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An international team, including scientists of Indian origin, has  identified 69 drugs  and experimental compounds which may be effective in treating COVD-19. According to the researchers, some of the medications are already used to treat diseases such as diabetes and hypertension, and repurposing them to treat COVID-19 may be faster than trying to invent a new vaccine. In the new study, published on the pre-print website bioRxiv, the scientists investigated 26 of the 29 coronavirus genes, which direct production of the viral proteins. "The team took a different approach, targeting host proteins, not viral proteins. 26 out of 29 SARS-CoV-2 viral proteins were studied in human cells to find out what human proteins they interact with," Gina T Nguyen, Assistant Director of Communications & Events, Quantitative Biosciences Institute, University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) in the US, told PTI in an email. Around 332 human proteins were found to ...

Indians in white-collar jobs, with low levels of activity in their workday, have a higher average body mass index (BMI)--an indicator of obesity --than those in blue-collar occupations, according to a new study. Engineers, technicians, mathematicians, scientists and teachers, for example, had higher BMIs than farm workers, fisherpeople and housekeepers, concluded the study published in the journal Economics and Human Biology. BMI is derived by dividing an individual’s body mass by the square of the body height and is expressed in units of kg/m2. The average BMI of men in white-collar jobs was 1.17 kg/m2 higher than those in blue-collar occupations; among women, the difference was 1.51kg/m2, the study showed. A lower BMI is better than higher. Individuals are categorised as underweight if their BMI is under 18.5 kg/m2, normal if it is in the range of 18.5 to 25 kg/m2, overweight if it is somewhere between 25 and 30 kg/m2 and obese if the index surpasses 30 kg/m2, accordi...

Business Standard : Just 35 minutes of walking or cycling three times a week along with a healthy diet may improve cognitive skills in older adults, a new study suggests. The study, published in the journal Neurology, examined the effects of both exercise and diet on cognitive skills. For the study, the team involved 160 persons with an average age of 65 and randomly assigned them to one of the four groups -- aerobic exercise alone; DASH diet alone; both aerobic exercise and the DASH diet; or health education, which consisted of educational phone calls once every week or two. The research team found those who exercised and consumed the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) diet that is rich in fruits and vegetables , beans, nuts, low-fat dairy products, whole grains, and lean meats, had greater improvements compared to health education controls. Participants who exercised showed significant improvements in cognitive skills when compared to those who did not ...