Health & WellnessS


People

Sexes split over one night stands


BBC News
Thu, 26 Jun 2008 14:28 UTC
Many women are left unhappy in the aftermath of casual sexual encounters, a survey has revealed. Just under half of women who answered the internet poll, published in the journal Human Nature, said they felt it had been a bad idea.

Four out of five men, in contrast, said they were happy with a brief fling. The academic leading the research said it showed that there was no evolutionary advantage for women in one night stands.
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People

Dilemma over Romanian girl's abortion plan


CNN
Thu, 26 Jun 2008 14:15 UTC
Romanian authorities plan to decide Friday whether to allow an 11-year-old girl to have an abortion after she was raped by her teenage uncle, the Romanian Ministry of Health said Thursday.

The girl is now 20 weeks pregnant -- too far along to have an abortion in Romania -- and her parents have said they'll take her to Britain for an abortion if the Romanian authorities deny her one at home, a spokeswoman at the health ministry said.

It is illegal to have an abortion in Romania after 14 weeks unless the pregnancy poses problems for the mother's health, said the spokeswoman, who asked not to be named. Abortions are legal in Britain up to 24 weeks.
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No Entry

Ethiopia: Over 40 Thousand AIDS patients stop ART

Tesfa-alem Tekle
Sudan Tribune
Tue, 24 Jun 2008 14:04 UTC
Some 25% of the total AIDS patients who were taking protection drugs in Ethiopia have pulled-out of the national antiretroviral treatment program (ART), the National HIV/AIDS prevention and control office said.

Office representative, Desalegn Tesfay in a round-table held in Addis Ababa said that among the total 156,360 adult Aids patients who were embraced under the ART program 40,282 of them have pulled out for various reasons.
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Pistol

US: Researchers Study Hidden Homicide Trend


Johns Hopkins University
Thu, 26 Jun 2008 13:06 UTC
Gun-related homicide among young men rose sharply in the United States in recent years even though the nation's overall homicide rate remained flat, according to a study by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Between 1999 and 2005, homicide involving firearms increased 31 percent among black men ages 25 to 44 and 12 percent among white men of the same age. The study is published in Online First edition of the Journal of Urban Health.

"The recent flatness of the U.S. homicide rate obscures the large increases in firearm death among males ages 25-44, especially black males," said Susan Baker, MPH, co-author of the study and a professor with the Bloomberg School's Center for Injury Research and Policy.
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Stop

Five of Bahraini sextuplets die


RIA Novosti
Thu, 26 Jun 2008 12:38 UTC
Five of the Bahraini sextuplets who were born last Sunday have died, the Dubai Newspaper Gulf News reported on Thursday.

The sixth baby is currently in a critical condition in a neo-natal intensive care unit at a clinic in the country's capital, Manama.

The sextuplets, three boys and three girls, weighing between 460 and 650 grams, were delivered prematurely after 24 weeks of pregnancy by caesarean section, with 35 minutes between the first and last baby.
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Roses

Oregano helps against Inflammations


Science Centric
Wed, 25 Jun 2008 14:26 UTC
Oregano doesn't only give a pizza its typical taste. Researchers at Bonn University and the ETH Zuerich have discovered that this spice also contains a substance which, amongst other qualities, appears to help cure inflammations. The researchers administered its active ingredient - known as beta-caryophyllin (E-BCP) - to mice with inflamed paws. In seven out of ten cases there was a subsequent improvement in the symptoms. E-BCP might possibly be of use against disorders such as osteoporosis and arteriosclerosis. The study has appeared on Monday, 23rd June in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).
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Life Preserver

Magnesium Is Crucial to the Proper Functioning of a Healthy Body

Mark Sircus Ac., OMD
Natural News
Thu, 26 Jun 2008 02:48 UTC
The following is an excerpt from the book Transdermal Magnesium Therapy by Dr. Mark Sircus, AC., OMD which introduces an innovative way to increase our magnesium levels through completely natural means, and in much faster ways than oral products do.

Magnesium is the fourth most abundant mineral in the body and is essential to good health. Magnesium (Mg), atomic number twelve, is an element essential for normal function of the nervous and cardiovascular systems. Unfortunately, magnesium deficiency is one of the most common nutritional problems in the industrialized world today. This deficiency is the result of agricultural practices, food preparation techniques, and dietary trends. The current Recommended Daily Allowance (RDA) for the U.S. is 6 mg/Kg/day, which translates to 420 mg for a 70 Kg man. Despite this, it has been estimated that adults average much less than this requirement. The health implications are nothing short of catastrophic. Magnesium is necessary for the metabolism of carbohydrates, fats and amino acids. It is essential for the functions of muscles and nerves and for the formation of bones and teeth. Generally it counteracts and regulates the influence of calcium.
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Bulb

Neuroscientists discover a sense of adventure


Wellcome Trust
Wed, 25 Jun 2008 14:06 UTC
Wellcome Trust scientists have identified a key region of the brain which encourages us to be adventurous. The region, located in a primitive area of the brain, is activated when we choose unfamiliar options, suggesting an evolutionary advantage for sampling the unknown. It may also explain why re-branding of familiar products encourages to pick them off the supermarket shelves.

In an experiment carried out at the Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging at UCL (University College London), volunteers were shown a selection of images, which they had already been familiarised with. Each card had a unique probability of reward attached to it and over the course of the experiment, the volunteers would be able to work out which selection would provide the highest rewards. However, when unfamiliar images were introduced, the researchers found that volunteers were more likely to take a chance and select one of these options than continue with their familiar - and arguably safer - option.
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Bulb

Flashback A study lays the scientific foundations to distinguish the different human ways for paying attention


University of Granada
Mon, 31 Mar 2008 14:01 UTC
Is it possible to compensate attention problems through other attention ways? Does it produce the same effects to direct someone's attention in a voluntary (endogenous) or in an involuntary way (exogenous)? These are the questions answered by a research work of the Department of Experimental Psychology and Behaviour Physiology of the University of Granada carried out by doctor Ana Belén Chica Martínez, and supervised by Professor Juan Lupiáñez Castillo.

The study of attentional orientation carried out by the UGR researchers is especially relevant for the rehabilitation of patients with attention disorders, as well as for attention training in healthy children, children who suffer attention deficits (hyperactivity), and in anyone normal aging. In the case of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, different recent studies point out that it affects more than 4% of the schoolchildren, which proves the importance of the work carried out by the UGR.
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Bulb

Mixed feelings not remembered as well as happy or sad ones


University of Chicago Press Journals
Wed, 25 Jun 2008 13:54 UTC
Imagine you're about to step onto a rollercoaster at an amusement park. You are filled with apprehension and joy, mixed emotions that last beyond the dizzying ride. How will you remember the experience?

According to new research in the Journal of Consumer Research, people tend to underestimate the intensity of their recalled feelings if those feelings were mixed, as opposed to purely happy or sad.

Authors Jennifer Aaker (UC-Berkeley), Aimee Drolet (UCLA), and Dale Griffin (University of British Columbia) conducted a series of studies that tested participants' emotions when they faced scenarios such as taking tests and moving, events that are typically associated with mixed emotions.

"We conducted two longitudinal experiments which show that the intensity of mixed emotions is underestimated at the time of recall - an effect that appears to increase over time and does not occur to the same degree with happy or sad emotions," write the authors. The underestimation increases over time, to the point that people sometimes don't remember having felt ambivalent at all.
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