The Daily Indian

Ten minutes of cycling or jogging can significantly help people quit smoking, according to a new study. The researchers from the University of Exeter have shown that changes in brain activity, triggered by physical exercise, may help reduce cigarette cravings. During the study, ten regular smokers were asked to cycle at a moderate pace for ten minutes, after 15 hours of abstinence from nicotine.

The participants were later showed series of 60 images and changes in brain activity were studied with the help of fMRI scan. Some visuals featured cigarettes and would normally induce cravings in a smoker. On a second occasion, the same group was given an fMRI scan and shown the same series of images without having undertaken exercise.

The study showed that after no exercise the smokers showed heightened activity in response to the images in areas of the brain associated with reward-processing and visual attention. After exercise the same areas of activation were not observed, which reflected a kind of ‘default mode’ in the brain. The smokers also reported lower cravings for cigarettes after exercise compared with when they had been inactive.

Although it is still unclear exactly what caused the difference in brain activity following exercise, the researchers believe that completing exercise raises mood (possibly through increases in dopamine) which reduces the salience or importance of wanting a cigarette.
Another possibility is that exercise causes a shift in blood flow to areas of the brain less involved in anticipation of reward and pleasure generated by smoking images.

“Our findings add to a growing body of evidence suggesting that exercise can help people give up smoking,” said Kate Janse Van Rensburg, a PhD student at the University of Exeter, lead author on the paper. “This strengthens the argument that moderate exercise could be a viable alternative to many of the pharmaceutical products, such as nicotine patches, for people who want to give up smoking.

“A ten or fifteen minute walk, jog or cycle when times get tough could help a smoker kick the habit. There are of course many other benefits from a more active lifestyle including better fitness, weight loss and improved mood,” she added.

A 26-year-old teacher became the first swine flu fatality in Bangalore while an infant and two women died in worst-hit Pune today, taking the nationwide death toll to 21 even as Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said panic should not be created and the government is doing its best.

The rise in flu cases in the country was discussed threadbare at the meeting of the Union Cabinet in Delhi, during which Singh asked Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad to work towards restoring confidence of the people and ensuring that panic is not created.

Sources said Azad made a presentation on the flu situation before the Cabinet following which the issue was discussed in great detail.

Expressing concern over the swine flu situation, Singh is understood to have said that this was a major problem before the country and the Government sector is doing its best.

India’s swine flu toll rose to 17 Wednesday as six people succumbed to the H1N1 virus in quick succession in Maharashtra, forcing authorities to shut down educational institutions and public places in Mumbai for a week.

Wednesday saw the highest number of six deaths for a single day since the first victim, Reeda Sheikh, 14, died in Pune Aug 3.

In New Delhi, the health ministry asked the states to take strict action against those hoarding face masks and illegally selling Tamiflu, an anti-influenza drug.

In Maharashtra, where swine flu has claimed 13 lives, the state government was forced to announce closure of all educational establishments in state capital Mumbai for a week from Thursday and multiplexes for three days.

However, offices and malls will remain open, an official clarified.

While five people died due to swine flu in Pune, called the ‘epidemic city’, the sixth death was reported from Nashik.

The five who died in Pune were Gautam Shelar, a 48-year-old driver, Nita Meghani, 50, Babu Genu Kuland, a school student, Sanjay Mistry, 35, and Shravani Deshpande, 29, a Maharashtra Swine Flu Control Room official said.

They all died at the Sassoon Hospital, which has been handling very serious cases of swine flu in this second largest city of Maharashtra.

Shelar was admitted to the hospital in a critical condition three-four days ago and died around 4.45 p.m. His death came barely an hour after Meghani died.

Babu died in the same hospital at about 11 a.m. A resident of Pimpri town near here, Babu was hospitalised three days ago in a serious condition, according to Pune Municipal Corporation (Health Department) chief S.R. Pardeshi.

Mistry, another Pimpri resident, died in the wee hours of Wednesday. He was hospitalised Sunday in a critical condition and put on ventilator.

Within hours, Deshpande too died of the A(H1N1) influenza around 3 a.m. She had been hospitalised three days ago with pneumonia and later was found to be suffering from swine flu. She was then put on ventilator.

Around the same time, Rakesh Gargunde, a doctor with the Civil Hospital in Nashik city, also succumbed to swine flu virus, said civil surgeon A.D Bhal Singh.

While Maharashtra accounts for 13 deaths – 10 in Pune, two in Mumbai and one in Nashik – one death each has been reported from Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Chennai and Thiruvananthapuram.

As many as 115 people were found positive Wednesday – 61 in Pune, 24 in Mumbai, 10 in Bangalore, eight in Delhi, four in Ahmedabad, three each in Kolkata and Hyderabad, and one each in Shillong and Goa, the health ministry said.

The new cases take the total number of affected people in the country to 1,193 – 588 of whom are at various stages of recovery, it said.

Maharashtra, the most affected state, was preparing for the next stage of its battle against the flu.

‘The government has ordered the closure of all schools, colleges and other educational institutions in the city (Mumbai) from tomorrow till Aug 20,’ a Maharashtra government official told. Suburban trains in the western megapolis would, however, function as normal.

Reeling under the growing menace of swine flu, the state government admitted the disease was progressing, necessitating a change in strategy to counter it.

Now, the government plans to change its treatment process. Currently, Tamiflu is given after tests results, but it will be given at the initial stage itself, Additional Chief Secretary (Health) Sharvari Gokhale told mediapersons.

She said that 22 private hospitals in Mumbai and nine in Pune have come forward to offer treatment facilities for swine flu patients since the government hospitals were getting overcrowded.

Many private schools in Maharashtra have already closed down for two days — Wednesday and Thursday. Thereafter, Friday, Saturday and Sunday are official holidays.

With reports of hoarding of masks and illegal sales of Tamiflu tablets, the union health ministry held a meeting in New Delhi and also issued guidelines for private labs, making it clear that only those that comply with bio-safety facility would be allowed to do the tests.

In New Delhi, Joint Secretary (Health) Vineet Chawdhry said there was no need for all to wear the N95 mask, which is only for those who are either visiting a testing centre or are affected with the influenza A(H1N1) virus.

He also asked the state governments to ensure no one was selling Tamiflu or hoarding masks.

‘The state governments have to come with a heavy hand on all those hoarders and black-marketers. This is a public health emergency crisis in the country. Citizens from all walks of life have to cooperate,’ he added.

He said that people should avoid crowds or crowded places during the Hindu festival of Janmashtami Aug 14 so as not to catch the virus.

Gearing up to fight the flu, the Delhi government also issued directions to all private hospitals under the Epidemic Act to reserve 10 beds each for the flu patients.

More than 600 youth and members of communities at risk of getting HIV, like sex workers and truck drivers, will come together for a two-day festival in the capital to celebrate sexuality and engage in a dialogue on how to tackle different challenges.

Using various mediums like art, music, theatre and dance, the festival will provide a platform to the young men and women as well as the vulnerable groups to bring forth their experience-based opinion on different issues and form a network so as to solve some of the problems together.

“Whether it’s the sex workers group, the truck drivers or those affected by HIV, the problems are the same – lack of awareness both about their rights and healthcare and a battle against some government policies not working in their favour,” said Anjali Goppalan of the Naz Foundation, an NGO working on issues of HIV/AIDS and sexual health.

“Instead of diversifying, it’s important that all these groups are in touch so as to support each other to achieve their goals,” she added.

But the festival, called Project 19, is not just about the marginalised community.

“It’s also about the youth who are important stakeholders of the future. In contrast to popular perception that youngsters are not interested in social issues, just the fact that we have got more than 200 entries in the form of art pieces and movie clips on different issues for the festival are examples that they are,” said Ishita Sharma of the YP Foundation.

“Bringing the youth to interact with the vulnerable groups is the focus of the festival, not just because they can help them and spread awareness but also because they too may be at risk,” she added.

Organised by the Centre for Human Progress (CHP) and YP Foundation, a youth network working on social issues for the last six years, the festival will take place at the India Habitat Centre in the capital Feb 15-16.

Among other events, there will be street theatre performances, a music concert and a film festival.

Toronto, Jan 27 : Breastfeeding can provide infants protection against asthma or respiratory diseases but fast-food intake can negate the benefits, scientists have found.

A number of findings led the University of Alberta researchers to establish links between fast food and asthma, breastfeeding and asthma, and all three together.

“Like other studies, we found that fast-food consumption was associated with asthma,” said study co-author Anita Kozyrskyj, associate professor of paediatrics in the university’s faculty of medicine and dentistry.

The group did not look at why fast food might cause asthma but the authors suggest the high fat content, and high salt levels – which can increase twitchy airways and wheezing – may be to blame.

The research confirmed the findings of many other studies about the benefits of breastfeeding in relation to asthma.

Kozyrskyj found that breastfeeding for too short a time was linked to a higher risk of asthma, or conversely that children exclusively breastfed 12 weeks or longer as infants had a lower risk.

“But this beneficial effect was only seen in children who did not consume fast food, or only occasionally had fast food,” she added. More than half the children in the study ate fast food more than twice a week.

The researchers suggested the prevalence of fast food in today’s society may explain why asthma rates keep rising even though more mothers are breastfeeding, the university said in a release.

Kozyrskyj conducted the study with Allan Becker while at the University of Manitoba. The team looked at about 700 Manitoba children, about 250 of whom had asthma and 475 who did not.

The article appears online in Clinical and Experimental Allergy.

A new scan has helped scientists image bleeding within the heart for the first time after a cardiac attack.

The research shows that the amount of bleeding can indicate how damaged a person’s heart is after the event.

Researchers from the MRC Clinical Sciences Centre at Imperial College London, hope that this kind of imaging used with other tests will create a fuller picture of a patient’s condition and their chances of recovery.

People suffer heart attacks when an artery that feeds blood to the heart becomes blocked, depriving the heart muscle of oxygen. Currently, most people treated for a heart attack are fitted with a metal tube called a stent to keep the blocked artery clear.

Recent research has shown that some people experience bleeding inside the heart muscle once blood starts to pump into it again. However, the significance of this bleeding is currently not understood.

For the study, researchers captured images of bleeding inside the heart in 15 patients from Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust who had recently suffered a heart attack, using Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI).

Analysis of the MRI scans revealed that the amount of bleeding correlated with how much damage the heart muscle had sustained.

Patients who had suffered a large heart attack, where a lot of the heart muscle was damaged, had a lot of bleeding into the heart muscle compared with those whose heart attack was relatively small.

The researchers were able to detect the area of bleeding because of the magnetic effects of iron, which is present in the blood, said an Imperial College release.

The study was published on Monday in Radiology.

Taiwan will take a giant step in its anti-smoking campaign Sunday by banning smoking indoors across the island, the Department of Health (DOH) said Saturday.

Under the new rule, all offices and indoor facilities like department stores, restaurants, cafes, airports and railway station will ban smoking.

Smoking will also be banned in indoor working environments where three or more people work together.

People who violate the rule by lighting up in these places will face a 2,000-10,000 Taiwan dollar ($60-$100) fine.

Indoor facilities which provide cigarette lighter or ash tray will face a 10,000-50,000 Taiwan dollar ($300-$1,500) fine, DOH said.

On Saturday, DOH Director-General Yeh Chin-chuan, wearing a white T-shirt with the anti-smoking sign, presided over a ceremony announcing the launch of the campaign Sunday.

He said the government is determined to cut the smoking population and reduce smoking-related diseases. The ceremony ended with health workers shouting “Smoking-free Taiwan! Yes, We Can!”

Under the strict rule, Taiwan airports will shut their smoking rooms and Taiwan airlines will stop voluntarily selling cigarettes during flights.

Cigarettes will no longer be listed on the duty-free goods catalogue, and will only be sold if passengers ask to buy cigarettes in-flight, the Central News Agency said.

Siliguri (West Bengal), Jan 3: Bird flu has been detected in West Bengal’s Darjeeling district, prompting the administration Saturday to order culling of 60,000 poultry over three days starting Sunday.

Alarmed at the death of 80 poultry at Pubang in Takhdra of Darjeeling subdivision and 67 poultry at Matigara in Siliguri subdivision within a week, the district administration sent the samples to the High Security Disease Diagnostic Laboratory at Bhopal.

“One of the samples has tested positive for avian flu,” the state’s Animal Resources Development Minister Anisur Rehman told IANS over phone.

“We have asked the district administration to take all measures. Culling will start Sunday,” Rehman said.

The development comes 18 days after bird flu struck Malda district in the state.

In Siliguri, Darjeeling district magistrate Surendra Gupta said: “60,000 poultry will be culled over three days from Monday, in both the hills and plains over a five km radius from the epicentre.”

The culling operations will also be conducted at Phulbari of Jalpaiguri district which comes under the radius zone.

Twenty culling teams – 16 in Darjeeling district and 12 in neighbouring Jalpaiguri – comprising altogether 6,000 members, have been set up.

Every household whose poultry is culled would be given Rs.500, Gupta said.

“We will monitor the situation. If required, the culling target will be increased and period extended,” he said.

Restrictions on sale and consumption of poultry have been enforced in parts of Siliguri and Darjeeling sub-divisions besides Phulbari.

Early last year, bird flu had hit Darjeeling district twice, with Bijonbari, Kurseong and Pumding being the affected areas.

On Dec 15 last year, bird flu had hit Malda, and 30,000 poultry were culled.

In January last year, over 200,000 poultry were culled in several West Bengal districts.