The Asian Independent 01 - 15 Nov. 2019

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14 01-11-2019 to 15-11-2019 HEALTH www.theasianindependent.co.uk Babies understand counting years earlier than believed NEW YORK : Babies who are years away from being able to say 'one', 'two', and 'three' actually already have a sense of what counting means, said a new study. "Research like ours shows that babies actually have a pretty sophisticated understanding of the world—they're already trying to make sense of what adults around them are saying, and that includes this domain of counting and numbers," said the study's senior author Lisa Feigenson from the Johns Hopkins University in the US. For the study, published in the journal Developmental Science, the researchers worked with 14 and 18-month-old infants. The babies watched as toys, little dogs or cars, were hidden in a box that they couldn't see inside of, but could reach into. Sometimes the researchers counted each toy aloud as they dropped them into the box, saying, 'Look! One, two, three, four—four dogs!' Other times the researchers simply dropped each toy into the box, saying, 'This, this, this and this—these dogs'. Without counting, the babies had a hard time remembering that the box held four things. They tended to become distracted after the researchers pulled just one out—as if there was nothing else to see. But when the toys were counted, the babies clearly expected more than one to be pulled from the box. According to the study, they didn't remember the exact but they did remember the approximate number. "When we counted the toys for the babies before we hid them, the babies were much better at remembering how many toys there were," said the study's researcher Jenny Wang, Assistant Professor at the Rutgers University. Poor toilet hygiene, not food, behind superbug spread London : Poor toilet hygiene, rather than undercooked chicken or other food, may be behind the spread of antibiotic-resistant E. coli bacteria, a study has found. People harmlessly carry E. coli bacteria in their gut, as do animals. However, some strains cause food poisoning whereas others cause urinary tract infections (UTIs), and infections after gut surgery, according to the researchers from the University of East Anglia (UEA) in the UK. E. coli has become considerably more antibiotic resistant over the past 20 years both in humans and animals, the researchers said. Particularly important are strains with 'Extended Spectrum Beta-Lactamases (ESBLs) -- enzymes that destroy many important penicillin and cephalosporin antibiotics, they said. However, until now, it has not been known whether antibioticresistant E. coli that cause bloodstream infections are picked up via the food chain, or passed from person to person. Researchers showed how they sequenced the genomes of resistant E. coli from multiple sources across the UK -- including from human bloodstream infections, human faeces, human sewerage, animal slurry and meat including beef, pork and chicken, and fruit and salad. The findings, published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases journal, show that antibiotic-resistant 'superbug' strains of E. coli from human blood, faeces and sewerage samples were similar to one another. Strain 'ST131' dominated among ESBL- E. coli from all these human sample types, the researchers said. They found that resistant E. coli strains from meat, principally chicken, cattle and animal slurry were largely different to those infecting humans. ST131 was scarcely seen. Instead, strains ST23, 117 and ST602 dominated, according to the researchers. They found there was little crossover of ESBL-E. coli from animals to humans. The researchers looked at more than 20,000 faecal samples and around nine per cent were positive for ESBL-E. coli across the regions, except for in London, where the carriage rate was almost double -- at 17 per cent. "We found ESBL-E. coli in 65 per cent of retail chicken samples -- ranging from just over 40 per cent in Scotland to over 80 per cent in Northwest England," said David Livermore, from UEA's Norwich Medical School. "But the strains of resistant E. coli, were almost entirely different from the types found in human faeces, sewage and bloodstream infections," Livermore said. "Only a very few beef and pork samples tested positive, and we didn't detect ESBL-E. coli at all in 400 fruit and vegetable samples - - many of which were imported to the UK," he said. The results show that there are human-adapted strains of ESBL-E. coli, principally ST131, which dwell in the gut and which occasionally -- usually via UTIs -- go on to cause serious infections. They study also shows that there are animal strains of ESBL-E. coli. "But -- and critically -- there's little crossover between strains from humans, chickens and cattle. The great majority of strains of ESBL-E. coli causing human infections aren't coming from eating chicken, or anything else in the food chain," David added. More Indians prefer physical wellbeing over mental: Survey New Delhi, A majority of Indians, at 75 per cent, are preoccupied about their physical wellbeing, over mental wellbeing at 62 per cent, a survey by global market reseach agency Ipsos has found. The survey, conducted to coincide with the World Mental Health Day, found 64 per cent Indians believe that is equally important to have both, physical and mental health. Indians want a clear shift in the handling and perception of mental illness. As many as 64 per cent Indians want the stigma attached with mental health issues to go and they would prefer if it was treated like any other illness. Further, 74 per cent Indians Thousands of patients suffer as doctors strike work in TN Chennai, For the second day in succession, thousands of patients in government hospitals in Tamil Nadu continue to suffer as around 17,000 doctors are on a strike since Friday, demanding pay parity. Besides pay parity with their counterparts in the Central government, the doctors are also demanding the implementation of the timebound promotion, and the non-reduction in the numbers of the doctors in hospitals. The striking doctors have said that in patients will not be examined unless an emergency happens and life saving/medical/surgical emergencies will be attended to. Meanwhile, on Friday DMK President M.K. Stalin urged the Tamil Nadu government and the striking doctors to hold talks and find a solution as patients were suffering. exhort adoption of a more tolerant attitude towards those with mental illness in the society. The survey also shows a more positive and empathetic change coming about towards those with signs of mental health conditions with 64 per cent urban Indians believe seeing a mental health specialist or therapist, as a sign of strength. “Indians are recognising that being healthy and well is a combination of both, physical and mental wellbeing and both work in tandem. Also mental health issues are like any other illness and it is alright to see a doctor for alleviating symptoms,” says Monica Gangwani, Executive Director & Country Service Line Leader, Healthcare, Ipsos India. The Ipsos survey found that views around mental health somewhat disjointed and devoid of clear consensus. Aout half of Indians polled (52 per cent), disagree that increased spending on mental health services is a waste of money. However, 27 per cent think it is a wasteful expenditure, while 17 per cent were neutral, 3 per cent were undecided and 1 per cent refused to tender opinion. As many as 39 per cent Indians reject exclusion of someone from public office, on the grounds of mental health history, while 32 per cent agree on exclusion, 25 per cent were neutral, 3 per cent undecided and 1 per cent refused an opinion.
www.theasianindependent.co.uk HEALTH 01-11-2019 to 15-11-2019 15 Obesity causes diabetes in women, KIDNEY DISEASE IN MEN London : Obesity poses a higher risk of type 2 diabetes in women, and Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) and chronic kidney disease in men, said a new study from the University of Oxford. “The study shows just how harmful carrying excess weight can be to human health, and that women and men may experience different diseases as a result,” said the study’s first author Jenny Censin. To identify additional causes of death made worse by obesity, researchers performed an analysis that explores cause-and-effect relationships using genetic data and three measures of obesity from 228,466 women and 195,041 men in the UK Biobank. Their analysis showed that obesity contributes to a laundry list of health problems including coronary artery disease, type 1 and 2 diabetes, stroke, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, lung cancer, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, chronic liver disease and kidney failure. While obesity causes type 2 diabetes in both women and men, women experienced a higher risk of type 2 diabetes as compared to men, while men faced a greater risk of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and chronic kidney disease. “Given the compelling evidence of harm that arises as a consequence of obesity across a broad range of diseases that result in death, our findings highlight the critical need for public health measures to stem the tide of obesity,” said researcher Michael Holmes, who supervised the work together with researcher Cecilia Lindgren. Overall, the study found that obesity causes or contributes to the majority of the leading causes of death worldwide that are not linked to the infectious diseases. The impact of obesity, however, manifests differently in men and women. BAD BREAKUPS may not trigger Facebook use may not make kids depressed: Study NEW YORK : That pint of ice cream after a nasty breakup may not do as much damage as you think. Despite the emotional turmoil, people on average do not report gaining weight after a relationship dissolution, says a new study. According to the researchers, it has been well documented that people sometimes use food as a way to cope with negative feelings and that emotional eating can lead to unhealthy food choices. "...our research showed that while it's possible people may drown their weight gain: Study sorrows in ice cream for a day or two, modern humans do not tend to gain weight after a breakup," said study author Marissa Harrison, Associate Professor at Penn State University in the US. Breakups can be stressful and emotional, it could potentially trigger emotional eating. "Food was much scarcer in the ancestral environment, so if your partner abandoned you, it could have made gathering food much harder," Harrison added. For the study, published in the Journal of the Evolutionary Studies Consortium, the researchers completed two studies to test the theory that people may be more likely to gain weight after a relationship breakup. In the first one, the researchers recruited 581 people to complete an online survey about whether they had recently gone through a breakup and whether they gained or lost weight within a year of the breakup. Most of the participants—62.7 per cent—reported no weight change. For the second study, the researchers recruited 261 new participants to take a different, more extensive survey than the one used in the first study. The new survey asked whether participants had ever experienced the dissolution of a long-term relationship, and whether they gained or lost weight as a result. The survey also asked about participants' attitudes toward their ex-partner, how committed the relationship was, who initiated the breakup, whether the participants tended to eat emotionally, and how much participants enjoy food in general. While all participants reported experiencing a break up at some point in their lives, the majority of participants—65.13 per cent—reported no change in weight after relationship dissolution. "The only thing we found was in the second study, women who already had a proclivity for emotional eating did gain weight after a relationship breakup. But it wasn't common," Harrison added. New York : The amount of time spent on social media is not directly adding to the anxiety or depression issues in teenagers, say reseachers from Brigham Young University. The study, published in the journal Computers in Human Behavior, shows that it is not merely the amount of time spent on social media that’s leading to an increase in depression or anxiety among adolescents. “We spent eight years trying to really understand the relationship between time spent on social media and depression for developing teenagers,” said study author Sarah Coyne, Professor at Brigham Young University in the US. “If they increased their social media time, would it make them more depressed? Also, if they decreased their social media time, were they less depressed? The answer is no. We found that time spent on social media was not what was impacting anxiety or depression,” Coyne added. Mental health is a multi-process syndrome, where no one stressor is likely to be the cause of depression or anxiety. For the study, researchers worked with 500 youth between the ages of 13 and 20, who completed once-yearly questionnaires over an eight-year span. Social media use was measured by asking participants how much time they spent on social networking sites on a typical day. To measure depression and anxiety, participants responded to questions with different scales to indicate depressive symptoms and anxiety levels. These results were then analysed on an individual level to see if there was a strong correlation between the two variables. At age 13, adolescents reported an average social networking use of 31-60 minutes per day. These average levels increased steadily so that by young adulthood, they were reporting upwards of two hours per day. According to the researchers, this increase of social networking, though, did not predict future mental health. That is, adolescents’ increase in social networking beyond their typical levels did not predict changes in anxiety or depression one year later. Researchers suggest some healthier ways to use social media: Be an active user instead of a passive user. Instead of just scrolling, actively comment, post and like other content. Limit social media use at least an hour before falling asleep. Getting enough sleep is one of the most protective factors for mental health, the researchers said.
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The Asian Independent 01 - 15 Nov. 2019

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