MOLECULAR TESTING

The market is increasing for point-of-care testing with the growth of boundary -less hospitals and community care and the need for rapid results outside of the clinical setting. Point-of-care testing serves a pivotal function for delivering precision medicine that will both improve quality and affordability of care at a time when outcomes-based medicine is the new model for healthcare. Point-of-care molecular testing is also a rapidly expanding market. A variety of technologies are being developed for DNA detection and amplification, mostly aiming to detect pathogens. The challenges associated with developing POC molecular tests include the additional steps for sample pretreatment
(e.g., cell sorting, isolation, and lysis) and the requirements for nucleic acid extraction and signal amplification, and sample-prep integration with a complete analytical process that does not require skilled operator involvement, and the need for fast results. In particular, true portability remains a moving target, as most current devices tend to be at least shoe box sized, may depend on external power sources drive thermal cycling for conventional PCR.

Now that device manufacturers have found a way to fit PCR and other nucleic acid amplification techniques into easy-to-use, counter-top instruments, a dozen or more companies likely will rush to develop new products. The first comm¬ercial version of a real-time nucleic acid detection system was Cepheid's Gene¬Xpert system, designed to purify, concentrate, detect, and identify targeted nucleic acid sequences delivering diagnoses from unprocessed samples in approximately 30 minutes. The ability of this relatively small bench-top device to perform real-time quantitative PCR in approximately 90 minutes with minimal operator interaction offers the potential to perform rapid molecular testing in situations where the need for results is urgent.

While such devices are in development, small, benchtop systems that perform genomic analyses continue to reach the market with an increasing variety of tests that now include infectious diseases, drug responses to drugs used to treat heart disease, pharmacogenetics, hereditary genetics, and recently, cancer. Respiratory infections are likely to be among the leading applications for POC molecular diagnostics through 2020. In addition, POC molecular tests are poised to be used widely in developing countries, both for diagnosing emerging infectious diseases and for more familiar infections.

While the sensitivity and specificity of molecular diagnostics are extremely high, there is a danger of contamination and mistakes in the pre-analytical phase and in interpretation, as with any other POC test. However, investigators and clinicians anticipate that given market forces and current demand in specific markets, most notably infectious diseases, portable, hand-held, inexpensive POC devices, equivalent to currently offered full-size molecular analytical systems, will become available.

GHEE OR CLARIFIED BUTTER BETTER THAN OIL FOR HEART

The process of creating traditional clarified butter is complete, once the water is evaporated and the fat (clarified butter) is separated from the milk solids.

However, the production of ghee includes simmering the butter along with the milk solids so that they caramelize, which makes it nutty-tasting and aromatic.

An oil has been refined by using chemicals that are harmful to us. In short it means to 'purify'. But the meaning of purify has many definitions. It may mean the oil was treated with acid, or purified with an alkali, or bleached. It can also be neutralized, filtered or deodoriz¬ed. All of which require chemicals like Hexane, which may prove to be extremely detrimental to the health.

In the process of making and refining these types of oils, it leads to PUFAs (rancid polyunsaturated fatty acids) which are not good for our hearts when they are exposed to high temperatures. In the process of being extracted from the seed these oils oxidize and turn into trans fats. The smell is so rancid that a cleaning process has to take place using bleach to deodorize it.

Hydrogenated oil is made by forcing hydrogen gas into oil as high pressure.

Desi Ghee or clarified butter oil -which is often blamed for obesity and heart diseases - is not that bad after all for our health.

scientists have just discovered that cow ghee could protect us from cancer.

Cow ghee enhances the availability of enzymes responsible for detoxi¬fication of cancer-causing substances and decreases the availability of those responsible for activation of carcinogens.

Ghee poses no danger to cardiac health if the total fat intake is restricted to the prescribed limit, researchers said.

One must ensure that the intake of total fat (including ghee) should not exceed the prescribed limit of fat consumption. In the experiments done in lab, scientists studied the effects of cow ghee compared to soybean oil on female rats which were artificially given breast cancer causing chemicals.

They observed that the initiation and progress of mammary cancer decreased in rats which were fed on cow ghee. However, there was a greater proportion of tumours in animals fed on soybean oil. Researchers have deciphered the mechanism of ghee's protective properties.

'Feeding cow ghee decreased the expression of genes responsible for cell proliferation and raised regulated genes responsible for cell apoptosis', explained researchers.

One probable factor in cow ghee is the presence of conjugated linoleic acid (CLA), which is known to possess beneficial properties.

Cow ghee is a rich natural source of CLA, whereas, vegetable oils lack this particular fatty acid.

Most vegetable oils contain high amount of unsaturated fatty acid as well as linoleic acid - which is considered pro-carcinogenic as it forms free radicals known to damage DNA.

The ghee available in India is mostly made from buffalo milk.

And though the study was done on cow ghee, scientists said buffalo ghee is also expected to be similarly effective because both contain CLA. Moreover, ghee improves blood HDL level, which is good for heart.

TOBACCO A SILENT KILLER

Tobacco is a product prepared from the leaves of the tobacco plant by curing them. Tobacco smoking is the practice of burning tobacco and inhaling the smoke in various forms. The practice was believed to begin as early as 5000-3000 BC .

German scientists identified a link between smoking and lung cancer in the late 1920s, leading to the first anti-smoking campaign in modern history.

Smoking is the most common method of consuming tobacco, and tobacco is the most common substance smoked. The agricultural product is often mixed with additives and then combusted. The resulting smoke is then inhaled. There are different varieties of tobacco. It is either smoked in the form of cigarettes or bidis, or chewed or inhaled as naswar or snuff.

Tobacco is very harmful to our body and it causes many forms of diseases in the consumer. Chronic Smoking leads to decrease in resistance in the body so that common afflictions such as flu and cold are easily contracted by the consumer of tobacco. Sense of taste and smell is also It in chronic smokers. This leads to loss of appetite and poor nutrition leads to many debilitating diseases. Smoking causes fatal diseases such as lung cancer and cancer of the mouth and hence it is a killer in the long run. It shortens the Aft span of the consumer. Cigarette smoking is a major cause of cancers of the lungs, larynx , mouth, throat, and oesophagus. It also leads to development of leukemias.

Tobacco smoke decreases female fertility and increases the incidence of miscarriage, premature birth,stillbirth, infant death, and also causes It birth - weight in infants. Passive smoking is also very injurious to health.

Tobacco smoke contains carcinogens which results in development of cancer in the individual. It also contains ammonia and carbon monoxide which harms the lungs and causes black smoky deposits

in the air sacs of the lungs, thus decreasing the capacity of the lungs to oxygenate the blood resulting in chronic asphyxiation or suffocation. The two types of smokeless tobacco are snuff and chewing tobacco. Snuff, a finely ground powdered tobacco, is inhaled in the nostrils and it causes sneezing. Chewing tobacco is also available. It is placed between the cheek and gum.Chewed tobacco causes Cancer of various types. Heart Attacks, strokes and High Blood Pressure are result of tobacco consumption. All tobacco, including smokeless tobacco, contains nicotine, which is addictive. People chewing tobacco in betel leaf are over five times more likely to be at risk of cancer of the mouth. The betel nut itself is a known carcinogen. This can cause blindness in both the eyes. Stomach Problems such as Ulcers, stomach upset, increased bowel activity and stomach cancer are a result of tobacco chewing. It also causes Loss of Taste and Smell and loss of appetite and the resultant poor nutrition with the various disorders due to malnutrition.

Tobacco, whether consumed in a smokeless form, snuff, or chewing form is a killer and is better avoided by everyone.