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A study in Australia, one of the first countries to introduce the HPV (human papilloma virus) vaccination for treating cervical cancer, has shown a drop in high-grade cervical abnormalities – changes to the cells in the neck of the womb that can be the precursor to cancer.

The nationwide vaccination programs are likely to cut the numbers who get the disease.

From Guardian.co.uk:

While it will take many years to find out whether vaccination programmes definitely reduce the numbers of cervical cancers in the population, Australian scientists were able to analyse the results from their screening programme to find out whether there has been any drop in the number of young women with abnormal cell changes that are the precursor of cancer.

Publishing in the Lancet medical journal, they report that the proportion of girls aged 17 and younger with high-grade abnormalities fell by almost half, from 0.80% to 0.42%.

But there was no drop in the numbers of women with cervical abnormalities who were older than 17. This is unsurprising since the vaccine is known to be most effective if given to girls before they become sexually active.

That finding, say the authors, “reinforces the appropriateness of the targeting of prophylactic HPV vaccines to pre-adolescent girls”.

Michael Quinn, professor of gynaecology and gynaecologic oncology at the University of Melbourne, said: “The study is the first anywhere in the world to show falling rates of high-grade change in very young women.

“Although this is likely to be due to the effects of the vaccination programme, further analysis of information linking women’s smear history to their vaccination history will be needed to prove that the fall is entirely due to vaccination rather than other factors.”

In this YouTube video, the host talks about some of the benefits of drinking eight glasses of water a day. This video on good health is a must-see for every one and we must all should develop the habit of consuming at least 8-10 glasses of water a day to maintain high standards of well being and draining out impurities from the body.

A group of patients with common but incurable eye diseases that could result in blindness are to have cells injected into their eyes in two groundbreaking trials of a therapy that may heal the damage wrought by the conditions.

Doctors have drawn up plans for treating the first of 24 patients, who have been recruited to the trials, starting in July, at the Jules Stein Eye Institute, at the University of California, Los Angeles.

From Guardian.co.uk:

The medical teams hope to slow, halt or even reverse the effects of the diseases by injecting healthy retinal cells into the eye. . The treatment is controversial because the replacement retinal cells – known as RPE, or retinal pigment epithelial cells –are derived from human embryonic stem cells.

The announcement of the trials is a landmark for the Massachusetts-based company Advanced Cell Technology, which has been developing the therapy for 10 years.

In one trial the treatment will be given to a dozen patients with an eye disorder called dry age-related macular degeneration (dry AMD). The second trial will focus on the same number of patients with the condition known as Stargardt’s macular dystrophy, which typically strikes younger people, aged 10 to 20.

The early-stage trials will focus on the safety of the therapy, which will be assessed by doctors over 12 months. The patients in each trial will be split into four groups of three individuals, with each group receiving a different number of cells in the treatment.

“We hope that these cells will, in the future, provide a treatment not only for these two untreatable diseases, Stargardt’s disease and macular degeneration, but for patients suffering from a range of other debilitating eye diseases,” said Robert Lanza, ACT’s chief scientific officer.

If there is no better reason in your life than to stay ahead of the rest, these motivational quotations will help you realize all dreams and goals in quick time.

Look to your health; and if you have it, praise God and value it next to conscience; for health is the second blessing that we mortals are capable of, a blessing money can’t buy. – Izaak Walton (1593 – 1683)

Health consists of having the same diseases as one’s neighbors. – Quentin Crisp

It is amazing how much crisper the general experience of life becomes when your body is given a chance to develop a little strength. – Frank Duff, A Coder in Courierland, 03-20-05

What some call health, if purchased by perpetual anxiety about diet, isn’t much better than tedious disease. – George Dennison Prentice

Health is not simply the absence of sickness. – Hannah Green

A wise man should consider that health is the greatest of human blessings, and learn how by his own thought to derive benefit from his illnesses. – Hippocrates (460 BC – 377 BC), Regimen in Health

Getting my lifelong weight struggle under control has come from a process of treating myself as well as I treat others in every way. – Oprah Winfrey (1954 – ), O Magazine, August 2004

A vigorous five-mile walk will do more good for an unhappy but otherwise healthy adult than all the medicine and psychology in the world. – Paul Dudley White

Pain (any pain–emotional, physical, mental) has a message. The information it has about our life can be remarkably specific, but it usually falls into one of two categories: “We would be more alive if we did more of this,” and, “Life would be more lovely if we did less of that.” Once we get the pain’s message, and follow its advice, the pain goes away. – Peter McWilliams, Life 101

The more severe the pain or illness, the more severe will be the necessary changes. These may involve breaking bad habits, or acquiring some new and better ones. – Peter McWilliams, Life 101

Rejecting a U.S. plan that had called for a five-year delay, health ministers from around the world recently agreed to put off setting a deadline to destroy the last known stockpiles of the smallpox virus for three more years.

The 193-nation World Health Assembly agreed by consensus, after two days of heated debate, to a compromise that calls for another review in 2014.

From news.yahoo.com:

The United States had proposed a five-year extension to destroying the U.S. and Russian stockpiles, arguing that more research is needed and the stockpiles could help prevent one of the world’s deadliest diseases from being used as a biological weapon.

But other ministers at the decision-making assembly of the World Health Organization said they saw little reason to retain the stockpiles, and objected to the delay in destroying them.

Dr. Nils Daulaire, head of the U.S. Office of Global Health Affairs and the chief American delegate to the assembly, expressed some disappointment but said the compromise was satisfactory.

“Three years is a reasonable time period in terms of the next review,” he told reporters. “Obviously during that time period, we expect there will be meaningful progress in the research on anti-virals and vaccines and diagnostics.”

The assembly declared smallpox officially eradicated in 1980, and the U.N. health agency has been discussing whether to destroy the virus since 1986.

The assembly “strongly reaffirmed the decision of previous assemblies that the remaining stock of smallpox (variola) virus should be destroyed when crucial research based on the virus has been completed,” as per WHO officials.

The World Health Organization (WHO) recently said mobile phone users should limit their use as it may lead to cancer.

The health agency of the United Nations advised ‘pragmatic’ measures for reducing exposure, such as using hands-free kits and texting instead of calling.

From Dailymail.co.uk:

The disturbing report marks the first time the WHO has linked mobiles with cancer, and follows earlier research linking just half an hour’s use a day with up to 40 per cent higher odds of brain cancer.

However the mobile phone industry was quick to point out that the devices had not been directly shown to cause cancer.

More than 70million mobile phones are now in use in Britain – more than one for every man, woman and child. Worldwide, the total tops five billion.

Dr Christopher Wild, director of the WHO’s International Agency for Research on Cancer, said: ‘Given the potential consequences for public health, it is important that additional research be conducted into the long-term, heavy use of mobile phones.

Dr Jonathan Samet, chairman of the working group, remarked that while the evidence is still accumulating, it is still strong enough to support the classification.

In this YouTube video on healthy living, Lori Gregory talks about three easy steps for building your immunity by keeping the gut healthy in this segment of healthy living. The ease and message of this video by Gregory is surely a treat for health and fitness conscious people across the world.

A warning has been issued by researchers saying that children who smoke cannabis before their 15th birthday perform much worse in mental tests than those who start such use at a later age.

It was found by a study of chronic cannabis users that those who started in their early teens struggled with a range of neuropsychological tasks.

From Dailymail.co.uk:

The findings add to growing evidence that the drug damages the developing brain, with greater harm caused by early exposure.

Marijuana is the most common illicit drug among adolescents in the UK with more than four in ten admitting having taken it.

Research carried out at the Federal University of Sao Paulo in Brazil looked at the mental functioning of 100 cannabis users after around ten years of consistent use, and almost 50 non-users.

The study was published in the British Journal of Psychiatry.