Latinos believe they have ideal weight obesity despite

When you look in the mirror is very likely that an obese person is not fat and that its size is considered healthy.

In reaching this conclusion, experts from the Southwestern Medical Center at the University of Texas interviewed 2 000 56 people from the state of Dallas, with a body mass index greater than 30, ie obese.

The volunteers had to choose their ideal weight body nine illustrations. The result showed that 165 people (8% of group) was chosen as an ideal form that was equal to or greater than yours. This shows an error in the concept of healthy weight.

Neither educational level nor the money changed the perception of people, but their ethnicity, as 14% of respondents of color had a distorted body image, 11% of Latinos and only 2% of white participants.

Those who said their weight was appropriate, also admitted to feeling good and not be concerned about their health, unlike other people who were recognized as being obese.

Additionally, the first thought that their risk of high blood pressure, diabetes and heart attacks was low.

Said Dr. Tiffany M. Powell, in charge of the study, the high rate of obesity in the United States has normalized the perception of the public about this epidemic.

Thanks to PrensaLatinaLV

The deaths from cholera in Haiti go to 200

UNICEF believes that the outbreak may be related to a polluted river that is very close to the Artibonite. About 150,000 people live in affected areas along the river, according to the UN agency. This region was heavily damaged by the earthquake, but thousands of people who lost their homes moved there to camps or relatives' homes.

"We have registered more than 208 dead," Gabriel told the BBC Thimot, director general of the Department of Health of Haiti. "The roads were full of villagers who begged to give them water," described David Darg, medical NGO worker, a British chain. Darg visited an area near Saint-Marc (about 100 miles north of Port au Prince), where the outbreak originated as residents of the area. "They have seen people dying in their communities and know not to drink river water, which is usually their main source of water," he says. Cholera, an acute intestinal infection caused by bacteria in human feces, causes diarrhea, fever, vomiting and severe dehydration, which causes a very quick death if left untreated.

The areas most affected by the disease are Douin, Marchand Dessalines and around Saint-Marc, according Thimot, who explained that local hospitals were overwhelmed and many people had been evacuated to centers elsewhere.

"The Saint Nicholas Hospital of Saint-Marc has already received a significant number of patients, and has the ability to respond to a cholera emergency," confirmed Federica Nogarotto, emergency coordinator for Doctors Without Borders (MSF) in Saint-Marc . "The most important thing now is to isolate cholera patients from the rest, in order to address the best way possible to those who are sick and prevent the spread of the outbreak," he said.

"The isolation of suspected cases, health promotion through education and distribution of

soap and water distribution, are key to curbing the spread of cholera, "the organization said.

This is the first time in a century that the Caribbean country suffering from this disease, according to World Health Organization (WHO). "We were afraid that since the earthquake," said Robin Mahfood, president of Food for the Poor (Food for the poor).

A medical source said today that they have identified some cases in poor neighborhoods of Port au Prince, the Haitian capital. Also Ship Island Lake, on the west coast, there have been two dozen cases of diarrhea, but those responsible for the medical center of the town claimed that the disease may be related to intake of contaminated fish.
According to several accounts, an overflow has occurred in hospitals in Artibonite. Also reported a shortage of medicines to treat the hundreds of people affected, but officials insist there are sufficient medical supplies.

Thanks to PrensaLatinaLV

Method designed to prolong organ life

Scientists at King's College London have developed a method capable of prolonging the life out of body organs for transplantation.

In collaboration with the biotechnology industry, British scientists have developed a method which is applied to the inner surface of the kidneys from a donor with a protective layer made of a substance which is a natural regulator of certain proteins.

It is a protein called mirococept reproducing the protective mechanism is activated in response to attacks by the immune system, which could boost the survival time of organs outside the human body.

Normally, the organs do not survive once extracted from a larger body of about twenty-four hours, which represents a serious problem for transplant.

When an infection or a virus attack cells or body fluids is activated the immune system that attacks and attempts to destroy the body's cells intruder, but that system is controlled in turn by "regulatory" proteins-molecules-present the cell surface.

These proteins inhibit the body's own cells are also attacked by the immune system.

But when an organ is removed for transplant, those regulators disappear due to lack of blood flow and consequently to the absence of oxygen.

This effect is countered by the material developed by scientists at King's College and presented today at a conference in Birmingham.

In the first experiments half of the organs treated with mirococept survived the ice storage for sixteen hours, while only a fifth of untreated organs.

A pilot study involving thirteen patients showed that the method is safe and now tries to recruit more than three hundred volunteers for a more comprehensive test will be held next year in several transplant centers in the UK.

Patients who were treated with implanted organs mirococept will, however, having to take drugs to silence their immune systems and is now trying to reduce the dose needed to achieve because these drugs increase the risk of cancer.