160,000Naira "Smart Bra" That Could Detect Br***st Cancer

A “smart bra” called First Warning Systems could help women discover if they have br**st cancer. Developed by Lifeline Biotechnologies, the bra, based on a novel breast health screening device and method could become available in Europe in 2013 and then in the United States of America in 2014, for US$ 1,000 (N160,000) for a pair. Preliminary studies with First Warning Systems were conducted in more than 650 women, resulting in an average detection of at least 90 percent. Compared with the standard mammogram, the tests averaged 70 percent accuracy.

 In a release, Lifeline Biotechnologies, the medical technology company licensing the bra observed that the First Warning System is capable not only identifying br**st tissue abnormalities at their earliest stages, but can also identify the general location of such abnormalities in three dimensions to each of the four quadrants of each breast. 

“It is, therefore, not intended as an additional step in the breast cancer screening process, but as an accurate identifier of early breast abnormalities which generate heat via the presence of new blood vessels that nourish the area in question.” The bra, which would be worn at a physician’s office, has 16 colour-coded sensors that are taped to the patient’s br**st. The sensors would then measure temperatures at programmed times over a predetermined testing period.

 The data is then stored in a recording device worn by the patient. Once the test period is over, the patient then submits the device to their doctor. The sensors are removed; the data is downloaded and then analyzed. Once a report is returned to the physician, the patient will be called in to discuss any clinical recommendations. 

Based on what is described as “disruptive technology” and tissue health science, the new br**st cancer detector could become a major breakthrough in making testing easier for women, however, medical experts say more studies are required before being actively used. In a statement, Dr. Ted Gansler, Director of Medical Content for the American Cancer Society said: “Most investigational medicines and medical devices, even those based on sound scientific and technical principles do not end up being adopted into clinical practice.

 He adds that the main reason is that once these new products are rigorously tested in clinical trials, the result of the study is that they are less effective than current practices. But Gansler also explains that disregarding mammography would have harmful, serious effects. “A woman who chooses any breast cancer screening test based on thermography instead of mammography would be making a serious mistake that could have fatal consequences.

 Major medical and public health organizations all recommend mammography and none recommend thermography or any other tests based on temperature measurements for early detection of br**st cancer.” Dr. Michele Doughty, who has conducted extensive research on how breast cancer affects women of various races differently, thinks the bra could be used as part of an overall test without replacing mammography. 

“There needs to be more research and studies on the long term effects of the bra because they must contain some kind of ultraviolet ray component or chemical component,” says Doughty. “Mammograms and the bra just screen for br**st cancer. The only way to actually detect br**st cancer is through a biopsy where the specimen is found in the lab.”

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The best way to get a good night's sleep?

Losing weight - especially from around your waist - may significantly improve your sleep quality, new research suggests. U.S.scientists have found that people who lose around a stone in weight - and reduced their waistline by around 15 per cent slept much better.

 On the other hand, those who are overweight or obese will continue to have problems, according to researchers from Johns Hopkins University in the U.S. They enrolled 77 people who had type 2 diabetes or pre-diabetes. 

The participants, all of whom were also overweight or obese, were randomly assigned to one of two groups. One group went on a diet and had supervised exercise training, while the other group only had the diet intervention. 

 The participants filled out a sleep survey at the beginning and end of the study to identify sleep problems, including sleep apnoea, daytime fatigue, insomnia, restless sleep, excessive sleep or sleepiness and use of sedatives to aid sleep.

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Couple who couldn't conceive stunned when doctors revealed husband's LAPTOP was cooking his sparm(A MUST READ)

A couple who struggled to have a baby were stunned when doctors said their laptop was to blame. Scott Reed was told having the appliance on his lap had caused heat damage to his sperm.

 And, as a result, the 30-year-old electrician and his wife, Laura, also 30, were finding it harder to conceive. Mr Reed started using his laptop on a table instead and three months later Mrs Reed became pregnant with baby daughter Taryn.

Mrs Reed said: 'I've never heard of this happening before, when the doctors told us it was a real shock. 'Scott would use his laptop in the evenings for a couple of hours on and off while we were watching television. 'He would use it for work and general things like Facebook. We had absolutely no idea the damage it was causing him.'

 The couple, from Clanfield in Hampshire, visited their GP after trying for a baby for six months without success. Initially it was thought Mr Reed's fertility had been affected by mumps - which he had suffered with at the age of 21. Mrs Reed, a pathologist, said: 'About six months after we started trying I was getting frustrated and mentioned it to my doctor.

 'You don't think it will be that hard to get pregnant. We both went back to have a chat and the doctor put Scott forward for a fertility test.' In October 2010 the couple were referred to the andrology department of the pathology unit at Queen Alexandra Hospital in Portsmouth. Mr Reed said: 'Because I had the mumps I needed to get tested. We were concerned they would find something but then we wanted a baby so we had to find out. 

'I didn't think about the worst-case scenario and just had to get on with it.' Tests revealed Mr Reed was producing a healthy amount of sperm but they had suffered heat damage. Under the microscope it was possible to see that the tail of the sperm had coiled around the head, meaning it couldn't swim quickly to the egg. 

The problem is common in chefs - who work in hot environments - but can also be caused by laptop computers. Mr Reed said: 'I never thought using a laptop would affect the quality of my sperm. After asking if I was a chef, the next thing was 'do you use a laptop?' 'I was using it daily and hadn't given it a second thought. It was quite shocking really.'

 After that Mr Reed made sure he placed his laptop either beside him or on a table. Mrs Reed said: 'We carried on trying and we weren't having any luck. We thought it wasn't going to happen so we started planning a trip to travel around Thailand. But then I did a test and found out I was expecting.' Taryn, now 10 months, was born on December 8 last year. 

Proud parent Mr Reed is now encouraging more men to be aware of the dangers of laptops - and not to be shy if they think there might be a problem with fertility. He said: 'Generally men clam up and don't want to talk about anything to do with genitals. Don't be scared of going through the process. I wanted children and so I got tested.'

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FG planning to ban Postinor 2?

There are rumours that the federal government is planning to ban birth control/morning after pill, Postinor 2, because of its side effects. (If you're a user, Google to find out the side effects).

The purported ban is the number one trending topic on Twitter right now and trust Naijas, they know how to find trouble. Hehe! People started tweeting @2face Idibia about the ban and making jokes. He didn't find it funny...lol

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University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital Performs its First Successful Kidney Transplant

The University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital (UITH), Ilorin, Kwara State, has reportedly performed its first successful kidney transplant.Chief Medical Officer, UITH, Prof. Abdulwaheed Olatinwo, said the hospital initially had infrastructure and personnel inadequacy but had to improve upon what it had. 

He was certain that health professionals in Nigeria could provide world-class solution to many health challenges facing the citizens, adding that Nigerians should have faith in the nation’s health system and avoid medical tourism, which has become the norm.

Meanwhile, the patient, Mr. Solomon Mmommah who, on Thursday, spoke with curious journalists who thronged the tertiary hospital, said he was happy that the operation was successful. He said he had visited over 10 hospitals, all of which diagnosed his health issue as malaria and typhoid, even though he was not responding to any of the treatments they offered him.

He was subsequently diagnosed with kidney problem at a hospital in Abeokuta. He said he came to UITH when he learnt that kidney transplant could be performed at the hospital. The 29-year-old man who hails from Agbor, Ika South Local Government Area of Delta State said he could not inform his hypertensive mother of his kidney problem, having lost his father some years ago.

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Posted in: kidney transplant,University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital UITH

Forget meat and two veg! Just eating your greens is best way to boost your love life

For years we’ve been told oysters are the food of love, and that red meat may be an aphrodisiac.

 Now the animal rights charity PETA is arguing that fruit and veg are the key to virility – and has released a bizarre video on YouTube to back up the point. 

 The clip has been released in honour of World Vegan Day to flag up the sexual health benefits of men going vegan. 

 It features various men gyrating with an assortment of phallic-shaped fruit and vegetables as their manhood, accompanied by phrases such as ‘a cucumber has never looked so good – or so wicked’. 

 From a tennis player sporting a giant carrot, to a car wash mechanic with a banana, PETA says the video is ‘a light-hearted way to show that spicing things up in the bedroom can be as simple as changing things up in the kitchen’. 

 The charity maintains that cholesterol in meat, eggs and dairy products can clog our arteries and slow the flow of blood to all the body's organs – including those that are vital in the bedroom. 

 Vegan meals, on the other hand, contain none of the animal fat or cholesterol found in meat, eggs and dairy products. 

Vegans are also, on average, fitter and slimmer than meat-eaters and less prone to heart disease, strokes, diabetes, obesity and cancer, the charity claims.

 'When it comes to making love, carnivores can be as sluggish as the blood trying to squeeze through their clogged arteries – but vegans have the stamina to keep the party going all night long,’ said PETA UK associate director Mimi Bekhechi.

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Men who exercise don't just get themselves fit

Men who are hoping to have children in the future would do well to get to the gym, after a study found exercise could help their sperm to swim faster. 

Researchers found men who worked out more had faster swimming sperm that was better formed, compared to their sedentary peers. 

 They suggest that exercise promotes healthy hormone levels that create a better environment in the testes for sperm production. 

 The findings, from the University of Cordoba in Spain, are important because semen quality has dropped overall in the last 50 years.

 Many factors have been blamed including drinking, smoking, and the rising levels of obesity.

 The team assessed whether there was any difference in the hormonal levels and semen quality of men who were physically active compared to those who weren't. 

 They looked at factors including sperm count and mobility and analysed hormones including testosterone, cortisol and the follicle-stimulating hormone. 

The results concluded physically active subjects display better semen values.

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Early detection of heart disease vital

 A study released Monday said that a significant amount of cardiac arrests in the Canadian province of Ontario happened on otherwise healthy, young individuals, underscoring the need for detecting heart disease early. 

 

Dr. Andrew Krahn, new Head of the Division of Cardiology in the University of British Columbia Faculty of Medicine, presented the study at the 2012 Canadian Cardiovascular Congress about sudden cardiac death in Ontario .

Reviewing coroners’ reports, Dr. Krahn and a team of researchers found that among 174 cases of presumed sudden death in Ontario in 2008 in people aged two to 40 years, heart disease was present in 126 cases, or 72 percent.

Besides, 78 percent of these heart disease patients were unrecognized, according to the research.

“This research gives us an idea of the scope of the problem - there are almost 200 young people who die suddenly every year in Ontario . A good proportion of them have unrecognized heart disease. So the question is: How can we catch this before it happens?”  Dr. Krahn said.

He suggested more attention be paid to possible warning signs such as fainting. He believed that teachers, coaches and an aware public may be key to detecting risk, ensuring prevention and formal medical evaluation and therapy.

“I would advocate for careful screening of people who faint, using questionnaires and education of healthcare professionals so that when warning signs present themselves, they recognize them and this information gets passed on to the right people,” he said.

Dr. Beth Abramson, a researcher from Heart and Stroke Foundation, a volunteer-based health charity, said training in Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and the placement of Automatic External Defibrillators (AEDs) in schools, arenas and gyms could save the lives of many.

“The odds of surviving a cardiac arrest can increase to up to 75 percent when early CPR is used in combination with an AED in the first few minutes,” she said.

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Posted in: heart diseases

Soft drinks raise stroke risk in women by 80 per cent, study finds

 WOMEN who treat themselves to a fizzy drink every day may be increasing their risk of a life-threatening stroke, new research shows.

Daily consumption of sugary drinks raises a woman’s chances of suffering a blood clot on the brain by about 80 per cent, Japanese scientists found, but there was only a very slight increase in risk for men.

The findings, by a team of experts at Osaka University, partly support United States research published earlier this year, which found both sugar-sweetened drinks and low-calorie alternatives raised the chances of strokes in both sexes.

The results, published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, showed women who had a daily soft drink were 83 per cent more likely to suffer an ischaemic stroke - where a clot shuts off blood supply to the brain - than women who rarely or never had one.The researchers said they found no link with haemorrhagic strokes or heart disease.

In a report on their findings they said: “Soft drink intake was positively associated with risk of ischaemic stroke for women.”
Numerous studies have linked rising consumption with the increased rate of obesity and type two diabetes, both of which are risk factors for strokes.
But few studies have examined the precise link between consumption of fizzy beverages and the rate of brain blood clots.

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Posted in: causes and prevention of stroke

'They said I was insane, but I knew my baby was alive'

A mother fought a two-year battle with a hospital when her baby was wrongly certified as being stillborn after fatal mistakes by staff. Ava Mae Charlton was born by emergency caesarean section but she struggled to breathe and died after only 32 minutes. 

Hospital officials tried to claim the baby was stillborn and so her d***th did not need to be investigated. But her parents Emma and Terry Charlton always maintained their daughter had been alive. They fought for an inquest until – after two years – the hospital finally admitted that Ava had not been stillborn, allowing the scrutiny of a hearing. 

Her d***th followed those of two other babies at Milton Keynes Hospital in similar circumstances, when the mothers had to wait for a caesarean to be carried out. Following the latest tragedy, coroner Tom Osborne has ordered managers to report all stillbirths and neonatal deaths to him for further investigation. 

Mrs Charlton, a teacher, 31, said: ‘People questioned my sanity and it was infuriating because I knew my baby had been alive. I was grief-stricken and vulnerable and you just accept what health professionals tell you. ‘But when they handed me that stillborn certificate, I knew something wasn’t right. 

Then a meeting with our consultant opened up a whole can of worms and highlighted a number of errors that had been made.’ Ava’s death in September 2009 came when the maternity unit was still reeling from criticism into the d**th of another baby, Ebony McCall, four months before. Then, Mr Osborne had condemned staff shortages which contributed to her demise as ‘nothing short of scandalous’. 

The deaths of the two girls bear an uncanny resemblance. Both went into distress and both mothers had to wait a considerable time for caesareans. Ava, like Ebony, would very probably be alive today had the surgery been carried out sooner, the inquest heard.

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