Heredity: Stomach ulcers pass on from parents to offspring

March 31, 2008
By Syed Akbar
Stomach ulcers caused by the notorious germ that lives in the belly, Helicobacter pylori, are hereditary in nature. If parents suffer from gastric ulcers there's every likelihood of their children too inheriting the trouble.
The Centre for Liver Research and Diagnostics, Hyderabad, headed by eminent gastroenterologist Dr CM Habeebullah, has found that Helicobacter pylori transmits from parents to children. Both environmental and hereditary routes are suggested for the transmission from one generation to another in the family.
Says Dr Khaja Shakeel Ahmad of CLRD, "there's a relation between a history of ulcer and Helicobacter pylori infection in his or her family. This shows genetic factors play a role. The transmission is also due to common environmental factors that influence susceptibility to infection".
Helicobacter pylori infection is present in almost all patients with duodenal ulcers and gastric ulcers. The pathogenic role of Helicobacter pylori in peptic ulcer disease is well known. Up to 95 per cent of patients with duodenal ulcers, and 80 per cent of patients with gastric ulcers suffer from this infection.
The CLRD study was carried out in South Indian population, which is at high risk of stomach cancer. "We assessed the relationship between subjects with a history of gastric or duodenal ulcer and the risk of infection in their offspring with the help of
PCR assay targeting the 16S rRNA gene. The 16S rRNA gene is a highly specific target for amplification and has been previously of help in reclassifying the organism," Dr Khaja Shakeel Ahmad said.
The CLRD team interviewed the subjects referred to for upper gastrointestinal endoscopy at Deccan College of Medical Sciences and Research Center, Hyderabad, to find out whether their mother or father had been referred for endoscopy with the same symptoms or any history of ulcer.
The questionnaire sought details on risk factors for Helicobacter pylori infection, such as housing conditions, family demographics and socio-economic factors. "By 16S rRNA amplification, the status of Helicobacter pylori was confirmed," he said.
As many as 160 patients were enrolled in the study, of which 70 reported a parental history of ulcer, and 90 were without any history of ulcer. Of the 70 patients 14.2 per cent were Helicobacter pylori negative and 85.7 per cent were positive. In those with no family history of ulcer, the prevalence of the bacteria was 80 per cent and 20 per cent negative.
"The results propose the hypotheses that the transmission of Helicobacter may be influenced by the presence of ulcer or that the bacterial strains causing peptic ulcer may be more infective than other strains as published in earlier studies. This may be because of the relation between a history of ulcer and Helicobacter pylori infection in his or her family or due to common environmental or genetic factors that influence susceptibility to infection," he said.
Dr Khaja attributed the high prevalence of Helicobacter pylori infection in subjects with no family history of ulcer to their living conditions, socio-economic factors and cultural background.

Indians are less sensitive to touch

March 26, 2008
By Syed Akbar
Hyderabad, March 25: Indians are less sensitive to touch than other populations in the world.
The touch sensibility thresholds recorded in a large group of Indians, particularly from Hyderabad, are higher than that reported from Westerners. A research study conducted by the clinical and epidemiology division of Blue Peter Research Centre, LEPRA Society, Hyderabad, showed that the touch threshold values of Indians were, however, closer to reports from Asia.
Indians show a tendency to increased loss of touch sensibility as they age. "Touch sensibility testing is a cost-effective, psycho-physical measure of peripheral nerve function and impairment. However, there is limited information regarding the natural variability in touch sensibility across different populations and different age groups. This prompted us to take up the study," says senior scientist Dr Indira Nath, who led the research.
Gender taken alone did not show a relationship with the level of sensory perception, she said adding that "of interest is our observation that gender contributed significantly when the subjects were stratified on the basis of age."
As part of the study as many as 568 healthy Indian volunteers without any clinical evidence of peripheral nerve disease were enrolled. Touch sensibility was evaluated bilaterally in palms, feet, and heels with target forces ranging from 0.008 to 300 grams per millimetre.
"No differences were observed between the right and the left limbs. The lowest target force detected ranged from 0.4 to 2 grams in the palms and 1.4 to 15 grams in the feet. These values showed further increase with age. Women compared with men had higher sensibility in the palms in most age groups. Touch sensibility thresholds recorded in a large group of Indians were higher than that reported in other populations," Dr Indira Nath said.
These findings have clinical implications for the diagnosis of early nerve
impairment in the elderly and in disease states drawing attention to geographic variations in touch sensation. Data was collected on 15,903 sites on the palms, feet, and heels of the subjects. In general, the palms showed the highest and the heels the lowest sensory perception with the feet showing intermediate values.
The scientists observed an interactive effect of age and gender. Palms of
females had
lower touch sensibility thresholds compared with the males in all the age groups. The higher tactile threshold seen in the feet compared with the palm may also be due to the thicker layer of keratin seen in plantar skin or due to ethnic factors and cultural habits of walking barefoot. The plantar surfaces showed more variations than the palms at individual sites, but this was not significant.
"We also found that the heel area showed the greatest intersite variation and was the least sensitive, perhaps due to its load-bearing functions. Paradoxically, the plantar surface of men appeared to be more sensitive than women in general. Whether this was due to greater access of men to footwear compared with women could not be confirmed definitively," she said.

Oils with EFA reduce the risk of heart attack

March 24, 2008
By Syed Akbar
The very mention of cooking oil sends shivers down the spine of people who are “health conscious”. But health experts and researchers argue that not all the oils are bad. Oils that contain essential fatty acids are not only good for health but also prevent certain dreaded diseases including those related to heart.
A right blend of cooking oils, if consumed regularly, will keep at bay a variety of health complications and problems like diabetes, coronary heart disease, stroke cancer and high blood pressure.
According to a study conducted by city-based research scholar UN Das of ICICI Centre for Technologies in Public Health, major health issues like coronary heart disease, diabetes, hypertension, Alzheimer’s disease and depression schizophrenia can be controlled using oils containing essential fatty acids.
These essential fatty acids and their derivatives include eicosapentaenoic acid, docosahexaenoic acid, gamma-linolenic acid and dihomo-gamma-linolenic acid.
“The major determinants of these chronic diseases are tobacco smoking, inadequate physical activity, unhealthy diets, overweight/obesity, and suboptimal levels of blood pressure, cholesterol, and plasma glucose.
Essential fatty acids are important constituents of all cell membranes and alter membrane fluidity and thus, determine and influence the behaviour of membrane-bound enzymes and receptors. EFAs are essential and they are not synthesised in the body. They have to be obtained in diet,” he says.
Essential fatty acids play a significant role in collagen vascular diseases, hypertension, diabetes mellitus, metabolic syndrome X, psoriasis, Alzheimer’s disease, schizophrenia, depression, CHD, atherosclerosis, and cancer, he said adding that in all these conditions, plasma and tissue levels of fatty acids are significantly low compared to normal suggesting that EFA deficiency either predisposes or initiates the onset of these diseases.
The study pointed out that patients with AIDS and intravenous drug abusers have low plasma phospholipids DGLA, AA and DHA concentrations that could favour the onset and development of the dreaded disease.
Dietary intake of poly unsaturated fatty acids from infancy reduced the risk for type 1 diabetes. Increasing concentrations EFA/PUFA in breast milk reduced the risk of mother-to- child transmission of HIV.

Tamarind good after fever, helps fight paracetamol poisoning

March 22, 2008
By Syed Akbar
Hyderabad, March 21: Just recovering from a bout of fever? Eat preparations containing tamarind like pulihora and you will be cleansing your body of the poisonous paracetamol traces that had accumulated in your body during medication.
According to a study conducted by the Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences and Research, tamarind has properties that will remove the ill-effects of large doses of paracetamol, the medicine that is commonly prescribed for fevers.
Tamarind contains anti-bacterial, anti-diabetic, anti-fungal, anti-inflammatory, anti-malarial and antioxidant properties. Since large doses of paracetamol cause acute dose-dependent necrosis (death of living cells) in both animals and human beings, the antioxidants present in tamarind inhibit the dangerous oxidative changes involved in paracetamol-induced toxicity, says Dr MJ Patil, who led the research
study.
As part of the study, the IPSR team used male Wistar rats weighing between 150 and 200 grams and divided them into control and paracetamol-treated groups. Paracetamol caused acute liver damage in rats fed with large doses. The trend reversed after they were fed with tamarind extracts.
The hepatotoxicity (liver poisoning) caused by paracetamol has been attributed to the formation a highly reactive chemical formed in the process of its breaking down by the liver. The results showed that tamarind extracts (from fruit, seed as well as leaves) caused significant decrease in liver toxicity. It also reduced the bilirubin (a digestive enzyme secreted by liver) level and increased the secretary mechanism of
liver cells.
"It has been established that since barbiturates (medicines that act on brain) are metabolised exclusively in the liver, the sleeping time after a given dose is a measure of liver functioning. If there is any pre-existing liver damage, in this case paracetamol-induced toxicity, the sleeping time after a given dose of paracetamol will be prolonged because the amount of hypnotic broken down per unit time will be less.
The ability of tamarind extracts to reduce the prolongation of sleeping time in rats is suggestive of the liver protection potential of these extracts," he said.
The study of the liver cells of the rats revealed that the necrosis was reduced to a few inflammatory cells in the animals treated with tamarind. Inflammation of portal veins was also reduced.

Sir Arthur Charles Clarke: The end of an era

March 20, 2008
By Syed Akbar
Sir Arthur Charles Clarke, the man who saw tomorrow and treated the world in early 1940s with a virtual feeling of satellite communication decades before it became a reality, is no more. He passed away in his “adopted” country Sri Lanka at the ripe age of 90, leaving behind a legacy of science fiction, which held the young and the old alike in awe and reverence. With his death a glorious era of science fiction has come to an end.
Arthur C Clarke was arguably the greatest sci-fi writer of modern times. He was an inventor and great humanist too. Together with HG Wells and Isaac Asimov, Arthur Clarke formed the trilogy of visionary science fictionists, who captured the imagination of the common man with predictions that appeared quite simple, yet hard for scientists to accomplish.
Some of Arthur Clarke’s predictions have become a fact of our daily life now and the world waits with eagerness for other predictions too to come true soon. For, he had prophesised a world of peace, comforts and safety, including travel to the outer world standing or sitting on elevators with much ease. After all who does not want to travel beyond the Earth and explore what lies out up there in the azure sky?
As sci-fi writer par excellence, Arthur Clarke could paint on the vast expanse of his mind the ideas that even great scientists failed to conjure up in their big brains. The space travel of Arthur’s imagination that began in 1968 with the “2001: A Space Odyssey” continued via “2010: Odyssey Two” and “2061: Odyssey Three”, before concluding with “3001: The Final Odyssey”.
He predicted how one day computers would interact with man, dinosaur-servants would be quite handy, extending man the much-needed support, and how man would be able to climb up the sky through giant elevators fixed at the Earth’s equator. The dinosaur support will be nothing short of the genie of Aladdin’s magic lamp that comes with no
strings attached.
His marvelous achievement notwithstanding, Arthur Clarke was quite a simple and humble man that he did not see his great predictions as great. In fact, he hated the term, “prediction”, and loved to use the word, “extrapolation”. He used to say quite often, “If we have learned one thing from the history of invention and discovery, it is that, in the long run - and often in the short one - the most daring prophecies seem laughably conservative”. But scientists vouchsafe that Arthur Clarke’s predictions are not conservative and indeed hard, if not impossible, to accomplish.
He foresaw man meeting intelligent creatures from other planets and stars by 2030 and scientists discovering the secrets of immortality by the fag end of this 21st century.
Arthur Clarke had been living in Sri Lanka for more than 50 years and had survived the 2004 devastating Tsunami, though his diving school bore the brunt of the nature’s fury.
His residence in the island nation is a sort of electronic cottage with all types of modern gadgets that enable him to keep touch with the scientific community the world over, despite his confinement to a wheel chair for more than three decades. He suffered from childhood polio. His foundation named after him functions from Washington DC and Arthur Clarke used to operate it electronically sitting back in Sri Lanka. The United Kingdom, his mother nation, honoured him in 1998 with the
knighthood recognising him as one of the pioneers of science fiction in English, and his adopted nation Sri Lanka described him as “an asset to the nation”. Three months before his death, Arthur Clarke said he would like to be remembered most as a writer, “one who entertained readers, and, hopefully, stretched their imagination as well." He cleared his last publication, The Last Theorem, only recently and breathed away before it could be published.
Even before he began writing books in 1950, he used to discuss his ideas and theories with a group of dreamers, which met to find out whether it was possible to send man to the Earth’s natural satellite, the Moon. Initially, he limited himself to non-fiction describing the early space flight, but he did not look back after he shifted his focus to science fiction.
If there were any popular author, who had bridged the gap between arts and sciences, fiction and non-fiction, theories and realities and the present and the future, it was Arthur Clarke. It was also he who told the humanity that there’s a world beyond the confines of the Earth (of course, he loved to call the Earth, an Ocean because it’s all of water and water and less of land).
And it is for us all to explore and give a new meaning to our life. Good bye, Sir Arthur C Clarke, Good bye.

Cleft palate: Sanskrit helps speech therapists

March 17, 2008
By Syed Akbar
Sanskrit, the mother of most Indian languages, is unique in the sense that the arrangement of alphabets is orderly and scientific. No other language has sounds (phonemes) that are quite simple and easy to remember.
People suffering from cleft palate or cleft lip find it hard to produce sounds.
The evaluation of their speech is very difficult if such individuals speak any language other than Sanskrit.
Senior scientist Gajiwala Kalpesh has carried out a research on Sanskrit phonemes and how they help cleft palate surgeons to evaluate the speech of people with cleft palate deformity. In people suffering from cleft palate, the palate or the roof of the mouth is not joined together. It has a gap in between making it hard for such people to utter sounds.
Kalpesh has demonstrated through his study the inherent advantage of the arrangement of Sanskrit alphabets to effectively analyse defective cleft palate peech. "Sanskrit provides a tool for surgeons to decide a course of action in their routine clinical practice. Improved insight into the speech defect by the surgeon also facilitates better coordination with the speech language pathologist in assessment and treatment of a child with cleft palate," he points out.
In most languages, phonemes are learnt through the arrangement of alphabets. In English, for example, written symbols A to Z represent most, if not all, phonemes. Some of the phonemes require a combination of these alphabetical symbols like 'ch' as in church, 'th' as in thought. The problem is all these alphabets are not pure phonemes, but a combination of a consonant and a vowel.
He says the arrangement in other languages is haphazard, with vowels and consonants intermingling at irregular intervals. And there is no reason for a particular arrangement of alphabets. They are as if picked at random and strung together. Therefore, one must make a special effort to memorise each and every sound individually vis-à-vis its character regarding voicing, place and manner of articulation.
Kalpesh says after cleft palate surgery, a plastic surgeon usually leaves the development of normal speech to a speech language pathologist, who is expected to work wonders in post-surgical therapy. Quite often the surgeon does not realise the implications of speech evaluation, which states the presence of misarticulations, with or without hypernasality.
"Sanskrit is a valuable tool for evaluating cleft palate speech. Not only are the vowels and consonants separated, but also Sanskrit consonants are pure phonemes and are arranged in vertical and horizontal groups according to the voicing state, manner of articulation, place of articulation and the intraoral pressure required to produce them. Understanding the arrangement of alphabets in relation to all these therefore takes away the major burden of memorising them at random. The arrangement of Sanskrit alphabets is called Varnamaalaa or the garland of phonemes. It may be
called the oldest phonetic classification known to humanity."
According to Kalpesh, the time required to utter sounds increases as one goes downwards on the Sanskrit chart. This means that one is required to sustain some intraoral pressure and airflow for a longer duration in forming sibilants.
So, when there is velopharyngeal incompetence, it will be more difficult to sustain the airflow and air pressure for a longer duration in sibilants.
"Varnamaalaa helps us find our way through the maze. The Sanskrit chart can provide a simple tool for added clinical evaluation and may help decide the course of action for both the surgeons and linguists together. Surgery alone cannot improve speech, but speech can improve with speech therapy," he argues.