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Health Briefs

Sunday, 12 March 2023 | Agencies

Preventing diabetes in pregnancy need of the hour: Dr Jitendra Singh

Expressing concern that Type-2 Diabetes has assumed epidemic proportions in the country, Union Minister Dr. Jitendra Singh has stressed on steps to effectively check the occurrence of diabetes in pregnant women to prevent passing the disease to future generations.

 “It is a well-known fact that a woman who gets gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) is likely to pass on to her progeny a higher preponderance to develop Type-2 diabetes and that too at a relatively younger age,” Dr Singh, a diabetologist, said while addressing the Annual Conference of DIPSI (Diabetes in Pregnancy Study Group of India) held recently.

In an alarming situation like this, unless we can effectively prevent the occurrence of diabetes in pregnant women, it may not be possible to break the chain of Type-2 Diabetes Mellitus getting passed from generation to generation and thus affecting the future generations, he said.

Singh, a founder member of DIPSI, had a special word of appreciation for Dr V. Seshiah who devoted his life to this cause.

Nearly half a century ago, Dr Seshiah and his team had recommended conducting a "spot test" for blood sugar in every pregnant woman and today a "single procedure test in pregnancy" developed by the same team has been accepted worldwide as reliable and effective for future management.

Seshiah has now moved on to primordial prevention of diabetes in pregnant women, Singh said, adding that the success of this will not only help in controlling the epidemic of diabetes in India.

One stroke death every 4 minutes in India: top neurologist

About 1,85,000 strokes occur every year in India with nearly one stroke every 40 seconds and one stroke death every 4 minutes, top neurologist Dr M V Padma Srivastava has said.

“India bore the maximum burden of stroke with 68.6 per cent incidence of stroke, 70.9% stroke deaths and 77.7% disability adjusted life years (DALYs) lost,” she said at an event organised at the Sir Ganga Ram Hospital to celebrate International Women's Day.

In spite of these alarming figures, the doctor flagged concerns that many Indian hospitals lack the necessary infrastructure and do not deliver adequate stroke care.

Alzheimer's drug fails to slow cognitive decline, says Eli Lilly

American pharmaceutical Eli Lilly has stated that its solanezumab drug did not slow cognitive decline nor reduced risk of progression to symptomatic Alzheimer's disease. Solanezumab was designed to target amyloid protein that floats in brain fluid before it deposits on the brain as plaque. But the trial showed that it did not clear plaque or halt accumulation of amyloid in participants treated with the drug, the drug maker said. The results can have a significant effect on approximately 315 million people globally who have preclinical Alzheimer's disease – the earliest stages of the disease — and have not yet shown clinical symptoms. "The findings indicate that amyloid is a key driver of cognitive decline at the preclinical stage of Alzheimer's disease. Solanezumab did not substantially impact amyloid plaque burden in the brain, and unfortunately did not slow cognitive decline, " said Reisa Sperling, neurologist at the Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, in a statement.

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