NOTICE FOR “PAKDOCTORS” VISITORS Accidentally we have lost all our mail record of the last few months. If you have contacted us for: Medical or psychiatric advice advice related to any health & fitness issue entering your data in the on-line medical directory advertisement on the site or development of one page profile becoming doctor of the month and not received any response from our side yet, then please fill the corresponding form and submit it again or send the email. We are very sorry for this inconvenience and will highly appreciate your cooperation in this regards. Looking forward to serve you. The PakDoctors Team Praying 'benefits cancer patients' Cancer patients who pray can benefit from increased mental health, according to new research. Praying in online support groups helped breast cancer patients, researchers from the University of Wisconsin discovered. The study was conducted on 97 breast cancer patients who participated in an online support group. Bret Shaw, an associate scientist in the University of Wisconsin 's College of Engineering and lead author of the study, said: "We know that many cancer patients pray in online support groups to help them cope with their illness. "This is the first study we are aware of that examines the psychological effects of this behaviour." There are many reasons why cancer patients can benefit from prayer, whether on the internet or somewhere else, Mr Shaw added. Surveys of the group of women were done before they had access to the group prayer and then four months later. Using a text analysis programme, the researchers found that those women who prayed had more positive feelings. Meanwhile, Cancer Research UK has warned that lifestyle factors such as obesity and smoking can influence whether one gets cancer or not. Non-embryonic stem cells could soon be used to create the collagen used in many cosmetic surgery procedures. Healtheuniverse, a biotechnology development firm, has filed a patent application for the company's collagen production method using adult stem cells. The company will be the first to use non-embryonic stem cells for plastic and cosmetic surgery. "Engineered fat tissue from stem cells is the ideal solution for patients with wrinkles, contour irregularities, and for breast augmentation," said Dr Vipul Dev, chief executive officer of Healtheuniverse. "By utilising adult stem cells via Healtheuniverse's packaged product, we hope to effectively engineer fat tissue and provide worldwide access to the technology for a variety of commercial surgical and cosmetic applications." As soon as human clinical trials have been conducted, the company plans to sell its technology to plastic and cosmetic surgeons in up to 117 countries covered by the patent agreement. Cosmetic surgery patients 'have unrealistic expectations' Cosmetic surgery can enhance people's lives - but only if they truly understand what they are doing. According to one plastic surgeon, too many people - as many as one in ten - are unhappy about the results of their cosmetic surgery. However, this is not because the procedure has gone wrong or the surgeon has made a mistake, but simply because the patients have unrealistic expectations, says Dr Joe Gryskiewicz of the University of Minnesota . The surgeon, who has been operating for over two decades, commented: "Cosmetic surgery is a wonderful option to improve the lives of many people; however often the patient's psychological reasons for having a procedure aren't considered or discussed prior to the surgery. "With all of the new procedures and the attention given to the industry by the media, many patients develop unrealistic expectations about the impact that cosmetic surgery will have on their lives and if all elements aren't adequately considered, the patient won't be happy with the outcome," he warns. Dr Gryskiewicz insists that patients should never have cosmetic surgery to please a partner or in reaction to a divorce or bereavement. In addition, he advises that people should not go under the knife if they are suffering from depression in the belief that it will make them happy. Liver sugar linked to heart attack risk Scientists have discovered a new potential cause explaining why some people suffer from an increased risk of heart attack and strokes. Researchers from the University Of California , San Diego , (UCSD) have established a key weakness of a type of sugar in the liver which helps suppress dangerously high levels of fat in the bloodstream. High bloodstream fat levels contribute to the build-up of plaque in the arteries, leading to an increased risk of heart attack or stroke. By isolating genetic mutations in around 40 genes which help condition the heparan sulfate sugar, the USCD researchers discovered the beneficial effects of the sugar on fat levels and its vulnerability. Any one of the 40 mutations could prevent the heparan sulfate sugar from working effectively, heightening the risk of high fat levels in the bloodstream. "Such studies could lead to new drugs that change heparan sulfate in order to lower fat levels in patients," Professor Jeffrey Esko of the USCD school of medicine said. The heparan sulfate sugar works in conjunction with a variety of better-known fat-fighting mechanism known as LDL receptors. Elevated fat levels in the bloodstream can be related to diabetes, drug interactions, chronic alcohol consumption or induced by a poor diet, the study stated. Psychological treatments 'help back pain' Receiving psychological treatments could help ease the pain of people with back problems, a new review has found. Such treatments can also improve depression and "health-related quality of life", according to the review, published in the January issue of the journal Health Psychology. Review lead author Dr Robert Kerns, of the VA Connecticut Healthcare System, gathered evidence from 22 trials from between 1982 and 2003. These trials involved adults with lower back pain that had carried on for over three months. Dr Kerns said: "Because this analysis was both more inclusive and more conservative than previous reviews, we have the best evidence to date that these interventions are helpful." When psychological treatments were first developed for pain, the goal was not to reduce the pain, but teach patients how to live with it. However, the treatments had the unexpected benefit of actually reducing the pain, Dr Kerns added. Meanwhile, a new study from Yale Medical School has found that those who participate in sports are far more prone to suffer from back pain later in life. Fish oil 'can improve coordination' Children's hand-eye coordination can be improved if their mothers take fish oil while pregnant, new research has shown. The study was carried out on 98 pregnant women who were dosed with either 4g of fish oil or the same amount of olive oil for 20 weeks until they gave birth. Taking fish oil supplements was also shown to affect comprehension, phrase length and vocabulary. The research was carried out by scientists at the school of paediatrics and child health, at the University of Western Australia . Writing in the Journal Archives of Disease in Childhood, the researchers said: "These preliminary data indicate that supplementation with a relatively high-dose fish oil during the last 20 weeks of pregnancy is not only safe but also seems to have potential beneficial effects that need to be explored further." High levels of omega 3 in the fish oil did not appear to do any harm to the mother or the foetus, the research concluded. In 2004 the US Food and Drug Administration formally acknowledged that omega 3 fatty acids may reduce the likelihood of coronary heart disease. Experts give advice on preparing for surgery Every surgical procedure carries a risk, but there are ways of minimising that risk and ensuring you have the best chance of a successful recovery. In their new book, The Viels' Beauty Bible: Look and Feel Fabulous With or Without Cosmetic Surgery, Roberto and Maurizio Viel provide advice on reducing the risks associated with surgery. In an extract printed in the Daily Mail, the authors advise doing your homework on your surgeon, including finding out how many procedures he carries out in a day as, "if you're ninth or tenth in the queue, the risks of your surgeon making a mistake will increase". The Viels also recommend stopping smoking and becoming fitter before an operation, as well as ensuring that the surgeon is aware of any allergies and medication that you may be on, including the Pill, HRT, anti-depressants and even natural supplements. "Some have adverse effects on recovery usually because they thin the blood too much," they reveal, adding that vitamin E, garlic and ginseng can all have an effect. Finally, the authors recommend avoiding too much cosmetic surgery. "Be guided by your surgeon and remember: the longer you're under general anaesthetic, the more risk there is." Semen-sensing gel 'could help Aids fight' Scientists have developed a new form of Aids prevention – a vaginal gel which, sensing the presence of semen, liquefies and releases anti-HIV drugs. American researchers, publishing their findings in the online Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences, are concentrating on improving the effectiveness system of one form of microbicide - the drug delivery system whose varieties include sponges, creams and gels. By applying the gel internally prior to sex, the University of Utah scientists hope that women in countries worldwide will be empowered by protecting themselves against Aids. "It's a smart molecular condom because we designed this gel to release anti-HIV drugs when the gel comes into contact with semen during intercourse," Patrick Kiser, the assistant professor who led the research, explained. "The ultimate hope for this technology is to protect women and their unborn or nursing children from the Aids virus." But such ambitions are a long way off, for scientists estimate that the gel will take approximately five years of development before clinical tests can be carried out on humans. However, once developed the duration of its effectiveness could be expanded from an hour to a day or even a month, it is hoped. Malaria's weapons identified A number of new studies into malaria have identified the genetic secrets behind how parasites cause the disease. Published in the Nature journal, the three studies collectively provide a resource that is hoped will aid scientists' attempts to understand drug resistance to malaria and help them identify potential targets for vaccines. The ability to achieve these aims could help to reduce the numbers of people affected by the disease; 2.6 billion of the world's population live in areas threatened by malaria, half a billion people are infected with it and more than one million people die each year from it. Of the three studies, the Wellcome Trust's Sanger Institute (WTSI) produced the first complete sequence of a clinical isolate of Plasmodium – the parasite which causes malaria. Other partial sequences were made of a second isolate and from a strain that causes infection in chimpanzees. The new studies mapped more than 27,000 variants across the genome, showing that more regions than previously identified have a vital role to play in the disease. "We need new ways to look at the variety of Plasmodium surface proteins and its complex population structure," said Dr Matthew Berriman, co-leader of the project at WTSI. "And these novel maps are new tools in the fight against malaria." "For the first time, we have comprehensive maps that detail areas of variation – the regions where the effects of our defences are marked in the parasite genome. When we attack, the parasite responds and that is marked by the changes in the parasite DNA that we observe." Commenting on the importance of the discovery, Dr Mark Walport, director of the Wellcome Trust, said: "Understanding these interactions is key to the development of effective vaccines against malaria." The WTSI estimates that if malaria occurred in the US at global rates, 120 million people would be at risk, almost 20 million people would be infected and between 50,000 and 100,000 people, almost all children, would die each year. Exercise 'can reduce smoker's risk of lung cancer' Smokers who get exercise have a reduced risk of lung cancer; however, quitting smoking entirely is still the best way to avoid the disease altogether, according to new research. Researchers from the universities of Minnesota and Pennsylvania found that being physically active could reduce the likelihood of lung cancer. In a study of 36,000 women smokers, those who remained highly active reduced their risk of lung cancer by as much as 72 per cent. Dr Kathryn Schmitz, the study's lead author, said: "The most important thing a smoker can do to reduce risk is to quit smoking. That said, exercising and being active can offer a marginal change in risk. "The helpful message from this study is that if a smoker is having trouble quitting, exercise can be a first step toward better health." Women with a low level of physical activity were more likely to smoke, not as likely to have a high school education and more likely to be obese, the study also found. The study was published in the December issue of Cancer Epidemiology Biomarkers & Prevention. Lung cancer is statistically the most deadly form of cancer and the hardest to treat.