H‑Factor
MONDAY, MARCH 5, 2012
Holistic view of mind, body and soul
You might cheat on your wife, but...
SKIN DEEP
Dr G Jyotsna, Cosmetologist and trichologist, Chaitanya Tricho Dermatology Clinic
Researchers find men who die during sex more likely to be cheating David Trifunov
A
n affair of the heart has new meaning after researchers found men who die during sex are more likely to be cheating, a new American Heart Association study says. Published in the journal Circulation, the study analysed 6,000 autopsy reports of people who died of sudden heart attacks. Less than 1 per cent of those people died during sex; however, about 90 per cent were men and three-quarters of them were cheating. Prof Glenn Levine of Baylor College of Medicine, who led the study, was researching how long heart attack sufferers should wait before having sex again. While he found those who have recovered from mild heart attacks could hit the sheets with little risk of another attack (just talk with your doctor first), he also found the link to cheating. “I would not blow this too out of context,” he said, The
Daily Mail reported. “Without being sarcastic, I really can state
that I have not had a patient who asked me about the cardiac
risks of an extramarital affair.” Part of the problem is stress. Cheating men are often in unfamiliar settings and they’ve often eaten big meals and had lots to drink, Global News reported. Oh, and they’re with a younger woman. The study does have limitations. There’s little data on men who struggle to reach orgasm because of physical or psychological reasons. “In attempting to achieve a climax, it is possible that such individuals may exert themselves to a greater degree of exhaustion with relatively greater demand on their cardiovascular system,” says the study. Still, it’s an important conversation for doctors to have with their patients, said Chicago cardiologist Dr Dan Fintel. He told the Mail it’s the last thing he addresses with patients before discharging them from hospital. “Resuming sexual activity is safe and emotionally part of the healing process, with a few caveats,” he said. GLOBAL POST
Leukemia drugs may stop deadly virus
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ome cancer drugs may also help stop the rare but deadly Ebola virus, which in up to 90 per cent of cases causes a sufferer to bleed to death. US researchers a pair of wellknown drugs used to treat leukemia — known as nolitinib and imatinib — appear to have had success in stopping the virus from replicating in human cells, News24.com reported. The drugs — nilotinib or imatinib, sold by Novartis as Tasigna and Gleevec — topped the release of viral particles from infected cells in lab dishes, researchers from the US
National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases wrote in the journal Science Translational Medicine, according to Bloomberg.
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The same result in a person might prevent Ebola from spreading in the body and give the immune system time to control it, the researchers led by Mayra Garcia wrote. According to NPR, the Ebola virus needs the help of cells it invades to reproduce, and Gleevec and Tasigna “tweak a human protein that new copies of the virus use to leave their host cells so they can infect others.” In other words, the researchers think the drugs “could turn off a transport protein and could keep new viruses bottled up inside cells.”
“Our results suggest that short-term administration of nilotinib or imatinib may be useful in treating Ebola virus infections,” the researchers wrote. Ebola, which emerged in Africa in the 1970s — and is believed to live in several species of fruit bat — is considered a potential weapon for bioterrorists because, News24 wrote, “it is so highly contagious, so lethal and has no standard treatment.” News24 cited the UN’s World Health Organisation as reporting about 1,850 cases of Ebola occurring since 1976, with about 1,200 deaths resulting.
Stress can play a role in skin ageing Ranjani Rajendra
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ine lines, wrinkles, sagging skin, pigmentation and dullness are some of the first signs of ageing. “While usually these signs begin to set in by age 30, a lot also depends on a person’s skin type, exposure to the sun, work patterns and stress levels,” says Dr G Jyotsna, cosmetologist and trichologist at Chaitanya Tricho Dermatology Centre. Although there are several anti-ageing creams and formulae available in the market, they don’t really erase those signs. “What they do is prime the skin,” she says. There are also procedural treatments available to help minimise those signs of ageing — there are devices to tighten the skin, peels to brighten the skin, botox for crow feet and fillers for sunken eyes, drooping mouth, volumnise lips and also to ease nasolabial folds. “Some of the most sought after procedures are chemical peels and skin tightening procedures. This is because these are non-invasive, don’t involve injectibles and are comparatively more economical,” says Dr Jyotsna, adding, “however, it is not advisable to get too many peels done as this can make the skin very sensitive. .” The effects of peels usually emerge after two or three days and last up to 10-15 days, explains Dr Jyotsna. “The results are usually better after three or four peels. Laser resurfacing is more advanced and works better on wrinkles and acne scars,” says Dr Jyotsna. Since most of these procedures leave the skin very sensitive, Dr Jyotsna advises protecting the skin by using a broad spectrum (UVA and UVB) sunscreen and also covering the face. “It would be ideal to avoid any sun exposure for the first two or three days. Using a sunscreen should anyway be a part of everybody’s skin care regime. In case one is acne-prone they can use gel-based products. It is important to be aware of one’s skin type before choosing any product. Skin types tend to change with age and hormonal influence. During the teens skin can be oily and as one grows older it is dry,” she says.