Showing posts with label Article of the week. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Article of the week. Show all posts

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

An Interview with Mr. Pharmaceutics

Jeepakistan Team (J. T.): Tell something shortly about yourself.

Mr. Pharmaceutics (P): I am an art from patient’s and customer’s point of view and science from doctor and scientist’s point of view.

J. T.: Your family members!

P: I’ve many brothers, children and grand children. My powerful brothers are biotechnology, medicine, chemistry and botany. My most favourite children are Hospital pharmacy, industrial pharmacy, forensic pharmacy and retail pharmacy. My grand children are computer education, biostatistics, quality control and many others.

J. T.: Some thing about your life!

P: Peoples love me. In most cases you’ll find me present everywhere from urban to rural areas, from jungles to desert, from air to water and from east to west. Even I love peoples very much. That’s why, I try to give them not only healthy life but also good employment opportunities.

J. T.: The hidden reality you want to tell peoples!

P: The best cure for every pain are not NSAIDs nor any other type of painkillers. But many types of pain can only be cured by the world’s best medicine, that’s love.

J. T.: I can’t understand, what you have said!

P: For example, in very old age the pain felt in the body is due to loneliness, if the children don’t leave their parents alone then the severity of the pain will be reduced.Even that pain will not be felt in many cases if the children give their parents much happiness.

J. T.: Your interview will be published. Do you want to give your readers some message?

P: I can’t do anything for disable peoples, genetically ill peoples and many peoples, who are in very poor or far off areas. Please, for the sake of God, help those peoples as much as you can.

J. T.: Thank you.

Tuesday, April 5, 2011

Wonders of Placebo

Placebo refers to a drug having no active ingredient for therapy and which is given to benefit the patient psychologically such as it can be a simple glass of water but the patient is told that this water contains medicine. It is related to positive thinking. Placebo is still a wonder for scientific community.

Data on placebos is holding such an attention that many physicians in America (one study estimates 50 percent) secretly give placebos to unsuspecting patients.

In a study it was found that amond 435 patients of headache reported by branded placebo users, 64% were reported as improved 1 hour after pill administration compared with only 45% of the 410 headaches reported as improved among the unbranded placebo users. So they found that branding of a drug even have more effect on the treatment of a particular disease.

It has been found that placebo works even better, if a doctor give this to a patient.

References:
Harvard Medical School (2010, December 23). Placebos work -- even without deception. ScienceDaily. Retrieved April 5, 2011, from http://www.sciencedaily.com­ /releases/2010/12/101222173033.htm

Moerman, D. E.; Jonas, W. B.; Deconstructing the Placebo Effect and Finding the Meaning Response. Annals of Internal Medicine, 2002, Vol. 136, No. 6. Pages 471-476.

Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Worldwide Cancer Status

Cancer is found to be the leading cause of death in the world with the 13% of all death cases around the world in 2008. About 12.7 million cases of cancer and 7.6 million deaths were calculated in 2008. Upto middle-income countries there are about half (51%) of all cancer cases worldwide in 1975; while this proportion increased to 55% in 2007 and is thought to reach 61% by the year 2050.
There are more than 100 types of cancer and it can affect any part of the body.

Two factors are increasing the number of worldwide cancer patients:
1. Aging
2. Cancer causing attitude such as use of tobacco (It is estimated that about 1.3 billion people worldwide smoke tobacco), harmful or damaging use of alcohol, physical inactivity or poor diet
3. Older age
4. Race
5. Family history

Apart from these factors some other factors can also cause cancer such as
1. Over weight and obesity (WHO estimates that in 2005, overweight adults were about 1.6 billion from the total population and 300 million obese. It is estimated that the number of overweight people may go upto 2.3 billion by the year 2015.
2. Exposure to environmental carcinogens such as radon, arsenic, asbestos and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons.
3. Chronic Infections

A large number of cancer cases and deaths are in developing countries.More than 70 % of all cancer deaths occured in developing countries.
Breast Cancer is leading type of cancer in females and lung cancer is the leading type of cancer in males, since 1985, and they are also the leading cause of death from cancer for both developing as well as developed world. In females, lung cancer is the fourth most commonly diagnosed cancer and second most important cause of death from cancer. According to 2003-2007 research, top 5 cancer sites are prostate (a gland males that surround the tube for discharging urine located below the bladder), Breast, Lung as well as Bronchus and Colon (part of large intestine) as well as rectum (lower part of the large intestine).

Incidence rates of cancer is twice as high in developed countries as compared to developing countries.

It has been estimated that more than 30% of cancer deaths can be prevented by preventing the use of tobacco, taking a healthy diet, showing physical activity, and by prevention of infections that may cause cancer such as chronic (old) infections of hepatitis B virus (HBV) and/or human papillomavirus (HPV).

References:
Jemal, A.; Bray, F.; Center, M. M.; Ferlay, J.; Ward, E.; Forman, D. 2011.
Global cancer statistics. A Cancer Journal for Clinicians, 61, Pages 69-90.

SEER Cancer Statistics Review 1975-2007. 2007. http://seer.cancer.gov/csr/1975_2007/browse_csr.php?section=1&page=sect_01_table.23.html#b . Accessed Mar 30, 2011.

Thun, M. J.; DeLancey, J. O. et al. 2010. The global burden of cancer: priorities for prevention. Carcinogenesis, Volume 31, Issue 1, Pages 100-110.
World Health Organization (WHO), Cancer; Fact Sheet. Feb 2011,  http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs297/en/ . Accessed Mar 30, 2011.