A new research has found that long term use of marijuana can increase the probability of an individual of developing the most aggressive Testicular cancer in his body. The intake of Marijuana can increase 70 percent risk of cancer.

The risk is basically to those individuals who are in a regular habit of using this Marijuana or to those who starts using this at early ages or in adolescence. Most of the individuals have this risk at the ages of 20s or 30s.

Some studies reveal that cancer is caused when Marijuana is correlated with the use of alcohol and habit of smoking. But till now it has been proved that Marijuana can independently cause cancer.

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Obesity can cuts down the life span of an obese person, a new study suggested. Moderated obesity means almost 50 to 60 pounds above then the ideal body mass index can shorten three to four years of life and the most American middle-age men having the extra 150 pounds than their ideal weight which can shorten life span by ten years.

Thought this level is not as much common as smoking as smoking is also known to reduce the life span by ten years, so both reasons are equally dangerous.

For the study, Whitlock the lead researcher analyzed the data of 894,576 people with 25 BMI. According to the U.S. National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, people are considered overweight when they have a BMI over 25 and 29.9 and obese after crossing BMI 30 and more.

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West Virginia and Kentucky, where smoking is a tradition, have the highest death rate due to smoking and related illnesses, new federal study has founded.

Ten states have been identified, which have the highest average annual smoking death rates these include Indiana, Missouri, Nevada, Alabama, Tennessee, Arkansas, Mississippi and Oklahoma.

Utah and Hawaii were at the bottom, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report.

The death rate because of smoking related health problem was 371 and 344 out of 100,000 adults aged above 35, in Kentucky and West Virginia, respectively.

That number was nearly one-and-a-half times higher than the figure provided by the official media i.e. 263 per 100,000. This figure was nearly three folds to than the death rates in Utah, which are 138 per 100,000.

The researchers compile results by calculating the death certificates from 2000 to 2004, focusing on lung cancer and other 18 diseases, which are known to cause by smoking.

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Almost 75 percent patients hospitalized for cardiac arrest showed normal cholesterol levels, far away from the risk of cardiovascular trouble, a nationwide study reported.

The finding indicate towards the need to change the current threshold value of the cholesterol level, said study author Dr. Gregg C. Fonarow

“The LDL cholesterol level at which people have heart attacks shouldn’t be considered as normal,” Fonarow said. Yardstick

LDL cholesterol, in other words “bad” cholesterol, accumulates to form plaques that ultimately block arteries. Values evaluated by U.S. National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute are 130 milligrams per deciliter for healthy people and 70 milligram per deciliter for those who have high risk factors such as obesity, smoking and hypertension and diabetes.

But the collected data of 137,000 cardiac arrest patients, from 2000 to 2006, showed that, about three-quarter had bad cholesterol level below 130 at the time of hospitalization, while 17.6 percent had LDL levels below 70.

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With the decrease of marijuana and alcohol use, the abuse of painkillers such as Vicodin and Oxycontin has increased in teens, according to a new report.

In U.S. improvement has been seen in many drug uses since late ’90s, but from last two years the down ward trend has stopped.

“In this need of the hour we have to put our maximum efforts, because although there have been improvements, but still the rates are higher with respect to international standards, and it’s the matter of the prime concern in terms of the risk to the health of our community in the long run,” Dr Wilson M. Compton said.

Report mentioned the use of prescription painkillers among adolescence remains high, with some 10 percent of seniors saying they used Vicodin and 4.7 percent said they used Oxycontin in the past year.

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A review of existing data shows that people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) have no help with some well-known inhalers to improve their life spans.

Contrarily, they may increase the risk of pneumonia (one of the biggest killers in the US) in these patients.

However, without doctor’s recommendation, patients with COPD must not avoid using these inhalers as these devices prove beneficial in a number of cases, said Dr. M. Bradley Drummond, the lead author of the review.

Dr. Drummond, who is a fellow at the pulmonary and critical care medicine division at Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, says: “Aside from well-known benefits, there are some possible risks and the review is about balancing them.”

The study has been published in the Journal of the American Medical Association Nov.26 issue.

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Introduction:

Herb, salvia divinorum belongs to mint family, found abundantly in Mexico. The plant can grow up to three feet in height and has large green leaves, square stems and white flowers with purple calyces. This plant can also be cultivated successfully outside of this region. Salvia divinorum has already been used by the Mazatec Indians for its divination and healing properties. The most potent ingredient of salvia divinorum is known as salvinorin A. Neither salvia nor its active ingredient has been approved for medical use in the U.S.

Pharmacology of salvia

Salvinorin A, or divinorin A, is the ingredient, considered to be liable for the hallucinogenic effects of salvia. Chemically, it is a neoclerodane diterpene found concentrated in the leaves than stems. Although many chemicals have been isolated from the plant but none of them have shown any psychoactive property.

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