Healthy Spots

Girls growing up in troubled families are four times more resilient than boys in overcoming such adverse experiences, according to a new study. The researchers found that 70 percent of the children were exposed to two or more of adverse events such as having a heroin-addicted parent, these experiences include family mental illness, having a parent jailed, family violence, being a victim of abuse and having a parent die, and girls were more resilient than boys in overcoming such adverse events. In addition, 62 percent had three or more adverse experiences and 22 percent reported four or more.

“These are very high-risk kids with at least one parent who is addicted to heroin,” said Martie Skinner, a research scientist with the University of Washington’’s Social Development Research Group and lead author of a new study.

“What we mean by resilience is a reasonable transition to adulthood by working or being in school, avoiding substance abuse and staying out of trouble with the law in the past five years.

“These seem like ordinary expectations, but only 30 of the 125 young adults we studied met them,” Skinner added. She said women were more likely to be resilient, primarily because males were more likely to have had criminal charges.

In addition to having a drug-addicted parent, the most common detrimental events experienced during childhood in the study were having a parent who was jailed (84 percent) and having mental illness in the family (78 percent).

Skinner said the study “indicates that there are early warning signs, and if children get the attention they need to meet early problems it can reduce the burden on society later on in caring for them.” The study was published in the Journal of Adolescent Health.

Before applying any makeup, you should clean your face with water, which has a pinch of soda bicarbonate in it. Then apply ice cubes on the face. This enables the makeup to last longer.

Concealer is used to hide dark circles around the eyes, and is also used to cover blemishes and scars. A beige concealer is ideal for dark skins and one with natural tones for fairer skins. This should be spread evenly using a dry sponge or your fingers. Now, apply the foundation.

Foundation is used to enhance the colour of the complexion. Three basic types may be used, depending upon your skin type. For dry skin, liquid foundation works best whereas semi-liquid is best for combination skins. Foundation can be applied with a sponge and blended into the hairline and along the jaw for a natural finish.

Translucent powder is used to dust the face. This helps that the foundation to stay on longer. Excess powder should be brushed off. Blusher should be blended evenly along the cheekbones.

Lips

The lips should be outlined with a lip liner so that the lipstick does not bleed. Lipstick is then applied and blended with the lip liner. Then dust your lips with powder so that the lipstick lasts for a longer period of time, and then apply the last coat.

Eyes

Eye shadow colours should be selected carefully, light shadow is applied on to the lids to create a base. Darker eye shadow is then used at the outer corners of the eyes, to enhance the eyes. A kajal or kohl stick can be used in the inner eyelid to make the eyes appear even more dramatic. Mascara applied to the lashes increases this effect. Eyebrows should be sharp and tidy and should be free of all traces of makeup.

A simple urine test might be able to identify prostate cancer patients’ risk of developing an aggressive form of the disease, say scientists at Howard Hughes Medical Institute. The researchers have identified a new biological marker present in the urine of patients with prostate cancer that indicates whether the cancer is progressing and spreading.

In experiments, the researchers identified 10 metabolites that become more abundant in prostate cells as cancer progresses. Their studies showed that one of these chemicals, sarcosine, helps prostate cancer cells invade surrounding tissue.

HHMI investigator Arul Chinnaiyan and colleagues at the University of Michigan showed that as prostate cancer develops and progresses, sarcosine levels increase in both tumour cells and urine samples, suggesting that measurements of the metabolite could aid in non-invasively diagnosing the disease.

Researchers might also be able to inhibit prostate cancer’’s spread by designing drugs that manipulate the sarcosine pathway. The study is the first to analyze the levels of more than 1,000 different metabolites in human tumors. Scientists know that cells undergo complex changes as cancer develops and progresses to metastatic disease.

Chinnaiyan’’s lab, which has extensively analyzed how genes and proteins in prostate cancer cells reflect these changes, thought that profiling cells” metabolites would offer an even more “holistic picture of the molecular alterations that occur,” he said.

“This allows us to have more of a systems perspective of cancer development. We are also looking at gene and protein markers, for therapeutic consideration, biomarker consideration, and just understanding the biology. We are not sure yet how it’’s going to sort out, so we”re being non-discriminatory with what types of technologies we use,” Nature quoted him, as saying. The study is published in the February 12, 2009, issue of the journal Nature.

Use of fertility drugs does not raise a woman’s risk of developing ovarian cancer, according to a new study. The study has been published online in the British Medical journal. For the past 30 years, debate has been going on as to whether use of fertility drugs increases a woman’’s risk of developing ovarian cancer. Previous studies have given conflicting results and concerns remain.

Therefore, Allan Jensen and colleagues at the Danish Cancer Society examined the effects of fertility drugs on ovarian cancer risk by using data from the largest cohort of infertile women to date.

The study included 54,362 women with infertility problems referred to all Danish fertility clinics between 1963 and 1998. 156 of these women had ovarian cancer. After adjusting for several risk factors, the researchers assessed the effects of four groups of fertility drugs over an average period of 16 years.

They found no overall increased risk for ovarian cancer after use of any fertility drug. They also found no increased risk among women who had undergone 10 or more cycles of treatment or among those who did not become pregnant.

Although the authors did observe a statistically significant increase in risk of the most common serious type of ovarian cancer among women who had used the drug clomiphene, they stress that this was probably a chance association.

Stephen Smith, Australia’s foreign minister, has finally expressed a satisfactory view on the security arrangements of India for the athletes from Australia during the Commonwealth games. India had received terror threats from various terrorist organizations, if they host any sporting event.

Though Indian home minister P. Chidambaram had already promised a secure and safe trip to any sportsperson visiting the country, the Australian ministry decided to verify the security arrangements. Few of the Australian athletes and sportspersons like Shane Warne have already raised security concerns regarding their stay in India.

Smith quoted that he had met the concerned authorities and had a one to one chat with them regarding the security arrangements and said he was satisfied with the arrangements made for the players and would further co-ordinate and consult for further strengthening.

The Commonwealth games start later this year in Delhi, whereas the IPL kicks on March 12.

While liver disease in hepatitis C patients is thought to be caused by the immune system’s attack on the cells in the infected organ, University of Alberta researchers report finding that the virus behind the disease itself kills liver cells. Michael Joyce, who led the study, has revealed that his team transplanted human liver cells into mice, which lack an adaptive immune system.

He said that the team later infected the transplanted cells with the hepatitis C virus. He and his colleagues found the virus damaging liver cells itself, and thereby causing them to die.

The researchers also found that hepatitis C causes inflammation, which is the second step in liver disease. Joyce said that his team’s finding shed new light on the virus, and gave more targets for therapy. His study has been reported in the journal PLoS Pathogens.

High blood sugar levels may lead to memory loss in diabetes patients, say researchers. The study led by Dr Jeff Williamson, M. H. S at the Wake Forest has shown that as the average blood sugar levels rise, cognitive functioning abilities subsequently declined in type 2 diabetes patients.

The researchers found a significant inverse relationship between A1C levels i. e. average blood glucose levels over a period of two to three months and subjects” scores on four cognitive tests.

“One of the little known complications of type 2 diabetes is memory decline leading to dementia, particularly Alzheimer’’s dementia,” said Williamson, a professor of internal medicine, director of gerontology and geriatrics research, and director of the Roena Kulynych Center for Memory and Cognition Research at Wake Forest Baptist.

“This study adds to the growing evidence that poorer blood glucose control is strongly associated with poorer memory function and that these associations can be detected well before a person develops severe memory loss,” he added.

During the study, the researchers conducted a 30-minute battery of cognitive tests to nearly 3,000 individuals ages 55 years and older.

“The tests used in the study measured several aspects of memory function,” said Williamson. “For example, we tested one’’s ability to switch back and forth between memory tasks or to ”multitask,” an important skill for people needing to manage their diabetes,” he added.

The results showed that 1 percent increase in A1C corresponded to slightly lower scores on tests of psychomotor speed, global cognitive function, memory and multiple task management.

“People with type 2 diabetes and their health care providers need to be careful in situations where there is education and teaching about diabetes care, as patients may need a little more time to absorb and process information,” Williamson said.

“Patients also need to be open to having a family member periodically making sure they are keeping track of managing their diabetes through monitoring, diet, exercise and medication,” he added. The study appears in Diabetes Care.

A drink based on a flower called Indian sorrel can prevent high blood pressure and maintain a healthy heart, according to a new study. Also known as Florida cranberry, the hibiscus sabdariffa flower drink contains powerful antioxidants that can help to mop up chemicals in the body known as free radicals, which are linked to cancer and heart disease.

The American Heart Association conducted the study and found just two cups a day of hibiscus juice provides the best natural remedy yet for high blood pressure sufferers. “Hibiscus is now the most promising herb for treating blood pressure,” the Daily Express quoted Dr Andrew Weil, an alternative medicine expert, as saying.

“Studies have found that people who drank two cups of hibiscus daily for four weeks lowered their diastolic blood pressure by 12 per cent – results similar to those for common blood pressure medication,” he added.

During the study, researchers found that hibiscus contains naturally occurring antioxidants called anthocyanins, which help improve capillary function and strengthen collagen. For the study, researchers looked at 65 people aged between 30 and 70 and split them into two groups.

The first group drank hibiscus three times a day for six weeks and the second group were given a placebo. Their diet, activity and blood pressure were monitored daily. After the six weeks, the hibiscus group showed a drop of 7.2 per cent in blood pressure; with those suffering the most showing a 13.2 per cent drop.

The placebo group recorded a 1.3 per cent drop. Will Irving, owner of Ibis Organics, which makes a hibiscus-based drink called Simply Hibi in the UK, said: “The results of the study by the American Heart Association show very clearly that drinking hibiscus can provide a step in the right direction for sufferers.”

The ability to identify and act on another’’s emotions is partially determined by genes, says a new study on mice.

In the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Oregon Health and Science University (OHSU) study, a highly social strain of mice learned to associate a sound played in a specific cage with something negative simply by hearing a mouse in that cage respond with squeaks of distress.

A genetically different mouse strain with fewer social tendencies did not learn any connection between the cues and the other mouse’’s distress, showing that the ability to empathise may have a genetic basis.

The study has been published in the Public Library of Science ONE journal.

Like humans, mice can automatically sense and respond to others” positive and negative emotions, such as excitement, fear or anger.

Understanding empathy in mice may lead to important discoveries about the social interaction deficits seen in many human psychosocial disorders, including autism, schizophrenia, depression and addiction, the researchers say.

“The core of empathy is being able to have an emotional experience and share that experience with another,” says UW-Madison graduate student Jules Panksepp, who led the work along with undergraduate QiLiang Chen.

“We are basically trying to deconstruct empathy into smaller functional units that make it more accessible to biological research,” the researcher added.

Women who develop breast cancer during their pregnancy have no difference in rates of local recurrence, distant metastases, and overall survival as compared to other young women with the disease, according to a new study.

The largest single-institution study by researchers at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, looked at pregnant breast cancer patients.

It was found that women with Pregnancy Associated Breast Cancer (PABC) were more likely to be diagnosed later with advanced stages of the disease and, thus, had necessary treatment delayed.

“Breast cancer in young women is a highly aggressive disease, and it’’s important that we study it in hopes of making a difference in terms of treatment. When we looked at our young breast cancer population, a relatively large percentage had disease affiliated with pregnancy. We thought it would be really instructive to review our data to determine how we can best serve these women,” said Dr. Beth Beadle, a radiation oncology resident at M. D. Anderson and the study’’s first author.

According to estimates, up to 3.8 percent of pregnancies are complicated by breast cancer, and approximately 10 percent of breast cancer patients under age 40 develop the disease during pregnancy.

However, Dr. George Perkins, associate professor in M. D. Anderson’’s Department of Radiation Oncology, said that with increase in the age for first and subsequent pregnancies, the figures would only continue to climb.

“Because we see care for large volume of patients who are young, as well as those who are young and pregnant, we wanted to see if there was something additive going on that is attributed to pregnancy, or if the response to treatment and behavior of the disease is a phenomenon of young age itself,” said Perkins.

The researchers reviewed the records of 652 breast cancer patients, within 35 years of age. Of those, 104 had PABC – 51 developed their cancer during their pregnancy and 53 developed the disease within one year post-pregnancy.