Health & WellnessS


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.

Question

Four people test positive for bird flu in Wales

Four people have tested positive for bird flu linked to a low-risk strain found in chickens which died on a farm in north Wales, as samples were being taken Saturday from another farm in the area.

Doctor Christianne Glossop, chief veterinary officer for Wales, has said that the chickens at the first farm died from the H7N2 low pathogenic avian influenza strain, not the most virulent H5N1 strain.

The Health Protection Agency (HPA) "confirmed infections in four" of the samples taken from nine people who were associated with the infected or dead birds and reported flu-like symptoms, its chief executive Pat Troop said.

"These test results confirm that human infection with the avian flu virus has occurred. The cases so far have been associated with the infected birds," Troop said.

Bomb

Three children abroad die after exposure to hepatitis B vaccine

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has announced that three children outside Vietnam have died after receiving vaccinations from two batches of hepatitis B vaccine produced by Korea's LG company.

Health

Flashback Gardasil Vaccine linked to sickness, Parents Urged Not To Panic

FEDERAL Health Minister Tony Abbott and health authorities have urged parents not to panic over reports that dozens of teenage girls have been sickened by a new cervical cancer vaccine.

Bomb

Judicial Watch Uncovers Three Deaths Relating to HPV Vaccine

Event Reports Obtained from FDA Detail 1,637 Adverse Reactions to Gardasil

Judicial Watch, the public interest group that investigates and prosecutes government corruption, today released documents obtained from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) under the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act, detailing 1,637 reports of adverse reactions to the vaccination for human papillomavirus (HPV), Gardasil. Three deaths were related to the vaccine. One physician's assistant reported that a female patient "died of a blood clot three hours after getting the Gardasil vaccine." Two other reports, on girls 12 and 19, reported deaths relating to heart problems and/or blood clotting.

Health

Mumps arrives in Manitoba

An outbreak of mumps in eastern Canada appears to have spread to Manitoba.

Public health officials have confirmed two reported cases of mumps in Winnipeg, both in people in their 20s. Neither has been hospitalized.