Heart Attack, Immune System & Ayurveda
A new study, from Imperial College London, finds a link between blood levels of Immunoglobulin G (IgG) antibodies and reduced chances of having heart attacks.
Lead investigator Dr Ramzi Khamis, a consultant cardiologist and clinical research fellow, says: “Linking a stronger, more robust immune system to protection from heart attacks is a really exciting finding. As well as improving the way we tell who is at the highest risk of a heart attack so that we can give them appropriate treatments, we now have a new avenue to follow in future work.” The team was surprised to find the strongest link to reduced heart attack risk was to higher levels of IgG, and this was independent of other risk factors, such as cholesterol and blood pressure. Now, we are coming back to the Indian science of medicine where the kingpin is the immune system. It also takes us out of the compound wall of reductionist thinking about risk factors and what have you. Ayurveda is the science of helping the immune system to avoid diseases.
Regular Exercise Might Even Repair Muscles in Old Age
Senior people who do regular exercise may find it easier to protect their muscles after injury and the healing is faster as well. The capacity of the muscle to contract also improves with regular exercise. This McMaster University (Canada) study was published in The FASEB Journal. Senior author Gianni Parise, an associate professor in the department of kinesiology, says: “Exercise-conditioning rescues delayed skeletal muscle regeneration observed in advanced age.” In many mammals, including humans and mice, the speed at which muscle repairs itself slows down with age. In fact, at one time, it was thought skeletal muscle was unable to repair completely after a certain age. I need to add a caveat here though. This study was done in mice and directly extrapolating it to humans might be difficult but it can show us the way to do human studies.
Brain Tumours and Education Levels
The researchers from University College London and the Karolinska Institutet (Sweden), in their paper in the Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health, seem to have found some link between higher educational qualifications and glioma incidence. Until now, we did not know much about the risks of brain tumours. Now, a new direction is opening up.
“Results show that men with a university education that lasted at least 3 years were 19 percent more likely to develop a glioma, compared with men whose education did not go beyond compulsory schooling, which was 9 years of primary education. Likewise, women who went on to higher education had a 23 percent higher glioma risk and a 16
percent higher meningioma risk, compared with women who did not.”
Electrical Signals To Help Heal Diabetic Wounds
Micro current application to control pain and also wound healing is one area engaging our research efforts and we have had some extent of success. Now, a new study shows that slow healing in diabetic wounds is linked to impaired naturally occurring electrical signals. They showed this in the cornea of a diabetic mouse. The international team, led by Min Zhao, professor of ophthalmology and of dermatology at the University of California-Davis (UC Davis), reports the finding in the journal Scientific Reports.
Breast Feeding and Mental Health in Children
Prolonged breast feeding helps the child to have a better mental balance and teenage behavioural problems are less in breast-fed babies compared to others. This study funded by the Canadian government and conducted in Africa shows that there are many advantages of breast feeding, in addition to a better and more robust immune system. “Beyond breast-feeding, the study examined a number of other factors that contributed to a child’s overall health and well-being. For example, the researchers found that attending preschool and the mother’s IQ were important determinants of a child’s cognitive development.”
