Health & WellnessS


Sun

Happiness 'rubs off on others'

Happy Couple
Happiness spreads within couples, the research found

Happiness is infectious and can "ripple" through social groups, according to US researchers. A study of 5,000 adults suggests a person's happiness is dependent on the happiness of those around them. A friend who becomes happy and lives less than a mile away increases your likelihood of happiness by 25%, the British Medical Journal reported.

Family

UK: Relationship counselling soars as money worries grow

Couples are struggling to stay together as they face money worries and the threat of redundancy in the economic downturn, said counselling service Relate, which has seen its workload soar. Relate on Saturday reported a rise of almost 60 percent in the number of couples seeking help with their relationships in October and November this year as compared with last year.

Health

South African dies of mystery disease in Rio

Rio de Janeiro
© UnknownPanoramic view of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Rio de Janeiro - Brazilian authorities were Wednesday working to identify a mystery illness that killed a 53-year-old South African man visiting Rio de Janeiro.

Rio's state health ministry said the man, whose name was not given, succumbed to a hemorrhagic disease on Tuesday after falling ill on November 25, two days after arriving in Brazil to attend conferences.

He was taken to hospital with fever, vomiting, blood in his urine and rashes.

Doctors suspected he had contracted an arenavirus, a highly contagious group of viruses that includes Lassa fever, an infection endemic to west Africa that typically spreads to humans from proximity to rodents or from infected people's secretions.

Dengue, malaria and ebola had all been ruled out, the ministry said.

Sherlock

New discovery: lethal fungus reproduces sexually

Fungus
© Shutterstock
Researchers in Ireland and the UK have found that a lethal fungus, Aspergillus fumigatus, reproduces sexually. The findings represent a major breakthrough in the understanding of this pathogen, which causes death in 50% of infected immune-deficient patients. The study was funded in part by a Marie Curie grant from the EU and is published in the journal Nature.

A. fumigatus spores are widespread in the atmosphere. Although everyone inhales some of these spores on a regular basis, a healthy immune system will normally eliminate them. However, a weakened immune system is easily overcome by this opportunistic airborne fungus; A. fumigatus is the leading cause of death by infection in leukaemia and bone-marrow-transplant patients.

The spores are also associated with severe asthma and allergic sinusitis in humans, and with stonebrood (mummification) in honey-bee colonies.

Ambulance

Headache and Indigestion -- Is Your Bra to Blame?

Bras aren't just about looks; a poor fit can cause health problems.

Wine

France abuzz over alcoholic 'cure'

An eminent French cardiologist has triggered an impassioned debate in the medical world over his claim to have discovered a cure for alcoholism.

Dr Olivier Ameisen, 55, one of France's top heart specialists, says he overcame his own addiction to alcohol by self-administering doses of a muscle-relaxant called baclofen.

He has now written a book about his experience - Le Dernier Verre (The Last Glass) - in which he calls for clinical trials to test his theory that baclofen suppresses the craving for drink.

Frog

Male infertility 'is increasing'

Infertility may be becoming more of a man's than a woman's problem, new figures suggest.

Until now, both were level pegging - 40% of cases linked to men, 40% to women and 20% to joint problems.

However, the European Society for Human Reproduction and Embryology found rates of an IVF treatment typically used to help male infertility have risen.

Health

Guinea worm 'almost eradicated'

BBC Worm
© BBCThe infection culminates in worms emerging from the sufferer's skin
Guinea worm disease may be eliminated within two years, former US president and anti-disease campaigner Jimmy Carter has said. It would be only the second time in human history, after smallpox, that a disease had been completely wiped out. Mr Carter says infections of the painful debilitating disease have dropped by 99%.

Health

Know your Fats

New York, NY -- CT angiography is expensive, clinically unproven, entails risk, and is overused by cardiologists, who generally gain financially when the scans are performed, according to a broadly detailed, smartly written feature that received front-page treatment in the June 29, 2008 issue of the New York Times [1].

Heart - Black

The cholesterol - heart disease scam: How the medical-industrial complex is raking in billions at our expense

Although a staggering amount of money has been spent on research to conclusively prove the link between saturated fat, cholesterol and Coronary Heart Disease (CHD), there exists a massive volume of scientific evidence published in peer-reviewed journals that completely absolves dietary cholesterol, saturated fat and elevated blood cholesterol of any harmful role in CHD.