A simple diet to drop your elevated blood pressure

 A healthy diet is one of the most effective ways to prevent blood pressure from reaching dangerously high levels. A diet rich in fruits and vegetables can help reduce the risk of hypertension, but there is one vegetable that can be considered a true ‘superfood’ when it comes to lowering blood pressure.Hypertension, or high blood pressure, is an extremely dangerous pathology that can cause a heart attack or stroke. They call it the silent killer for the total absence of specific symptoms.The diet has a strong effect on blood pressure. Some foods, especially those high in salt and saturated fat, can cause a spike. However, other foods can reduce it, lowering the risk of serious complications and improving heart health.For example, one of these foods is a vegetable that is readily available, inexpensive and is also known for its rich flavor. It’s about Beetroot.This vegetable is very healthy because it is rich in substances that relax blood vessels and allow blood to circulate better throughout the body.Make yourself a juice, cut it into salads, add it to smoothies or rice; no matter how the benefits are the same.Raw beets contain most of these beneficial substances, so it is considered best to drink beet juice.In a related study, participants drank 250 milliliters of juice and ate 250 grams of baked beets daily for 15 days. Their blood pressure reading dropped “significantly” in just half a month.Other foods that help fight hypertension are oily fish, green leafy vegetables, berries, legumes, citrus fruits, and carrots.However, the most important thing is to add less salt to your food. Try using herbs and spices instead.Although diet is very important to control blood pressure and, above all, to prevent hypertension, it is always a good idea to consult your doctor.

FDA grants breakthrough designation to urine-based liquid biopsy for prostate cancer - miR Sentinel PCC4 Assay

 The miR Sentinel PCC4 Assay is a non-invasive test that has achieved sensitivity and specificity rates above 90% for both detecting and classifying prostate tumors.

The FDA has granted a breakthrough device designation to the miR Sentinel PCC4 Assay (miR Sentinel Prostate Test), a urine-based, non-invasive test that can be used to diagnose, classify, and monitor prostate cancer.1

Initial data validating the efficacy of the assay were previously published in the Journal of Urology.2 The findings showed sensitivity and specificity rates of greater than 90% for both detecting prostate tumors and classifying them as intermediate or high risk.

The breakthrough designation will expedite the development and regulatory review of the miR Sentinel PCC4 assay.

"We are highly appreciative that the FDA's breakthrough designation process provided miR Scientific with invaluable feedback, which we have incorporated into our current clinical prospective studies to support our full marketing authorization plan," Sam Salman, chairman and CEO of miR Scientific, stated in a press release.1

"Receiving this designation achieves another important milestone in the development of our novel and ground-breaking technology. We believe that the accuracy and non-invasive feature of our award-winning technology will impact the lives of millions of men and forever positively change the standard of care for urological cancers," added Salman.

The miR Sentinel PCC4 Assay involves interrogating small noncoding RNAs (sncRNAs) that have been extracted from urinary exosomes. The interrogation of the sncRNAs is done through a high-throughput real-time PCR–based platform. Proprietary selection and classification algorithms are used to analyze the interrogated sncRNAs.

In the study, the investigators extracted sncRNAs from urinary exosomes of the 235 enrolled individuals. The sncRNAs were interrogated on miR 4.0 microarrays. According to the researchers, “Using proprietary selection and classification algorithms, informative sncRNAs were selected to customize an interrogation OpenArray platform that forms the basis of the tests.”2 Validation of the tests was done using a case-control sample that consisted of 1436 individuals.

The Sentinel Prostate Test showed a sensitivity rate of 94% and a specificity rate of 92% in detecting prostate cancer. The sensitivity and specificity rates were 93% and 90%, respectively, for the prediction of Grade Group ≥2 cancer, and, the corresponding rates were 94% and 96%, respectively, for the prediction of Grade Group ≥3 cancer.

In an accompanying editorial simultaneously published in the Journal of Urology,3 Brian Helfand, MD, division of urology, NorthShore University HealthSystem, Evanston, Illinois, discussed the significance of the findings. 

“Urologists are all too familiar with the inherent limitations of prostate cancer screening. As such, novel biomarker tests that can better distinguish both prostate cancer from indolent disease and high-grade from indolent tumors are greatly needed,” wrote Helfand.

Reduce breast size without surgery: 5 ways!

 

The sudden weight you tend to put on your breasts post-pregnancy or after a sudden increase in your weight can be inconvenient. Several factors determine the size of your breasts - genetics, the body mass index, your age or even breastfeeding. So, if you are trying to get your breasts to look less saggy without undergoing surgery, we have your back. Read on to know more about the factors that affect breast size and natural remedies to reduce your breast size.

• Ginger

Regular consumption of ginger helps in obesity management and may help reduce weight and associated risks. This may have an overall impact on your body weight and help improve the look of sagging breasts. However, there are no studies to prove the efficacy of ginger in reducing breast size.

Method

You will need:

1 teaspoon of grated ginger

1 cup of water

1 teaspoon of honey

What you have to do

Boil the grated ginger for 5 minutes and strain the liquid.

Let it cool down. Add honey to it and drink. Repeat this method 3 times daily

• Green Tea

Green tea may help reduce body weight and body mass index. Weight gain is one of the causes of increased breast size. Hence, reducing body weight may help reduce breast size.

Method

You will need:

1 teaspoon of green tea

1 cup of water

1 teaspoon of honey

What you have to do:

Boil the tea leaves for 5 minutes and strain the liquid.

Let it cool down, add honey to it, and drink. Repeat this 3 times a day.

• Neem and Turmeric

This remedy is especially useful if you are trying to lose breast fat after pregnancy or breastfeeding. Internal inflammation is associated with obesity and the deposition of fat. Neem and turmeric help overcome inflammation. This may help reduce the breast size.

Method

You will need:

A handful of neem leaves

2 teaspoons of turmeric powder

4 glasses of water

1 teaspoon of honey (optional)

What you have to do:

Boil the neem leaves for 5-10 minutes and strain the liquid.

Add turmeric and honey to it and drink it up. Do this once daily.

• Spinach

Spinach is known for its weight loss benefits. Consume this smoothie and workout to tone the muscles, reduce your weight, and improve the appearance of your breasts.

Method

You will need:

2-3 bunches of spinach

What you have to do:

Prepare a spinach smoothie with almond milk and fruits of your choice.

Add some ice cubes to it and drink. Repeat this 3 times a week

• Lemon

Lemon can significantly reduce body fat. Regular consumption of citrus fruits may help with fat loss, which may significantly reduce your breast size.

Method

You will need:

A lemon

1 glass of water

1 teaspoon of honey

What you have to do:

Squeeze a lemon into the water and add honey to it.

Stir and drink. Do this once daily.

How to Reduce the Long-term Effects of High Blood Pressure in Obese People?

 One of the methods is thru medications which is briefly described bellow:

If lifestyle modifications have not been successful in achieving weight reduction and blood pressure control, the statement suggests prescription medications may be considered for people who have obesity or overweight.

A newer class of medications called GLP-1 receptor agonists has been shown to help with sustained weight loss and significantly reducing blood pressure.

GLP-1 agonists, such as liraglutide and semaglutide are synthetic hormones, self-administered in a daily or weekly injection, that reduce appetite and help people to feel full.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration recently approved both medications for weight management and weight loss in individuals classified as overweight or obese.

Vitamin D may protect severe Covid infection, death: Study

Vitamin D may protect severe Covid infection, death: Study: London, Sep 16 (IANS): Good amount of Vitamin D in the body before Covid-19 infection can prevent severe disease and death, according to an international study. A team from Trinity College in Ireland, University of Edinburgh in Scotland and Zhejiang University in China for the first time looked at both genetically-pre.....

New prostate cancer test avoids unnecessary biopsies

Currently, one of doctors' best methods for detecting prostate cancer is a blood test for prostate-specific antigen, commonly known as the PSA test. Elevated PSA levels may indicate cancer, but the majority of men with an elevated PSA do not actually have prostate cancer.To determine which patients do and do not have cancer, men with an elevated PSA test undergo an invasive procedure called a transrectal biopsy. Prostate biopsies are uncomfortable for patients and carry a small risk of complications. MRI scans are also used to detect prostate cancer, but these can also miss cancerous lesions and come with much higher costs and limited availability. "Our ultimate goal was to determine whether the MyProstateScore test could be a practical, reliable test that could rule out the need for more costly or invasive testing in men referred for a prostate biopsy," says study lead author Jeffrey Tosoian, M.D., M.P.H., a clinical lecturer in urology at Michigan Medicine. Tosoian and two of his co-authors were founders of LynxDX and hold an equity stake in the company. Not all prostate cancers are equally worrisome. Many arise later in life and are so slow growing that the best course of action is to simply monitor them. It is patients with these slow growing cancers or no cancer who, despite elevated PSA levels, could be spared from the more invasive or expensive procedures if doctors had better tests, the researchers say. The validation study included patients seen at academic health centers and in community health settings. Among these 1,525 patients, 338 -- 22% -- had cancers detected on biopsy that were group grade 2 or higher, meaning they were serious enough to warrant immediate treatment. If the MyProstateScore test had been available to patients in the study, 387 biopsies that found no cancer or slow-growing cancer could have been avoided, the study found. Meanwhile, the test would have missed only 10 clinically significant cancers that would have warranted immediate treatment. "The data show that this straightforward, secondary testing approach could reduce the use of more costly and invasive procedures following a PSA test," Tosoian says.

Source: Eurekalert

Sunlight converts plastic waste to hydrogen fuel

A simple sunlight-driven process  transforms plastic waste into hydrogen and other useful chemicals. The process, called photoreforming, is simple. They drop the photocatalyst onto the plastic then immerse the plastic in an alkaline solution. Irradiation with sunlight reduces water from the solution to hydrogen while the plastic polymers simultaneously oxidise to small organic molecules. The group tested the system by photoreforming three common polymers; polylactic acid, polyethylene terphthalate and polyurethane. The results matched those of state-of-the-art hydrogen evolution photocatalysis systems that employed expensive sacrificial reagents.