A UK study presented at a conference last weekend found no evidence to support the idea that a daily dose of aspirin protects people who do not have artery or heart disease from developing it in the future any better than a placebo, and experts suggest given the higher risk of internal bleeding from taking aspirin routinely, for healthy people such a precaution may do more harm than good.

The study reported results from the Aspirin for Asymptomatic Atherosclerosis (AAA) study, whose joint first author Professor Gerry Fowkes from the Wolfson Unit for Prevention of Peripheral Vascular Diseases in Edinburgh, presented the findings at the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) Congress 2009 in Barcelona, Spain on Sunday.

Fowkes said the study was the first placebo-controlled randomised trial to test the protective effect of aspirin in people who did not show signs of atherosclerosis as measured by a low ankle brachial index (ABI) at the start of the study, and that the results found:

"No statistically significant difference in primary endpoint events between those subjects allocated to aspirin or placebo."

Great controversy surrounds the issue of home births. American doctors are generally opposed to the practice, but many women say they would prefer to give birth at home. Studies on the safety of home births have been mixed.

However, a study published today -- one of the stronger attempts to clarify the issue -- has found that planned home births attended by registered midwives have similar rates of fetal death and adverse outcomes as compared with hospital births.

Investigators at Hospital for Special Surgery, collaborating with researchers from other institutions, have contributed to the discovery that a gene called interferon regulator factor-8 (IRF-8) is involved in the development of diseases such as periodontitis (gum disease), rheumatoid arthritis and osteoporosis. The study, which will be published online August 30, ahead of print, in the journal Nature Medicine, could lead to new treatments in the future.

"The study doesn't have immediate therapeutic applications, but it does open a new avenue of research that could help identify novel therapeutic approaches or interventions to treat diseases such as periodontitis, rheumatoid arthritis or osteoporosis," said Baohong Zhao, Ph.D., lead author of the study and a research fellow in the Arthritis and Tissue Degeneration Program at Hospital for Special Surgery located in New York City.

Dr. Zhao initiated the study while working in the laboratory led by Drs. Masamichi Takami and Ryutaro Kamijo at Showa University, Tokyo, where much of the work was performed. Dr. Zhao completed the study and extended the work to human cells during the past year at Hospital for Special Surgery working with Dr. Lionel Ivashkiv.

In a finding that sheds new light on the neural mechanisms involved in social behavior, neuroscientists at the California Institute of Technology have pinpointed the brain structure responsible for our sense of personal space.

The discovery, described in the August 30 issue of the journal Nature Neuroscience, could offer insight into autism and other disorders where social distance is an issue.

The structure, the amygdala - a pair of almond-shaped regions located in the medial temporal lobes - was previously known to process strong negative emotions, such as anger and fear, and is considered the seat of emotion in the brain. However, it had never been linked rigorously to real-life human social interaction.

Barcelona, Spain - Working up a sweat may be even better than angioplasty for some heart patients, experts say.

Studies have shown heart patients benefit from exercise, and some have even shown it works better than surgical procedures. At a meeting of the European Society of Cardiology on Sunday, several experts said doctors should focus more on persuading their patients to exercise rather than simply doing angioplasties.

Angioplasty is the top treatment for people having a heart attack or hospitalized with worsening symptoms. It involves using a tiny balloon to flatten a blockage and propping the heart artery open with a mesh tube called a stent. Most angioplasties are done on a nonemergency basis, to relieve chest pain caused by clogged arteries cutting off the heart's blood supply.

Imagine you are an experienced martial arts referee. You are asked to score a number of taekwondo bouts, shown to you on video. In each bout, one combatant is wearing red, the other blue. Would clothing colour make any difference to your impartial, expert judgement? Of course it wouldn't.

Yet research shows it almost certainly would. Last year, sports psychologists at the University of Münster, Germany, showed video clips of bouts to 42 experienced referees. They then played the same clips again, digitally manipulated so that the clothing colours were swapped round. The result? In close matches, the scoring swapped round too, with red competitors awarded an average of 13 per cent more points than when they were dressed in blue (Psychological Science, vol 19, p 769). "If one competitor is strong and the other weak, it won't change the outcome of the fight," says Norbert Hagemann, who led the study. "But the closer the levels, the easier it is for the colour to tip the scale."

This is just the latest piece of research suggesting that exposure to certain colours can have a significant effect on how people think and act. Up to now most of the research has focused on red clothing in sport, but other colours and settings are being investigated too. It is becoming clear that colours can have an important, unappreciated effect on the way your mind works - one that you really ought to know about.

Vaccines are the quackery of modern medicine. Mass vaccination programs not only fail to protect the population from infectious disease, they actually accelerate the spread of disease in many cases.

Many website have cropped up over the last few years to counter the pro-vaccine propaganda put out by drug companies (who profit from vaccines) and health regulators (who serve the drug companies). One of those sites is www.VaccinationDebate.com, which lists the following historical facts about vaccines:

- In the USA in 1960, two virologists discovered that both polio vaccines were contaminated with the SV 40 virus which causes cancer in animals as well as changes in human cell tissue cultures. Millions of children had been injected with these vaccines. (Med Jnl of Australia 17/3/1973 p555)

- In 1871-2, England, with 98% of the population aged between 2 and 50 vaccinated against smallpox, it experienced its worst ever smallpox outbreak with 45,000 deaths. During the same period in Germany, with a vaccination rate of 96%, there were over 125,000 deaths from smallpox. (see The Hadwen Documents)

Most modern health problems that have been linked to sodium are actually caused by the condition of the salt we eat. The typical modern salt product can be compared to refined sugar and refined flour - it used to be a healthful, whole food, but it has now been stripped and processed into a disaster waiting to happen. What began as an essential nutrient is disfigured into a detriment to our health.

Salt has earned a bad reputation in recent years, so it comes as quite a surprise to hear this seasoning is actually necessary for good health. In fact, every cell in the body requires salt to function. Salt is needed for countless functions in the body, including everything from blood sugar regulation to bone density to circulatory health. And because we lose salt constantly during the day through urine and perspiration, it's important that we replenish it. It's impossible to try and replace lost sodium with commercial table salt because it is refined and incomplete. Instead, include a high-quality unrefined sea salt in your diet to replenish the sodium, trace minerals and electrolytes your body needs.

Commercial salt is refined by drying at a heat in excess of 1,000 degrees which destroys beneficial substances in salt. This heat also causes chemical distortions that turn salt into sodium chloride, a substance that does no good in the body. Table salt is full of additives, fluoride, anti-caking agents, excessive amounts of potassium iodide and other poisons. Many versions of commercial salt also contain aluminum derivatives, which are known to be highly toxic. These additives can cause discoloration in salt, so bleaching agents are then used to restore the desirable white color. It's no wonder refined commercial salt is causing so many health problems.

FDA food labeling rules make it possible for consumers to exceed their maximum recommended daily intake of trans fats even if they eat only foods labeled "zero trans fats" per serving.

Trans fats, also known as hydrogenated oils, are synthetically produced by adding hydrogen atoms to unsaturated vegetable oils. Unlike natural unsaturated or saturated fats, trans fats have no nutritional value. They have been overwhelmingly shown to increase the risk of death from cardiovascular disease, such that several large cities and the state of California have banned their use in restaurants.

The fats are favored by food producers because they have a longer shelf life than natural fats. But growing consumer awareness over the dangers of trans fats has led more and more people to avoid them. According to a recent survey by Greenfield Online, 72 percent of U.S. residents read nutritional labels to make food purchasing decisions, and 61 percent believe that "zero trans fats" is the most important claim for a heart-healthy food.

The cancer prevention drug, tamoxifen, may cause cancer. It has been reported that rare cancers are being found in long-term users. Tamoxifen is the drug of choice, prescribed after breast cancer detection or surgery. Its use is deemed to have a 20% success rate in preventing further incidences of cancer. For this reason, many breast cancer survivors are long term users of tamoxifen, and this news is disturbing for both them and their caregivers.

Tamoxifen is an estrogen-blocking drug. The tumors that developed in the tamoxifen users were rare but aggressive. Some suggest that the risks still outweigh the downside, because tamoxifen is so successful at preventing a recurrence of common breast tumors.

Many question the report and its methodology, which is the typical reaction from the medical community to bad news. And this is especially bad news, as tamoxifen is a staple in the fight against cancer.