Test tube babies face increased health hazards

The intention of test tube technology was a break through invention in the field of infertility therapy.This technique was introduced in the early 1978s and more than 3 million births have taken place with the aid of this reproductive technique.
But ongoing research in the health of these children points towards the increased risk of developing diabetes mellitus type 2,obesity,hypertension.
Research done on the children born with the aid of assisted reproductive technology give clues that chromosomal modifications namely DNA methylation show variations in those children when compared to the children born naturally.
The underlining cause for the abnormality in methylation is not yet ascertained.Further researches are on pending.

Breast cancer treatment latest breakthrough

Breast cancer is one of the major hazards that haunts the human race.Various treatment strategies have been implied towards that cause.
Tamoxifen is one of the most depended drugs that is used to treat women to prevent cancer returning.In a third of patients,tamoxifen fails in its action.Latest researches have picked out a gene FGFR1 responsible for this condition.Scientists are on their way developing a new drug which willturn off this gene FGFR1.
This novel invention will enable clinicians to treat breast cancer in a new dimension effectively in the future.

Music heals stroke

'Music heals stroke!' sounds interesting rite?Anyway this is true.Affects of music on stroke patients is getting worldwide attention.
The patients who suffers from stroke may be unable to produce meaningful words if their vocal centre is damaged.If these patients are trained to sing,it is found helping them to form a conversation by assigning a simple melody to each letter in the word.The reason behind this is,the centre concerned with singing is located in a different area of the brain.So if the patient's speech area is destroyed,his singing area will be intact.
This finding is an example of how research has made a leap in the welfare of human race.
Medical practitioners are enthusiastic to the new finding and let us hope it will open up new horizons in the treatment of stroke..

Nap boosts brain power

Recently a team of researchers from Berkley university have come up with an interesting finding,from the studies conducted in 39 healthy volunteers that a short nap during day time not only beats tiredness but also boosts the learning power of the brain.This is rather an interesting finding.
According to the researchers,during a short nap the brain moves the fact based memories from the temporary storage in the brain's hippocampus to prefrontal cortex.This process occurs during a transition phase between deep sleep and dreaming sleep.This phase is scientifically called as stage 2 non rapid eye movement sleep.
This process makes the hippocampus afresh to accomodate new information just as like in an email inbox.
But the finding has got its own drawbacks too.It was a trail conducted in a laboratory under optimal conditions.In the real world there will be numerous factors which will hamper the expected results.

Latest breakthrough in cancer treatment

A team of scientists from Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center in Baltimore have developed a new technique for detecting the effectiveness of cancer treatment.

The latest technique is called as personalised analysis of rearranged ends which employs blood tests.
The principal behind the test is the detection of fingerprint DNA which are shed by the tumour cells.If these cells are derected after a successful chemotherapy,surgical removal,radiotherapy,it indicates the recurrence of cancer.This tecnique can be employed to detect the recurrence much before the conventional scans.
The major drawback is the high cost which will hopefully come down affordable to a common man
This tecnique is likely to emerge as a new technique within 5 years.

Wonderland in saliva

Recently a team of researchers discovered that there are a wide variety of bacteriae residing in our saliva.They found 101 known bacterial genera,36 of them newly seen in mouth and about 64 novel types.People in each location shared about 60% of the bacteriae in common and people from different places shared about 50% of bacteriae in common.

Pericardial tamponade

Fluid or blood gets collected in the pericardial sac.This condition effects the normal functioning of the heart.
The patient complains of breathlessness,chest pain,syncope.
The signs of pericardial tamponade are pulsus paradoxus,raised JVP on inspiration,third heart sounds.
The investigation done are ecg,echocardiography.ECG may show changing cardiac axis,flattening of waves.
The treatment is mainly aimed at clearing the fluid collection.