New Delhi, June 20 (IANS) In India, yoga is celebrated as an ancient tradition, which has grown into a global phenomenon. As India gears up for International Yoga Day on June 21, a research paper released by an expert at All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) said, yoga can be used as an adjunct therapy in the management of severe arthritis. Dr Rima Dada, Prof Lab for Molecular Reproduction and Genetics, Department of Anatomy at AIIMS, said, yoga improves clinical outcome i

New York, June 20 (IANS) While Alpha and Beta Covid variants are associated with higher transmission, patients with these variants show no evidence of higher viral loads in their upper respiratory tracts compared to the control group, a study led by Johns Hopkins School of Medicine study found on Sunday. The emergence and higher transmission of the evolving variants of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19, has been concerning. The researchers investigated Alpa (B117), the vari

New Delhi, June 19 (PTI): If Covid-appropriate behaviour is not followed and crowding not prevented, the next wave of the viral infection can strike the country in the next six to eight weeks, AIIMS Director Randeep Guleria warned on Saturday. Until a sizeable number of the population are vaccinated, Covid-appropriate behaviour needs to be followed aggressively, he said and stressed on the need for stricter surveillance and area-specific lockdowns in case of a significant surge.

Washington, June 19 (IANS) The Delta coronavirus variant is expected to become the dominant strain in America, Director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Rochelle Walensky said. The Delta variant, also known as B.1.617.2, is more transmissible than others, Xinhua news agency quoted Walensky as saying in an ABC News interview on Friday. "As worrisome as this Delta strain is with regard to its hyper transmissibility, our vaccines work. "Right

Washington, June 18 (PTI): COVID-19 vaccines by Pfizer and Moderna do not harm male fertility, suggests a study which found the levels of sperm in participants remained at healthy levels after they got two doses of the mRNA preventive. The study, published on Thursday in the journal JAMA, recruited 45 healthy male volunteers aged 18 to 50 years scheduled for mRNA COVID-19 vaccination by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna. The participants were pre-screened to ensure they had no underlyi

New Delhi, June 18 (IANS) The country's Covid curve can be flattened by July end if the government is able to vaccinate a whopping 90-lakh people a day, said healthcare expert at a webinar. The webinar held on Thursday was hosted by MeraDoc, a personalised healthcare platform that connects highly experienced health practitioners with people. "We invited the second wave and if we were to repeat the same, then God help us! With a near double mortality versus the first, the

Guwahati, June 17 (IANS) The SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes Covid-19, may have the ability to reactivate dormant tuberculosis (TB), according to study that is an alarming news for countries like India, which accounts for an estimated 40 per cent of the population with dormant or latent TB. The study, led by researchers from the Indian Institute of Technology, Guwahati, and University of Massachusetts, showed that infection with a specific coronavirus strain reactivated dormant Mycobac

New Delhi, June 17 (IANSlife) Yoga is often mistaken as an 'exercise' that only caters to the body. But the most important thing we forget, is that the central dogma of yoga is breath. Life is breath. "We breathe in oxygen and release carbon dioxide, it's simple biology," is what some said. But breathing is a very powerful way to control the mind. Here's an example, if you breathe slowly and deliberately, you begin to feel sleepy. Your heart rate normali

New Delhi, June 16 (PTI): Pregnant and postpartum women were more severely affected during the second wave of COVID-19 as compared to the first with symptomatic cases and the case fatality rate being significantly higher among this category this year, according to a study by ICMR. The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) on Wednesday said cases related to pregnant and postpartum women during the first wave (April 1, 2020 - January 31, 2021) and during the second wave (February

NEW DELHI, JUNE 16 (IANS): The decision to increase the gap between two Covishield doses from 4-6 weeks to 12-16 weeks is based on scientific reason regarding behaviour of adenovector vaccines, said Chairman of India's Covid-19 Working Group of the National Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (NTAGI), N.K. Arora. Citing the data released in the last week of April this year by Public Health England, UK's executive agency of the Department of Health, Arora explained that

London, June 15 (IANS) Two doses of Pfizer and AstraZeneca's Covid-19 vaccines are highly effective against hospitalisation from the Delta (B16172) variant, according to new analysis from Public Health England (PHE). The analysis suggests that the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine is 96 per cent effective against hospitalisation after two doses, while the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine is 92 per cent effective against hospitalisation after two doses. These are comparable with vaccine effec

New Delhi, June 15 (IANS) There has been sharp decline in both new and active Covid-19 cases across India for the last few days, the Union Health Ministry said on Tuesday. Addressing a digital press conference on current situation, Joint Secretary, Health, Lav Agarwal said that in the 24 hours, India has reported 86,490 new cases, while on May 7, daily cases were at 4.14 lakh, but had come down to 2.67 lakh on May 19 and had come down below the 2 lakh mark. "Observing the de

NEW DELHI, JUNE 15 (IANS): Take the example of Telangana, where health authorities recently stated that 37,332 children were infected with the virus between March and May 2021. This coupled with the fact that 19,824 children got infected from August-November 2020 tells us how we grossly underestimated the impact of Covid-19 on children. Compared to the first wave, the number of positive cases and their severity has increased among children this time. Why is this concerning? This is

New Delhi, June 14 (IANSlife) If you have felt increased screen time is doing a number on your eyes and potentially contributing to digital eye strain, a survey shows you're not alone. Findings show that 80 per cent of respondents say pandemic-prompted screen time put their eyes in "overdrive". In fact, two-thirds of respondents report experiencing some degree of eye discomfort every day and nearly a quarter say their eyes feel worse now than they did a year ago. All t

Mandi, June 14 (IANS): A team of researchers from IIT Mandi has identified the underlying biochemical relationship between the consumption of excessive sugar and the development of afatty liver', medically known as Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease (NAFLD). NAFLD is a condition in which excess fat deposits in the liver. The disease starts silently, with no overt symptoms for as much as two decades. If left untreated, the excess fat can irritate the liver cells, resulting in

New York, June 13 (IANS) Increased usage of headphones, earbuds likely to raise hearing troubles in children as their auditory system maturation is incomplete, warn experts. Children, teenagers, and young adults are listening to many hours of music daily at volumes exceeding the globally recommended public health limit of 70 decibels of average leisure noise exposure for a day for a year. "Nonoccupational noise exposure in everyday life comes from a handful of noise sources:

New Delhi, June 12 (PTI): There appears to be no substantial evidence to suggest that children will be more affected or have greater illness severity due to COVID-19 in the anticipated third wave, according to a new report. The Lancet COVID-19 Commission India Task Force prepared the report after convening an experts group comprising leading paediatricians from the country to examine the issue of paediatric COVID-19' in India. It said the infection's symptomatology in chi

New Delhi, June 12 (IANS) As many as 719 doctors have died during the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic, according to the latest report by the Indian Medical Association (IMA) with Bihar reporting the highest number of 111 doctors dying in the line of duty. The second wave of coronavirus pandemic across the country is not over yet. This is the reason doctors are losing their lives every day while saving the lives of Covid-infected patients. According to the IMA, a total of 1,4

New Delhi, June 11 (PTI) The Delta variant of COVID-19, or the B1.617.2 variant of concern (VOC) first identified in India, is about 60 per cent more transmissible than the Alpha strain identified in the United Kingdom and also reduces the effectiveness of vaccines to some extent, UK health experts report on Friday. Public Health England (PHE), which has been tracking VOCs on a weekly basis, said that the cases of the Delta VOC have risen by 29,892 to hit 42,323 in the country -- an

New Delhi, June 11 (PTI): Every COVID-19 infection may not necessarily lead to complications in case of a diabetic person, Union minister and renowned diabetologist Jitendra Singh said on Friday. Delivering the inaugural address as the chief guest at the Diabetes India World Congress-2021, he said even after the COVID pandemic is over, the discipline of social distancing and avoiding droplet infection will act as safeguard against many other infections, particularly for those who ha