Swine flue : Immunity developer: household medicine

Following are the best household Swine flue fighters and immunity
developers:
1. Tulsi and Bilwa kadha:
Add 60 leafs of Tulsi, 30 leafs of Bilwa patra and 10 Kaali mirch to 4
liters of water.
Boil the water (without covering it) for 30 minutes.
Cool down this water and drink the same throughout the day.
2. Heat the milk and turmeric powder. Drink it before you go to bed.
3. Homeopathic medicine 'Arsenic' power 6 helps fighting Flue viruses -
CONSULT HOMEOPATHY DOCTOR BEFORE BUYING THIS MEDICINE.
****
4. Kapalbhati and Bhastrika pranayamas are natural immunity developers
against any viral infection.

All these medicines can be given to all age groups. Specially small kids
as they may be infected earlier.


Prevention is always better than cure.

Blood test can alert you to lung cancer

TORONTO: Lung cancer may now be detected early with a simple blood test, doing away with the need for invasive biopsies, according to new study by an Indian American.

"These findings suggest that lung cancers interact with circulating white blood cells and change the types of genes that are active in these cells," explained Anil Vachani of the University of Pennsylvania.

"We found that the types of genes present in these cells could tell us whether or not cancer was present," he added.

The finding can be potentially used to develop a non-invasive diagnostic and painless test for patients suspected of having lung cancer, he noted.

The possibility of developing such a test to differentiate between cancerous and benign lesions has enormous implications for the world of medicine and those awaiting conclusive biopsy results after preliminary testing.

"CT screening results in the detection of lung nodules in 20 to 60 per cent of subjects," said Vachani.

"This high false-positive rate requires patients to undergo extensive follow-up investigations, such as serial CT scans, PET scans or biopsies. This test may be able to obviate the need for such things if it is developed into a large-scale diagnostic tool."

Lung cancer is a very diverse disease, and screening for it can be very difficult. Vachani hoped to identify a stable and consistent way of determining the presence of lung cancer by testing for the gene expression of white blood cells.

Rather than screening for factors released by the tumour into the blood stream, the test Vachani used looked at gene expression in the subject's own circulating white blood cells.

To test the accuracy of the method, the researchers studied 44 patients with early stage lung cancer and 52 control subjects who were matched for age, smoking status, gender and race.

They then used a number of genetic arrays to determine the best targets for detecting the presence of cancer. They found that a 15-gene array had the highest accuracy, at 87 per cent.

"If our results are encouraging, we would like to test this in a prospective clinical trial," Vachani said.

Findings of the study were unveiled on Tuesday at the American Thoracic Society's International Conference here.

Bananas prevent HIV infection

Bananas prevent HIV infection

Chemicals found in bananas are better at preventing HIV than two current synthetic anti-HIV drugs, according to new study.

A banana a day to keep HIV away?Your favorite oblong fruit might be even healthier than you realized. According to The Gazette (Montreal) newspaper, a new study has found that chemicals commonly found in bananas are as potent in preventing HIV as two synthetic anti-HIV drugs. Researchers say the findings could lead to a cheap new component for applied microbicides that prevent sexual transmission of HIV.

The miracle substance in bananas is called BanLec, a type of lectin, which are the sugar-binding proteins found in a variety of plants. Scientists have long been interested in lectins because of their ability to halt the chain reaction that leads to certain viral infections. In the case of BanLec, it works by binding naturally to the sugar-rich envelope that encases the HIV virus, thus blocking its entry into the body.



"The problem with some HIV drugs is that the virus can mutate and become resistant, but that's much harder to do in the presence of lectins," said lead author Michael D. Swanson. "Lectins can bind to the sugars found on different spots of the HIV-1 envelope, and presumably it will take multiple mutations for the virus to get around them."

Swanson and his colleagues noted that even modest success in developing BanLec into a vaginal or anal microbicide could save millions of lives. In fact, 20 percent coverage with a microbicide that is only 60 percent effective against HIV may prevent up to 2.5 million HIV infections in three years. Furthermore, a BanLec ointment would be much cheaper to produce and distribute than most current anti-retroviral medications that require the production of synthetic components.

One thing's for sure: new ways of stopping the transmission of HIV are desperately needed. Condoms are effective, but they are often used incorrectly or inconsistently, and in many cultures and developing countries women are not always in control of their sexual encounters. The introduction of a cheap, long-lasting, self-applied ointment derived naturally from bananas could change all of that.