Health & WellnessS


Wine

Alcoholic drinks in Britain to carry health warning labels

Bottles and cans of alcoholic drinks will carry health warnings on their labels next year, a health minister said Monday.

The Health Ministry and the drinks industry struck a voluntary agreement that will lead - by the end of 2008 - to labels detailing how many units of alcohol each drink contains and recommended safe drinking levels for men and women.

Public Health Minister Caroline Flint did not reveal the exact wording to be used on the labels, but said the warnings will not be as strong as those found on cigarette packets.

Bomb

Bad Medicine: Ruthless Health Care Policy in America

Collateral Damage: Bad Medicine in Tennessee, a new film by Julie Winokur, explores the single largest Medicaid cuts in history -- a failed "reform" attempt that left 170,000 people without care almost overnight.

Bomb

Man dies after crab nicks him

Mr Tan Boon Hock, 83, was nicked on his finger by a crab on Feb 22 while preparing live crabs for his family's dinner. He died two days later from the infection of the flesh-eating Vibrio bacteria.

Mr Tan had put a plaster on the cut and continued with his work, but around midnight he began vomiting and had diarrhoea. He refused to go to the hospital despite pleaas from his wife and daughter.

©n/a

Heart

Wives Happier with Hubbies who CLEAN!

If you're a husband who wants to keep your wife happy, you don't have to spend a fortune on diamonds, spa treatments and exotic vacations; just pitch in and help with the housework!

Attention

Psychological Bullying Hits Just As Hard

School bullying doesn't have to leave physical bumps and bruises to contribute to a hostile and potentially dangerous school environment. Behavior that intentionally harms another individual, through the manipulation of social relationships (or 'relational aggression'), is just as significant a concern for adolescent psychosocial development and mental health, according to Dr. Sara Goldstein from Montclair State University and her colleagues from the University of Michigan.

Their study1, published this month in Springer's Journal of Youth and Adolescence, shows that adolescents exposed to high levels of relational aggression perceive their school to be less safe, and are less pleased with the general social atmosphere of the school. Adolescent boys who are exposed to relational aggression are also more likely to carry a weapon to school. This is not the case for girls.

Wine

The Strange History of Cheese

For many, the mild, slightly nutty flavor of Gruyère is the perfect addition to a steaming bowl of French onion soup or a ham sandwich, but for the medieval peasants who first created it, the flavor was secondary to matters of survival and location.

Gruyère resulted from the historic collision of food scarcity and a mountainous geography, yielding a distinct and rigorous cheese-making process.

In fact, all cheese types, there are now more than 1,400--initially arose due to the unique constraints forced by geography and the human effort to preserve the valuable commodity that is milk, says food scientist Paul Kindstedt, of the University of Vermont.

Health

Inactive kids storing up illness for the future

University of Leicester academics publish results of one of the largest studies of physical activity among inner city school children.

A new University of Leicester study funded by the British Heart Foundation reveals that the level of physical inactivity among children today has reached epidemic levels. Researchers from Leicester -Professor Kamlesh Khunti, Professor Melanie Davies and Dr Margaret Stone- have just published one of the largest studies of physical activity levels of inner city school children.

They surveyed over 3500 pupils from five inner city secondary schools in Leicester. They identified low levels of physical activity in both South Asian and white children. For example only half the children walked to school although south Asian children were less likely to walk to school compared to white children. Furthermore, half the pupils spent 4 hours or more a day watching television or videos or playing computer games. Family history of diabetes or heart disease in parents is a risk factor for development of diabetes or heart disease in their children. However, the researchers found that children of parents with a family history of diabetes or heart disease were just as likely to have sedentary behaviours as those without a family history.

Health

Scientists breed cows that give skimmed milk

Scientists have bred cows that produce skimmed milk and hope to establish herds of the cattle to meet the demands of health-conscious consumers.

The milk is also high in omega3 oils, claimed to improve brain power, and contains polyunsaturated fat. The saturated fats found in normal milk are linked to increased risk of heart disease. The cows, which have a particular genetic mutation, were bred from a single female discovered by researchers when they screened milk from millions of cattle in New Zealand.

Evil Rays

Some Cancers Linked To Very Low Frequency Electromagnetic Fields, Study Suggests

Some cancers seem to be linked to extremely low frequency electromagnetic fields, suggests research published ahead of print in Occupational and Environmental Medicine.

The findings are based on more than 20,000 Swiss railway workers, who were monitored for 30 years.

The researchers opted to study this group, because railway workers in Switzerland tend to change jobs infrequently and are exposed to much higher levels of electromagnetic field radiation than the general population.

The researchers checked the full employment records of 20,141 Swiss railway workers in employment or retired from post between 1972 and 2002. Information on deaths among the employees was obtained from national data.

Bulb

New Neurons in Old Brains Exhibit Babylike Plasticity

Researchers have identified a "critical period" during which new nerve cells in adult brains have the same capacity to learn as those in developing brains. The finding in mice, reported in this week's Neuron, provides the promise of therapies that may one day limit or perhaps even reverse the damage of neurodegenerative diseases such as multiple sclerosis and Parkinson's.

Scientists first observed neurogenesis - the creation of new neurons in the adult brain - in animal brains in the 1960s but did not find evidence of it in humans until the late 1990s, says senior study author Hongjun Song, an assistant professor of neurology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore.