A Happy 2014

A Very Happy New Year To All My Friends 

Happy New Year to all.......I just want to wish everyone that in this coming new year, just give thanks to God for sending us in His beautiful world and letting us experiencing, exploring, discovering and appreciating all the beautiful creatures He created for us and just love yourself, love people and just love the world, feel the beauty in every moment and believe that love will heal all our sorrows and illness.Be intuitive. And hope the coming year is going to be a peaceful journey for all of you. Flow with the exciting world of science, and friends always stay healthy, passionate and keep blogging.

Oral Insulin For The First Time Will Be A Reality

Merry Christmas : Santa's Gift - News Of Oral Insulin 

"Dashing through the snow            
In a one horse open sleigh
O'er the fields we go
Laughing all the way
Bells on bob tails ring
Making spirits bright
What fun it is to laugh and sing
A sleighing song tonight
Oh, jingle bells, jingle bells
Jingle all the way
Oh, what fun it is to ride
In a one horse open sleigh
Jingle bells, jingle bells
Jingle all the way                                                                                     Hellofriends.A Merry Christmas to all.Christmas festival is for giving gifts
Oh, what fun it is to ride              to friends and family and a family - friend get together. And who forgets 
In a one horse open sleigh           about the Christmas cakes on this winter occasion specially when friends 

                                                  and family are getting together. Fruit cakes decorated with cherries and 

A day or two ago                       strawberries, yummy creams, and cakes essenced with cardamom and
I thought I'd take a ride               cinnamon flavors, spiced with dates, nuts, etc. Chocolates and ice -
And soon Miss Fanny Bright       creams are always the complementary foods in occasions. But sadly,
Was seated by my side               many people, people with diabetes mellitus, are deprived of
The horse was lean and lank        this enjoying part of any occasion actually. But they may enjoy a little
Misfortune seemed his lot            of it that also with the pain of injecting insulin two times a day.
We got into a drifted bank           I have seen people wishing if oral insulin were there including myself for my
And then we got upsot                grandmother and my late father who suffered from this disease, and still
                                                  many waiting with hope for an oral one. 

        

                                                   Diabetes is a disease where the body either does not make enough insulin Oh, jingle bells, jingle bells           ( type I diabetes mellitus ) or the insulin produced cannot be used by the 

Jingle all the way                         body properly ( type II diabetes mellitus ). Insulin is a hormone that makes
Oh, what fun it is to ride              blood glucose or blood sugar get absorbed into body cells and provide
In a one horse open sleigh           them with energy. Diabetes leads the glucose to remain in the blood
Jingle bells, jingle bells                 which further leads to lots of serious health problems including death.
Jingle all the way
Oh, what fun it is to ride              

In a one horse open sleigh yeah      

Jingle bells, jingle bells
Jingle all the way
Oh, what fun it is to ride
In a one horse open sleigh
Jingle bells, jingle bells
Jingle all the way
Oh, what fun it is to ride
In a one horse open sleigh"

But I think, this Christmas Santa is going to bring such a gift to all of us from God, which will put an end to our waiting for the day when people may get rid of the painful insulin intake, rather they will take insulin like all other random oral medications. So friends, here we go with Snata's Christmass groundbreaking breakthrough news in medical science of an " insulin pill " ( oral insulin ), first time in medical science.

Oral insulin is being tried to be made since the 1930s, but for two main reasons this has not been a reality for all these past years.

1. Insulin being a protein, when comes in contact with stomach enzymes after oral ingestion, it gets destroyed and absorption is not enough to get the desired plasma insulin concentration.

2.Insulin is a quiet big molecule ( about 30 times the size of an aspirin molecule ) to be absorbed into the bloodstream to exert its effect.

To overcome these two obstacles in developing an effective insulin pill, some Indian scientists

1.Enclosed or packed the insulin in tiny sacs made of lipids or fats called liposomes.

2.Then these liposomes were wrapped in protective layers called the poly - electrolytes.

3.Then, finally to help these two layered insulin to get absorbed into the bloodstream properly, they attached a kind of vitamin B, folic acid ( Vitamin B9 ). This vitamin has shown to help the transport of liposomes across the intestinal wall into the blood stream.

The lipids used in the pills are cheaper and have successfully been used to deliver many medicines previously. These lipids protect the insulin from stomach enzymes and carry the insulin to the intestine where they get absorbed successfully. When the lipid - covered tiny sacs enter the small intestine, special cells on its lining called microfold cells get attracted to the folic acid in them. The folic acid helps activate a transport mechanism that let big molecules pass through the intestinal wall into the blood stream. A safe amount of folic acid is used in making these insulin pills.

In studies with rats, these insulin pills lowered blood glucose levels as much as an injected insulin.

But the most amazing news about these insulin pills is that, the effect of an insulin injection lasted only for 6 to 8 hours requiring another injection dose shortly within, but the effect of an insulin pill lasted for more than 18 hours. Is not that just amazing friends!

Another advantage is that, oral insulin like the naturally secreted insulin from pancreas goes to the liver first before reaching the blood stream, but injected insulin directly leads the insulin to the blood, which is not quiet natural for the body.

But till it has entered the phase II clinical trial, the most advanced phase reached by any oral insulin idea so far. After this miraculous innovation successfully completes its clinical trials on human volunteers, people around the world with diabetes will no more have to bear the pain of injecting insulin and carrying the insulin kit with them where ever they travels.

So dear friends, this discovery will reduce a lot of pain bared by the diabetic patients all around the world.The lives of these patients will never be the same any more. And we should really be grateful and give humble thanks to the scientists who worked so hard, night and day behind this discovery. May God bless them.

Hoping that reaching my post on this Christmas eve, will make your Christmas celebration even more joyous, I am saying good bye today. And definitely do not forget to pass on this great discovery  and joy to your friends and family. Once again wish you all a Merry Christmas and do not forget to stay healthy, passionate and keep blogging.

Moth Ball Use Is Dangerous For Health

Moth balls! After looking at these two words, some of you will say, " yuk, I hate them", while some of you will jump out to say, " Oh! I love the odor they carry". Even I myself love their odor and love to use them as an air freshener in my room, but very unluckily got in a restriction on their use. Once I used to scatter them all around in my room, in between clothes, on my bookshelf, in almirahs, on cupboards, on my study table corners, etc and in some more places in my room.
But, when I repeatedly found my hemoglobin level to fall to 8 mg / dl associated with dizziness, I suddenly and actually luckily found a link of anemia with moth balls.Which said that, moth balls contain naphthalene or paradichlorobenzene alone or a combination of both, which are highly linked to hemolytic anemia and risk of kidney and liver damage. 

On the other hand, initially me and my doctor was little shaken by such a sudden fall in my Hb level despite of a continuous good diet habit. And we assumed that it might be due to thalassemia ( minor ) which I have, but even that actually did not make any sense. So, when I went through the link details, and some more articles relating this I came to suspect and was almost sure that these moth balls were actually causing the Hb level to fall and I was so thank full to God that I  found the link at exactly the right time, and immediately I stopped the use of the moth balls, and also warned the known ones about their health hazards.

Moth balls are composed approximately of 100% active ingredients, either naphthalene or paradichlorobenzene alone or a combination of both of them.These two are highly toxic active ingredients and are actually toxic pesticides.They are fumigants, that is, they slowly turn from solids to a toxic vapor. So inhalation of the moth balls would actually mean the inhalation of pesticides. 

Moth balls to have their effects on insects and moths must be in high concentration in the air, and this is the main fact that is causing harm to human health too. So, friends, let us look at the health hazards that these moth balls have to provide us :

Health Hazards Due To Naphthalene In Moth Balls :             

1. Headache
2.Nausea
3.Dizziness
4.Respiratory Distress ( Difficulty Breathing )
5.Exposure to large amounts of naphthalene can destroy the red blood cells, called hemolytic anemia and the symptoms include :

       a) Fatigue
       b) Lack of appetite
       c) Restlessness
       d) Pale skin
       e) Fever
6.Blood in urine ( Naphthalene poisoning can be detected by this symptom )
7. Vomitting
8. Diarrrhea
9.Yellow color to the skin
Affect :
10. Liver
11. Kidney
12. Nervous system

Health Hazards Due To Paradichlorobenzene In Moth Balls : 

1.Nausea
2.Vomitting
3.Dizziness
4.Headache
5.Eye and nasal passage irritation
6.Dermal irritation
7.Kidney damage
8.Liver damage

Most threateningly, these chemicals in moth balls are considered as carcinogenic, that is cancer growth stimulants. 

Mostly, babies and children are at most risk from the chemicals present in the moth balls leading to hemolytic anemia, because babies cannot excrete the byproducts made by the moth ball chemicals. Children with the hereditary glucose - 6 - phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD ) deficiency are at the highest risk.

If someone ingests a moth ball, death may result, including pet and children.So if someone ingests moth ball, immediately call the poison center in your nearby town. Moth balls are seen to kill birds in the garden.

The chemicals in moth balls enter the body through inhalation or through the skin.
 

Initially moth balls were developed to prevent moths from nesting and feeding on woolen clothes and other clothes kept in a closet. But its use has been expanded by some people by sprinkling them inside and outside their homes to keep rodents and snakes away. But the use of moth balls for such purposes is unnecessary, simply harming the health of humans.But surprisingly, the manufacturer does not mention any of these health hazards from use of moth balls.

So, guys, if any one of you reading my post today or at some other time, stop the use of moth balls immediately. Some people have the habit of sniffing moth balls, please stop doing so immediately. As I myself was affected by use of moth balls leading to low levels of blood hemoglobin.

So friends, today by my post I tried helping you people by informing about the health hazards of extensive use of moth balls. Their use seems really health threatening. If you have any questions about this post please ask.I hope you are all going to be well concerned about the use of moth balls and not going to be any late stopping their use if you earlier have found my post.

So, for today I am saying goodbye to all. And of course till my next post I hope you all will stay healthy and passionate, and keep visiting our blog.




 

Thalassemia- Tied For Life (Part 2)

Hello friends, hope you all are fine and joyful. At start, thank you very much to all of you for appreciating and commenting in my post and also for sharing your thoughts with me. After seeing you excitement and respond, today I am so much happy right now writing the second and the last part of my last topic’s post. As I told you in my last post, today I am going to finish this topic with more informative things. So, without extending and taking more time with the beginning part, here is the final part of the last topic.

 

Symptoms of thalassemia:

Symptoms of thalassemia depend on the number of genes affected and can range from no symptoms at all to severe anemia.

The primary symptoms of thalassemia are a result of anemia, a decreased number of healthy red blood cells. The following are the most common symptoms of anemia. However, each people may experience symptoms differently. The symptoms may include, but are not limited to, the following:

• pale skin, lips, hands or under the eyelids
• increased heart rate (tachycardia)
• breathlessness, or difficulty catching a breath (dyspnea)
• lack of energy, or tiring easily (fatigue)
• dizziness or vertigo, especially upon standing
• headache
• irritability
• irregular menstruation cycles
• absent or delayed menstruation (amenorrhea)
• jaundice, or yellowing of skin, eyes, and mouth
• enlarged spleen or liver (splenomegaly, hepatomegaly)
• slow or delayed growth and development

Patients who carry a single thalassemia gene are said to have “thalassemia trait.” These patients are generally healthy and do not require any treatment.

Thalassemia intermediate causes less severe symptoms than thalassemia major. This can make it difficult to diagnose because it may resemble other forms of anemia.

Thalassemia major causes the most severe anemia and requires ongoing treatment and regular blood transfusions.

Complications:

• Iron overload: People with thalassemia can get an overload of iron in their bodies, either from the disease itself or from frequent blood transfusions. Too much iron can result in damage to the heart, liver and endocrine system, which includes glands that produce hormones that regulate processes throughout the body. The damage is characterized by excessive deposits of iron. Without adequate iron chelation therapy, almost all patients with beta-thalassemia will accumulate potentially fatal iron levels.
• Infection: People with thalassemia have an increased risk of infection. This is especially true if the spleen has been removed.
• Bone deformities: Thalassemia can make the bone marrow expand, which causes bones to widen. This can result in abnormal bone structure, especially in the face and skull. Bone marrow expansion also makes bones thin and brittle, increasing the risk of broken bones.  
• Enlarge spleen: The spleen aids in fighting infection and filters unwanted material, such as old or damaged blood cells. Thalassemia is often accompanied by the destruction of a large number of red blood cells and the task of removing these cells causes the spleen to enlarge. Splenomegaly can make anemia worse, and it can reduce the life of transfused red blood cells. Severe enlargement of the spleen may necessitate its removal.
• Slowed growth rates: Anemia can cause a child's growth to slow. Puberty also may be delayed in children with thalassemia.
• Heart problems: such as congestive heart failure and abnormal heart rhythms (arrhythmias), may be associated with severe thalassemia.

How serious is it?

Thalassemia major requires ongoing treatment and blood transfusions throughout their lives. In addition, they need ongoing chelation therapy to remove excess iron in the blood that builds up from these transfusions. Milder forms of thalassemia, including thalassemia intermediate and thalassemia minor, require less aggressive treatment or no treatment at all.

                      

Treatment:

Regular blood transfusions allow patients with thalassemia to grow normally and be active. Unfortunately, transfusions result in deadly accumulation of iron in the heart and liver. If the excess iron is not removed then the patients may suffer from a premature death due to iron overload.

Nowadays, drugs designed to remove excess iron (iron chelators) have significantly changed the prognosis of thalassemia. Patients can grow and develop normally, with relatively normal heart and liver functions. Patients are living longer and having families of their own. Medical advances continue and promise to improve the life expectancy and quality of life further for those living with thalassemia.

Current treatments allow thalassemia patients to live relatively normal life, however, a cure remains to be found. And as I always believe and always will that there is still presents of A HOPE which keeps us alive and make us to believe that we can do anything. Like this-

Some Chinese doctors have discovered a new mutant gene for alpha-thalassemia, first of its kind, an advance that enriches the gene database to assist researches into cures for the genetic disease.

  The mutant gene was identified by the end of 2012 before it was added to the Gene Bank database in the US-based National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) and made public on October 1, 2013.

There is no effective cure for alpha-thalassemia, and the discovery of the new mutation will help prevention and research into the disease while preparing theoretical basis for future gene therapy.

How can we prevent Thalassemia?

Please share the information with others. Show it to your family, friends, neighbors, co-workers or anyone who has origins from areas where thalassemia is common. Be sure to ask your doctor to test you for thalassemia minor. Increased awareness is the key, please do your part by spreading the words.

So friend, hope you like the final part of my post. As the way you share your thoughts and comments last time, hope you shall do that all the time. Keep sharing your thoughts, topics you want to understand perfectly, questions or anything about pharmacy and medical science. Till then stay healthy, be passionate, of course do not forget to keep blogging and share our blog to your friends.