Identifying the mutations that underlie the fraction of obese patients with monogenic obesity can help us to understand complex processes like metabolic rate, eating behaviour , growth, and fat storage. 

In a new study, two groups have identified obesity-linked mutations in the gene SIM1. 

Sadaf Farooqi and colleagues at Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge, England, identified thirteen SIM1 mutations in obese patients, and found that reduced SIM1 function correlated with increased food intake and altered nervous system dysfunction.

In an independent study, Philippe Froguel and colleagues at Imperial College London identified eight SIM1 mutations in morbidly obese adults and in patients with a disorder resembling Prader-Willi syndrome.

In the patients studied, loss of SIM1 function was associated with inherited obesity. Taken together, these studies confirm a strong link between SIM1 dysfunction and obesity.

The research appeared in the latest issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation.

Now, Northwestern Medicine scientists have found the molecular pathway that can prevent the death of immature ovarian eggs due to chemotherapy, potentially preserving fertility and endocrine function.

Scientists achieved this in female mice by adding a currently approved chemotherapy drug, imatinib mesylate, to another chemotherapy drug cisplatin.

‘This research advances the efforts to find a medical treatment to protect the fertility and hormone health of girls and young women during cancer treatment, ‘ said So-Youn Kim, the lead investigator and a postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of Teresa Woodruff, chief of fertility preservation at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.

Adding imatinib mesylate to the drug cisplatin blocks the action of a protein that triggers a cascade of events resulting in death of the immature eggs. Kim discovered the protein that triggers the oocyte’s ultimate death is Tap63.

Previous research suggested that imatinib is a fertility-protecting drug against cisplatin, but reports of the drug”s effectiveness have been contradictory, Kim said. Her research confirms its effectiveness in an animal model.

She is currently testing imatinib with other chemotherapy agents to see if it also protects fertility in combination with them.

To demonstrate that imatinib protects oocytes against cisplatin, Kim and colleagues cultured ovaries (containing the immature eggs) from five-day-old mice with imatinib and cisplatin for 96 hours. The ovaries were then placed in a kidney capsule in the host mice to keep the ovaries alive.

Two weeks later, the immature eggs were still alive. The imatinib did not block cisplatin-induced DNA damage, but Kim believes the eggs may recover and repair the damage over time.

‘Previous reports have shown that chemotherapy and radiation-treated oocytes are able to recover from DNA damage,’ Kim said.

The results were to be presented at The Endocrine Society’s 95th Annual Meeting in San Francisco.

‘This is the first paper to show that obesity is associated with hearing loss in adolescents,’ said study first author Anil K. Lalwani, MD, professor and vice chair for research, Department of Otolaryngology/Head and Neck Surgery, Columbia University Medical Center.

The study found that obesity in adolescents is associated with sensorineural hearing loss across all frequencies (the frequency range that can be heard by humans); sensorineural hearing loss is caused by damage to the inner-ear hair cells.

The highest rates were for low-frequency hearing loss—15.16 percent of obese adolescents compared with 7.89 percent of non-obese adolescents. People with low-frequency hearing loss cannot hear sounds in frequencies 2,000 Hz and below; they may still hear sounds in the higher frequencies (normal hearing range is from 20 Hz to 20,000 Hz). Often they can still understand human speech well, but may have difficulty hearing in groups or in noisy places.

‘These results have several important public health implications,’ said Dr. Lalwani, who is also an otolaryngologist at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center. ‘Because previous research found that 80 percent of adolescents with hearing loss were unaware of having hearing difficulty, adolescents with obesity should receive regular hearing screening so they can be treated appropriately to avoid cognitive and behavioural issues,’ he added.  Dr. Lalwani and his colleagues speculate that obesity may directly or indirectly lead to hearing loss. Although additional research is needed to determine the mechanisms involved, they theorize that obesity-induced inflammation may contribute to hearing loss.

The study was recently e-published by The Laryngoscope, a journal published by the American Laryngological, Rhinological and Otological Society.

The study’s lead author Jean Lin, BS, a graduate research fellow at the Methodist Hospital Research Institute in Houston, TX, said that brown adipose tissue or BAT has the remarkable ability to dissipate excess energy as heat, thus conferring resistance to obesity. ‘This study has uncovered a new mechanism by which thyroid hormone signalling regulates thermogenesis and metabolic rate and demonstrates the profound therapeutic potential of white fat beiging,’ she said. Lin and her co-investigators examined the beiging effects of the experimental drug called GC-1. In the body, this drug binds to proteins called thyroid hormone receptors, which play a role in turning food into energy when activated by thyroid hormone.

Researchers found that GC-1 increased the metabolism of obese mice by more than 60 percent. Furthermore, this increase in metabolic rate led to significant weight loss within two weeks.

The results were presented at the Endocrine Society’s 95th Annual Meeting in San Francisco, on Sunday.

Voegtline said that the foetuses of some women, who were napping prior to asking them to read aloud from a passage, showed a brief startle to start of maternal voice.

The author said that the near-term foetus has a mature auditory system that reliably detects and responds to sound.The study concluded that a mother’s voice shapes auditory learning in utero with implications for postnatal recognition of, and preference for, the maternal voice.

The research was published in Infant Behaviour and Development journal. 

It has Kay Kay Menon starring as the reputed surgeon Dr Asthana who goofs up by operating on his patient suffering from appendicitis even though the patient’s stomach wasn’t empty. This particular scene where it’s implied that the child had eaten a few biscuits from a well-known biscuit brand which sued Vikram Bhatt’s ASA production Pvt Ltd for infringement of copyright and also for displaying their product in bad light. Bhatt’s camp responded by claiming that biscuit lying next to the boy doesn’t constitute infringement, that the boy dies due to medical negligence and the company’s allegations were unfounded.

Anyway legal hassles in the real world aside, the film mainly deals with legal tangles in the reel world when the child’s mother takes the doctor to court for medical negligence. The film throws up two interesting medical questions:

What is the danger of undergoing an operation on a not-empty stomach?

The most common danger of having food in the stomach during a surgery is aspiration (when the food in the stomach is thrown up while the patient is unconscious and paralysed due to the anaesthetic). It then enters the wind pipe and enters the lungs causing suffocation which can lead to pneumonia or death.

Does it amount to medical negligence when the doctor knows that the stomach is not empty and still undergoes the operation?

According to a Hospital Administrator, if doctors are aware of a patient’s condition and do not cancel the surgery then it is considered negligent on the part of the doctor. By law it’s the doc’s responsibility to ask the patient they’ve eaten anything, whether they suffer from any allergies and most surgeries get cancelled due to these reasons. 

Disclaimer: We don’t know how they will work in India and health.india.com bears no responsibility for any failure or embarrassment on your part if said tips don’t work.

Tip 1: Men should avoid negging – also known as negative comments – women, as they only work on women suffering from low self-esteem, which means that it is manipulative, underhanded, and sometimes really mean, the Huffington Post reported. (Think Barney Stinson from HIMYM making underhanded comments like ‘You look fat in those jeans’.)

Tip 2: Men should also avoid telling the women, they are trying to seduce, about the money they make.  (If you do intend to talk about money back it up with salary slips or sort of documentation)

Tip 3: Curtin also revealed that men who insult themselves or show low self-esteem are a put-off for women. (How does that work? Men walk into a bar and shout at themselves, ‘Son-of-a-!@#$’)

Tip 4: They should also avoid touching the woman’s lower back, elbow or shoulders. (In India, said touching could get you thrown in jail for sexual harassment as well.)

Picture Source: http://www.vixenontheloose.com/

Tip 5: Men should not assume that a woman does not like whiskey or that she doesn’t know anything about cars because she is a girl.

Tip 6: Women don’t like men, who are hitting on them, make fun of their friends.

Tip 7: If men don’t own and feel their sexuality, women are not going to feel it either. (We have no clue how to own sexuality. More research shall be done after taking editor’s permission.)

Tip 8: Men should not try very hard to be funny as women can feel that men are racking their brain for the next funny/clever thing to say, which mean that they are not paying attention to the lady. (Our sub-editor’s aghast because the only tool he has with the opposite sex is to make them laugh and can’t contemplate that people can fake it when laughing; fake orgasm maybe but fake laughter!)

Tip 9: Women don’t like men who are cocky as cocky men are obsessed with the outside because deep down they are terrified that they have nothing of worth on the inside.

Tip 10: And lastly every effort of men does not always pan out and women do say no but men should not take it personally. 

With inputs from ANI

The three placed under suspension are blood bank in-charge Dr Jiten Saharia and two lab technicians. Prima facie investigations reveal that two of the individuals had taken blood directly from the HIV+ donor. While the donors had arranged the blood on their own, the concerned staffs are supposed to test the blood donated and transfused.

There’s some suggestion that a section of the hospital staff were part of an illegal nexus to procure more blood with one patient claiming he was paid an additional Rs 1,500 over and above the hospital fee of Rs 300 for procuring one unit of blood.

Meanwhile, Assam CM Tarun Gogoi strongly condemned the incident and described it as ‘criminal’. ‘If they have carried out blood transfusion by taking blood from a donor without conducting proper tests, then it is surely a case of criminal negligence,’ he said. ‘The government will try to provide compensation to the victims,’ he said.  Meanwhile, a probe team constituted by the state health department found serious discrepancies in the functioning of the blood bank.

According to standard medical procedure, donated blood always has to be screened for HIV, hepatitis B, hepatitis C and syphilis prior to transfusion. WHO estimates that in over 39 countries stringent measures aren’t followed properly. Testing is not reliable in many countries because of staff shortages, poor quality test kits, irregular supplies, or lack of basic laboratory services. Read: Ten myths about blood donation

Jiah Khan also known as Nafisa committed suicide at her Juhu residence on June 3. According to reports, she hung herself at around 11 PM but didn’t leave any suicide notes. The 25-year-old had worked with Amitabh Bachchan in Ram Gopal Varma’s Nishabd which was inspired by the Hollywood film American Beauty. Born and raised in London, the actress had shifted to India to pursue a career in acting and had appeared in Aamir Khan’s Ghajni and Akshay Kumar’s Housefull. Earlier it had appeared that her stagnant film career had driven her to commit suicide but later her mother released a six-page note which blamed her boyfriend Sooraj Pancholi for abusing her. 

Lessons from Jiah Khan’s death and suicide note

The advisory calls humans the ‘greatest predator’ of frogs and their indiscriminate killing is drastically reducing the amphibians’ population.

‘Massive toxic recalcitrant residues from agrochemicals biomagnified in the food chain get accumulated in fat deposits of frogs. Continuous consumption of frogs could trigger paralytic strokes, cancers, kidney failures and other deformities,’ the advisory reads.

Over the years, the Indian Bullfrog and the Jerdon’s Bullfrog have been colloquially re-christened ‘Jumping Chicken’ in Goa. Both species have been hunted for their meat, which although contraband, is cooked and sold on the sly and eaten in several restaurants and homes.

A single frog is sold for up to Rs.250 and only its meaty hind legs are cooked and eaten.

Listed in Schedule-I of threatened species, which also include the tiger, the croaking of the humble frog once the monsoon begins would ordinarily help attract its female mate. But in Goa, with the passion and demand for frog meat increasing, the mating call also attracts village boys and adults, who almost ritualistically head for frog hunts every year, risking a stringent punishment of a Rs.25,000 fine and/or imprisonment up to three years under the Wildlife Protection Act.

Needless to say, although awareness about the importance of the frog for the region’s ecological balance has increased, arrests and deterrents have failed to stop eager ‘froggers’.

The forest department now feels that if not the fear of a fine or arrest, at least a cancer cautionary could stop people from killing and eating frogs.

‘It is a health hazard in a way because the frogs exist in the fields and their bodies accept agrochemicals which are used liberally in fields. These are cancerous elements. We are hoping that people will take note of it,’ a wildlife official told IANS.

Miguel Braganza of the Botanical Society of Goa says that the warning might just be a deterrent.

‘Health risks may have been amplified to deter people from eating frogs because punitive action just does not seem to work,’ Braganza said.

Animal conservationists like Clinton Vaz have been at the forefront of the Save the Frog campaign for years now. He says that along with the Indian Bullfrog and the Jerdon Bullfrog species, the Indian Pond Frog, Grass Frog and the Common Indian Toad are also occasionally poached.

‘An insatiable demand at restaurants for illegal frog meat has ensured a lucrative return to the poacher for a pair of frog legs,’ Vaz claims.