The health benefits of beer include anticancer properties, a reduced risk of cardiovascular diseases, increased bone density, the prevention of dementia and coronary disease, aid to the digestive system, anti-aging properties, as well as treating diabetes, gallstones, kidney stones, osteoporosis, and hypertension. It also acts as a serious stress buster and a diuretic.

Beer is an alcoholic beverage that people usually prefer to drink with certain meals in North America and Europe. It has a greater protein and vitamin B content than wine, while its antioxidant content is equivalent to that of wine. Hops, a major component for brewing beer, are rich sources of flavonoids, which are potent antioxidants.

It is a very good source of certain minerals that play essential roles in various metabolic processes. If taken in moderate quantities, it can definitely boost your health in a number of ways.

HEALTH BENEFITS OF BEER

Health benefits of beer become prominent if it is consumed in moderate amounts. Some of these interesting health benefits include the following:

Anti-Cancer Properties: A flavonoid compound called Xanthohumol is found in the hops commonly used in brewing beer. It has been seen to play a major role in the chemoprevention of cancer, including prostate cancer. According to Bio-medicine, it is also a good source of polyphenols, due to the grains used for fermentation. It has been proven effective in fighting cancer, just like red wine.

Reduced Risk of Cardiovascular Diseases: Beer contains vitamin B6, which protects against heart diseases by preventing the build-up of a compound called homocysteine. It has a thinning effect on the blood and prevents the formation of clots, which cause blocks in the coronary arteries. Moderate consumption also reduces the risk of inflammation, the root cause of atherosclerosis, which is cholesterol and plaque building up on the blood vessels and artery walls.

Increased Bone Density: Moderate intake is shown to increase bone density, thereby preventing the risk of fractures and osteoporosis.

Diabetes: Studies have linked moderate beer consumption to a lower prevalence of type 2 diabetes.

Prevention of Anemia: Beer is a good source of vitamin B12 and folic acid, a deficiency of which may lead to anemia. Vitamin B12 is also essential for maintaining normal growth, good memory and concentration.

Hypertension: Regular beer drinkers have been found to have lower blood pressure, compared to people that consume similar amounts of wine or other spirits.

Anti-Aging Properties: Beer increases the potency and impact of vitamin E, which is a major antioxidant in the body. It is an important part of the maintenance of healthy skin, while also slowing down the aging process.

Gallstones: Regular consumption of moderate amounts of beer affects the cholesterol levels and decreases bile concentration, leading to a reduced risk of developing gallstones.

Prevention of Dementia and Coronary Disease: Beer consumption also boosts the level of “good cholesterol” by 10-20%, thus reducing the risk of dementia and cardiovascular diseases.

Aids Digestive System: Beer is shown to possess a number of digestive properties, which include the stimulation of gastrin, gastric acid, cholecystokinin and pancreatic enzymes.

Kidney Stones and Osteoporosis: Beer has been found to be high in potassium and low in sodium. It is a rich source of magnesium, which results in a reduced risk of kidney stones. The silicon present in it is also readily absorbed by the body, further explaining the protective effect of beer against osteoporosis.

Stress Buster: Like other alcoholic drinks, beer is shown to reduce stress and facilitate sleep.

Diuretic: Beer acts as a diuretic, and significantly increases urination. This facilitates the increased removal of toxins and waste materials from the body.

Cleansing of Gastrointestinal Tract: Beer is a good source of soluble fibers that promote general health. This includes being good for the heart, as well as helping to clean out the digestive tracts.

This sums up a few of the health benefits of beer consumption, when done in moderation. Moderate levels of consumption also ensure that the calorie intake from it does not affect the health adversely.

May 5: Smoking the odd cigarette when out with friends may seem relatively harmless, but a new study suggests it can be as dangerous for the heart as an everyday habit.

US researchers found that the risk of high blood pressure and worrying cholesterol was the same for social smokers as those who light up every day.

More than 10 per cent of the 39,000 people surveyed said they were ‘social smokers’ compared with 17 per cent who said they smoked daily.

The study found that around 75 per cent of both groups had high blood pressure, while 54 per cent had high cholesterol.

“Not smoking at all is the best way to go. Even smoking in a social situation is detrimental to your cardiovascular health,” said lead author Dr Kate Gawlik assistant professor of clinical nursing at Ohio State University.

“One in 10 people in this study said they sometimes smoke, and many of them are young and already on the path to heart disease.”

Smoking is a risk factor for unhealthy blood pressure and cholesterol and both are significant contributors to cardiovascular disease, the leading killer of men and women worldwide.

Senior study author Bernadette Melnyk said doctors and nurses should try to identify social smokers and offer them advice and tools to quit smoking.

“These are striking findings and they have such significance for clinical practice and for population health,” she said.

“This has been a fairly neglected part of the population. We know that regular smoking is an addiction, but providers don’t usually ask about social smoking.

DUBLIN: The United Nations Children’s Fund says that more than a quarter of children under age 5 worldwide are permanently “stunted” from malnutrition, leaving them physically and intellectually weak and prone to early death.

In a report published Monday in Dublin, it says better provision of vitamins, clean water and breastfeeding could have helped these 165 million children achieve normal brain and body development.

The 24 countries with high levels of stunted children are concentrated in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia.

More than half of children in Timor-Leste, Burundi, Niger and Madagascar are stunted. The country with the largest number of stunted children is India with 61.7 million, or 48 percent of all Indians under age 5.

Ireland has brought together experts worldwide to discuss efforts to combat stunting.

WASHINGTON: A baby born with the virus that causes AIDS appears to have been cured, scientists announced Sunday, describing the case of a child from Mississippi who’s now 2½ and has been off medication for about a year with no signs of infection.

There’s no guarantee the child will remain healthy, although sophisticated testing uncovered just traces of the virus’ genetic material still lingering. If so, it would mark only the world’s second reported cure.

Specialists say Sunday’s announcement, at a major AIDS meeting in Atlanta, offers promising clues for efforts to eliminate HIV infection in children, especially in AIDS-plagued African countries where too many babies are born with the virus.

“You could call this about as close to a cure, if not a cure, that we’ve seen,” Dr. Anthony Fauci of the National Institutes of Health, who is familiar with the findings, told The Associated Press.

A doctor gave this baby faster and stronger treatment than is usual, starting a three-drug infusion within 30 hours of birth. That was before tests confirmed the infant was infected and not just at risk from a mother whose HIV wasn’t diagnosed until she was in labor.

“I just felt like this baby was at higher-than-normal risk, and deserved our best shot,” Dr. Hannah Gay, a pediatric HIV specialistat the University of Mississippi, said in an interview.

That fast action apparently knocked out HIV in the baby’s blood before it could form hideouts in the body. Those so-called reservoirs of dormant cells usually rapidly reinfect anyone who stops medication, said Dr. Deborah Persaud of Johns Hopkins Children’s Center. She led the investigation that deemed the child “functionally cured,” meaning in long-term remission even if all traces of the virus haven’t been completely eradicated.

Next, Persaud’s team is planning a study to try to prove that, with more aggressive treatment of other high-risk babies. “Maybe we’ll be able to block this reservoir seeding,” Persaud said.

No one should stop anti-AIDS drugs as a result of this case, Fauci cautioned.

But “it opens up a lot of doors” to research if other children can be helped, he said. “It makes perfect sense what happened.”

Better than treatment is to prevent babies from being born with HIV in the first place.

About 300,000 children were born with HIV in 2011, mostly in poor countries where only about 60 percent of infected pregnant women get treatment that can keep them from passing the virus to their babies. In the U.S., such births are very rare because HIV testing and treatment long have been part of prenatal care.

“We can’t promise to cure babies who are infected. We can promise to prevent the vast majority of transmissions if the moms are tested during every pregnancy,” Gay stressed.

The only other person considered cured of the AIDS virus underwent a very different and risky kind of treatment — a bone marrow transplant from a special donor, one of the rare people who is naturally resistant to HIV. Timothy Ray Brown of San Francisco has not needed HIV medications in the five years since that transplant.

The Mississippi case shows “there may be different cures for different populations of HIV-infected people,” said Dr. Rowena Johnston of amFAR, the Foundation for AIDS Research. That group funded Persaud’s team to explore possible cases of pediatric cures.

It also suggests that scientists should look back at other children who’ve been treated since shortly after birth, including some reports of possible cures in the late 1990s that were dismissed at the time, said Dr. Steven Deeks of the University of California, San Francisco, who also has seen the findings.

“This will likely inspire the field, make people more optimistic that this is possible,” he said.

In the Mississippi case, the mother had had no prenatal care when she came to a rural emergency room in advanced labor. A rapid test detected HIV. In such cases, doctors typically give the newborn low-dose medication in hopes of preventing HIV from taking root. But the small hospital didn’t have the proper liquid kind, and sent the infant to Gay’s medical center. She gave the baby higher treatment-level doses.

The child responded well through age 18 months, when the family temporarily quit returning and stopped treatment, researchers said. When they returned several months later, remarkably, Gay’s standard tests detected no virus in the child’s blood.

Ten months after treatment stopped, a battery of super-sensitive tests at half a dozen laboratories found no sign of the virus’ return. There were only some remnants of genetic material that don’t appear able to replicate, Persaud said.

In Mississippi, Gay gives the child a check-up every few months: “I just check for the virus and keep praying that it stays gone.”

The mother’s HIV is being controlled with medication and she is “quite excited for her child,” Gay added.

The Ministry says the preparation of policy to run pharmacies has reached the final phase.

MoHP is to run pharmacies at the hospitals under it after public complaints were received against pharmacies selected through open competition by hospitals.

Secretary at the Ministry, Dr. Praveen Mishra, said that the Ministry has directed hospitals to make necessary preparation to run pharmacies itself and not to call for new bids.

Health services have been provided through more than 100 hospitals including central, zonal and district level hospitals under the Ministry.

Pharmacies have been run at the premises of such hospitals and outside of hospital by private sector through open competition.

Meanwhile, the Ministry has got permission from the cabinet to assign 330 specialist doctors to fulfill the vacant posts.

Chief of the Medical Division at the Ministry, Prof. Dr. Tirtha Burlakoti said that works related to this would be forwarded soon.