Health & WellnessS


Bomb

Why Is the Pet Food Industry Killing Our Pets?

Many were shocked by the thousands of pet deaths that prompted the recent pet food recall, but the truth is that the pet food industry has a long history causing the deaths of many more.

Health

Fake ingredients put consumers' health at risk

American consumers are being ripped off and their health possibly put at risk because of bogus ingredients slipped into imports ranging from toothpaste to dietary supplements.

Suppliers who substitute cheaper ingredients for the real thing seldom get busted because the government and private labs review few of the products flooding in.

Red Flag

Brain gets a thrill from charity: study

CHICAGO - Knowing your money is going to a good cause can activate some of the same pleasure centers in your brain as food and sex, U.S. researchers said on Thursday.

People who participated in a study got a charge knowing that their money went to a charity -- even when the contribution was mandatory, like a tax. They felt even better when they voluntarily made a donation, researchers found.

Magic Wand

Scientific research on sense of humour sheds light on psychological profiles

Is it possible to scientifically measure someone's sense of humour? Are there universally good or bad jokes that make people laugh no matter their gender, profession or cultural background? These are some of the questions answered by the doctoral thesis Sentido del Humor: Construcción de la Escala de Apreciación del Humor (Sense of humour: building of the appreciation of humour scale), carried out by Hugo Carretero Dios, researcher in the Department of Social Psychology and Methodology of Behavioural Science at the University of Granada.

This study, directed by researchers Cristino Pérez Meléndez and Gualberto Buela Casal, is the first work in Spain stemming from Psychology aimed at measuring people's sense of humour to analyse the psychological variables related to humour. Carretero Dios analysed more than 1,500 people between the ages of 18 and 80 and a similar number of men and women.

This study focused on the following types of humour: sexual humour, black humour, humour degrading to men, humour degrading to women, simple humour and complex humour. The study provided the first scientifically approved evaluation instrument in Spain to evaluate humour appreciation. Moreover, it helped to improve other instruments used in other countries.

Ambulance

Flashback Evidence Grows: Tamiflu Induces psychosis, hallucinations and suicide in young people

JAPANESE health authorities are investigating a flu medication also available in Australia after a teenager who took it jumped 11 storeys to his death - at least the 18th juvenile fatality linked to the drug in 17 months.

Attention

Doctor advises caution over flu drug

In this week's BMJ, a senior doctor advises caution over the use of the antiviral drug oseltamivir (Tamiflu).

His concern follows advice by the Japanese authorities in March 2007 against prescribing oseltamivir to adolescents after the separate suicides of two 14 year olds who jumped to their deaths while taking the drug.

So far, oseltamivir has been thought to be well tolerated and safe, but the recent events in Japan have prompted a reappraisal, writes Simon Maxwell from the University of Edinburgh.

Before 2007, there had already been more than 100 reports of neuropsychiatric events (including delirium, convulsions, and encephalitis) with oseltamivir in children, almost entirely from Japan, which has the highest usage of oseltamivir worldwide. But a Food and Drug Administration (FDA) review concluded that these events were not clearly drug related.

Coffee

Army food is 'cheaper than a dog's dinner'

The Army spends more feeding its dogs than its soldiers, it has been claimed.

Figures obtained by a Tory MP show that £1.51 a day goes on meals for troops, compared with £2.63 for military dogs.

Even prisoners - who cost £1.87 a day to feed - fare better than servicemen. Schoolchildren get £1.55 for lunch alone.

Better Earth

Child obesity 'a form of neglect'

Obesity has been a factor in at least 20 child protection cases in the last year, the BBC has learned.

Some doctors now believe in extreme cases overfeeding a young child should be seen as a form of abuse or neglect.

The BBC contacted almost 50 consultant paediatricians around the UK to ask if they believe childhood obesity can ever be a child protection issue.

The British Medical Association is due to debate a motion on this issue at its annual conference at the end of June.

Earlier this year the case of one obese child hit the headlines when social workers became involved.

Display

Doctor Urges AMA to Recognize Game Addiction As a Disorder

The American Medical Association is preparing to recognise 'Internet/video game addiction' as a 'formal diagnostic disorder'.

This move would have wide ranging implications within the law as the ever-growing list of lawyers attempting to blame 'sick videogames' for crimes ranging from street robbery to mass murder, call on a medically-recognised disorder to bolster their defence. It will also inevitably lead to pharmaceutical companies coming out with a range of high-priced and pointless cures that can be dumped inside people.

The proposal comes in the form of a 'Report Of The Council On Science And Public Health: Emotional and Behavioral Effects, Including Addictive Potential, of Video Games" chaired by Mohamed K. Khan, MD, Phd.

Health

Cod liver oil 'treats depression'

It may make the stomach turn, but scientists in Norway suggest that taking a spoonful of cod liver oil each day could stave off depression.

In a study of almost 22,000 people aged over 40, those who regularly took the oil were less likely to suffer depression than those who did not.

The study in the Journal of Affective Disorders also suggested the longer one took it, the less depressed one became.

The oil is rich in Omega-3 fatty acids which are linked to various benefits.