Health

Dust storms, pollution and soaring temperatures have caused difficulties for people, with many complaining of sore eyes and skin irritation as well.
Delhi: Dust storms, pollution and soaring temperatures have caused difficulties for people, with many complaining of sore eyes and skin irritation as well.
From dry cough to breathing problems and sore eyes to skin irritation, many healthy people in the city have suffered hazards of the severe dust pollution that Delhi has been reeling under for the past few days, which has worsened the condition of patients suffering from asthma, according to doctors.
Lung Surgeon at the Sir Ganga Ram Hospital (SGRH), Arvind Kumar, warned that what was more worrying, was that many people were “resorting to self-medication”, especially use of inhalers, when faced with any breathing difficulties.
The air quality in Delhi remained ‘severe’ for the sixth day today as both government and private hospitals continued to get cases of breathing issues and eye-related complications.
“In our hospital, we are getting many people, who are complaining of dry cough, sore eyes and skin itching. And, these people were otherwise healthy. People are also complaining of choking while in asthmatic patients it has precipitated acute attack. The air quality has become pretty bad, so one has to be very careful,” Kumar told PTI.
According to data shared by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), the PM10 level was recorded at 420 in Delhi today while the PM2.5 level was 107. The Air Quality Index (AQI) of the city remained severe at 402. Pollution level in neighboring regions also remained severe.
Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal had on Thursday ordered stoppage of all civil construction activities across Delhi till Sunday as part of emergency measures to bring down the severe dust pollution as pollutant levels had spiked at several places across Delhi.
The dust kicked from construction sites in and around Delhi is one of the major contributors to the pollution and a severe health hazard, as they may contain silica too, which is dangerous if ingested.
Prashant Saxena, Head and Principal Consultant- Pulmonology, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine, at Max Hospital, Saket, said, “In the past few weeks there has been a change in the pattern of patients visiting the OPD.”
“Patients with no history of respiratory ailments are complaining of a cough and breathing issues. This is due to the change in weather, combined with pollution and dust storms. Every day four to five new patients are displaying symptoms of respiratory ailments,” he said.
Dust storms, pollution and soaring temperatures have caused difficulties for people, with many complaining of sore eyes and skin irritation as well.
Doctors at AIIMS, RML Hospital and Safdarjung Hospital also said they were getting such cases.
“Yes, besides breathing troubles, other ill-effects of dust pollution is on eyes and skin. People should not venture out as much as possible for the time being or take proper precautions like wearing sunglasses or N95 masks to keep the dust and pollutants away. After returning home, one should wash the face and eyes with iced water,” Kumar of SGRH said.
The doctor advised that pregnant women should avoid going out as the health hazards suffered by an expectant mother would also percolate to the baby.
“Since Delhi has seen two big seasons of smog, so people, now know the problems ensuing from pollution. And, many of them are resorting to self-medication from prior experience. Under no circumstances, they should do that. Any medicine should be taken based on a prescription by a registered medical practitioner only.
“In my OPD, many patients told me that they were taking inhalers. Just like mask use had gone up during the smog, I reckon the inhaler use to has shot up,” he said.
A chemist at a drug store in south Delhi, who did not wish to be named, said, “When the pollution level spikes, our sale of inhalers go up. In past few days, it has increased.”
Mrinal Sircar, Director, Department of Pulmonology and Critical Care, Fortis Hospital, Noida, said, “People who are spending most of the time outside, such as office-goers, are more prone to the ill-effects of pollution.”
“About 70 per cent of office-goers move using a bus, auto, metro or car. Exposure in a car is usually less as compared to other modes of transport. The toxic effects of exposure to pollution are mainly on the respiratory, cardiovascular, ophthalmologic and dermatological system,” the doctor said.
For a couple of days earlier in the week, a thick haze had blanketed the skies in the national capital triggering health worries. The PM10 level had climbed to 778 in Delhi-NCR area and 824 in Delhi on Wednesday, bringing to light that severe pollution could be a ‘summer-time problem’ too.
Avi Kumar, Consultant, Pulmonology at Fortis Escorts Hospital, Okhla Road, said, “People should avoid going outdoors along with doing physical activities such as cycling, jogging or any other outdoor exercises, even in the morning.
“Air-purifying plants such as aloe vera, ivy and spider plant can be placed in the home and offices. People should consume fruits rich in vitamin C, magnesium, and food rich in omega fatty acids. Herbal, ginger and tulsi tea can also be taken,” he said.

Researchers have identified a new subtype of prostate cancer that occurs in about seven percent of patients with advanced disease.
New York: Researchers have identified a new subtype of prostate cancer that occurs in about seven percent of patients with advanced disease.
The subtype is characterized by loss of the gene CDK12. It was found to be more common in metastatic prostate cancer compared to early-stage tumors that had not spread, said the study published in the journal Cell.
“Because prostate cancer is so common, seven percent is a significant number,” said senior study author Arul Chinnaiyan from the University of Michigan in the US.
Tumors in which CDK12 was inactivated were responsive to immune checkpoint inhibitors, a type of immunotherapy treatment that has overall had limited success in prostate cancer, the study said.
“The fact that immune checkpoint inhibitors may be effective against this sub-type of prostate cancer makes it even more significant. This is an exciting prospect for patients who have CDK12 alterations and may benefit from immunotherapy,” Chinnaiyan added.
The researchers said they will lead a multisite clinical trial to assess checkpoint inhibitors as a treatment for metastatic prostate cancer with the CDK12 loss.
In this study, the researchers looked at DNA and RNA sequencing data from 360 tumor samples from patients with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer.
This is an aggressive, advanced form of the disease in which cancer has spread throughout the body and no longer responds to traditional hormone-based treatments.
The researchers found the loss of CDK12 in only about one percent of early prostate cancer samples. That jumped to 7 percent for metastatic cancer, which indicates a more aggressive form of the disease.
By following the mechanism of how CDK12 loss impacts the cell, the researchers found a process in which cells create neoantigens that are foreign to the immune system.
This boosts immune-fighting T-cells, which may explain why these patients benefit from immune checkpoint blockade.

Risk of cancer appeared to decline with greater levels of serum vitamin D.
Los Angeles: Higher levels of vitamin D may lower the risk of developing breast cancer, a study has found.
Researchers from the University of California San Diego in the US pooled data from two clinical trials with 3,325 combined participants and a prospective study involving 1,713 participants to examine the association between risk of female breast cancer and a broad range of serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D) concentrations, which was chosen as the marker because it is the main form of vitamin D in blood.
All women were age 55 or older. The average age was 63. Data were collected between 2002 and 2017.
Participants were free of cancer at enrollment and were followed for a mean period of four years. Vitamin D levels in blood were measured during study visits.
Over the course of the combined studies, 77 new cases of breast cancer were diagnosed for an age-adjusted incidence rate of 512 cases per 100,000 person-years.
Researchers identified the minimum healthy level of 25(OH)D in blood plasma to be 60 nanograms per millilitre (ng/ml), substantially higher than the 20 ng/ml recommended in 2010 by the National Academy of Medicine, a US health advisory group.
“We found that participants with blood levels of 25(OH)D that were above 60 ng/ml had one-fifth the risk of breast cancer compared to those with less than 20 ng/ml,” said Cedric F Garland, a professor at the UC San Diego.
Risk of cancer appeared to decline with greater levels of serum vitamin D.
Garland, who has previously studied connections between serum vitamin D levels and several types of cancer, said the study builds upon previous research linking vitamin D deficiency to a higher risk of breast cancer.
“This study was limited to postmenopausal breast cancer. Further research is needed on whether high 25(OH)D levels might prevent premenopausal breast cancer,” Garland said.

Albuvirtide is injected once a week and is secure, a staff from the Nanjing-based Frontier Biotechnologies Inc, surnamed Zhu, told Global Times.
Beijing: China has approved the first domestically developed, long-acting injectable HIV drug Albuvirtide which could be a boon to tens of thousands of HIV/AIDS patients in the country, the official media reported.
The drug, approved by the China Food and Drug Administration, can block the fusion of the virus and host cell membranes, interrupting the HIV life cycle in its earliest stage, state-run Global Times quoted a report from Science and Technology Daily.
Albuvirtide is injected once a week and is secure, a staff from the Nanjing-based Frontier Biotechnologies Inc, surnamed Zhu, told Global Times.
Compared to imported anti-HIV drugs, Albuvirtide has fewer side effects, especially on the liver, state-run Xinhua news agency reported, quoting Wu Hao, head of the infection center at Beijing You’an Hospital.
The drug is a fusion inhibitor that should be used with antiretroviral drugs to treat people with HIV condition who have received antiviral therapy, the company said.
Albuvirtide could potentially enhance patient compliance, improve quality of life and reduce treatment costs for HIV-infected patients, it wrote.
Current HIV treatments used in China are either generic or imported. AIDS and HIV patients mostly took a handful of pills every day, Peng Xiaohui, a sexologist at Central China Normal University, told the Global Times.
“China’s first domestically developed drug offers new HIV patients a new treatment option. We hope to dispel the fact that China has not developed good anti-AIDS medicine,” Xie Dong, chief scientist and former head of Frontier Biotechnologies Inc was quoted by the Science and Technology Daily as saying.
Several companies are developing long-acting AIDS drugs in China, but only Frontier’s drug has been approved, the Xinhua report said.
Peng said the patients have to overcome psychological obstacles first since they need to inject medicine on their own or have a doctor do it for them.
According to official data China has 718,270 people suffering from HIV/AIDS in China.
As of the end of June last year, 221,628 people had died of AIDS-related diseases in China, according to a Xinhua report of December 2017.

The findings are from one of the first studies to explore whether sequencing blood-borne DNA is a feasible approach to early cancer detection.
Washington: A blood test has offered hope of finding cancers before symptoms develop. The test that analyses free-floating DNA in blood may be able to detect early-stage lung cancer, a preliminary report from the ongoing Circulating Cell-Free Genome Atlas (CCGA) study suggests. The findings are from one of the first studies to explore whether sequencing blood-borne DNA is a feasible approach to early cancer detection.
“We`re excited that the initial results from the CCGA study show it is possible to detect early-stage lung cancer from blood samples using genome sequencing,” said the study`s lead author, Geoffrey R. Oxnard.”
There is an unmet need globally for early-detection tests for lung cancer that can be easily implemented by health-care systems. These are promising early results and the next steps are to further optimise the assays and validate the results in a larger group of people,” he added. Early diagnosis is essential to improve survival rates for lung cancer.
A blood test that could be done through a simple blood draw at the doctor`s office could potentially have a major impact on survival, but before such a test could be widely used, additional validation in larger data sets and in studies involving people who have not been diagnosed with cancer would be needed, researchers say.
Tests that analyse cell-free DNA in blood, known as “liquid biopsies,” are already used to help choose targeted therapies for people already diagnosed with lung cancer. Until recently, there has been limited evidence to indicate that cell-free DNA analysis may be feasible for early detection of the disease.
The CCGA study has enrolled more than 12,000 of the planned 15,000 participants (70 percent with cancer, 30 percent without cancer) across 141 sites in the United States and Canada. The new report is from the first sub-study from the CCGA, in which three prototype sequencing assays were performed on blood samples from approximately 1,700 participants.
In this initial analysis, researchers explored the ability of the three assays to detect cancer in 127 people with stage I-IV lung cancer.
The assays were designed to detect cancer-defining signals (mutations and other genomic changes) that could be used in an early cancer detection test:-Targeted sequencing to detect non-inherited (somatic) mutations, such as single nucleotide variants and small insertions and/or deletions;-Whole-genome sequencing (WGS) to detect somatic gene copy number changes;-Whole-genome bisulfite sequencing (WGBS) of cell-free DNA to detect epigenetic changes.-At 98 percent specificity, the WGBS assay detected 41 percent of early-stage (stage I-IIIA) lung cancers and 89 percent of late-stage (stage IIIB-IV) lung cancers. The WGS assay was similarly effective, detecting 38 percent of early-stage cancers and 87 percent of late-stage cancers,-the targeted assay detected 51 percent of early-stage cancers and 89 percent of late-stage cancers. The initial results showed that all three assays could detect lung cancer with a low rate of false positives (in which a test indicates a person has cancer when there is no cancer). Of th 580 samples from people without cancer at the time of enrollment in the sub-study, five (less than 1 percent) had a cancer-like signal across all three assays. Of those five participants, two were subsequently diagnosed with cancer (one with stage III ovarian cancer and one with stage II endometrial cancer) – highlighting the potential for such tests to identify early-stage cancers. Among participants with lung cancer, the study found that more than 54 percent of the somatic (non-inherited) mutations detected in blood samples were derived from white blood cells and not from tumors. These mutations are likely the result of natural aging processes (so-called clonal hematopoiesis of indeterminate potential, or CHIP) and will need to be taken into account when developing blood tests for early detection of blood cancers, noted Oxnard.
The researchers are verifying these results in an independent group of approximately 1,000 participants from CCGA as part of the same sub-study. Following this, they will continue to optimise the assays, and then validate them in an even larger data set from CCGA.
With increased sample sizes, machine learning approaches are expected to improve assay performance, Oxnard noted. The study was presented at the 2018 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting.

Virtual reality (VR) sessions prior to sedation for IVF treatment has been shown to reduce their anxiety and improve successful pregnancy rate.
Trying for In-vitro Fertilisation (IVF) treatments may make you stressed. Now a new pilot study by the Catholic University of Leuven in Brussels, Belgium, shows that giving women different types of virtual reality (VR) sessions prior to sedation for IVF treatment can reduce their anxiety and improve successful pregnancy rate.
“Virtual reality distraction was shown to be effective to reduce experimental pain as well as the discomfort associated with burn injury care. The technology is being used more and more in medicine, notably in psychiatry to treat phobias,” said Fabienne Roelants, professor at the Catholic University of Leuven.
What the study shows
In the study, 100 women aged between 18 and 42 years and undergoing IVF were randomly assigned one of two types of VR session. In the “distraction group”, women received a VR session — an underwater walk cut off from all ambient noise — and the hypnosis group received a VR session with hypnosis focused on breathing, slowing respiratory rhythm, along with suggestions to repeat the technique later to find well-being and calm as needed.
While there was no statistically significant difference regarding anxiety scores between groups, on the visual anxiety scale of 100 points, the distraction group women’s average anxiety score fell from 34 before the VR session to 23 after. In the hypnosis group, the score fell from 40 to 26 points.
Further, 48 of 55 women in the distraction group, had embryos successfully transferred, but only 10 of these women (22%) were biologically confirmed as pregnant, and only seven of these women (15%) had an ultrasound confirmed successful pregnancy at 12 weeks gestation.
In the hypnosis group, 35 women had embryos successfully transferred, with 16 of these (46%) biologically confirmed as pregnant, and eight of these (23%) went on the have an ultrasound confirmed clinical pregnancy at 12 weeks. The results were presented at 2018 Euroanaesthesia congress in Copenhagen, Denmark.
“The preliminary results show that VR sessions before sedation for fertility treatment significantly reduce women’s anxiety. The type of suggestions used during hypnosis session might show a significant positive impact on the biological pregnancy rate, but not on clinical pregnancy rate at 12 weeks,” Roelants said.
Tips for fertility and IVF treatments
* Acupuncture can boost chances of pregnancy.
A study done by IVF Cube in Prague, Czech Republic, shows that acupuncture therapy can boost your chances of getting pregnant by six per cent. The study found that acupuncture stimulates the sensory nerves under the skin and muscles of the body along with an increased blood flow to the uterus, which makes it more receptive to the embryo implanting when it is transferred during IVF.
* The Mediterranean diet can help.
A study done by the Harokopio University of Athens shows that a diet rich in fresh fruits and vegetables, fish, and olive oil — also called as a Mediterranean diet — would greatly benefit women trying for in-vitro fertilisation (IVF).
* Fertility treatments do not spike divorce risk.
A study done by the University of Porto in Portugal suggests that undergoing fertility treatment does not increase divorce risk. Previous studies have suggested that undergoing assisted reproductive technology (ART) such as in-vitro fertilisation (IVF) greatly increases couples’ stress and anxiety levels.

Hormonal imbalance can affect a wide range of body functions such as heart rate, metabolism and sleep cycle. Here’s why it is important to treat the condition as early as possible.
Have you been breaking out into a sweat with your face turning red for up to a minute? Or have you been experiencing a sudden rapid heartbeat, hair loss or unexplained anxiety?
One of the reasons for these conditions could possibly be a hormone imbalance in your body. But before we get into what you should do about this condition, we need to understand what exactly hormones are and what happens during hormonal imbalance.
“Hormones are natural chemicals present within the cells of the body that travel through the bloodstream to different organs and tissues. They are produced by glands in the endocrine system. Hormone production decreases naturally over time, and while the production of certain hormones decreases, there may be an overproduction of other hormones within the body, thus resulting in hormonal imbalances,” says Dr Minal Vohra, medical advisor at BeatO, Delhi, which is a smart diabetes care and management app.
The reason hormones are so important is because they help regulate one’s metabolism and appetite, heart rate, sleep cycles, reproductive cycles and sexual function, general growth and development, mood and stress levels and body temperature.
Hormonal imbalance can therefore affect a wide range of body functions. Men and women alike can be affected by imbalances in insulin, steroids, growth hormones, and adrenaline.
“Estrogen is a hormone that helps regulate the menstrual cycle while progesterone is essential for a healthy pregnancy. The most common hormonal imbalance among women of all ages is progesterone deficiency while estrogen deficiency is common among menopausal women. Men are more likely to experience imbalances in testosterone levels,” explains Dr Vohra.
But what are the signs and symptoms of hormonal imbalance?
Common symptoms of hormonal imbalance in women include insomnia, anxiety, hot flashes, increased sweating, rapid weight gain or weight loss, hair loss, acne, etc.
Low testosterone levels in men may lead to reduced sex drive and erectile dysfunction. They may experience reduced sense of well-being, depressed or anxious feeling and difficulty concentrating. A reduction in body hair may also be noted. Weight gain may be seen and some men may report increased breast tissue (gynecomastia).
There are different treatment options available for hormone imbalances. Treatment usually depends on the cause and specific needs of the patient.
“Hormone-replacement therapy (HRT) is one such treatment option, in which medication containing estrogen or progesterone prescribed by doctors helps replace the hormones that are deficient within the ovaries. Such treatment can be given through pills, patches or creams,” says Dr K K Aggarwal, who is based in Delhi and is the president of the Heart Care Foundation of India (HCFI).
“Maintaining a healthy diet and active lifestyle also helps in relieving the symptoms of hormonal imbalance. For low testosterone levels in men, testosterone replacement, usually by deep intramuscular (IM) injection, is often prescribed,” advises Dr Aggarwal.

Stakeholders say that in its attempt to cap medical bills, the draft issued by the government ignores hidden costs and provides only a ‘vague’ outline
The Delhi government this week released an advisory aimed at capping profits of private healthcare providers in the city. The non-enforceable advisory would act as a draft for an amendment to the state’s Nursing Home Rules, giving government the power to cancel licences of erring hospitals.
“The draft will be put out in the public domain. And, after a 30-day period, during which people and even hospitals and nursing homes can suggest changes, we will make it legally binding,” said Delhi health minister Satyendar Jain.
The first part of this series looked at whether the policy would actually benefit patients.
Several hospitals and healthcare experts said the policy had not been thought through and could lead to patients shuttling from one hospital to another. This gives rise to the question of implementation of measures laid out in the policy.
“In this case, the government has no legal standing,” said social jurist Ashok Agarwal, who has been engaging with the Delhi government and private hospitals to help poor patients avail of free beds reserved for economically weaker sections in corporate hospitals.
The Nursing Homes Act, currently in operation, gives power to the government to cancel the licence of facilities that do not adhere to minimum standards such as floor area for every bed, proportion of doctors, nurses and staff with the bed strength.
“The government can cancel the licence of a healthcare facility under the Nursing Home Act only if they do not fulfil the conditions on which they had been granted approval. Even if the government amends the rules, can they say that you can open a hospital in Delhi only if you do not make profits?” said Agarwal.
“The hospitals can easily take any amendment that the government tries to make to court as the hospitals have a right to make profits. Commercialisation of healthcare is permissible under law. Only education is considered to be philanthropy or community service and schools are not allowed to profiteer,” he added.
That’s not all, the government’s own agreement with several hospitals allows for them to make profit.
“When the government provides subsidised land, the agreement states that hospital has to provide free treatment to a certain percentage of poor patients coming to clinics and for admission. Everything including medicines and diagnostics are free for these patients and the bill runs into lakhs. The hospitals are allowed to make profits from the others to accommodate these expenditure. How can the government then say that they shouldn’t make profit?” said Agarwal.
Where are the definitions?
“The government will have to put out a document in the public domain which has been drafted in a proper format, in proper legal language clearly stating which sections of the rules are being amended. The document that has been currently released is just a list of suggestions of the committee,” said Agarwal.
A proper legal document should also have definitions, and many experts say that the current document is somewhat “vague”.
“The policy says that hospitals should come up with normal packages and high-risk packages, but nowhere does it mention what procedure or what services. These would be highly variable,” said an administrator from All India Institute of Medical Sciences, requesting anonymity.
What about the hidden costs?
“When they say the packages should clearly mention what it includes, should the hospital start mentioning hidden costs like ‘this is my EMI for the new CT scan machine I purchased, this is for the air condition, this is for housekeeping’. The hospitals might have to resort to these impractical things because the draft says there should be no arbitrary charges without mentioning what is arbitrary,” the administrator said.
To give the advisory some teeth, the government will have to introduce it in the cabinet and then present it to the L-G. Even if all the necessary changes are made and the government is allowed to make the proposed amendments, it may be years before patients actually benefit.
Projects like remodelling of hospitals that had been announced by the government in the first year were cleared by the cabinet this year. Apart from that, the government is at loggerheads with the lieutenant governor for almost all their key projects.
Who will enforce it?
The “draft” does not mention anywhere how the government plans to check whether the hospitals actually follow the norms.
“Even now we come to know if there is any wrongdoing, people come in with complaints. But, we will come up with a helpline when it becomes a law,” the health minister had said at the press conference while announcing the draft policy.
“Right now, we are trying to gauge the public reaction; we will talk about implementation when we amend the rules. We are thinking of taking help of the 11 chief district medical officers and the 11 additional chief district medical officers, who can visit the hospitals in their area and check whether hospitals are following the norms,” said Dr Kirti Bhushan, Delhi’s director general of health services.
“All of this needs to be included in the draft before it is put out for public consultation. I am not against the AAP government, in fact, they have done a lot in the healthcare sector. But, the government needs to follow proper procedure if they are serious about bringing in the change,” said Agarwal.

As per the proposal, the project will comprise of constructing five blocks with 184 beds. Maximum height of the building will be 38 metre.
New Delhi : All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) has received green nod for developing super-speciality blocks at Jai Prakash Narayan Apex Trauma Centre (JPNATC) in the national capital at a cost of Rs 2,163 crore.
State-owned NBCC will be implementing the proposed project that will come up in an area of 60,500 square metre in the JPNATC campus-II at Safdarjung Enclave. The construction work is expected to be completed in four years.
In a letter to NBCC, Union environment ministry said it has given the environment clearance to the AIIMS’ proposed project with certain riders.
The clearance has been given after taking into account the recommendations of an internal expert committee.
The land acquisition has been done for the proposed site. The cost of the project is estimated to be Rs 2,163 crore.
As per the proposal, the project will comprise of constructing five blocks with 184 beds. Maximum height of the building will be 38 metre.
The building will accommodate various departments such as Extension of Trauma, Digestive Diseases, Spine, ENT, Endocrine, Diabetes and Metabolic Disorders, BMT and Kidney Transplant, Research centre, Rehabilitation Centre, OPD, Radio-diagnosis, Central Service labs among others.

Heart failure causes, symptoms and cure: Heart experts say that even moderate drinking could worsen the condition for heart failure patients. According to a new study, alcohol consumption could worsen the condition of patients with a faulty version of a gene called titin.
Alcohol is bad for our health and we don’t need a doctor to tell us that. However, how much alcohol is ok has always been debatable. There have been many studies conducted on the consumption of alcohol and its impact on our bodies, but there has never been a conclusive figure or amount that we could agree on. But in the interest of good health, it is best to avoid alcohol. Because according this latest study, even moderate level of alcohol consumption may worsen the condition of heart failure patients with a faulty versions of a gene called titin, new research has found. Titin is crucial for maintaining the elasticity of the heart muscle. But faulty version of the gene may cause dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM)– a type of heart failure where the left ventricle becomes weak causing lessening the ability to pump blood.
“Our research strongly suggests alcohol and genetics are interacting — and genetic predisposition and alcohol consumption can act together to lead to heart failure,” said study co-author James Ware from the National Heart and Lung Institute at Imperial College London.
Method of study
For the first part of the study, the team analysed 141 patients with a type of heart failure called alcoholic cardiomyopathy (ACM) — a type of heart failure due to long term alcohol abuse which may trigger because of drinking more than 70 units a week (roughly seven bottles of wine) for five years or more.
Results of the study
The team found that the faulty titin gene may also play a role in the condition. The results, published in Journal of the American College of Cardiology, showed that 13.5% of ACM patients carried the mutation — much higher than the proportion of people who carry them in the general population.
Ware explained that the condition is not simply the result of alcohol poisoning, but arises from a genetic predisposition and thus can put other family members at risk as well.
According to another study, moderate alcohol drinking can in fact lower heart failure risk. But there’s a need for more study to be undertaken to conclusively claim this. Though this study was widely circulated, researchers need to find more evidence on the claim based on the kind of alcohol, amount of alcohol consumed, among other things.