to confirm these findings and assess the possible implications for public health."

About 10% to 20% of Americans are sensitive to ragweed. Increased exposure to ragweed has been shown to increase an individual's risk of developing a ragweed allergy or of experiencing more severe allergy symptoms. Research has shown that a warming climate, by promoting longer blooming seasons, may increase both the abundance of certain environmental allergens, including ragweed, in the environment and length of the year during which people are exposed. A study published in March 2011 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences determined that the ragweed season was nearly a month longer in 2009 than it was in 1995 in northern areas of North America, possibly as a result of climate change. Mold, as a precipitation-affected aeroallergen, may also increase in prevalence with a warmer climate.

The Quest Diagnostics study also ranked the 30 most populous metropolitan areas ("cities ") in the United States for IgE sensitization to ragweed. In the "30 Worst Big Cities for Ragweed" ranking, Phoenix, Las Vegas, Kansas City, Riverside-San Bernardino in California, and Dallas showed the highest rates of ragweed sensitization, while Miami, San Francisco, Portland, Tampa, and San Diego showed the lowest. Those cities at the high end of the ranking showing sensitization levels nearly three times higher than those at the low end.

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On a regional basis, ragweed sensitization was highest in the Southwest, Great Lakes, and Mountain and Plains States. The investigators theorized that the differences in ragweed sensitization regionally and in the most populous cities may in part be due to longer and more intense ragweed pollen seasons, but they also underscored that the reasons behind these difference are unclear and deserve additional study.

"Considering that the ragweed season traditionally begins in August, Americans suffering from ragweed allergies should expect a very long summer," said Dr. Naides. "These individuals as well as those with other allergies or asthma should take proactive measures to reduce their exposure to ragweed over the next several months."

Methodology of the Quest Diagnostics Health Trends Report Allergies Across America

The Allergies Across America study is broadly representative of the overall population of patients seeking medical care for allergy-like symptoms from healthcare professionals in the U.S. It includes de-identified test results of patients from infancy to 70 years of age living in every U.S. state and the District of Columbia. The study did not track individual patients longitudinally

The study was based on de-identified results of testing in Quest Diagnostics clinical laboratories using the ImmunoCAP® specific IgE blood test, the "gold standard" of allergy blood tests. IgE is an antibody in blood produced by the body's immune system when an allergen is present. A patient visit refers to any instance where an individual patient was tested at least once for one or more of the 11 allergens by Quest Diagnostics over the four-year period examined by the study.

About Quest Diagnostics Health Trends Reports

Quest Diagnostics Health Trends Reports identify and track disease and wellness benchmarks. Based on analyses of de-identified test results from the Quest Diagnostics national database - consisting of more than 1.5 billion patient encounters since January 2000 - past reports have focused on chronic kidney disease, diabetes, heart disease, H1N1 (2009) Influenza A, and rotavirus.

Source:
Quest Diagnostics