Sleepy head?

Monday 21 October 2013

Islamabad, Oct 22 (Newswire):, Sleep is one of the most essential and relaxing ways for the body to recuperate.

Unfortunately, some people have trouble sleeping due to various causes and as a result of sleep deprivation; the individual becomes vulnerable to several illnesses. This inability to sleep is termed insomnia.

Insomnia includes a general dissatisfaction about one's quality of sleep, or about sleep being delayed at night or shortened in the morning.

The good news is that there are several psychological strategies that have been evaluated as potentially useful treatments for insomnia.

These behavioural techniques can be effective alternatives to many sleep inducing drugs that have addictive properties and other side effects. Read on to know some useful strategies to get that essential good night's rest.

It is essential to abide by these principles for several weeks to establish an efficient and regular sleep-wake pattern. Insomnia is secondary to many psychological disorders, and a diagnosis and management of this primary condition by a trained mental health professional is absolutely necessary to resolve insomnia.

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Soybeans no longer 'a musical fruit?'

slamabad, Oct 22 (Newswire): Soybeans may drop off the list of musical fruit. Scientists in Singapore are reporting victory over some consumers' No. 1 complaint about soy products — the "flatulence factor" caused by indigestible sugars found in soy.

Scientists have now developed a method for significantly reducing the amount of flatulence-causing carbohydrates in soy yogurt while raising the levels of healthy antioxidants known as isoflavones.

In the study, Dejian Huang and colleagues note that soy yogurt has a global market share of only 1.9 percent, even though it has a number of health advantages over dairy-based yogurt. That's partly because of the flatulence-causing compounds in soy.

"It would be desirable to remove the flatulence-causing raffinose and stachyose from the soy yogurt to improve consumers' preferences. The objective of this study was to develop a new soy yogurt enriched with isoflavones with reduced levels of flatulence-causing oligosaccharides," the scientists said.

The researchers grew soybeans in the presence of a fungus that produced enzymes capable of degrading the undesired sugars.

"We have demonstrated for the first time that germinated black soybeans under fungal stress can be fermented into a soy yogurt which features a low amount of flatulence-causing oligosaccharides but with a significant level of isoflavones," says Huang.

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Cataract surgery saves lives, dollars by reducing auto crashes, research finds

Islamabad, Oct 22 (Newswire): Cataract surgery not only improves vision and quality of life for older people, but is also apparently a way to reduce the number of car crashes.

The research is being presented at the Scientific Program of the 2010 American Academy of Ophthalmology (AAO) -- Middle East-Africa Council of Ophthalmology (MEACO) Joint Meeting.

There's no question that good vision is essential to avoiding auto crashes. But what's the actual impact of a common, vision-improving treatment like cataract removal on crash rates?

And is it significant enough that health systems should make sure people don't wait months between cataract diagnosis and surgery? To answer these questions researcher Jonathon Ng, MD, studied accident rates for Western Australian residents before and after cataract surgery on the first eye.

Cataract-when the eye's crystalline lens becomes clouded and hardens-is the leading cause of vision impairment in older people. By age 60 many people have some lens opacity, and by 70 nearly all have cataract in one or both eyes. Surgical removal of cataract followed by implantation of intraocular lenses dramatically improves vision for most patients.

In Dr. Ng's study, 27,827 patients who had a cataract removed from one eye between 1997 and 2006 were included. Patient records were linked to the Western Australian Road Injury Database to identify those involved in a motor vehicle crash 12 months prior to and 12 months following their surgery dates. All patients were aged 60+ years. The majority of patients involved in crashes were males aged 70-79 who lived in metropolitan areas. Dr. Ng's research colleagues were based at Curtin University and the Eye & Vision Epidemiology Research Group.

"We found cataract surgery reduced the frequency of all crashes by 12.6% after accounting for other potential confounders, " Dr. Ng said, "and the cost savings from this reduction amounted to AUD $4.3 million. Each operation saved about $150 in crash costs. By including all crashes rather than just fatal and hospitalization crashes, all possible benefits of cataract surgery were taken into account."

In Australia and other countries, people often have to wait weeks or months to receive surgery after cataract is diagnosed.

This study argues that this delay significantly impacts not only patients' quality of life, but public safety and healthcare, and property costs. The authors say research is needed to compare crash rates before and after cataract surgery on patients' second eyes.

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