British Scientists Discover Possible Cure For HIV/AIDS

A British man could become the first person in the world to be cured of  HIV using a new therapy designed by a team of scientists from five United Kingdom universities.

The unnamed 44-year-old is the first of 50 people to complete a trial of the ambitious treatment, designed by scientists and doctors from five of Britain’s leading universities.

The Managing Director of the National Institute for Health Research Office for Clinical Research Infrastructure, UK, Mark Samuels, said the treatment was the first therapy created to have tracked down and destroyed HIV in every part of the body, including in the dormant cells that evade current treatments.

The scientists told newsmen that presently “the virus is completely undetectable in the man’s blood, although that could be as a result of regular drugs.”

However, if the dormant cells are also cleared out it could represent the first complete cure.

Samuels said, “This is one of the first serious attempts at a full cure for HIV. We are exploring the real possibility of curing HIV. This is a huge challenge and it’s still early days but the progress has been remarkable.”

The trial is being undertaken by researchers from the universities of Oxford, Cambridge, Imperial College, London, University College, London and King’s College, London.

HIV is so difficult to treat because it targets the immune system, splicing itself into the DNA of T-cells so that they not only ignore the disease, but turn into viral factories which reproduce the virus.

Current treatments, called anti-retroviral therapies, target that process but they cannot spot dormant infected T-cells.

The new therapy works in two stages. Firstly, a vaccine helps the body to recognise the HIV-infected cells so it can clear them out. Secondly, a new drug called Vorinostat activates the dormant T-cells so they can be spotted by the immune system.

A consultant physician at Imperial College, London, Prof. Sarah Fidler, said the new therapy was specifically designed to clear the body of all HIV viruses, including dormant ones.

Fidler said, “It has worked in the laboratory and there is good evidence it will work in humans too, but we must stress we are still a long way from any actual therapy.

“We will continue with medical tests for the next five years and at the moment we are not recommending stopping ART but in the future, depending on the test results, we may explore this.”

Only one person has ever been cured of HIV. He is Timothy Brown, also known as the ‘second’ Berlin patient, who received a stem cell transplant from a patient with natural immunity to HIV in 2008.

Read More

Kids' Heavy Back Packs May Be Killing Them Slowly

MOST children have to drag huge backpacks to and from school every day. Like turtles with oversized shells, they stagger under the weight of huge packs from their home to school and back, some even have to run or climb stairs with such heavy backpacks. It seems normal and the routine of every child, but how dangerous is this seemingly innocuous task?
Professor Francis Uba, a consultant Paediatric Surgeon at the Jos University Teaching Hospital, has declared that carrying heavy backpacks has a number of health implications on children who are subjected to such burden.
“Children who have to carry heavy backpacks to and from school every day may experience strains, aching backs, shoulder and neck pains, tingling arms, weakened muscles, stooped posture and scoliosis, which is the curving of the spine to one side, inducing severe pain.” Uba said.
He also added that some emotional and psychological problems could emerge as well when backpack loads interfere with the way a child walks or inflict accidental injuries on children by causing them to trip and fall in the presence of onlookers. Also, indirect backpack injuries emerge when a heavy backpack falls on another child.
According to spinal surgeons, carrying heavy backpacks increases the risk of back pain and possibly the risk of back pathology.
The prevalence of school children carrying heavy backpacks is extremely high today than it was in the past. The daily physical stresses associated with carrying backpacks cause significant forward lean of the head and trunk. “It is, therefore, assumed that daily intermittent abnormal postural adaptations could result in pain and disability in school children,” experts say.
A recent study on the weight limit recommendation in backpack use for school-aged children, which was published in the Journal of Clinical Chiropractic Pediatrics, concluded that backpack weight should not exceed 10 to 15 per cent of a child’s body weight and appropriate weight for each child should be determined individually.
Corroborating the findings of the study, Uba explained that “a child’s backpack should weigh no more than about 10 per cent of his or her body weight. This means a student weighing 100 pounds shouldn’t wear a loaded school backpack heavier than about 10 pounds. Parents should avoid any backload for which the child complains of heavy waist.”
The consultant paediatric surgeon, in a bid to help parents determine the appropriate backpack load in relation to a child’s weight, said “a good backpack should be no larger than the child’s back. To simplify matters, one can take two measurements off of a child’s back and use those for the maximum height and width of the backpack by finding the maximum height, which could be done by measuring from the shoulder line to the waist line and adding two inches. The shoulder line is where the backpack straps will actually rest on the body, about half way between the neck and shoulder joint.
“The waist line is at the belly button. The backpack should fit two inches below the shoulders and up to four inches below the waist, so adding two inches to our measurement will give that. The width of the back can be measured between the ridges of the shoulder blades. An extra inch or two is acceptable.”
Backpack injuries may range from mild to chronic and could have some devastating long term effect on children’s health like shrinkage and long standing back pain.
According to a 2010 study in the National Centre for Biotechnology Information, which studied a small test group of children around the age of 11, “the constant weight of backpacks was actually causing spinal cords to compress and causing significant back pain.”
Uba, therefore, charged parents to load their children’s backpacks more appropriately while ensuring that the backpack is of good quality and properly worn.

Read More

Onion Reduces Heart Disease - New Study

Onion is found in every kitchen, but its curative powers make it an important medicinal plant too. Like garlic, it is a member of the lily family. Resent studies have shown that they may help reduce the risk of Parkinson’s disease, cardiovascular disease and stroke, according to Victoria Jarzabkowski, a nutritionist with the Fitness Institute of Texas at the University of Texas at Austin in the United States (U.S).
Apart from its medicinal properties, the onion is simply delicious. It forms the basis of so many dishes – whether raw, sautéed, baked, steamed or boiled, that it would be difficult to imagine the cuisine of any country without it. “Onions are superhealthy,” Jarzabkowski, adding, “they are excellent sources of vitamin C, sulphuric compounds, flavonoids and phytochemicals.” She explained that phytochemicals, or phytonutrients, are naturally occurring compounds in fruits and vegetables that are able to react with the human body to trigger healthy reactions. Flavonoids are responsible for pigments in many fruits and vegetables.
According to Jarzabkowski, onions encourage a healthy heart in many ways, including “lowering blood pressure and lowering heart attack risk.” A 2002 study in the journal ‘Thrombosis Research’ suggested that sulfur acts as a natural blood thinner and prevents blood platelets from aggregating. When platelets cluster, the risk for heart attack or stroke increases. This research further supports a similar 1992 study in Thrombosis Research that focused on sulfurs in garlic. Furthermore, a 1987 animal study in the ‘Journal of Hypertension’ demonstrated delayed or reduced onset of hypertension with sulfur intake. However, the authors said more research was needed to determine if this benefit might be found in humans. The quercetin in onions may also help prevent plaque buildup in the arteries, which reduces the risk of heart attack and stroke, according to the University of Maryland Medical Center. But since most of the studies in this regard have focused on animals, more research is needed to understand the effects in humans.

Onions’ sulfurs may be effective anti-inflammatory agents, according to a 1990 study in the journal ‘International Archives of Allergy and Applied Immunology’. Quercetin has been found to relax the airway muscles and may provide relief of asthma symptoms, according to a 2013 study in the ‘American Journal of Physiology.’

“The polyphenols in onions act as antioxidants, protecting the body against free radicals,” said Anne Mauney, a dietitian based in Washington, D.C. She said eliminating free radicals could help encourage a strong immune system. According to the University of Maryland Medical Center, the quercetin in onions also reduces allergic reactions by stopping the body from producing histamines, which are what make humans sneeze, cry and itch if they are having an allergic reaction.

Read More

Goat's Milk Lotion, Coconut Lotion Hit Nigerian Market

The Nigerian natural health industry is gradually coming of age as new, innovative and creative products are gradually being introduced into the local market. Recently, Nature Secrets, a player in the industry, introduced two new variants into the skin care category of the Nigerian natural health market. The two products – Goat’s Milk Lotion and Coconut Lotion – have been generating attention ever since they where introduced into the market; this is mainly due to their unique formulation. In this interview with Nigeria Natural Health Online’s editor, Dumbiri Frank Eboh, the CEO of Nature Secrets, Joyce Onyemuwa, who is also an OAP with a popular Lagos based radio station, speaks on the idea behind Goat’s Milk Lotion and Coconut Lotion as well as the natural make up of the two products amongst other things.

 What percentage of these products is natural?

I would say about 80 percent of it is natural because, for instance the Coconut Lotion is made from fresh coconut which is converted into body lotion with various fragrance.

Are you already established in the market or you are just coming out?

I am just coming out, I don’t have distributors for now. I am still looking for distributors. For now I am the sole distributor of the two products. That means anyone who wants to buy for now will have to come to our Victoria Island location. There you will get the two products.

How are these product positioned in the market? Are they for the upper, middle or lower income earners?

I can’t specifically give direct answer to that because the reason it was created in the first place was to bring an alternative to chemical based product in the market. So, I cannot say it is for the extremely rich, middle income or lower income earners. They are good for anybody who can afford to buy them. And I will also add that they are good for people who desire a healthy natural touch to their skin.

In what ways do you think the products are better than chemical based products?

There are different kinds of chemicals. If you go through some of the international brands we have in the Nigerian market today, you will notice that they have over 101 percent chemicals in them. So, depending on the level of your allergy or your skin reaction to these chemicals you can be safe or you can be sorry. But with my products, you have no chemicals at all; all you have is the natural material, preservative and fragrance. Again another difference between my products and these chemical based products is that with my products, you don’t have side effect unless you are allergic to coconut or goat milk. If you don’t have allergies to coconut or goat milk, you will not have any reactions to my products because they are 80 percent natural based. They are safe, they are natural and the only reason you cannot eat them is because of the preservatives.

Coconut and goat milk when eating, have high nutritional values. Is it the same as when applied on the skin?

Imagine that you eat coconut and it gives you all the nutritional benefits internally. That is the same thing that it does externally when applied on the skin because whether internally or externally, nutrition is nutrition. The coconut is very rich in oil and it is one of the greatest natural moisturizers you can get. It’s a natural sun screen, so it prevents the sun from causing any damage to your skin. You know as we grow older, our skin begins to wear out thereby leading to sagging. What coconut does is to support skin collagen and helps firms your skin. It is also a pimples preventive lotion, it helps to prevent ageing.

Does the Goat’s Milk Lotion complement the Coconut Lotion or is it something you apply on its own?

It’s a variant, so it is applied on its own. It is made from fresh goat milk. I go to the market, say Itire market and pay the goat sellers to extract the milk. So it is 100 percent goat milk. And it also has a historical background to it. If you go back in history, the Egyptian queens were soaked on goat milk to nourish their skin. So, I am giving you that luxury with the Goat’s Milk Lotion. You can also say that the Goat’s Milk Lotion is similar to the Coconut Lotion because all those nutritional benefits which the milk gives you internally when you drink it is what it also gives you externally when you apply it on the skin. It is also a natural sun screen and it prevents sagging as well. Goat’s Milk Lotion is also an anti-ageing lotion. and just like the coconut lotion, it has no side effect.

Currently, there is an influx of foreign natural herbal health products into the country. What’s being done about this?

Nothing will be done about it until we do something about it. We keep complaining and when the next bottle of foreign products comes, we go out to buy it. The reason the people are exporting these products from their own country into our own country is because there is a ready market for them here. They know Nigerians will buy these products. And the reason we will buy is because we are not producing our own. It is simple logic – why people take their product to sell at a particular place is because there is a market for them there. I was also at that end where I was waiting to buy my nest bottle of foreign body lotion until that particular body lotion was banned in Nigeria. NAFDAC banned it because it was being faked, a lot of the altered versions have found their way into the market so they had to ban the lotion category of that brand. And that was when I started looking into how I can start making my own lotion, something I can use to make my skin more beautiful and healthy. Something nourishing. That was how I came about the Goat’s Milk lotion and Coconut Lotion.

You are in Lagos. How would somebody in other parts of Nigeria be able to access these two products?

If you are anywhere in Nigeria, we will send to your location. You just let us know where you are and we send them to you after of course adding the delivery cost.

We deliver through road transport. For instance, our clients in Abuja call us and we send the products to them through bus. When the bus get to their location, they go to the bus stop  and pick the product.

 What incentives are you offering potential distributors?

It actually depends on the volume that the potential distributor will be taking. If you are taking more, you will definitely get more incentives. If you are taking less, of course you will have incentives but they are not going to be as much as that of the person taking more.

For all your enquires about Goat’s Milk Lotion and Coconut Lotion, call 09090744420.

Read More

Smoking, Cholesterol And The Heart

Today is World Heart Day, a day set aside to look into issues concerning that very critical organ of the body - the heart. Here, we look at smoking and cholesterol and their effect on the heart.
Smoking is very bad for your heart. It greatly increases the risk of a heart attack, other types of heart disease and stroke.
The good news is that once you stop smoking, the extra risk is reduced quickly.
Smoking affects the vessels that supply blood to your heart and other parts of your body. It reduces the amount of oxygen in your blood and damages blood vessel walls.
Breathing in other people's smoke can also increase your risk of heart disease.
You can get lots of help to quit. Talk to your doctor or health practitioner about giving up smoking.
Cholesterol is fatty substance that’s carried around your body with your blood. Your body produces some cholesterol naturally, and you can also get it from some foods.
Having high levels of cholesterol in your blood is a risk factor for heart disease, so it’s important to manage your cholesterol.

There are 2 different types of cholesterol:

• High density lipoprotein (HDL cholesterol) is called the ‘good cholesterol’ because it helps to keep cholesterol from building up in your arteries.
• Low density lipoprotein (LDL cholesterol) is called the ‘bad cholesterol’ because it is the main source of cholesterol build-up and blockage in your arteries.

You may see them listed as HDL-C and LDL-C on your blood test results.
Total cholesterol is a reading of your good and bad cholesterol.
Triglycerides are another form of fat in your blood that can also raise the risk of heart disease.
When there is too much cholesterol in your blood, it builds up in the walls of your arteries (plaque).
Over time, this build up causes ‘hardening of the arteries’  – your arteries become narrowed and blood flow to the heart is slowed down or blocked. You may suffer chest pain and a heart attack.

A variety of lifestyle choices can affect blood cholesterol levels. These are things you can do something about:

• Diet: Eating foods high in saturated fat and trans fat make your blood cholesterol level go up. Cholesterol in foods also has a small effect. Reducing the amount of saturated fat, trans fat and cholesterol in your diet helps lower your blood cholesterol level. High triglycerides result from eating food high in fat and kilojoules. 
• Weight: Being overweight is a risk factor for heart disease. It also tends to increase your cholesterol. Losing weight can help lower your LDL and total cholesterol levels, as well as raise your HDL and lower your triglycerides.
• Physical activity: Not being physically active is a risk factor for heart disease. Regular exercise can help lower LDL cholesterol and raise HDL cholesterol levels.
• Smoking: High triglycerides result from tobacco smoking as well as diet. 

There are some lifestyle factors that can affect cholesterol levels that you can’t do anything about:

• Age and gender: As you get older, your cholesterol levels rise. Before menopause, women have lower total cholesterol levels than men of the same age. After menopause, women's LDL levels tend to rise.
• Your family history: High cholesterol can run in families. Your genes partly determine how much cholesterol your body makes. For example, familial hypercholesterolaemia (FH) is an inherited condition where your body doesn’t remove enough cholesterol from your blood. If you think you may be at risk of familial hypercholesterolaemia, talk to your doctor.

Symptoms

You can have high cholesterol and feel well. So it’s important to get your cholesterol checked regularly.

Diagnosis

The best way to find out your cholesterol levels is to have them checked by your doctor. This involves a blood test.
Generally we aim for lower LDL (bad) cholesterol and triglycerides, and higher HDL (good) cholesterol.

It’s best to talk to your doctor about what your blood cholesterol levels should be. They will tell you if your cholesterol levels are too high.

Reaching healthy cholesterol levels

Talk to your doctor about the best way to achieve a healthy total cholesterol combination of HDL, LDL and triglycerides.

Lifestyle changes

Your doctor may tell you that the best way to manage your cholesterol is to make some changes like eating less saturated fats and more healthy food, or they may ask you to see a dietician.
Lifestyle changes can make a big difference. For many people, changing what they eat and drink is enough to lower their cholesterol.
Find out more about what you can do to help your cholesterol.

Medicines

Lifestyle changes are not enough for some people. Your doctor may also prescribe medicines to help control your blood cholesterol. Make sure you take it as prescribed and get your cholesterol levels checked regularly. It’s also important to continue with healthy lifestyle choices.
Blood pressure is the pressure of your blood on the walls of your arteries as your heart pumps it around your body. It’s a vital part of how your heart and circulation works.
Your blood pressure naturally goes up and down all the time, adjusting to your heart’s needs depending on what you are doing. High blood pressure is when your blood pressure is persistently higher than normal.
A blood pressure reading under 120/80mmHg is considered optimal. Readings over 120/80mmHg and up to 139/89mmHg are in the normal to high normal range.
Blood pressure that’s high over a long time is one of the main risk factors for heart disease. As you get older, the chances of having persistently high blood pressure increases.
It’s very important to get your blood pressure checked regularly, and if it’s persistently high it needs to be controlled. Uncontrolled high blood pressure can lead to a heart attack or stroke. It may also affect your kidneys.
The medical name for high blood pressure over a long period of time is hypertension.

Causes

The exact causes of high blood pressure are often not clear. Your blood pressure may be strongly influenced by:

• family history
• eating patterns, including salty foods 
• alcohol intake 
• weight 
• how much physical activity you do.

Some medicines can also raise blood pressure.

Symptoms

You can’t feel high blood pressure. There are usually no warning signs, so you can have it and not know. That’s why it’s important to get it checked.

Diagnosis

The best way to know if you have high blood pressure is to have your blood pressure checked by your doctor or health practitioner.
They will take your blood pressure using an inflatable bag (cuff) that goes around your arm. It’s joined to a device that measures the pressure.
Blood pressure can vary at different times of the day. Sometimes it can even go up just because someone is taking it, so it’s important to have an accurate measure of your blood pressure. Talk to your doctor or health practitioner about what your blood pressure level should be.

Controlling high blood pressure

If you have high blood pressure, talk to your doctor about the best way to control it.

Lifestyle changes

Your doctor may recommend that you make some healthier lifestyle choices, like changing the food you eat or getting more exercise.

Read More

The Health Implications Bf Breast Enlargement

We are living at a time when ladies tend to increase their bustline to look more attractive. But, is this really health? What are some of the effect of breast enlargement?
A major effect of breast enlargement is capsular contracture.Capsular contracture is the hardening of the breast around the implant. It can occur in the tissue surrounding one or both implants. This hardening causes the tissue to tighten, which can be painful.
Capsular contracture may be more common with the following infection, hematoma and seroma.
There are four grades of capsular contracture, known as Baker grades.
Baker Grading Scale

Grade I: Breast is normally soft and looks natural

Grade II: Breast is a little firm but looks normal

Grade III: Breast is firm and looks abnormal

Grade IV: Breast is hard, painful, and looks abnormal

Grades III and IV capsular contracture are considered severe, and may require reoperation. The surgical procedure usually involves removal of the implant with or without replacement of the implant. There is a possibility that capsular contracture could occur again after surgery to correct it.
  Another negative effect of breast enlargement is rupture.Rupture is a tear or hole in the outer shell of the breast implant. When this occurs in a saline breast implant, it deflates, meaning the saltwater (saline) solution leaks from the shell. Silicone gel is thicker than saline, so when a silicone gel-filled implant ruptures, the gel may remain in the shell or in the scar tissue that forms around the implant (intracapsular rupture). The longer you have a breast implant, the greater the chance of implant rupture.
The FDA recommends removing both saline-filled and silicone gel-filled breast implants if they have ruptured.

---

The term rupture is used for all types of breast implants, but the term deflation is only used for saline-filled implants. You and/or your doctor will be able to tell if your saline-filled implant ruptures because the saline solution leaks into your body immediately or over several days. You will notice that your implant loses its original size or shape.

If your silicone gel-filled breast implant ruptures, it is not likely that you or your doctor will immediately notice. Silicone gel is thicker than saline, so when a silicone gel-filled implant ruptures, the gel may remain in the shell or in the scar tissue that forms around the implant (intracapsular rupture).
When a silicone gel-filled implant ruptures, a woman may notice a decrease in breast size, change in breast implant shape, hard lumps over the implant or chest area, an uneven appearance of the breasts, pain or tenderness, tingling, swelling, numbness, burning, or changes in sensation. Ruptures that show symptoms usually happen outside of the capsule. However, some ruptures are called “silent ruptures.”
A “silent rupture” doesn’t change the way an implant looks or feels to a woman because the rupture occurs within the capsule. Silent ruptures are not usually evident by a physical examination by a doctor. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is the most effective method for detecting silent rupture of silicone gel-filled breast implants.

---

---

Some women who undergo breast augmentation can successfully breastfeed and some cannot. Women who undergo mastectomies and then have breast implant reconstruction surgeries may not be able to breastfeed on the affected side due to loss of breast tissue and the glands that produce milk.

---

Read More