Swad brand sindoor contains high levels of lead

Swad brand sindoor contains high levels of lead

FDA is warning consumers not to use Swad brand sindoor because the product contains high levels of lead, leading to lead toxicity or lead poisoning.
– The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is warning consumers not to use 3.5 oz. packages of Swad brand sindoor, an orange or red powder used in some traditional South Asian Pacific ceremonies that is applied to the face or scalp, imported by Raja Foods LLC of Skokie, Illinois because the product contains high levels of lead. Although the product was not intended to be sold for food use, its labeling is confusing and implies that it may be used as food.

Test for targeted therapy in acute myeloid leukemia

Researchers have discovered that a particular hormone is responsible for driving a cancer enzyme to cause an often deadly red blood cell cancer, Polycythemia vera.
– An Oregon Health & Science University Cancer Institute researcher has discovered that a particular hormone is responsible for driving a cancer enzyme to cause an often deadly red blood cell cancer.

Late developmental growth may risk depression

Children with low weight during infancy or slight developmental delays may be at greater risk for developing depression.
– Psychiatrists remain divided as to how to define and classify the mood and anxiety disorders, the most common mental disorders. Committees across the globe are currently pondering how best to carve nature at its anxious joints for the fifth version of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM-V), the “gold standard” reference book for psychiatrists.

Kids eat more fruits, vegetables

One of the major contributing factors to the high rate of overweight children in the United States is that they do not consume the daily recommended servings of fruits and vegetables.
– A new UCLA study has found that elementary schools can significantly increase the frequency of fruit and vegetable consumption among low-income students by providing a lunch salad bar.

White matter disease affects treatment in Alzheimer’s disease patients

There may be a difference in response to treatment in Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) patients with and without white matter disease in selective areas of the brain.
– Researchers at Sunnybrook have shown that there may be a difference in response to treatment in Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) patients with and without white matter disease in selective areas of the brain.

Diesel exhaust fumes affect people with asthma

This is the first study to investigate in a real-life setting, outside of the laboratory, if traffic fumes make symptoms worse for people with asthma. Two thirds of people with asthma believe this to be the case.
– Diesel exhaust fumes on polluted streets have a measurable effect on people with asthma, according to the first study looking at exhausts and asthma in a real-life setting, published on 6 December in the New England Journal of Medicine.

India to share experience in controlling avian flu

India is committed to share the experience of control and containment of the outbreak of influenza in poultry.
– The Indian Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh has said that India is committed to share the experience of control and containment of the outbreak of influenza in poultry. He was speaking at a three-day International Ministerial Conference on Avian and Pandemic Influenza, here.

Living embryonic heart cells prevent cardiac arrhythmias

Researchers implant embryonic cells into damaged hearts and prevent life-threatening heart arrhythmias.
– When researchers at Cornell, the University of Bonn and the University of Pittsburgh transplanted living embryonic heart cells into cardiac tissue of mice that had suffered heart attacks, the mice became resistant to cardiac arrhythmias, thereby avoiding one of the most dangerous and fatal consequences of heart attacks.

Gene identified that influences alcohol consumption

Researchers applied a variety of genetic and analytic techniques to identify a chromosomal region, and ultimately a gene, associated with alcohol preference.
– A variant of a gene involved in communication among brain cells has a direct influence on alcohol consumption in mice, according to a new study by scientists supported by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and the U.S. Army.

Colon cancer screenings could pose harm to some

R. Scott Braithwaite, M.D., and his colleagues developed a new method of evaluating medical screening tests like colonoscopy, called the “payoff time,” which is the minimum amount of time it takes for the benefits from a test to exceed its harms (i.e., its complications and side effects).
– Even though current guidelines advocate colorectal cancer screenings for those with severe illnesses, they may bring little benefit and may actually pose harm, according to a recent study by Yale School of Medicine researchers published in the Archives of Internal Medicine.

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