Posts

Broken heart ? artificial muscle is on the way

/0 Comments/in /by

Scientists have developed a fully functioning artificial human heart muscle large enough to patch over damage typically seen in patients, who have suffered a heart attack. The advance takes a major step toward the end goal of repairing dead heart muscle in human patients, researchers have said.

“Right now, virtually all existing therapies are aimed at reducing the symptoms from the damage that has already been done to the heart, but no approaches have been able to replace the muscle that is lost, because once it is dead, it does not grow back on its own,” said Ilya Shadrin, a doctoral student at Duke University in the US.

“This is a way that we could replace lost muscle with tissue made outside the body,” said the student.

Scar tissue before heart failure

Unlike some human organs, the heart cannot regenerate itself after a heart attack.

The dead muscle is often replaced by scar tissue that can no longer transmit electrical signals or contract, both of which are necessary for smooth and forceful heartbeats.

The end result is a disease commonly referred to as heart failure that affects over 12 million patients worldwide.

Heart patches could be implanted over the dead muscle and remain active for a long time, providing more strength for contractions and a smooth path for the heart’s electrical signals to travel through.

These patches also secrete enzymes and growth factors that could help recovery of damaged tissue that has not yet died.

However, a heart patch must be large enough to cover the affected tissue. It must also be as strong and electrically active as the native heart tissue, or else the discrepancy could cause deadly arrhythmias.

This is the first human heart patch to meet both criteria.

Call it engineering ingenuity

“Creating individual cardiac muscle cells is pretty commonplace, but people have been focused on growing miniature tissues for drug development,” said Nenad Bursac, professor at Duke.

“Scaling it up to this size is something that has never been done and it required a lot of engineering ingenuity,” said Mr. Bursac.

The cells for the heart patch are grown from human pluripotent stem cells — the cells that can become any type of cell in the body.

Researchers have successfully made patches using many different lines of human stem cells, including those derived from embryos and those artificially forced or “induced” into their pluri-potent state.

The results improved on the researchers’ previous patches, which were one square centimetre and four square centimetres.

They successfully scaled up to 16 square centimetres and five to eight cells thick.

Tests show that the heart muscle in the patch is fully functional, with electrical, mechanical and structural properties that resemble those of a normal, healthy adult heart.

Source: http://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/health/artificial-muscle-can-mend-broken-hearts/article21055616.ece

iMedWorks Ask Platform Links below:

1. Get a Medical Second Opinion
2. Search doctors and Request Appointment

Want to ward off winter sickness? Take help from these Indian spices

/0 Comments/in /by

With each Indian spice possessing numerous health properties of their own, they are truly effective if you want to ward off winter sickness.

Indian spices, while enhancing the taste of cuisines around the world, are deeply rooted in ancient Indian traditions as highly effective healers and preventive agents against multifarious health problems.

With each Indian spice possessing numerous health properties of their own, they are truly effective if you want to ward off winter sickness.

Dolly Kumar, Director at GAIA and Purba Kalita, Co-Founder at Salebhai.com, have listed few spices:

Star anise (chakr phool):
Rich in antioxidants and vitamins A and C, star anise is effective in easing sore throats and colds. Its antifungal and antibacterial abilities can keep you away from flu and other viral infections in this season.

If you are suffering from a sore throat or a bad cough, drink tea made with this star-shaped spice. Add two anise seed pods in boiling water for over 15 minutes. Strain the tea and add a few drops of honey. Drink this tea thrice daily to avail immunity-boosting benefits.

Saffron (kesar):
Apart from adding a vibrant colour to your dishes, saffron has several health benefits too. If you’re looking for an instant relief from cold, mix a few strands in milk and apply the same on your forehead. This technique is a sure-shot one to treat colds due to seasonal change.

Turmeric (haldee):
A glass of turmeric milk gulped down every day in the winter months will boost your immunity system and keep you away from various infections. Known around the world as a miracle spice, turmeric has antioxidants, antibacterial, and anti-inflammatory benefits that will help prevent and tackle a number of diseases.

Fenugreek seeds (methee bee):
Do you like laddoos? Try putting fenugreek seeds, ginger, fennel seeds and jaggery in them. Fenugreek seeds are packed with antiviral properties and have the ability to kill viruses that cause sniffles and sore throats.

Nutmeg (jaayaphal):
This is a warm spice and can be added to your sweet and savoury food items to boost their flavours. It has strong antibacterial properties that help boost the immune system. A cup of hot milk with nutmeg powder, a few drops of honey and crushed cardamom is sure to keep your winter blues away.

Black pepper (kaalee mirch):
With a distinctive taste and pungent aroma, this spice contains various anti-oxidants that accelerate the body’s metabolism. Add black pepper to any cuisine or use it as a condiment and enjoy the fine flavour along with its myriad health benefits.

Cloves (laung):
Rich in antioxidants, cloves have anti-inflammatory, antiseptic and dental-soothing properties. Widely recognised the world over for its medicinal and culinary qualities, these dried flower buds have distinct flavour and intense aroma. Add cloves to your salad dressings, meats and desserts and relish the bursts of flavour.

Cardamom (ilaayachee):
Also known as elaichi, cardamom’s small green pods are rich sources of minerals and antioxidants that aid in blood detoxification and resolve digestive issues. The aromatic spice also contains vitamin C and other essential nutrients.

Drinking a cup of elaichi tea in the winter months is sure to ward off any symptoms of a cold and enhance your mood in the grey months.

Cinnamon (daalacheenee):
The spice is rich in antioxidants and has several healing properties. In the winter months, cinnamon can be teamed with ginger to beat common cold.

Cinnamon has immunity-boosting abilities and can protect you from various bacteria. A pinch of ground cinnamon and a teaspoon of honey in warm water in the morning can be a perfect winter elixir.

Source: http://zeenews.india.com/health/want-to-ward-off-winter-sickness-take-help-from-these-indian-spices-2065757

iMedWorks Ask Platform Links below:

1. Get a Medical Second Opinion
2. Search doctors and Request Appointment

IMA tightens the screws on antibiotic prescriptions

/0 Comments/in /by

Doctors should not prescribe antibiotic cover or prophylactic antibiotic without a high degree of clinical suspicion.
Alarmed over the growing antibiotic resistance that has made it difficult to treat many bacterial infections, the Indian Medical Association (IMA) has advised doctors to follow strictly guidelines while prescribing antibiotics.

Despite the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) setting up the National Anti-Microbial Resistance Research and Surveillance Network (AMRRSN) to enable compilation of data of such resistance at different levels of healthcare and publishing of treatment guidelines for anti-microbial use in common syndromes, the problem of multi-drug resistance due to widespread and indiscriminate use of antimicrobial and antibiotic drugs continues unabated in the country.
To address this issue, the IMA, at the Antimicrobial Resistance Conference held in New Delhi last month, advised its members to mandatorily restrict the usage of antibiotics for treatment of proven bacterial infections. It also came out with a policy on anti-microbial resistance.

No refill without consent
IMA national president K.K. Aggarwal told The Hindu that doctors should henceforth write the antibiotic in a box to differentiate it from other drugs in the prescription.

“When prescribing antibiotics, clear instructions should be given to the patient about no refill of antibiotic prescription without the signature of the doctor. The role of antibiotics should be discussed in an informed consent,” he said.

Expressing concern over irrational antibiotic usage, Dr. Aggarwal said: “As per our policy, doctors should not prescribe antibiotic cover or prophylactic antibiotic without a high degree of clinical suspicion. No antibiotics should be prescribed for small bowel diarrhoea, fever with cough and cold, dengue, chikungunya, malaria and fever with rashes. However, early initiation of antibiotics is the rule in suspected sepsis bacterial pneumonia meningitis and confirmed tuberculosis cases.”

Prescription audit
B.R. Jagashetty, former Drugs Controller of Karnataka and former National Adviser to the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, said the government should conduct random “prescription audits” in both private and public sectors to improve medication safety.

National policy
This has also been included in the National Health Policy and Karnataka Public Health Policy prepared by the Knowledge Commission. The Karnataka Health Policy — that is yet to be implemented — also recommends that the State Health Ministry should also have its own antibiotic policy.

Attributing the growing antibiotic resistance to self-medication by most people, Dr. Jagashetty said: “Many people go to a chemist and ask for medicines for their health problem without visiting a doctor. Buying medicines over the counter is a major reason for misuse. Moreover, some doctors too prescribe higher antibiotics due to the impatience shown by their patients in getting well soon.”

Source: http://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/health/ima-tightens-the-screws-on-antibiotic-prescriptions/article21823790.ece

iMedWorks Ask Platform Links below:

1. Get a Medical Second Opinion
2. Search doctors and Request Appointment

New device to detect cancer with urine test is here

/0 Comments/in /by

A novel nanowire device that is able to non-invasively detect microscopic levels of cancer markers in the urine, has been developed by Japanese researchers and could aid in improving diagnosis and treatment of the deadly disease.

The device was found with potential to efficiently capture extracellular vesicles (EVs) from urine and potentially use them to screen for cancer.

“The ongoing challenge for physicians in any field is to find a non-invasive diagnostic tool that allows them to monitor their patients on a regular basis — for example, a simple urine test,” said lead author Takao Yasui, from the Nagoya University in Japan.

However, the content of EVs in urine is extremely low, at less than 0.01 per cent of the total fluid volume, which becomes a major barrier to their diagnostic utility.

The new device — embeded with zinc oxide nanowires into a specialised polymer — was found highly efficient at capturing these vesicles.


“Our findings suggest that the device is indeed quite efficient. We obtained a collection rate of over 99 per cent, surpassing ultracentrifugation as well as other methods that are currently being used in the field,” Yasui added.

Using the device, the scientists were able to net over a thousand types of microRNAs, which are short pieces of ribonucleic acid that play diverse roles in normal cellular biology.

The presence of certain microRNAs in urine might serve as a red flag for serious conditions such as bladder and prostate cancer, the study reported in Science Advances showed.

To test the device, the team compared the microRNAs of EVs isolated from healthy patients with those isolated from patients who were already diagnosed with bladder, prostate, and other forms of cancer.

Compared with the standard approach, they found a substantially greater number and different types of microRNAs with just 1 milliliter of urine, the researchers said.

Source: http://zeenews.india.com/health/new-device-to-detect-cancer-with-urine-test-is-here-2070180

iMedWorks Ask Platform Links below:

1. Get a Medical Second Opinion
2. Search doctors and Request Appointment

Nicotene addiction: Scientists identify the root of addiction, may lead to new treatments

/0 Comments/in /by

Scientists have identified specific chemical changes deep in the brain that help drive nicotine addiction, an advance that may lead to new treatments for the condition.

In the research published in the journal PNAS, scientists were able to halt these changes in mice and discover potential targets for drugs to treat tobacco dependence.

Nicotine is a stimulant that works by binding to receptors widely distributed throughout the brain, causing neurons to release a variety of neurotransmitters including dopamine, which triggers feelings of pleasure.

In a search for the brain cells that transmit this response, researchers at the Rockefeller University in the US investigated how nicotine affects two midbrain structures, the interpeduncular nucleus (IPN) and the medial habenula (MHb).

While these brain regions are ancient in evolutionary terms and are found in all vertebrates, including humans, they have not received much attention from scientists until recently, researchers said.

Working with mice, Jessica L Ables, first author of the study, found that chronic nicotine consumption alters the functions of a particular population of neurons inside the IPN.

These altered brain cells, which she dubbed Amigo1, appear to promote nicotine addiction by disrupting the communication between the habenula and the IPN.

Normally, these brain structures have a system in place to curtail nicotine addiction.

The habenula responds to a given dose of nicotine by sending an aversion signal to the IPN that decreases the reward of the drug, an effect that ultimately limits the urge to consume nicotine.

After chronic exposure to nicotine, however – the mice used in the study drank nicotine-laced water for six weeks – the Amigo1 cells compromise this “braking effect” by releasing two chemicals that reduce the response of the IPN to the aversion signal from the habenula.

In other words, the stop-smoking message does not get delivered.

The result is a “pro-addiction” response to nicotine, which the mice displayed in a behavioural test designed to measure the motivational properties of the drug.

In the test, called conditioned place preference, the mice chose to spend time in a chamber where they had previously received nicotine.

“If you are exposed to nicotine over a long period you produce more of the signal-disrupting chemicals and this desensitises you. That is why smokers keep smoking,” said Ines Ibanez-Tallon, a scientists in the lab of Nathaniel Heintz, a professor at the Rockefeller University.

In other experiments, her group was able to confirm that these mices response to chronic nicotine was indeed influenced by Amigo1 neurons.

When the researchers silenced these neurons using a genetic engineering technique, this eliminated the “nicotine preference” of the mice, strongly suggesting that those neurons play a role in the addictive behaviour.

Source: http://zeenews.india.com/health/scientists-identify-the-root-of-nicotine-addiction-may-lead-to-new-treatments-2070464

iMedWorks Ask Platform Links below:

1. Get a Medical Second Opinion
2. Search doctors and Request Appointment

High blood sugar in early pregnancy could cause heart problems for baby

/0 Comments/in /by

Higher blood sugar in early pregnancy can up the risk of a congenital heart defect in babies, according to a research.
The study was led by researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine.
For many years, physicians have known that women with diabetes face an increased risk of giving birth to babies with heart defects. Some studies have also suggested a link between nondiabetic mothers’ blood sugar levels and babies’ heart defect risk. However, the new study is the first to examine this question in the earliest part of pregnancy, when the fetal heart is forming.
“Most women who have a child with congenital heart disease are not diabetic,” said the study’s senior author, James Priest, MD, assistant professor of pediatric cardiology. “We found that in women who don’t already have diabetes or develop diabetes during pregnancy, we can still measure risk for having a child with congenital heart disease by looking at their glucose values during the first trimester of pregnancy.” The study’s lead author is Emmi Helle, MD, PhD, an affiliate in pediatric cardiology and former postdoctoral scholar.
The research team studied medical records from 19,107 pairs of mothers and their babies born between 2009 and 2015. The records included details of the mothers’ prenatal care, including blood test results and any cardiac diagnoses made for the babies during pregnancy or after birth.
Infants with certain genetic diseases, those born from multiple pregnancies and those whose mothers had extremely low or high body-mass-index measures were not included in the study. Of the infants in the study, 811 were diagnosed with congenital heart disease, and the remaining 18,296 were not.
The scientists analyzed blood glucose levels from any blood sample collected from the mothers between four weeks prior to the estimated date of conception and the end of the 14th gestational week, just after the completion of the first trimester of pregnancy.
These early blood glucose measurements were available for 2,292, or 13 percent, of women in the study. The researchers also looked at the results of oral glucose tolerance tests performed around 20 weeks of gestation, which were available for 9,511, or just under half, of the women in the study.
After excluding women who had diabetes before pregnancy or who developed it during pregnancy, the results showed that the risk of giving birth to a child with a congenital heart defect was elevated by 8 percent for every increase of 10 milligrams per deciliter in blood glucose levels in the early stages of pregnancy.
The next step in the research is to conduct a prospective study that follows a large group of women through pregnancy to see if the results are confirmed, Priest said. If researchers see the same relationship, it may be helpful to measure blood glucose early in pregnancy in all pregnant women to help determine which individuals are at greater risk for having a baby with a heart defect, he said.
“We could use blood glucose information to select women for whom a screening of the fetal heart could be helpful,” Priest said, adding that modern prenatal imaging allows for detailed diagnoses of many congenital heart defects before birth.
“Knowing about defects prenatally improves outcomes because mothers can receive specialized care that increases their babies’ chances of being healthier after birth.” The study is published in The Journal of Pediatrics. — ANI.

Source: http://www.tribuneindia.com/news/health/high-blood-sugar-in-early-pregnancy-could-cause-heart-problems-for-baby/515181.html

iMedWorks Ask Platform Links below:

1. Get a Medical Second Opinion
2. Search doctors and Request Appointment

Your desk job may slowly be killing you – Here’s what you can do

/0 Comments/in /by

If you have a sitting job, chances are that your physical activity is zilch and you’re slowly piling on the kilos.

Regardless, many of us are either too busy or lazy to take a walk at work other than going to the washroom when required.

Prolonged periods of sitting increase your risk of obesity, heart disease, diabetes, various types of cancer, back problems, brittle bones, etc., and as per a recent study, it can even lead to premature death.

Sitting all day at work may slowly be killing you but here’s something that can help you overcome its damaging effects.

A study has suggested that continuous movement while sitting may increase metabolic rate more than standing at a desk.

Craig Horswill, clinical associate professor of kinesiology and nutrition at the University of Illinois at Chicago, says the study adds to the growing body of evidence that suggests strategies for increasing non-exercise active thermogenesis-defined as spontaneous activity unrelated to a fitness routine-are needed to help overcome the detrimental effects of prolonged sitting.

Sitting has been identified as a risk factor for early mortality, independent of the presence of a disease, such as cancer or diabetes. Up to 7 percent of deaths have been attributed to sitting alone.

“Sitting is bad for our health, but it is a big part of daily life for many people,” said Horswill, an expert in exercise and metabolism in UIC’s College of Applied Health Sciences. “Exercise is a good way to counteract the negative effects of sitting, but just incorporating physical activity into one part of our day may not be enough to overcome the damage caused by prolonged sitting and an otherwise sedentary lifestyle.”

Because the workday is a major contributor to sedentary behavior, tactics that promote workstation activity have emerged in recent years, including standing desks, as well as dynamic pedal and treadmill workstations.

Horswill and his colleagues compared the metabolic rate produced by three workstations: seated at a desk, seated at a desk equipped with a device that stimulates leg movement and standing at a desk. The device, which is commercially available, was a movable footrest, suspended from the underside of the desk, which enabled the feet to swing, twist or teeter.

Participants in the study familiarized themselves with the workstations during one visit. On a second visit, researchers collected metabolic rate and heart rate data during three progressive stages: seated, seated with the device and standing. Each stage was 15 minutes.

The researchers found that modest movement while seated elevated the metabolic rate more than sitting and more than standing, by 17 and 7 percent respectively, and had no detrimental effect on cognitive function.

“These results suggest that non-exercise active thermogenesis, which we call NEAT, can increase movement and calorie burning, and may have the potential to impact health,” said Horswill, the senior author on the study.

“We expected to see the metabolic rate increase with each progressive stage, but instead found that metabolic rates from movement while seated were either equal to or higher than rates while standing.”
The findings are published in the journal Work.

Source: http://zeenews.india.com/health/your-desk-job-may-slowly-be-killing-you-heres-what-you-can-do-2072012

iMedWorks Ask Platform Links below:

1. Get a Medical Second Opinion
2. Search doctors and Request Appointment

Noida doctors treat Pakistani newborn baby with rare heart disease

/0 Comments/in /by

Doctors at a hospital in Noida, Uttar Pradesh, treated a Pakistani infant, just four months old, for a rare congenital heart disease.

Th baby boy, Rohaan, who hails from Lahore in Pakistan, was blessed with a new lease of life after doctors successfully treated him for the life-threatening heart disease.

The infant was just five days old when he was diagnosed with a heart disease called ‘Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome (HLHS) — a heart defect that affects normal blood flow through the heart as the foetus develops.

His parents approached External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Twitter to get a medical visa.

Rohaan was brought to Jaypee Hospital from Pakistan when he was just a month old and weighed just 2.1 kg.

“Rohaan was suffering from rarest of the rare congenital heart disease. His life was at huge risk as the left side of his heart was critically underdeveloped,” Dr. Rajesh Sharma, Director, Paediatric Cardiology Department, Jaypee Hospital, said in a statement on Thursday.

“The pressure in his lungs used to shoot up very quickly. From the very first month Rohaan used to have heavy breathing and his weight was not increasing,” Sharma added.

According to the doctors, Rohaan’s blood flow from the right ventricle was rerouted to improve the oxygenated blood delivery to the vital organs by providing alternative source of pulmonary circulation.

Post a 10-hour surgery, the baby was shifted to ICU where, after a few hours, his heart function deteriorated with slowing of heart and hypertension.

Further, the doctors had to perform Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO) — a technique of providing prolonged cardiac and respiratory support to patients whose heart and lungs are unable to provide an adequate amount of gas exchange or perfusion to sustain life.

“The baby was taken off the ECMO after five days and his chest was closed after his heart started functioning better as per 2-D echo analysis,” Sharma explained.

Baby Rohaan also developed breathing difficulty due to Tracheobronchomalacia (a condition where the cartilaginous structures of the airway walls in the trachea and bronchi are weak).

Hence, a TRACHEOSTOMY was done to facilitate weaning that was removed after 15 days of the surgery and Rohaan was then shifted to the normal ward.

“One out of 1,000 children has such a critical heart disease which Rohaan was suffering from. Rohaan was just a month old when we operated him but still there was a risk of five to 10 percent in the surgery,” Sharma said.

Rohaan is recovering now and will go back to Pakistan in January, the doctors said.

Dr. Rajesh Sharma – View profile

Source: http://zeenews.india.com/health/empathy-above-rivalry-noida-doctors-treat-pakistani-newborn-with-rare-heart-disease-2071921

iMedWorks Ask Platform Links below:

1. Get a Medical Second Opinion
2. Search doctors and Request Appointment

Radiation from smartphones may up miscarriage risk: Study

/0 Comments/in /by

Pregnant women’s exposure to non-ionising radiation from smartphones, Bluetooth devices and laptops may more than double the risk of miscarriage, a study has showed.

Non-ionising radiation — radiation that produces enough energy to move around atoms in a molecule, but not enough to remove electrons completely — from magnetic fields is produced when electric devices are in use and electricity is flowing.

It can be generated by a number of environmental sources, including electric appliances, power lines and transformers, wireless devices and wireless networks.

While the health hazards from ionising radiation are well-established and include radiation sickness, cancer and genetic damage, the evidence of health risks to humans from non-ionising radiation remains limited, said De-Kun Li, a reproductive and perinatal epidemiologist at the Kaiser Permanente — a US-based health care firm.

For the study, published in the journal Scientific Reports, the team asked for 913 pregnant women over age 18 to wear a small (a bit larger than a deck of cards) magnetic-field monitoring device for 24 hours.
After controlling for multiple other factors, women who were exposed to higher magnetic fields levels had 2.72 times the risk of miscarriage than those with lower magnetic fields exposure.

The increased risk of miscarriage associated with high magnetic fields was consistently observed regardless of the sources of high magnetic fields. The association was much stronger if magnetic fields was measured on a typical day of participants’ pregnancies.
The finding also demonstrated that accurate measurement of magnetic field exposure is vital for examining magnetic field health effects.

“This study provides evidence from a human population that magnetic field non-ionising radiation could have adverse biological impacts on human health,” Li noted.
“We hope that the finding from this study will stimulate much-needed additional studies into the potential environmental hazards to human health, including the health of pregnant women,” he said.

Source: http://www.thehansindia.com/posts/index/Health/2017-12-15/Radiation-from-smartphones-may-up-miscarriage-risk-Study/345516

iMedWorks Ask Platform Links below:

1. Get a Medical Second Opinion
2. Search doctors and Request Appointment

How alcohol damages DNA and increases cancer risk

/0 Comments/in /by

Scientists have shown how alcohol damages DNA in stem cells, helping to explain why drinking increases your risk of cancer, according to research part-funded by Cancer Research UK and published in Nature today.

Much previous research looking at the precise ways in which alcohol causes cancer has been done in cell cultures. But in this study, researchers have used mice to show how alcohol exposure leads to permanent genetic damage.

Scientists at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge, gave diluted alcohol, chemically known as ethanol, to mice. They then used chromosome analysis and DNA sequencing to examine the genetic damage caused by acetaldehyde, a harmful chemical produced when the body processes alcohol.

They found that acetaldehyde can break and damage DNA within blood stem cells leading to rearranged chromosomes and permanently altering the DNA sequences within these cells.

It is important to understand how the DNA blueprint within stem cells is damaged because when healthy stem cells become faulty, they can give rise to cancer.

These new findings therefore help us to understand how drinking alcohol increases the risk of developing 7 types of cancer including common types like breast and bowel.

Professor Ketan Patel, lead author of the study and scientist, part funded by Cancer Research UK, at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, said: “Some cancers develop due to DNA damage in stem cells. While some damage occurs by chance, our findings suggest that drinking alcohol can increase the risk of this damage.”

The study also examined how the body tries to protect itself against damage caused by alcohol. The first line of defence is a family of enzymes called aldehyde dehydrogenases (ALDH). These enzymes break down harmful acetaldehyde into acetate, which our cells can use as a source of energy.

Worldwide, millions of people, particularly those from South East Asia, either lack these enzymes or carry faulty versions of them. So, when they drink, acetaldehyde builds up which causes a flushed complexion, and also leads to them feeling unwell.

In the study, when mice lacking the critical ALDH enzyme — ALDH2 — were given alcohol, it resulted in four times as much DNA damage in their cells compared to mice with the fully functioning ALDH2 enzyme.

The second line of defence used by cells is a variety of DNA repair systems which, most of the time, allow them to fix and reverse different types of DNA damage. But they don’t always work and some people carry mutations which mean their cells aren’t able to carry out these repairs effectively.

Professor Patel added: “Our study highlights that not being able to process alcohol effectively can lead to an even higher risk of alcohol-related DNA damage and therefore certain cancers. But it’s important to remember that alcohol clearance and DNA repair systems are not perfect and alcohol can still cause cancer in different ways, even in people whose defence mechanisms are intact.”

This research was funded by Cancer Research UK, Wellcome and the Medical Research Council (MRC).

Professor Linda Bauld, Cancer Research UK’s expert on cancer prevention, said: “This thought-provoking research highlights the damage alcohol can do to our cells, costing some people more than just a hangover.

“We know that alcohol contributes to over 12,000 cancer cases in the UK each year, so it’s a good idea to think about cutting down on the amount you drink.”


Source: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/01/180103132629.htm

iMedWorks Ask Platform Links below:

1. Get a Medical Second Opinion
2. Search doctors and Request Appointment