General health checks do not reduce the number of deaths from cardiovascular disease or cancer, a new study has found.

They do, however, increase the number of new diagnoses, the researchers said.

Health checks were defined as screening for more than one disease or risk factor in more than one organ system offered to a general population unselected for disease or risk factors.

Authors from the Nordic Cochrane Centre in Denmark carried out a review of a total of 14 trials that looked at systematic health checks. The studies had between 1 and 22 years of follow-up.

Nine of the 14 trials had data on mortality and included 182,880 participants, 11,940 of whom died during the study period. 76,403 were invited to health checks and the remainder were not.

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Elderly people taking anti-hypertensive drugs are at a 43 per cent increased risk of having a hip fracture in the first 45 days of treatment, says a new study by Assistant Professor Debra Butt.

“It’s important for patients to be educated on the potential risk of a hip fracture when they start an anti-hypertensive drug,” said Dr. Butt, a member of the Department of Family and Community Medicine at the University of Toronto and a family physician affiliated with The Scarborough Hospital.

“They should be cautious; if they experience dizziness or weakness, they need to let their doctor know, and should not engage in activities that would put them at risk of falling,” she said. “For example, if you start your anti-hypertensive drug before bed and get up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom, be careful, you could be dizzy.”

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Dr. Shehla Sajid Shaikh is a trained Endocrinologist practising at Prince Aly Khan Hospital & Saifee Hospital.

A member of the Endocrine Society of India, Research Society for the study of Diabetes in India and American Diabetes Association, Dr. Shehla has authored several books on adolescent obesity and thyroid disorders.

She specialises in childhood obesity and its prevention, thyroid disorders, osteoporosis and structured diabetes care.

Dr. Shehla answered Sify readers’ queries related to weight loss, thyroid disorder and diabetes management in an exclusive chat. Read the chat transcript here.

My wife have fasting sugar 302 and post prandial 376(Just detected)But no other symptoms of diabetes. Can this be cured fully?She is taking Gemer p2 and ecosprin75 now.I want to loose the weight by 10 kgs. I am40,167 cms.,75 kgs. What should I do?
Diabetes can be controlled..it can not be cured at present…and for you the best option is to follow a proper diet and exercise program..

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General health checks do not reduce the number of deaths from cardiovascular disease or cancer, a new study has found.

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Loss of sleep due to all-night study sessions to prepare for final exams actually work against students striving to perform well, a sleep specialist has claimed.

Dr. Philip Alapat, medical director, Harris Health Sleep Disorders Center, and assistant professor at Baylor College of Medicine, recommends students to instead study throughout the semester, set up study sessions in the evening and get at least 8 hours of sleep the night before exams.

“Memory recall and ability to maintain concentration are much improved when an individual is rested,” Alapat said.

“By preparing early and being able to better recall what you have studied, your ability to perform well on exams is increased,” he said.

While college-aged students ideally should get 8-9 hours of sleep a night, truth is that most generally get much less.

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As holiday crunch time fills your schedule, experts have advised not to give up your exercise.

“When times get crazy, the thing people give up is exercise, and that’s the key thing a person needs. When a person is excitable from stress, the burst of energy that you get from exercise can help burn the adrenaline off and calm you down,” Erica Christ, RD, CDE, an exercise physiologist at Greenwich Hospital’s Weight Loss and Diabetes Center, said.

“Exercise allows you time to focus, and gives you a sense of mindfulness that makes the other pieces of your life fall into place,” Christ added.

Physical activity also stimulates the neurotransmitter dopamine, which has been linked to post-exercise mood improvement more effectively than antidepressant medications.

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Asparagus, a popular vegetable, can keep diabetes at bay by helping blood sugar levels stay under control while boosting output of insulin, the hormone that helps the body absorb glucose, says a study.

Type two diabetes, which accounts for 90 percent of all diabetes cases, is emerging as a major health burden worldwide.

More than a million people are already affected by it in the UK alone but don’t realise they have it, perhaps because they do not recognise symptoms such as fatigue, thirst, frequent urination, recurrent thrush and wounds that are slow to heal, the British Journal of Nutrition reported.

Left untreated, type two diabetes can raise the risk of heart attacks, blindness and amputation. But if doctors catch it early, it can be well controlled with diet and medication, according to the Daily Mail.

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