A teaspoon of iodine for a lifetime!

The progress of developing countries like Pakistan depends on its nation's potency to a great extent but how can we expect the development in a country where 50 percent of its population is at the risk of iodine deficiency disorders?

By Asma Amin

Iodine insufficiency should not be considered an insignificant problem as it effects on the development of brain, which is much more deadly and constitute a threat to the social and economic advancement of a country. All of us whether a man, a woman, a young, an old, a healthy or an ill, need adequate amount of iodine in our body. Though one-teaspoon iodine is enough for a lifetime, tiny amount is essential on a regular basis, which is equivalent to the nip of pencil as iodine cannot be stored for long periods in the body.

Iodine Deficiency Disorders (IDDs) refers to all the ill effects of iodine deficiency in people that can be prevented by ensuring that citizens have sufficient intake of iodine. Iodine deficiency can cause devastating and irremediable diseases, which can simply be prevented by implicating very easy precautionary measures, i.e. using iodised salt in everyday diet. Despite having such a simple cure, over 50 percent population of Pakistan is at the risk at IDDs. Every second child born in Pakistan is at the danger of getting this disease and every year approximately 21 million children are born mentally retarded. "In our country 22.9 percent school going children and 36.5 percent mothers of children under five are severely iodine deficient," according to National Nutrition Survey 2001-02. Only 17 percent families use iodised salt, which is the lowest among all the countries of South Asia, the survey further reveals. The rest of the households are either ignorant about its need and benefits or they have some wrong perception about its usage. In order to deal with such an extensive issue Universal Salt Iodisation (USI), an easy, cheap and sustainable approach to eliminate IDD, was adopted in 1989-90 through legislation in Pakistan.

Iodine deficiency has long existed in our state and despite the efforts made over past several decades there has been little improvement in the situation. The main reasons for not using iodised salt are its high price, non-availability and rumours about contraceptive effects. Unfortunately, the government has not been successful in ensuring its strict enforcement at all levels. Only two provinces i.e. NWFP and Baluchistan have passed USI legislation but there is no legislation present at the federal level. Due to its absence wholesalers, retailers and salt producers are not stimulated to manufacture and to sell iodised salt only. However, City Council Legislation was passed to increase the production of iodised salt in market by City Government on August 9, 2007. "We visited different towns of Karachi and restricted the shopkeepers to sell iodised salt only," said Shakeel Ahmed, Health Education Officer, City Government. "We have a network of trained lady health workers who visit home to home to make housewives aware of the benefits of iodised salt," he added.

Furthermore, iodine deficiency is the most common reason of mental retardation around the globe. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), its insufficiency has affected billions of people around the world. Not only this, it has damaged the brain of 50 million peoples. Having severe effects on the young generation, pregnant women and lactating mother are also vulnerable to its affects.

It manifests itself in the form of Goitre or hypothyroidism. "Goitre can cause thyroid hormone deficiency. Thyroid gland becomes enlarged in size, which can cause growth retardation in child resulting in slow or no mental development. To avoid iodine deficiency in body people should use iodised salt in their daily diet. Fish and green vegetables are also helpful in this regard," said Dr Yusra, Senior Medical Officer, Sobhraj Maternity Hospital.

Iodine deficiency can cause many detrimental effects on human being that can squander their entire life. It can cause congenital abnormalities, increased neonatal mortality and brain damaged on unborn baby in the mother's womb. Decreased fertility, miscarriages, spontaneous abortions and stillbirths in pregnant women all are the result of iodine deficiency. Goitre and its complications, thyroid deficiency, impaired mental function, retarded mental and physical growth could reduce particularly the cognitive performance of school children as they undergo low IQ level. Pakistan's northern areas Azaad Jammu and Kashmir and NWFP considered the most endemic iodine deficient areas because of heavy rainfalls and floods. Henry Labuoisse, Executive Director, UNICEF once said, "Iodine deficiency is so easy to prevent that it is a crime to let a single child be born mentally handicapped for that reason."

REMEDY & CURE

 If

You are pregnant and wishing for an easy delivery 

Then

"After 37 weeks of pregnancy start doing brisk walk for 20 minutes daily," commented Dr Yusra Sadiq, Senior Medical Officer, Sobhraj Maternity Hospital. "By doing so, the ligaments get relaxed and is helpful in the procedure of delivery," she added. Furthermore, during the nine-month period of pregnancy be regular in your prayers as it will keep you psychologically sound and it's also the belief of Muslims that during labour pains God listens to every prayer of the patient.

Children who sleep less weigh more

Sleep-deprived kids also have more than a three percent increase in body fat on average compared to youngsters who sleep for more than nine hours nightly. But kids' sleep patterns also vary by season and day

"Children who get less than nine hours of sleep a night are more likely to be overweight or obese," new research shows. Sleep-deprived kids also have more than a three percent increase in body fat on average compared to youngsters who sleep for more than nine hours nightly. The researchers also reported that children's sleep patterns vary by season and day. "Children sleep fewer hours in the summer and on weekends," according to the study.

Researchers at the University of Auckland in New Zealand studied the sleep patterns of 591 seven-year-old children using actigraphy -- a movement-based, non-invasive method used to study sleep-wake patterns and circadian rhythms. The children were assessed at birth, at one year of age, at three-and-a-half years and at seven years.

The team found that the children slept 10.1 hours on average. They slept fewer hours on weekend days than on weekdays, in the summer and when bedtime was set as after 9 pm. They also slept fewer hours if they had no younger siblings.

In addition to increased weight and body fat, shorter sleep periods correlated with more emotional volatility, reported the research team.

"Sleep is important for health and well-being throughout life," said lead author Ed Mitchell. "Few studies have objectively measured sleep duration. In this large study of sleep in seven-year-olds, there was considerable variation in duration of sleep. Sleep duration was 40 minutes longer in winter than summer and was 31 minutes longer on weekdays than on the weekend. Short sleep duration was associated with a threefold increased risk of the child being overweight or obese. This effect was independent of physical activity or television watching. Attention to sleep in childhood may be an important strategy to reduce the obesity epidemic."

The American Academy of Sleep Medicine recommends that children in preschool sleep between 11 and 13 hours a night and school-aged children between 10 and 11 hours of sleep a night.

The academy suggested that parents give their children an opportunity to get the recommended amount of sleep by keeping a consistent bedtime routine in a relaxed setting. "Children may also sleep better if they have a parent to relate to before bed, instead of TV or video games. Food, drinks and medicines that contain caffeine are all enemies of sleep," according to the academy.

-- www.msnbc.com

 
Want to evade anxiety?
Be religious!

Religion is the only thing, which can give personal contentment by reducing the influence of material aspects in one's mind

 By Madeline Vann

Religion is the only thing, which can give personal contentment by reducing the influence of material aspects in one's mind. One could get off mental depression by involving himself into religious activities. It's beyond any shadow of doubt that the more religious the less upset the person is because religious person doesn't value the material things. This result in simplicity in one's life makes him a contented human being.

"Women who stop being religiously active are three times more likely to suffer generalised anxiety disorder than women who have always been religiously active," researchers report. In contrast, the researchers found that men who stopped being religiously active were less likely to suffer major depression compared with men who had always been religiously active.

"One's lifetime pattern of religious service attendance can be related to psychiatric illness," study co-author Joanna Maselko said. She is an assistant professor of public health at Temple University. Maselko and her team analysed data from 718 adults who shared details of their religious activity in youth and adulthood. They found that a majority of the respondents changed their level of religious activity between childhood and adulthood.

According to Maselko, the gender differences in the relationship between religious participation and mental health may be tied to social networks. Women are more likely to build them through their religious activities, and then to feel the loss of those networks when they stop attending church, she explained.

Slightly more than one-third of the women reported always being religiously active. Half said that they had not been active since childhood. About seven percent of the women who were always religiously active could be categorised as having generalised anxiety disorder, compared with 21 percent of those who had ended their religious activities.

"People with widespread anxiety disorder experience worries and concerns out of proportion to their daily lives," according to the National Institute of Mental Health.

The disorder is diagnosed if the worries do not abate after six months. "Everyone has some spirituality, whether it is an active part of their life or not; whether they are agnostic or atheist or just 'non-practicing.' These choices potentially have health implications, similar to the way that one's social networks do," Maselko said.

Purifying impurities

Though the main function of kidney is to clean the blood, it also performs several other functions. Failure in keeping it healthy may result in various diseases that can only be preventable if we are able somehow to detect them at their earlier stages. Pakistan being a poor country has high rates of its patients...

By Dr Muhammad
Azharuddin

The main function of kidneys is to clean blood as it passes through many capillaries (small blood vessels) in the kidneys by removing waste products along with water, producing urine. Though kidneys perform several other important functions, it is important to mention that these organs play an important role in the production of red blood cells, and in calcium metabolism, which in turn affects our bones.

Kidney diseases are common and people are often unaware of this until it is too late. These diseases can be broadly divided into two types: acute and chronic. In acute disease the kidney function deteriorates rapidly but with proper and timely management it often returns back to original level. In chronic diseases the kidney function usually deteriorates slowly over a period of months and years. The loss of the kidney function in people with chronic disease is irreversible, and the two most common causes of chronic kidney disease are diabetes and hypertension. Another common cause is the use of certain drugs, especially prolonged use of certain pain-killers. Once the kidney fails completely, the only options we have are dialysis or kidney transplant in order to survive.

Patients with kidney disease may develop non-specific symptoms like generalised weakness, lethargy, increased sleep, poor appetite, nausea and vomiting and/or decreased urine output, shortness of breath, facial and dependent edema (swelling), and frothy urine. Further, protein and/or blood are usually found in urine on examination. Anyone who develops these symptoms should see a doctor and make sure that his or her kidneys are functioning normally.

Acute kidney diseases can affect anyone though certainly elderly people and others with compromised kidney function are at a higher risk. Among the major culprits of acute kidney disease are dehydration due to decreased fluid intake or rapid losses of fluid as in severe diarrhoea or vomiting, rapid loss of blood, and the use of certain medications. Decreased fluid intake is an important cause for development of kidney disease in those who are physically dependent on others, like small children, the elderly, severely handicapped or bed-ridden patients.

It is therefore very important to ensure adequate fluid intake in susceptible populations. People with severe vomiting and diarrhoea should also see a physician for treatment and possible intravenous replenishment of fluids. Elderly people and those with known kidney disease should if possible avoid medications that could further hurt their kidney function.

Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is associated with a high rate of health related complications as well as of mortality. It is also a huge financial burden on the patient, their family and society. The several key risk factors for CKD include diabetes, high blood pressure, family history of chronic kidney disease, older age and ethnicity. Compared to certain other ethnicities like African Americans and American Indians, studies have found a higher prevalence of CKD in the South-East Asian population.

The presence of protein, or of blood in urine are considered as markers of kidney disease and urinary protein has also been shown to be a major risk factor in the development of cardiovascular disease. Reduction in the amount of protein in urine has been shown to result in delay or improvement in kidney disease. Pakistan is a poor country and a significant majority of our population is unable to afford treatment especially when it comes to dialysis or transplantation.

Prevention of kidney diseases is possible only if we are able somehow to detect the disease at its earlier stages. At present, urinary analysis for protein, or blood in urine are considered as the screening tools for kidney disease detection. However, it is not possible and obviously quite expensive to screen everyone in the country. Therefore at least those in high-risk groups should be periodically evaluated for the possibility of protein or blood in urine. The presence of one or more of diabetes, hypertension, obesity, smoking, family history of diabetes or hypertension have been associated with kidney disease.

It would be commendable if the government or other concerned authority in poor countries like Pakistan can come up with a mechanism to identify the risk factors for chronic diseases and implement screening and treatment programmes for the high risk population that would reduce this huge financial burden.

Health update
Biotechnology builds a new heart

An organ-building biotechnology that could create transplantable hearts using stem cells from the recipients themselves has passed important laboratory tests, researchers report. The technique, called whole organ decellularisation, has been used to create functioning heart tissue by a team at the University of Minnesota Center for Cardiovascular Repair. "What the scientists did first was to use detergents and other chemicals to wash out all the old heart cells from rat and pig hearts," explained lead investigator Doris Taylor, who is director of the center. What was left was a scaffold of tubes that once were the organ's blood vessels. Stem cells were then injected into that scaffold, where they were supplied with nutrients that allowed them to grow to create a new organ. Within eight days, the hearts were pumping. "The basic technology is not new," Taylor said. "It is being used to create many of the heart valves that are implanted in current operations. However, heart valves are relatively small," she added.

HIV finding could lead to new drugs

The AIDS virus has to hijack human proteins to do its damage, but scientists until now have known only a few dozen of its targets. Harvard researchers unveiled a surprisingly longer list, an important first step in the hunt for new drugs. HIV is on its face a simple virus, consisting of just nine genes. Yet it makes up for that bare-bones structure in a sinister and complex way - by literally taking over the cellular machinery of its victims so it can multiply and then destroy. The proteins it exploits have been dubbed HIV dependency factors, and 36 had been discovered. The new research found 273 of these potential HIV targets. Led by geneticist Stephen Elledge of Brigham and Women's Hospital, the team used a technique called RNA interference that can disrupt a gene's ability to do its job and make a protein.