Assessment of safety and efficacy of a dietary supplement KaraLiv™ in supporting liver health: a double-blind, parallel, placebo-controlled randomized clinical trial

Background: The liver is responsible for many critical functions within the body. If the liver becomes diseased or injured, loss of those critical functions can cause significant damage to the body. KaraLivTM is a novel herbal formulation which contains a blend of different herbal extract ingredients. The current study tested the safety and efficacy of KaraLivTM versus a placebo control in supporting liver function.Methods: The study is a randomized, double-blind, parallel, and placebo-controlled study. A total of 60 patients were divided into 2 groups of 30 each. One group was given KaraLivTM and the other group was given a placebo for a period of 56 days. Treatment results were assessed by evaluating the levels of alanine aminotransferase (ALT), aspartate aminotransferase (AST), bilirubin, and alkaline phosphatase (ALP) in both groups.Results: The herbal supplement KaraLivTM significantly supported healthy liver function compared to the placebo following the 56 days of treatment. The treatment (KaraLivTM) group showed a statistically significant improvement in assessed liver enzyme levels compared to the placebo group.Conclusions: The all-natural herbal supplement KaraLivTM is a safe and effective product that can significantly help support healthy liver function

A randomized, double-blind, parallel, placebo-controlled study to evaluate efficacy and safety of a synergistic multi-herbal extract blend KaraHeart™ in supporting healthy cholesterol levels

Background: Hyperlipidemia is a condition involving abnormally high levels of lipids in the blood. Hyperlipidemia is a major risk factor for cardiovascular diseases and refers to either high levels of triglycerides (TGL) or cholesterol. Herbal supplements have been used in the management of cholesterol levels in Ayurveda, a complete medical system originating in India. KaraHeart™ is a multi-herbal extract synergistic blend that may help in the management of healthy cholesterol levels. The current study tested the efficacy, tolerability, and safety of KaraHeart™ versus a placebo in the management of cholesterol levels of patients with mild hyperlipidemia.Methods: This was a randomized, double-blind, parallel, and placebo-controlled study. A total of 100 patients were divided into two groups. One group was given KaraHeart™ and the other group was given a placebo for 120 days. Treatment results were assessed by checking the lipid profile parameters such as total cholesterol, high-density lipoprotein (HDL), low-density lipoprotein (LDL), very-low-density lipoprotein (VLDL), and TGL.Results: The study found that the herbal supplement KaraHeart™ significantly reduced levels of LDL, VLDL, TGL, and total cholesterol, while increasing the levels of HDL in the blood. Additionally, the study concluded that KaraHeart™ was safe to use.Conclusions: KaraHeart™ was shown to be safe and effective in the management of cholesterol levels

An Interventional Perspective on Identifiability in Gaussian LTI Systems with Independent Component Analysis

We investigate the relationship between system identification and intervention design in dynamical systems. While previous research demonstrated how identifiable representation learning methods, such as Independent Component Analysis (ICA), can reveal cause-effect relationships, it relied on a passive perspective without considering how to collect data. Our work shows that in Gaussian Linear Time-Invariant (LTI) systems, the system parameters can be identified by introducing diverse intervention signals in a multi-environment setting. By harnessing appropriate diversity assumptions motivated by the ICA literature, our findings connect experiment design and representational identifiability in dynamical systems. We corroborate our findings on synthetic and (simulated) physical data. Additionally, we show that Hidden Markov Models, in general, and (Gaussian) LTI systems, in particular, fulfil a generalization of the Causal de Finetti theorem with continuous parameters.Comment: CLeaR2024 camera ready. Code available at https://github.com/rpatrik96/lti-ic

RECENT MODALITIES IN DRUG DELIVERY VIA INHALATION THERAPY – AN ADVANCED TREATMENT STRATEGY FOR PULMONARY CARCINOMA

The potential benefit of nanoparticles (NPs) as a colloidal delivery system for pharmaceutical relevance has earned substantial concern in the past decades. Fatality rate due to cancer sustained to hike; advances in nanotechnology have quite become a trenchant approach for enhancing effective drug targeting to cancer tissues by circumventing all the imperfections of traditional chemotherapy. Inhalation drug delivery directly targeting the lungs through respiratory tract is a rapidly maturing field of research and most recently explored approaches for both local and systemic therapy. With the recent advances in synthesis and manipulation of nanoparticles, inhalation drug delivery has shown great impact on pulmonary practice. Inhalation drug delivery has diverse actions over traditional chemotherapy including a) non-invasive b) avoiding first pass metabolism and systemic toxicity c) minimized frequent dosing and d) target delivery of drug to the lung epithelium thereby enhancing local drug concentrations. Dry powder inhalers, meter dose inhalers and nebulizers are some few efficient methods to deliver therapeutic agents directly targeting to the lungs. The ultimatum of inhalation therapy is to generate particles with an ample range of particle sizes. With the recent interest in the development of pulmonary targeted therapy, this review presents how the inhalation drug delivery overcomes conventional chemotherapy and focuses the recent treatment modalities that have been established for pulmonary carcinoma by the route of inhalation as well as discusses the advantages of inhalation drug delivery.Â

PRO-INFLAMMATORY CYTOKINES ELICIT INFLAMMATORY RESPONSE IN BLOOD LEUKOCYTES OF POST DIALYTIC CHRONIC RENAL PATIENTS THROUGH HEME OXYGENASE-1 ACTIVATION

Objective: Inflammation is common in patients with chronic renal failure and has beenassociated with the increased production of pro-inflammatory cytokines. Theaim of the investigation is to assess the levels of the pro-inflammatory cytokines,TGF-β,IL-1βand TNF-α and correlate it with HO-1 expression in the leukocytes of renal failurepatients.Methods: Cytokine profile was analyzed in53South Indianpatients suffering from ESRD under post dialysis condition (2 hrs after dialysis).Results: Augmented production of TGF-β,IL-1βand TNF-α was observed in the peripheral bloodleukocytes of the patient population.Anincrease in the expression of HO-1 in the leukocytes was demonstrated from our earlier studies.Conclusion: Thus,our study hypothesized that the inflammatory reaction in the leukocytes of the post dialytic renalfailure cases might be due to the elevation in HO-1 levels brought about by altered pro-inflammatory cytokine level

Assessment of safety and efficacy of Karallief® Easy ClimbTM, an herbal extract blend for supporting joint health: a double-blind, placebo-controlled, randomized clinical trial

Background: Osteoarthritis is common among the aging population worldwide. The current techniques to manage osteoarthritis focus on relieving pain and slowing the progression of the disease. Herbal or natural supplements have shown promise in achieving both these treatment goals. Two new proprietary herbal extract blends, Karallief® Easy ClimbTM (KEC) and herbal extracts with glucosamine (HEG), are combinations of several natural products shown to be effective in the treatment of knee osteoarthritis. The current study tested the efficacy and safety of KEC and HEG versus a placebo control.Methods: This is a randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled study. A total of 120 patients were divided into 3 groups and were given KEC, HEG and Placebo in the ratio 1:1:1. Treatment results were assessed using the 30 second chair stand test, WOMAC test, knee flexion test and joint space measurement using X-rays of the knee joint.Results: The study found that the herbal supplements HEG and KEC significantly reduced osteoarthritis-related knee pain and increased joint mobility and were safe to use during 120 days of treatment. Both supplements resulted in an improvement in the 30 second chair stand test results, WOMAC pain scores, knee flexion, and joint space width as measured by X-ray, as compared to the placebo.Conclusions: Natural supplements such as HEG and KEC improve knee osteoarthritis symptoms and can be a safe and effective treatment option for patients with osteoarthritis

Learning Linear Causal Representations from Interventions under General Nonlinear Mixing

We study the problem of learning causal representations from unknown, latent interventions in a general setting, where the latent distribution is Gaussian but the mixing function is completely general. We prove strong identifiability results given unknown single-node interventions, i.e., without having access to the intervention targets. This generalizes prior works which have focused on weaker classes, such as linear maps or paired counterfactual data. This is also the first instance of causal identifiability from non-paired interventions for deep neural network embeddings. Our proof relies on carefully uncovering the high-dimensional geometric structure present in the data distribution after a non-linear density transformation, which we capture by analyzing quadratic forms of precision matrices of the latent distributions. Finally, we propose a contrastive algorithm to identify the latent variables in practice and evaluate its performance on various tasks.Comment: 38 page

Enhancing Self-Esteem and Satisfaction with Continuous Care Support during Childbirth: A Pre-experimental study

Childbirth, especially for first-time mothers, is both a physically demanding and emotionally charged experience. Continuous care support by a trained caregiver from the active phase of labor until the early postpartum period is known to positively influence birth outcomes, maternal satisfaction, and psychological well-being. Objectives: 1. Assess the pre-test self-esteem and satisfaction levels among primigravida mothers. 2. Evaluate the effectiveness of continuous care support. 3. Compare pre- and post-test levels of self-esteem and satisfaction. 4. Determine the association between post-test scores and selected demographic/obstetric variables. Materials &Methods: A pre-experimental one-group pre-test post-test design was employed at a tertiary care maternity hospital in Chennai. A total of 60 primigravida mothers in active labor were selected using convenience sampling. Intervention included continuous emotional, physical, and informational care by a nurse researcher from 4 cm dilation through 2 hours post-delivery. Data were collected using the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale and the Client Satisfaction Questionnaire (CSQ-8). Result and Discussion: - Pre-intervention: 60% had low self-esteem; 56.7% had moderate satisfaction. - Post-intervention: 70% had moderate and 30% high self-esteem; 60% had high satisfaction. - Mean self-esteem increased from 2.45 to 3.75 (p<0.001); satisfaction from 2.3 to 3.7 (p<0.001). - Significant associations: Self-esteem with age (p=0.004), duration of marriage (p=0.045), and mode of delivery (p=0.012); Satisfaction with education, immunization status, and maternal illness. Conclusion: Continuous care support is a highly effective, low-cost intervention that significantly improves maternal self-esteem and satisfaction. Its integration into routine labor care could transform maternity practices toward more holistic and respectful childbirth experiences

Nurses at the Helm: Transforming Parental Perception and Symptom Management in Childhood Leukemia

Leukemia is a cancer of WBC, which is the second leading cause of mortality among children. Childhood Leukemia accounts for 33% of all cancers in 2024. Early detection and identification of symptoms may reduce the death rate among children with leukemia. Nurse-led interventions have the potential to improve symptom management strategies and reduce parental uncertainty regarding the disease. The main objective of the study is to evaluate the nurse-led intervention on symptom management and parental perception among mothers of children with leukemia. A Quantitative Pre-experimental approach, one-group pretest and post-test design was employed in the Institute of Child Health and Hospital for Children, Egmore, Chennai, based on the Health Belief Model. A total of 60 mothers of leukemic children were selected through a Nonrandomized convenience sampling technique. The nurse-led interventions were given to participants as Structured Educational sessions and informational pamphlets. Quantitative data were obtained through a validated tool before and after nurse-led interventions. Statistical analysis was conducted. After the nurse-led intervention, most mothers (80.0%) reported minimal symptom burden, while 20.0% reported mild burden. Parental uncertainty was reduced, with 78.33% experiencing moderate and 21.67% low uncertainty. A significant positive correlation was observed between symptom burden and parental perception (r = 0.72, p = 0.001)