INFOVALLEY Newsletter 2012

1st Issue - June 2012

2nd Issue - Sept 2012

Autopsy: Life and Death Cancer

Is autopsy going to be digital?

INFOVALLEY's innovation is in the trend. How to make virtual autopsy a reality?
Check out news written by Emily Tan in The Edge Malaysia.

ColoPrint Release

ColoPrint on Prezi

11 New Reasons Why You Should Not Drink Soft Drinks Anymore

Here are the 11 new reasons why you should not drink sugary (and non-sugary) soft drinks anymore

Soft drinks are ubiquitous nowadays. You can find them in every convenient store, and you get them from automatic vending machines, and they’re the beverages of choice in all fast-food chains. We all know that soft drinks give you extra calories and make a lot of dentist very rich. But, they are much more than that. I have collected some recent scientific discoveries about soft drinks that will make you think twice before ordering a can of soft drink: 

Soft drinks increase your risk of heart attack: One sugary beverage a day increases your risk of having a heart attack by 20 percent over a period of 22 years.

Soft drinks alter your metabolism, make it more difficult for you to burn fat and lose weight: The finding was based on the study of 11 healthy men and women who drank an equivalence of 140 grams of sugar every day for four weeks. 

Soft drinks have carcinogens: 4-methylimidazole, a coloring compound and a carcinogen, was found in Coke, Diet Coke, Pepsi and Diet Pepsi. 

Diet soft drinks also increase risk of heart attack and stroke: This was based on the study of adults who drank diet soda daily, and their risk of heart attack and stroke was 44% higher. 

Soft drinks make you lose your mind: BVO, a preservative and flame-retardant for plastic, was found in citrus soft drinks. BVO has been shown to cause nerve disorders and memory loss. 

Soft drinks are associated with asthma: Based on the study of 16,907 people in Australia, a heightened risk for asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease among those who drank more than 0.5 liter of soft drinks daily.

Soft drinks help you deposit more fat than beverages with the same amount of calories: A group of obese and overweight people were assigned to drink daily either 1 liter of sugary soft drinks or milk (equal amount of calories), water or diet coke for six months. The group consuming sugary drinks got more fat in liver and muscles. 

Even teen violence is associated with soft drinks: The more soft drinks a teenager drinks, the more likely he will commit violence according to a study done in 2011.

Diet soft drinks make you gain weight: Drinking two or more diet soft drinks a day increases your waist size five times more than people who avoided the stuff altogether.

Soft drinks speed up aging: Dark cola contains high level of phosphate, and a study in mice showed that high level of phosphate accelerated aging and shortened lifespan by a quarter.

BPA in soft drinks interfere with your hormones: The epoxy resin used to prevent interaction between the acids in soft drinks and the metal in cans may interfere with your hormones, and may lead to abnormalities in fetuses and adult obesity.

So, are you worried after reading these end-of-the-world facts? Most of the conclusions above were drawn from the studies of people who drank a lot of soft drinks daily. As the old wisdom goes, moderation is the key to a healthy, happy, and long life!

Sources: http://www.businessinsider.com/11-reasons-never-to-drink-soda-again-2012-8

by Dr Ler Lian Wee, Senior Scientist

What If My Heart Stops Beating?

A comic by Dr Hemanth Naik, Senior Medical Research Scientist

Bypass Burgers: Eat Unto Death

I am sure most of you like burgers, rather LOVVVVVE burgers. Would you want to try triple bypass burger? It is available at Heart Attack Grill @ Las Vegas, Nevada. I stumbled upon this last week while researching for mutations related to cardiovascular disease.

Menu offered at Heart Attack Grill:

Single bypass burger, double bypass burger, triple bypass burger and much more.

Funny name right? Find out more what happens if you eat them regularly.

Interesting News on Heart Attack Grill

When you pass by a KFC or McDonald's joint, don’t you crave for a big, juicy hamburger, but thank your stars that you are in Malaysia, not USA, where you get a small sized burger and not like the one shown above. Contents inside the burgers can lead to an increased risk for heart disease if you have too many of them. Two main risk factors for heart disease are cholesterol and high blood pressure.

 The saturated fat and cholesterol in hamburgers can raise your blood cholesterol levels, which can increase your risk for heart disease. Ground beef has about 21 g total fat and 8 g saturated fat per 3-ounce serving. 

 High sodium intake is another risk factor leading to high blood pressure, and a hamburger loaded with cheese and condiments is very high sodium laden.

Coronary artery bypass surgery is a surgery performed to relieve angina(pain in the chest) caused due to blockage in arteries and reduce the risk of death . Arteries or veins from elsewhere in the patient's body are grafted to the coronary arteries to bypass the narrowed passages and improve the blood supply to the heart muscle. This surgery is usually performed with the heart stopped, often called off-pump" surgery. It requires a heart-lung bypass machine to circulate the blood and add oxygen. Bypass surgery is usually performed only when other treatments, such as medicine and angioplasty are not useful because of the location or extent of the blockage.

Number of bypasses

The terms single bypass, double bypass, triple bypass, quadruple bypass and quintuple bypass refer to the number of coronary arteries bypassed in the procedure. 

• a double bypass means two coronary arteries are bypassed (e.g. the left anterior descending coronary artery and right coronary artery. 

• a triple bypass means three vessels are bypassed 

• a quadruple bypass means four vessels are bypassed (e.g. LAD, RCA, LCX, first diagonal artery of the LAD) and

• quintuple means five. Bypass of more than four coronary arteries is uncommon.

Advice to all:

 Eat burgers only occasionally. Share a burger with your friend.

 Eat more vegetables with it.

 Control your craving for French fries. 

 Inculcate the habit of eating more vegetables and not burgers, in young children.

Dr Livy Alex, Head of Molecular Research Lab