Health & WellnessS


Gear

Athletica nervosa, the new lads' disorder: Craze to build body beautiful

The laddish culture promoted by men's magazines has spawned a new medical condition: athletica nervosa, or an obsession with exercise.

Question

Autopsy on woman found dead after denial of euthanasia request is inconclusive

Results were inconclusive for an autopsy performed on the body of a woman found dead days after French authorities denied her euthanasia request, the Dijon prosecutor said Friday.

Jean-Pierre Alacchi said analyses performed on Chantal Sebire's body showed her death was not related to the rare tumor from which she suffered, which was lodged in her sinuses.

Arrow Down

Antismoking Pill May Ease Depression ... Or Cause Suicidal Thoughts

Two drugs that act on nicotine receptors are now being tested as antidepressants -- offering hope to the millions of people who don't respond to traditional antidepressants.

chantix
©Rob Lee/Flickr
While anti-smoking drug Chantix can provide soothing feelings, its use has elicited suicidal thoughts in some people.

Comment: Quit smoking, that might actually benefit you, and get these drugs, that might or might not make you wanna kill yourself! Meanwhile, drug companies keep getting wealthier.


Evil Rays

How Cellphone Radiation Affects Your Cells

Radiation from cell phones is too weak to heat biological tissue or break chemical bonds in cells, but the radio waves they emit may still change cell behavior.

cellphone
©Unknown

Light Sabers

Those who resort to punishment are losers

Taking the law into your own hands is ineffective. Nor is it true that sparing the rod spoils the child, according to a study that shows people who resort to punishment are losers.

These are not the ravings of someone who has been penalised once too often but the conclusion of an eminent group of biologists, economists and mathematicians at Harvard University, led by Prof Martin Nowak.

Light Sabers

Flashback Need for punishment rules out Utopia

The utopian society, in which it is in everyone's interest to co-operate and there are no sanctions, is an impossible dream, a study using game theory suggests.

The threat of punishment is the glue that holds society together, according to Swiss researchers.

Question

French woman denied euthanasia found dead

A French woman who made headlines around the world, due to her battle with a disfiguring facial tumour, has been found dead at her home. Mother-of-three Chantal Sébire suffered excruciating pain from a rare inoperable cancer in her sinuses. She appealed for the legal right to end her own life.

Earlier this week a court in Dijon, in eastern France, rejected the 52-year-old former schoolteacher's request to go to her "death with dignity".

Heart

Happily Married Have Lower Blood Pressure than Singles

Marriage really can be a matter of the heart with a U.S. study finding that happily married couples have lower blood pressure than single people.

Health

Depressed Caregivers Hostile, Not Warm, to Children

A new study in the journal Family Process reveals that caregivers with moderate to severe depressive symptoms showed greater hostility and less warmth. The study focused on caregivers of low-income children with persistent asthma.

Health

Doctors warn of superbug infection in face-lifts

A dangerous drug-resistant bacterial infection has been showing up in a small number of patients who undergo face-lifts, doctors reported on Monday.

When infections do occur at surgical sites following such procedures "the facial plastic surgeon should have a high suspicion" for MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus), as the source, they said.