elnathan Blog

Mosquito bite Researchers at Dundee University have discovered a new compound which could treat malaria while protecting people from the disease and preventing its spread, all in a single dose. The compound, DDD107498, was developed by the university's Drug Discovery Unit and the Medicines for Malaria Venture. Scientists said the "exciting" new drug could work well against parasites resistant to current treatments. Details of the discovery have been published in the journal Nature. The World Health Organisation reported 200 million clinical cases of malaria in 2013, with 584,000 people dying from the mosquito-borne disease, most of them pregnant women or children under five. Concerns have been growing about strains of malaria which are resistant to current treatments , which have already appeared on the border between Myanmar and India. 'Real threat' Dr Kevin Read, joint leader of the project, said new drugs were "urgently needed". He...

OCD is Obsessive Compulsive Disorder which David Adam called Disorder of thought . A chronic mental illness that can assault its victims' social lives and occupations. The condition can involve either or both obsessions and compulsions, which include unwanted urges or images that incite stress and anxiety, as well as compel patients to exhibit repetitive behaviors, according to the Mayo Clinic . Author David Adam is one of the millions of people in the U.S. who suffers from OCD, and he shares his story  in the book "The Man Who Couldn’t Stop: OCD and the True Story of a Life Lost in Thought." The disease can show itself in various ways, but Adam defines it simply as a "disorder of thought." Most people have thoughts that enter the brain, like jumping in front of a car or hitting a stranger on the street, but often these thoughts leave as randomly and quickly as they appeared. But for other people, like Adam, they stick. Adam explained thes...

Energy drinks can cause heart problems according to research presented at ESC Congress 2014 by Professor Milou-Daniel Drici from France. Professor Drici said: "So-called 'energy drinks' are popular in dance clubs and during physical exercise, with people sometimes consuming a number of drinks one after the other. This situation can lead to a number of adverse conditions including angina , cardiac arrhythmia ( irregular heartbeat ) and even sudden death." He added: "Around 96% of these drinks contain caffeine , with a typical 0.25 litre can holding 2 espressos worth of caffeine. Caffeine is one of the most potent agonists of the ryanodine receptors and leads to a massive release of calcium within cardiac cells. This can cause arrhythmias, but also has effects on the heart's abilities to contract and to use oxygen. In addition, 52% of drinks contain taurine , 33% have glucuronolactone and two-thirds contain vitamins ." Dr Drici cont...

Men and women's average stress levels may be roughly on par with each other, but the physical and psychological toll of long-term stress on men and women is quite different. In addition to the numerous health impacts of stress experienced by both sexes, tension and anxiety can also take a unique toll on the male mind and body, starting with the immediate stress response. While stress tends to activate the " tend and befriend " response in women, men have been found to react to stress more with the aggressive "fight or flight" response , according to one study. "When the fight or flight response is activated [in both sexes], our bodies go into emergency mode and take care of immediate and acute needs, focusing on getting energy to the muscles, and we don't take care of the longer-term needs of the body," Christy Matta, MA, author of "The Stress Response," tells the Huffington Post . "We shut down things like our imm...

When a headache, back pain or other complaint strikes, many people believe Advil, Tylenol and other over-the-counter analgesics are pretty much interchangeable. Far from it. These medications are each at their best when taken for certain ailments, in part because they work differently in the body and can have different side effects. Got a headache? Tylenol, or its generic version acetaminophen, might be your best bet since it comes with fewer side effects, many experts say. Inflamed elbow? Advil, whose active ingredient is ibuprofen, is likely to bring greater relief. And if you’re trying to bring down a fever, either medication will probably work, although some studies have found Advil to have a slight edge. Both medicines are largely considered safe. But taking too much acetaminophen can damage the liver. And ibuprofen is part of a category of medicines called nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, or NSAIDs, that can cause gastrointestinal problems such a...

Babies who are breastfed have lower arsenic exposure than babies who are fed formula , according to a new study. The powder and water used to make the baby formula may be sources of arsenic, which occurs naturally in the environment and in large doses is linked to serious health problems, the researchers write in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives . It's not clear, however, whether the low levels of arsenic exposure in the study will turn out to be harmful, the researchers say. Parents who need to use formula to feed their infants shouldn’t feel badly about the new findings, said Kathryn Cottingham , one of the study’s lead authors. Instead, they should pay attention to the water they’re using to make baby formula. “People who don’t know what’s going on in their water should test their water,” said Cottingham, who works at the Center for Children's Environmental Health and Disease Prevention Research at Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hamps...

A study from Finland suggests that saunas might have health benefits – at least, for men. During the study, men who spent time in a sauna seven times a week were less likely to die of heart problems or to die at all, compared to those who only visited the sauna once a week. Researchers followed more than 2,000 middle-aged men in eastern Finland for about 20 years. The more often the men went to the sauna, and the longer they stayed, the lower their risk for sudden cardiac death, fatal coronary heart disease and fatal cardiovascular disease over those 20 years. The association was strong even after many potentially interacting factors were taken into account, said senior author Dr. Jari Laukkanen , a cardiologist at the Institute of Public Health and Clinical Nutrition of the University of Eastern Finland in Kuopio . Starting in the 1980s, more than 2,000 men filled out questionnaires about their weekly sauna use. About 1,500 men reported using a sauna two or...