(IANS)
Millions may be suffering from high blood pressure without knowing it because their levels only spike at night, suggests a new study.
New York, Sep 25: Millions may be suffering from high blood pressure without knowing it because their levels only spike at night, suggests a new study.
An Oxford University study found one in eight people aged 40 to 75 had hypertension in the evening that would be missed by a daytime GP appointment, reports the Daily Mail.
Having high blood pressure raises a person's risk of heart attacks, strokes and even death -- especially if it is left untreated.
Healthy people usually see their blood pressure drop at night as the body winds down and prepares to sleep. But researchers found the opposite happens in 15 per cent of people, according to the story.
The study, published in the British Journal of General Practice, involved around 21,000 patients from 28 GP practices and four hospitals in the Oxford area.
The National Health Service (NHS) watchdog NICE recommends that GPs diagnose patients based on daytime blood pressure levels only.
But the team at Oxford says ambulatory monitoring -- when a cuff is worn over a 24-hour period -- should be used more often.
(IANS)
New York, Sep 22: India and its I2U2 partners have launched an initiative to mobilise private sector capital and expertise to increase their potential in key areas of development.
The US on Thursday signed a memorandum of understanding with business councils from the group to set up the I2U2 Private Enterprise Partnership (PEP).
I2U2 gets its unique acronym from the four countries, India, Israel, the United States and the United Arab Emirates, that came together in a virtual summit last year form the partnership.
Jose W Fernandez, the US Under Secretary of State for Economic Growth signed the MoU with the US-UAE Business Council, the UAE-India Business Council, and the UAE-Israel Business Council on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly meeting and the group is to be known as the I2U2 Business Council (BC).
Dammu Ravi, External Affairs Ministry's Secretary in charge of economic relations, participated in the signing ceremony with officials from the partners.
He said in a video message: "This will help to synergise the potential of all the four members for the collective prosperity of the region."
A State Department statement said: "This new public-private partnership will work to increase awareness of the I2U2 initiative in business communities and support projects and other efforts that further the goals of the initiative."
Outlining the initiative, the MoU said that their goal is to draw "greater awareness to the potential of the I2U2 Initiative, particularly in the seven key sectors of focus, namely water, energy, transportation, technology, space, health, and food security".
It will mobilise "the private sectors within the I2U2 countries to identify, explore, and participate in specific projects that further the goals of this initiative", it added.
The MoU said the I2U2 BC will work with the State Department to hold events with governments in the four countries, convene a series of working group meetings with businesses, and publish papers by think tanks and scholars from their countries.(IANS)
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New Delhi, Sep 22: India is set to become the first nation in the world to witness the "waking up" of Chandrayaan-3 mission's lander and rover after the end of a two-week long "sleep" due to sunset on the moon, as the sun is set to rise during the early hours of September 22, Science and Technology Minister Jitendra Singh informed Lok Sabha on Thursday.
"Tomorrow when the nation will be rejoicing the passage of the Women's Reservation Bill, we may also hopefully become the first nation in the world to make our Chandrayaan-3 mission land on the moon's South Pole (which happened last month) and then witness the resumption of navigational activities of both lander Vikram and rover Pragyan after a 14-day slumber (owing to a fortnight-long sunset on the moon)," Singh said while replying to a discussion on Chandrayaan-3 mission's success in Lok Sabha.
In his more than an hour-long reply, the minister, while responding to Congress MP Shashi Tharoor's comment earlier in the day that the BJP creates an impression that all scientific accomplishments occurred only after 2014, referred to the famous photograph of scientists carrying rocket parts on a cycle, said, "That miracle was of pre-2014 days. Unlike in the Nehruvian era when we were devoid of resources, we are now technologically advanced."
To another Tharoor's remark that unlike in Parliament, women don't need reservation in scientific fields, Singh said that there are more women scientists in ISRO than ever before and informed that even the Aditya L-1 mission is headed by a woman scientist.
He also countered Tharoor's another observation that the space department budget is minimal. "Between 2014 and now there has been a 142 per cent increase in the budget of science and technology as well as space departments," Singh said.
The minister also highlighted "how the NDA government has brought space programmes and rocket launching activities out of the veil of secrecy", to a time when thousands watched the Chandrayaan-3 mission's launch live from Sriharikota on August 23.
"Yes, it was a fact that till 2020 many people didn't know where ISRO was situated. But now due to the awareness created by the government by opening up such activities for people, it is known to all where ISRO is situated," Singh said.
He further highlighted the opening up of the space sector to private collaboration and the multiple-fold increase in startups and unicorns in the sector. Singh pointed out how scientists visit Tirupati before the launch of every satellite. "This shows that science and spirituality co-exist, the minister said, referring to defence minister Rajnath Singh's earlier statement that scientific thoughts are reflected in scriptures also."
The minister claimed that due to the "deficiency in planning" television came to India only in the 1970s, 15 years after it had arrived in the US. Now the government has made India a leader in quantum technology, Singh said.
Later, leader of the Congress in Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury countered Singh by highlighting how due to the vision of first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, institutions like ISRO and the Department of Atomic Energy came up, which resulted in advancement in space research in later years. (IANS)
Read: National News