Pregnancy at 41 certainly agrees with Helena Bonham Carter. Seven months into carrying her second child, vibrant and beaming, she is licking big globules of Marmite – her latest craving – off her fingers.
She knows she is lucky. Not because of her successful acting career maintained over 25 years but because, after trying for two long years, she finally managed to conceive naturally.
Bonham Carter already has one son, Billy Ray, four, with her partner, the cult film director Tim Burton, best known for the Gothic Edward Scissorhands and two of the Batman films. But she was desperate to have a second child and, while more women are becoming mothers over the age of 40 – there has been a 50 per cent increase in the past 10 years – she was well aware that only 7.8 per cent of women over the age of 42 are able to conceive with their own eggs.
So, like many women in her position, the actress, whose career has moved from playing Merchant Ivory heroines to the evil Bellatrix Lestrange in the Harry Potter movies, was open to considering all options.
And while Bonham Carter is renowned for her interest in alternative therapies, after trying and failing to get pregnant she decided to try conventional fertility medicine. The experience was not a happy one.
Source - Telegraph
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
Comics prove laughter really is the best medicine when it comes to mental illness
JOKING about mental illness may not seem the most obvious way of breaking down taboos and tackling discrimination.
But that is exactly what a group of comedians are hoping to achieve as Scotland battles to reduce the stigma around a problem which affects a quarter of the population. Yesterday saw the launch of Scotland's first Mental Health Arts and Film Festival.
As well as films, debates and exhibitions, comedians are using humour to address what is still a very sensitive issue despite being such a massive problem. It is hoped that by doing so they can bring in a new audience and help to change attitudes to mental illness.
While humour is now being used to address mental illness, many top comedians have suffered their own very personal experiences of the problem.
Entertainers including Stephen Fry and the late Spike Milligan have suffered depression while maintaining high-profile careers.
Yesterday Raymond Mearns, one of the comedians taking part in the festival, said he thought comedy would make people listen to a subject they would otherwise ignore.
"It helps to add a wee bit of sugar to the medicine," he said. "If you ask someone to listen to a talk about depression, they will just say, 'That is too boring'.
"But if there is a bit of humour, a bit of comedy, people will be more willing to sit up and take notice. I think using comedy is a fantastic idea and I really believe in this project."
Source - Scotsman
But that is exactly what a group of comedians are hoping to achieve as Scotland battles to reduce the stigma around a problem which affects a quarter of the population. Yesterday saw the launch of Scotland's first Mental Health Arts and Film Festival.
As well as films, debates and exhibitions, comedians are using humour to address what is still a very sensitive issue despite being such a massive problem. It is hoped that by doing so they can bring in a new audience and help to change attitudes to mental illness.
While humour is now being used to address mental illness, many top comedians have suffered their own very personal experiences of the problem.
Entertainers including Stephen Fry and the late Spike Milligan have suffered depression while maintaining high-profile careers.
Yesterday Raymond Mearns, one of the comedians taking part in the festival, said he thought comedy would make people listen to a subject they would otherwise ignore.
"It helps to add a wee bit of sugar to the medicine," he said. "If you ask someone to listen to a talk about depression, they will just say, 'That is too boring'.
"But if there is a bit of humour, a bit of comedy, people will be more willing to sit up and take notice. I think using comedy is a fantastic idea and I really believe in this project."
Source - Scotsman
Health foods 'don't protect against sight loss'
A DIET rich in foods containing antioxidants does not protect against the UK's leading cause of sight loss, experts believe.
Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) relates to the progressive breakdown of light- sensitive cells in the centre of the retina in the eye. Sufferers can find it virtually impossible to read, drive or carry out tasks requiring sharp, central vision.
AMD is most common among the elderly and smokers are thought to be more at risk. A review of research published online today in the British Medical Journal found no evidence that a healthy diet staves off AMD.
Source - Scotsman
Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) relates to the progressive breakdown of light- sensitive cells in the centre of the retina in the eye. Sufferers can find it virtually impossible to read, drive or carry out tasks requiring sharp, central vision.
AMD is most common among the elderly and smokers are thought to be more at risk. A review of research published online today in the British Medical Journal found no evidence that a healthy diet staves off AMD.
Source - Scotsman
Sit down, switch off, zone out: the ultimate stress buster
Just a few minutes' daily meditation can make all the difference between an anxious existence and a life of quiet contentment.
Pop stars know it, movie stars, too – and so do saffron-robed monks. While stress may be the great scourge of the modern age, man has long known the secret of how to beat it. Confirmation came this week in the pages of the august journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences – a scholarly tome a cosmic lifecycle away from the internet twitterings of the New Age.
Research from the University of Oregon claims to prove that attaining a state of "restful alertness" for 20 minutes a day over a period of just five days can physically reduce anxiety and lower levels of the stress hormone cortisol.
The millions of people worldwide who practise meditation in its myriad forms may well allow themselves a wry smile at receiving the empirical blandishments of modern science. For theirs is a tradition that dates back nearly 3,000 years.
Not that anyone is certain exactly when it emerged, although most agree that the first meditators could be found sitting cross-legged among the Hindu tribes of the Indus valley shortly after Egyptian slaves had put the finishing touches to the Pyramids.
Source - Independent
Pop stars know it, movie stars, too – and so do saffron-robed monks. While stress may be the great scourge of the modern age, man has long known the secret of how to beat it. Confirmation came this week in the pages of the august journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences – a scholarly tome a cosmic lifecycle away from the internet twitterings of the New Age.
Research from the University of Oregon claims to prove that attaining a state of "restful alertness" for 20 minutes a day over a period of just five days can physically reduce anxiety and lower levels of the stress hormone cortisol.
The millions of people worldwide who practise meditation in its myriad forms may well allow themselves a wry smile at receiving the empirical blandishments of modern science. For theirs is a tradition that dates back nearly 3,000 years.
Not that anyone is certain exactly when it emerged, although most agree that the first meditators could be found sitting cross-legged among the Hindu tribes of the Indus valley shortly after Egyptian slaves had put the finishing touches to the Pyramids.
Source - Independent
Mothers' smoking is to blame for up to 90% of cot deaths
Nine out of ten cot death victims had mothers who smoked during pregnancy, a major study has revealed.
The scientists who carried out the research warn that mothers to be who smoke are four times more likely to see their child die from cot death than non-smokers.
The report, from Bristol University's institute of child life and health, calls on the Government to ban expectant women from buying tobacco.
Its authors say smoking in the presence of pregnant women and infants should be seen as being 'anti-social, potentially dangerous and unacceptable'. Ministers are considering whether to rewrite their advice for mothers-to-be on smoking.
Authors Peter Fleming and Dr Peter Blair based their analysis on the evidence from 21 international studies on smoking and sudden infant death syndrome.
Dr Blair said: 'If smoking is a cause of SIDS, as the evidence suggests it is, we think that if all parents stopped smoking tomorrow more than 60 per cent of SIDS deaths would be prevented.'
Around 300 babies a year die of cot death in Britain, usually between the ages of one and four months.
The report, to be published later this week, calls on the Government 'to emphasise the adverse effects of tobacco smoke exposure to infants and among pregnant women'.
It found that many women are still ignoring the risks of smoking when they were carrying a child.
The scientists who carried out the research warn that mothers to be who smoke are four times more likely to see their child die from cot death than non-smokers.
The report, from Bristol University's institute of child life and health, calls on the Government to ban expectant women from buying tobacco.
Its authors say smoking in the presence of pregnant women and infants should be seen as being 'anti-social, potentially dangerous and unacceptable'. Ministers are considering whether to rewrite their advice for mothers-to-be on smoking.
Authors Peter Fleming and Dr Peter Blair based their analysis on the evidence from 21 international studies on smoking and sudden infant death syndrome.
Dr Blair said: 'If smoking is a cause of SIDS, as the evidence suggests it is, we think that if all parents stopped smoking tomorrow more than 60 per cent of SIDS deaths would be prevented.'
Around 300 babies a year die of cot death in Britain, usually between the ages of one and four months.
The report, to be published later this week, calls on the Government 'to emphasise the adverse effects of tobacco smoke exposure to infants and among pregnant women'.
It found that many women are still ignoring the risks of smoking when they were carrying a child.
'A gym 'prescription' got me mobile'
As a former PE teacher, sport was Cherry Protheroe's life.
If she was not teaching it, she was taking part, training every spare minute and very fit and active.
But a bout of psoriasis as a teenager led her to develop psoriatic arthropathy at the age of 28 - this causes pain and swelling in joints and tissue, accompanied by associated stiffness, particularly in the morning.
Doctors told Cherry, now 60 from North Bedfordshire, that she had to give up sport or face life in a wheelchair.
Special treatment
So for nearly 30 years Cherry, who later also developed severe osteoarthritis, did no sport.
Her health deteriorated and four years ago she was forced to take early retirement from her post as deputy head of a large comprehensive school. Then her doctor wrote her a very special prescription - for exercise.
On her GP's advice she joined a local gym and started using the treadmill, cross trainer, rower and bikes.
"And I started to feel much better. I have got more mobility back," she said.
"Before it was so bad I could do very little. At one stage I had to walk with a stick.
"I would not have gone to the gym had it not been for the doctor, because I had been told that exercise was wrong for me. But it was really the intensity of the exercise I was doing that was the problem.
If she was not teaching it, she was taking part, training every spare minute and very fit and active.
But a bout of psoriasis as a teenager led her to develop psoriatic arthropathy at the age of 28 - this causes pain and swelling in joints and tissue, accompanied by associated stiffness, particularly in the morning.
Doctors told Cherry, now 60 from North Bedfordshire, that she had to give up sport or face life in a wheelchair.
Special treatment
So for nearly 30 years Cherry, who later also developed severe osteoarthritis, did no sport.
Her health deteriorated and four years ago she was forced to take early retirement from her post as deputy head of a large comprehensive school. Then her doctor wrote her a very special prescription - for exercise.
On her GP's advice she joined a local gym and started using the treadmill, cross trainer, rower and bikes.
"And I started to feel much better. I have got more mobility back," she said.
"Before it was so bad I could do very little. At one stage I had to walk with a stick.
"I would not have gone to the gym had it not been for the doctor, because I had been told that exercise was wrong for me. But it was really the intensity of the exercise I was doing that was the problem.
The power of positive thinking might help, but it won’t beat cancer
People who are told that they have cancer are often advised to stay positive. But doing so does nothing to help you to survive the disease, according to a study.
The self-help guru Louise Hay extolled the virtues of positive thinking in her book, You Can Heal Your Life, which has sold 35 million copies worldwide over the past 20 years. Some small studies have suggested a benefit.
But the latest study, published in the journal Cancer, provides strong evidence that while it may be good advice to remain as upbeat as possible, the cancer doesn't take any notice.
James Coyne, of the University of Pennsylvania, said that previous studies used patients with many different diseases, small sample sizes and an inadequate number of deaths to be conclusive.Instead, he used data from two studies of patients with head and neck cancer to examine whether emotional wellbeing at the time the study started had any effect on survival.
His sample consisted of 1,093 patients who completed a quality-of-life questionnaire during treatment.
This included an emotional wellbeing (EWB) scale, which was calculated by asking participants how closely various statements such as "I feel sad" and "I am losing hope in my fight against my illness" reflected their own personal feelings.
The higher the score on the EWB scale, the more emotional wellbeing and the less depression.
Over the course of the study, 646 of the patients died. The analysis showed that emotional status was not linked to survival.
Source - Daily Mail
The self-help guru Louise Hay extolled the virtues of positive thinking in her book, You Can Heal Your Life, which has sold 35 million copies worldwide over the past 20 years. Some small studies have suggested a benefit.
But the latest study, published in the journal Cancer, provides strong evidence that while it may be good advice to remain as upbeat as possible, the cancer doesn't take any notice.
James Coyne, of the University of Pennsylvania, said that previous studies used patients with many different diseases, small sample sizes and an inadequate number of deaths to be conclusive.Instead, he used data from two studies of patients with head and neck cancer to examine whether emotional wellbeing at the time the study started had any effect on survival.
His sample consisted of 1,093 patients who completed a quality-of-life questionnaire during treatment.
This included an emotional wellbeing (EWB) scale, which was calculated by asking participants how closely various statements such as "I feel sad" and "I am losing hope in my fight against my illness" reflected their own personal feelings.
The higher the score on the EWB scale, the more emotional wellbeing and the less depression.
Over the course of the study, 646 of the patients died. The analysis showed that emotional status was not linked to survival.
Source - Daily Mail
Standing on your head really DOES help you think
The idea that standing on your head helps you think may be more than just a myth.
Scientists believe blood flowing through the brain may affect the way nerves transmit signals to other parts of the body.
If the theory is true, it could be used to treat brain diseases including Alzheimer's, schizophrenia and epilepsy.
Practitioners of Chinese medicine and yoga have long taught that standing on your head can boost memory and sharpen alertness.
It was already known that blood transports oxygen and fuel to brain cells.
But scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, in the U.S., argue that blood may actually influence nerve function and help to regulate information passing through the brain.
Other studies have shown that changes in blood flow affect the activity of nearby neurons, altering how they transmit signals to each other. The theory is borne out by brain scan studies of the sensory homunculus — the brain's detailed map of body parts such as fingers, toes, arms and legs.
When more blood flows to an area of the brain corresponding to the fingertip, for example, people appear to feel a light tap on their finger.
Dr Christopher Moore, from MIT's McGovern Institute for Brain Research, said: "Many lines of evidence suggest that blood does something more interesting than just delivering supplies. If it does modulate how neurons relay signals, that changes how we think the brain works."
Source - Daily Mail
Scientists believe blood flowing through the brain may affect the way nerves transmit signals to other parts of the body.
If the theory is true, it could be used to treat brain diseases including Alzheimer's, schizophrenia and epilepsy.
Practitioners of Chinese medicine and yoga have long taught that standing on your head can boost memory and sharpen alertness.
It was already known that blood transports oxygen and fuel to brain cells.
But scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, in the U.S., argue that blood may actually influence nerve function and help to regulate information passing through the brain.
Other studies have shown that changes in blood flow affect the activity of nearby neurons, altering how they transmit signals to each other. The theory is borne out by brain scan studies of the sensory homunculus — the brain's detailed map of body parts such as fingers, toes, arms and legs.
When more blood flows to an area of the brain corresponding to the fingertip, for example, people appear to feel a light tap on their finger.
Dr Christopher Moore, from MIT's McGovern Institute for Brain Research, said: "Many lines of evidence suggest that blood does something more interesting than just delivering supplies. If it does modulate how neurons relay signals, that changes how we think the brain works."
Source - Daily Mail
Revealed: Resisting chocolate just makes you want more, say psychologists
For those keen to lose weight, cutting out chocolate would seem to be common sense.
But banishing all thoughts of chocolate could actually end up making you fatter.
Psychologists have discovered that those who try to stop thinking about chocolate eat nearly 50 per cent more than than those who have a more liberal approach to their craving. They say it could explain why some women are prone to "yo-yo" dieting or go on to develop binge-eating disorders.
Psychologist James Erskine, of the University of Hertfordshire, who led the independent research, said: "The act of avoidance seems to completely backfire. We found that if you try not to think about eating chocolate, it tends to lead you to eat more. In other words, thinking about chocolate is not dangerous – but trying not to think about it is."
Dr Erskine, who calls the phenomenon a "behavioural rebound", claims his findings could help those struggling to give up unhealthy foods and even smoking.
The study, called "Resistance Can Be Futile", and published in the scientific journal Appetite, looked at 134 undergraduates.
Source - Daily Mail
But banishing all thoughts of chocolate could actually end up making you fatter.
Psychologists have discovered that those who try to stop thinking about chocolate eat nearly 50 per cent more than than those who have a more liberal approach to their craving. They say it could explain why some women are prone to "yo-yo" dieting or go on to develop binge-eating disorders.
Psychologist James Erskine, of the University of Hertfordshire, who led the independent research, said: "The act of avoidance seems to completely backfire. We found that if you try not to think about eating chocolate, it tends to lead you to eat more. In other words, thinking about chocolate is not dangerous – but trying not to think about it is."
Dr Erskine, who calls the phenomenon a "behavioural rebound", claims his findings could help those struggling to give up unhealthy foods and even smoking.
The study, called "Resistance Can Be Futile", and published in the scientific journal Appetite, looked at 134 undergraduates.
Source - Daily Mail
Chilli compound fires painkiller
A chemical from chilli peppers may be able to kill pain without affecting touch or movement.
This might in theory mean a woman in labour could have an epidural without losing the ability to move her legs, or the sensation of her baby being born. Conventional local anaesthetics affect all nerve cells.
But the researchers Harvard team, writing in Nature, said that with capsaicin, the chilli chemical, they can target just pain receptors.
However, a UK expert said it might be difficult to inject it safely.
Numbness is actually a side-effect of the pain-killing properties of local anaesthetics - caused when the drug blocks signals not only from the nerve endings which cause pain, but other nerve endings which simply detect the sensation of touch.
And when anaesthetic "blocks", are injected into the spine, they can interfere with other nerves, causing temporary paralysis - such as that felt in the lower limbs after an epidural injection.
Source - BBC
This might in theory mean a woman in labour could have an epidural without losing the ability to move her legs, or the sensation of her baby being born. Conventional local anaesthetics affect all nerve cells.
But the researchers Harvard team, writing in Nature, said that with capsaicin, the chilli chemical, they can target just pain receptors.
However, a UK expert said it might be difficult to inject it safely.
Numbness is actually a side-effect of the pain-killing properties of local anaesthetics - caused when the drug blocks signals not only from the nerve endings which cause pain, but other nerve endings which simply detect the sensation of touch.
And when anaesthetic "blocks", are injected into the spine, they can interfere with other nerves, causing temporary paralysis - such as that felt in the lower limbs after an epidural injection.
Source - BBC
Sleepwalking: a nation in meltdown
Hotel receptions are apparently thronged with nude sleepwalkers, while an epidemic of insomnia grips the country.
Somnambulists are on the move. Last week, Travelodge hotels revealed that staff dealt with more than 400 cases of sleepwalking last year, a seven-fold increase.According to the chain's "director of sleep", Leigh McCarron, such guests mostly turned up at reception in the middle of the night, trying to check out or looking for a newspaper. Almost all were male. Many were naked.
"We have seen an increased number of sleepwalkers over the years," says McCarron, "so it is important that our staff know how to help them when the problem arises." For starters, receptionists now keep a handy supply of towels to protect the dignity of their guests.
Solving the problem of sleepwalking is not so simple, though. What most somnambulists are crying out for is a restful night's sleep – just like the many others who suffer from different types of disturbed sleep, including leg-twitchers, insomniacs and even snorers.
The frustration suffered by the sleep-deprived was neatly summed up by the BBC's Jeremy Paxman recently, when it was reported that he had suffered from insomnia for more than 25 years.
Source - Telegraph
Somnambulists are on the move. Last week, Travelodge hotels revealed that staff dealt with more than 400 cases of sleepwalking last year, a seven-fold increase.According to the chain's "director of sleep", Leigh McCarron, such guests mostly turned up at reception in the middle of the night, trying to check out or looking for a newspaper. Almost all were male. Many were naked.
"We have seen an increased number of sleepwalkers over the years," says McCarron, "so it is important that our staff know how to help them when the problem arises." For starters, receptionists now keep a handy supply of towels to protect the dignity of their guests.
Solving the problem of sleepwalking is not so simple, though. What most somnambulists are crying out for is a restful night's sleep – just like the many others who suffer from different types of disturbed sleep, including leg-twitchers, insomniacs and even snorers.
The frustration suffered by the sleep-deprived was neatly summed up by the BBC's Jeremy Paxman recently, when it was reported that he had suffered from insomnia for more than 25 years.
Source - Telegraph
Old cures for new ills
[ The article covers hypnotherapy, acupuncture, massage and homeopathy. ]
Trace the chequered history of some of our favourite alternative health remedies
HYPNOTHERAPY
Hypnotherapy was invented by a Viennese doctor called Franz Anton Mesmer. He took his trance-inducing technique, which became known as mesmerism, to Paris in 1778 and set up shop claiming that he could employ it to cure people of a variety of ailments.
Dr Mesmer believed in an invisible fluid that floated around the body, a force a bit like magnetism, which had recently been discovered. One of his techniques involved asking clients (usually rich women) to grasp the metal handles of tubs full of water and iron-filings, which he said helped to channel this “mesmeric fluid”.
It wasn’t his medical claims that irritated the intellectual elite of France, but his reputed mental power over women. In those days, a male doctor was not allowed to examine an undressed female patient and the idea that Dr Mesmer could put his female patients into a suggestible trance was intolerable and he was eventually hounded from Paris in 1785.
However, by this time, word of mesmerism had spread to the rest of the world. The English physician James Esdaile was reported to have used it in India to remove a huge 47kg (103lb) tumour from a patient (who weighed only 52kg) without the need for anaesthetic.
Nevertheless, the medical establishment wasn’t convinced, and the technique had been tarnished by scandal. Several rich women brought legal cases against men, claiming that they had used mesmerism to seduce them or to hoodwink them into marriage.
Perhaps to escape its salacious reputation, mesmerism split into two types in the late 1800s. Some doctors believed that the trance-inducing technique was useful and renamed it hypnotherapy. The practice of mesmerism still continued but in a more light-hearted way as a popular after-dinner party trick. Entertainers put on shows in which members of the public would be mesmerised in front of an audience.
Both hypnotherapy and mesmerism survived into the 20th century, but dwindled in popularity. However, hypnotherapy enjoyed a resurgence in the 1950s when fresh research was conducted into its medical potential for treating anxieties and phobias. And it became increasingly popular in the 1960s, as people began to turn away from conventional medicine and look for alternative therapies.
Today there are more than 7,000 registered hypnotherapy practitioners, including some doctors and dentists. Practitioners have found hypnotherapy particularly useful for treating addictions, such as smoking.
Trace the chequered history of some of our favourite alternative health remedies
HYPNOTHERAPY
Hypnotherapy was invented by a Viennese doctor called Franz Anton Mesmer. He took his trance-inducing technique, which became known as mesmerism, to Paris in 1778 and set up shop claiming that he could employ it to cure people of a variety of ailments.
Dr Mesmer believed in an invisible fluid that floated around the body, a force a bit like magnetism, which had recently been discovered. One of his techniques involved asking clients (usually rich women) to grasp the metal handles of tubs full of water and iron-filings, which he said helped to channel this “mesmeric fluid”.
It wasn’t his medical claims that irritated the intellectual elite of France, but his reputed mental power over women. In those days, a male doctor was not allowed to examine an undressed female patient and the idea that Dr Mesmer could put his female patients into a suggestible trance was intolerable and he was eventually hounded from Paris in 1785.
However, by this time, word of mesmerism had spread to the rest of the world. The English physician James Esdaile was reported to have used it in India to remove a huge 47kg (103lb) tumour from a patient (who weighed only 52kg) without the need for anaesthetic.
Nevertheless, the medical establishment wasn’t convinced, and the technique had been tarnished by scandal. Several rich women brought legal cases against men, claiming that they had used mesmerism to seduce them or to hoodwink them into marriage.
Perhaps to escape its salacious reputation, mesmerism split into two types in the late 1800s. Some doctors believed that the trance-inducing technique was useful and renamed it hypnotherapy. The practice of mesmerism still continued but in a more light-hearted way as a popular after-dinner party trick. Entertainers put on shows in which members of the public would be mesmerised in front of an audience.
Both hypnotherapy and mesmerism survived into the 20th century, but dwindled in popularity. However, hypnotherapy enjoyed a resurgence in the 1950s when fresh research was conducted into its medical potential for treating anxieties and phobias. And it became increasingly popular in the 1960s, as people began to turn away from conventional medicine and look for alternative therapies.
Today there are more than 7,000 registered hypnotherapy practitioners, including some doctors and dentists. Practitioners have found hypnotherapy particularly useful for treating addictions, such as smoking.
Beware the calorific trap under the ‘healthy’ label
Packages featuring pictures of sunkissed oats and fresh papaya are not what they seem.
Nobody expects to pick up a Nigella Lawson book and find mung beans and lentil salad recipes. Equally, it is a pretty safe bet that Marco Pierre White would be more likely to serve pig’s trotters than Quorn burgers were you to be invited for dinner.
Celebrity chefs tend to corner markets: indulgent, classic haute cuisine, fish, rustic and so on. So I was not surprised to see a Jamie Oliver recipe in a magazine for homemade granola with berry compote. It was described as a healthy pud that was quick, easy and delicious.
With nuts and seeds, dried fruits, honey, oats and yoghurt on the list of ingredients, it appeared to live up to its healthy image. Yet an uneasy feeling told me that I might be better off with sticky toffee pudding. Indeed, when I analysed the recipe it had 912 calories and 33g of fat per serving. You could have sticky toffee pudding and a piece of cheesecake instead and still be 162 calories better off.
It is not that Jamie had the ingredients wrong. He had just used a lot of them and, maybe, had not appreciated that too many nuts, seeds and dried fruit, combined with more than a jar of honey and a family-sized pot of yoghurt, can turn a “good for you” idea into a calorific minefield.
It is an easy mistake for a chef to make, but one that makers of peach and apricot cereal bars, crunchy tropical breakfast cereals and lemon sunrise muffins play on ruthlessly to lure us into the hidden calorie trap.
Take a typical flapjack. Most of the ones you buy at railway stations, garage forecourts and paper shops weigh about 100g. As they are packed with oats, usually with a few raisins thrown in and a picture of the sun rising over a golden crop on the packet, you could be forgiven for thinking you were making a virtuous choice.
Source - Times
Nobody expects to pick up a Nigella Lawson book and find mung beans and lentil salad recipes. Equally, it is a pretty safe bet that Marco Pierre White would be more likely to serve pig’s trotters than Quorn burgers were you to be invited for dinner.
Celebrity chefs tend to corner markets: indulgent, classic haute cuisine, fish, rustic and so on. So I was not surprised to see a Jamie Oliver recipe in a magazine for homemade granola with berry compote. It was described as a healthy pud that was quick, easy and delicious.
With nuts and seeds, dried fruits, honey, oats and yoghurt on the list of ingredients, it appeared to live up to its healthy image. Yet an uneasy feeling told me that I might be better off with sticky toffee pudding. Indeed, when I analysed the recipe it had 912 calories and 33g of fat per serving. You could have sticky toffee pudding and a piece of cheesecake instead and still be 162 calories better off.
It is not that Jamie had the ingredients wrong. He had just used a lot of them and, maybe, had not appreciated that too many nuts, seeds and dried fruit, combined with more than a jar of honey and a family-sized pot of yoghurt, can turn a “good for you” idea into a calorific minefield.
It is an easy mistake for a chef to make, but one that makers of peach and apricot cereal bars, crunchy tropical breakfast cereals and lemon sunrise muffins play on ruthlessly to lure us into the hidden calorie trap.
Take a typical flapjack. Most of the ones you buy at railway stations, garage forecourts and paper shops weigh about 100g. As they are packed with oats, usually with a few raisins thrown in and a picture of the sun rising over a golden crop on the packet, you could be forgiven for thinking you were making a virtuous choice.
Source - Times
Diet fights cancer
The risk of cancer can be cut by as much as 40% by taking more exercise and eating a diet rich in fruit and vegetables, according to a study.
The World Cancer Research Fund report, to be published this week, will urge Britons to change their lifestyles and will warn that obesity must be tackled if cancer rates are to be reduced significantly.
The study, Food, Nutrition, Physical Activity and the Prevention of Cancer, ( I think this is the link - it was really difficult to find! If not I apologize. ) analysed more than 7,000 studies. It is expected to highlight research showing that regular exercise can cut the risk of some cancers, including those of the colon and breast, by up to 40% and that a diet rich in fruit and vegetables can help, too.
Specialists say that many people are not aware of how small changes in their lifestyle can help to beat cancer.
Source - Times
The World Cancer Research Fund report, to be published this week, will urge Britons to change their lifestyles and will warn that obesity must be tackled if cancer rates are to be reduced significantly.
The study, Food, Nutrition, Physical Activity and the Prevention of Cancer, ( I think this is the link - it was really difficult to find! If not I apologize. ) analysed more than 7,000 studies. It is expected to highlight research showing that regular exercise can cut the risk of some cancers, including those of the colon and breast, by up to 40% and that a diet rich in fruit and vegetables can help, too.
Specialists say that many people are not aware of how small changes in their lifestyle can help to beat cancer.
Source - Times
We can't work it out
We all know exercise helps you lose weight. But does it? There is almost no scientific evidence to support the orthodoxy. Indeed, it could even do the exact opposite...
Let us begin with a short quiz: a few questions to ponder during the 30 (or 60 or 90) minutes a day you spend burning off excess calories at the gym, or perhaps while feeling guilty because you're not so engaged. If lean people are more physically active than fat people - one fact in the often-murky science of weight control that's been established beyond reasonable doubt - does that mean that working out will make a fat person lean? Does it mean that sitting around will make a lean person fat? How about a mathematical variation on these questions?
Let's say we go to the gym and burn off 3,500 calories every week - that's 700 calories a session, five times a week. Since a pound of fat is equivalent to 3,500 calories, does that mean we'll be a pound slimmer for every week we exercise? And will we continue to slim down at this pace for as long as we continue to exercise?
For most of us, fear of flab is the reason we exercise, the motivation that drives us to the gym. It's also why public-health authorities have taken to encouraging ever more exercise as part of a healthy lifestyle. If we're fat or fatter than ideal, we work out. Burn calories. Expend energy. Still fat? Burn more. The dietary guidelines of the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), for instance, now recommend we engage in up to 60 minutes daily of 'moderate to vigorous intensity' physical activity just to maintain weight - that is, keep us from fattening further.
Considering the ubiquity of the message, the hold it has on our lives, and the elegant simplicity of the notion - burn calories, lose weight - wouldn't it be nice to believe it were true? The catch is that science suggests it's not, and so the answer to all of the above quiz questions is 'no'.
Source - Guardian
Let us begin with a short quiz: a few questions to ponder during the 30 (or 60 or 90) minutes a day you spend burning off excess calories at the gym, or perhaps while feeling guilty because you're not so engaged. If lean people are more physically active than fat people - one fact in the often-murky science of weight control that's been established beyond reasonable doubt - does that mean that working out will make a fat person lean? Does it mean that sitting around will make a lean person fat? How about a mathematical variation on these questions?
Let's say we go to the gym and burn off 3,500 calories every week - that's 700 calories a session, five times a week. Since a pound of fat is equivalent to 3,500 calories, does that mean we'll be a pound slimmer for every week we exercise? And will we continue to slim down at this pace for as long as we continue to exercise?
For most of us, fear of flab is the reason we exercise, the motivation that drives us to the gym. It's also why public-health authorities have taken to encouraging ever more exercise as part of a healthy lifestyle. If we're fat or fatter than ideal, we work out. Burn calories. Expend energy. Still fat? Burn more. The dietary guidelines of the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), for instance, now recommend we engage in up to 60 minutes daily of 'moderate to vigorous intensity' physical activity just to maintain weight - that is, keep us from fattening further.
Considering the ubiquity of the message, the hold it has on our lives, and the elegant simplicity of the notion - burn calories, lose weight - wouldn't it be nice to believe it were true? The catch is that science suggests it's not, and so the answer to all of the above quiz questions is 'no'.
Source - Guardian
i4 + (x X t3) + (y X i1) - a1 - t4 + t2 - i3 + (2 X (p+p2)) + L1 = cold cure
If there's anything worse than having a cold, it's being kept up all night by a cold. But salvation is at hand. All you have to do is: i4 + (x X t3) + (y X i1) - a1 - t4 + t2 – i3 + (2 X (p+p2)) + L1.
This, er, simple formula is the brainchild of Dr Chris Idzikowski, the director of the Edinburgh Sleep Centre. It is based on a survey of 2,000 people and combines four groups of factors that influence getting to sleep when you're sick: temperature, position, light and the food and drink you've taken.
Taking a hot bath (t2 in the formula) before bed opens capillaries in the skin, so that the body can shed heat after you get out of the tub. And opening a window (y) for fresh air makes breathing easier. Watching the telly (a1) is a distraction to be avoided.
Late-night channel surfing is just one of the things people should avoid when they prepare for bed with a stuffy nose and a throbbing head, said Dr Idzikowski. Bed socks (t4) and hot water bottles actually make it harder to sleep, he added. "The brain wants to lower the body temperature for sleep. You don't want to catch a chill but you shouldn't be too warm."
Another mistake sick people make is to take a sedative, which depresses breathing. Patent medicines (i4), particularly those containing paracetemol, can reduce symptoms such as headaches, but decongestants make it harder for the body to fight the virus.
More controversial is the role of alcohol. Dr Idzikowski suggested a hot toddy (i1) before bed will help to relax the sufferer, but not more than two units (x).
The final surprise is that the bug itself helps to make people sleep. Virus fragments are similar to sleep-inducing chemicals in the brain, said Dr Idzikowski.
Source - Independent
This, er, simple formula is the brainchild of Dr Chris Idzikowski, the director of the Edinburgh Sleep Centre. It is based on a survey of 2,000 people and combines four groups of factors that influence getting to sleep when you're sick: temperature, position, light and the food and drink you've taken.
Taking a hot bath (t2 in the formula) before bed opens capillaries in the skin, so that the body can shed heat after you get out of the tub. And opening a window (y) for fresh air makes breathing easier. Watching the telly (a1) is a distraction to be avoided.
Late-night channel surfing is just one of the things people should avoid when they prepare for bed with a stuffy nose and a throbbing head, said Dr Idzikowski. Bed socks (t4) and hot water bottles actually make it harder to sleep, he added. "The brain wants to lower the body temperature for sleep. You don't want to catch a chill but you shouldn't be too warm."
Another mistake sick people make is to take a sedative, which depresses breathing. Patent medicines (i4), particularly those containing paracetemol, can reduce symptoms such as headaches, but decongestants make it harder for the body to fight the virus.
More controversial is the role of alcohol. Dr Idzikowski suggested a hot toddy (i1) before bed will help to relax the sufferer, but not more than two units (x).
The final surprise is that the bug itself helps to make people sleep. Virus fragments are similar to sleep-inducing chemicals in the brain, said Dr Idzikowski.
Source - Independent
Headache pills increase chance of car crash, says study
Next time you take a headache tablet, take care on the roads. New research reveals that taking everyday drugs such as ibuprofen can increase the chances of a car crash by 50 per cent.
Other pills are even worse. Researchers from the Norwegian Institute of Public Health matched prescription drug use with road accidents among about three million people. They looked at seven groups of commonly prescribed drugs including natural opium alkaloids such as codeine and morphine, benzodiazepine tranquillisers, anti-asthmatic drugs and penicillin.
During the research period, 79 per cent of the men and women had drugs on prescription.
Among those involved in an accident as driver, 82 per cent had drugs on prescription. One
theory is that some of the drugs may have a detrimental effect on the central nervous system.
"Further studies are needed to clarify a possible important central nervous system effect of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (Nsaids, which include ibuprofen) on driving ability," say the researchers, whose study is based on 13,000 car accidents involving personal injury.
Source - Independent
Other pills are even worse. Researchers from the Norwegian Institute of Public Health matched prescription drug use with road accidents among about three million people. They looked at seven groups of commonly prescribed drugs including natural opium alkaloids such as codeine and morphine, benzodiazepine tranquillisers, anti-asthmatic drugs and penicillin.
During the research period, 79 per cent of the men and women had drugs on prescription.
Among those involved in an accident as driver, 82 per cent had drugs on prescription. One
theory is that some of the drugs may have a detrimental effect on the central nervous system.
"Further studies are needed to clarify a possible important central nervous system effect of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (Nsaids, which include ibuprofen) on driving ability," say the researchers, whose study is based on 13,000 car accidents involving personal injury.
Source - Independent
Clock change may cause tiredness
Many people use the clocks going back to gain an extra hour in bed - but a sleep expert says the change can actually leave people tired.
Even such small changes, said Dr Neil Stanley, can disrupt sleep routines and cause semisomnia - low grade exhaustion caused by inadequate rest.
He estimated that it could take three days to fully adjust to the change.
The Norfolk and Norwich Hospital expert said people should set aside time to wind down before going to bed.
"People may feel relaxed and refreshed as they wake up this morning after an extra hour in bed, but it will actually take three days for their body to catch up with this one-hour time shift. "
Source - BBC
Even such small changes, said Dr Neil Stanley, can disrupt sleep routines and cause semisomnia - low grade exhaustion caused by inadequate rest.
He estimated that it could take three days to fully adjust to the change.
The Norfolk and Norwich Hospital expert said people should set aside time to wind down before going to bed.
"People may feel relaxed and refreshed as they wake up this morning after an extra hour in bed, but it will actually take three days for their body to catch up with this one-hour time shift. "
Source - BBC
Smoking 'raises psoriasis risk'
Smokers have a higher risk of developing psoriasis, a study suggests.
US researchers found that heavier smokers have a greater risk of the skin condition and this only falls back to normal 20 years after quitting.
The study of 79,000 nurses published in the American Journal of Medicine also found that people with psoriasis who smoke had more severe disease.
It is thought that toxins in cigarette smoke may affect parts of the immune system associated with psoriasis.
Psoriasis, which occurs when the skin replaces itself too quickly, affects more than one million people in the UK. There are many different forms. It usually appears as red, scaly patches that when scraped or scratched reveal fine silvery scales.
Previous research has reported links between smoking and psoriasis but was unable to look at whether smoking occurred before the onset of the condition.
Source - BBC
US researchers found that heavier smokers have a greater risk of the skin condition and this only falls back to normal 20 years after quitting.
The study of 79,000 nurses published in the American Journal of Medicine also found that people with psoriasis who smoke had more severe disease.
It is thought that toxins in cigarette smoke may affect parts of the immune system associated with psoriasis.
Psoriasis, which occurs when the skin replaces itself too quickly, affects more than one million people in the UK. There are many different forms. It usually appears as red, scaly patches that when scraped or scratched reveal fine silvery scales.
Previous research has reported links between smoking and psoriasis but was unable to look at whether smoking occurred before the onset of the condition.
Source - BBC
Organic produce 'better for you'
Organic produce is better for you than ordinary food, a major European Union-funded study says.
The £12m four-year project, led by Newcastle University, found a general trend showing organic food contained more antioxidants and less fatty acids.
But researchers did admit the study showed some variations.
The findings call into question the current stance of the Food Standards Agency (FSA), which says there is no evidence that organic food is better.
Researchers grew fruit, vegetables and reared cattle on adjacent organic and non-organic sites across Europe, including a 725-acre farm attached to Newcastle University. They found levels of antioxidants in milk from organic cattle were between 50% and 80% higher than normal milk.
Organic wheat, tomatoes, potatoes, cabbage, onions and lettuce had between 20% and 40% more nutrients.
But the study, which is yet to be published in a peer-reviewed journal, also showed there were significant variations.
Source - BBC
The £12m four-year project, led by Newcastle University, found a general trend showing organic food contained more antioxidants and less fatty acids.
But researchers did admit the study showed some variations.
The findings call into question the current stance of the Food Standards Agency (FSA), which says there is no evidence that organic food is better.
Researchers grew fruit, vegetables and reared cattle on adjacent organic and non-organic sites across Europe, including a 725-acre farm attached to Newcastle University. They found levels of antioxidants in milk from organic cattle were between 50% and 80% higher than normal milk.
Organic wheat, tomatoes, potatoes, cabbage, onions and lettuce had between 20% and 40% more nutrients.
But the study, which is yet to be published in a peer-reviewed journal, also showed there were significant variations.
Source - BBC
Public health: The hidden menace of mobile phones
Research into the link between regular handset use and disease reveals the risks rise significantly after 10 years, despite official assurances that they are safe. Using a mobile phone for more than 10 years increases the risk of getting brain cancer, according to the most comprehensive study of the risks yet published.
The study – which contradicts official pronouncements that there is no danger of getting the disease – found that people who have had the phones for a decade or more are twice as likely to get a malignant tumour on the side of the brain where they hold the handset.
The scientists who conducted the research say using a mobile for just an hour every working day during that period is enough to increase the risk – and that the international standard used to protect users from the radiation emitted is "not safe" and "needs to be revised".
They conclude that "caution is needed in the use of mobile phones" and believe children, who are especially vulnerable, should be discouraged from using them at all.
The study, published in the latest issue of the peer-reviewed journal Occupational Environmental Medicine, is important because it pulls together research on people who have used the phones for long enough to contract the disease.
Cancers take at least 10 years – and normally much longer – to develop but, as mobile phones have spread so recently and rapidly, relatively few people have been using them that long.
Official assurances that the phones are safe have been based on research that has, at best, included only a few people who have been exposed to the radiation for long enough to get the disease, and are therefore of little or no value in assessing the real risk.
Last month, Britain's largest investigation into the health risks of the technology, the £8.8m Mobile Telecommunications and Health Research (MTHR) programme – funded by "government and industry sources" – reported that "mobile phones have not been found to be associated with any biological or adverse health effects".
But its chairman, Professor Lawrie Challis, admitted that only a small proportion of the research had covered people who had used the phones for more than a decade. He warned: "We cannot rule out the possibility at this stage that cancer could appear in a few years' time."
Source - Independent
The study – which contradicts official pronouncements that there is no danger of getting the disease – found that people who have had the phones for a decade or more are twice as likely to get a malignant tumour on the side of the brain where they hold the handset.
The scientists who conducted the research say using a mobile for just an hour every working day during that period is enough to increase the risk – and that the international standard used to protect users from the radiation emitted is "not safe" and "needs to be revised".
They conclude that "caution is needed in the use of mobile phones" and believe children, who are especially vulnerable, should be discouraged from using them at all.
The study, published in the latest issue of the peer-reviewed journal Occupational Environmental Medicine, is important because it pulls together research on people who have used the phones for long enough to contract the disease.
Cancers take at least 10 years – and normally much longer – to develop but, as mobile phones have spread so recently and rapidly, relatively few people have been using them that long.
Official assurances that the phones are safe have been based on research that has, at best, included only a few people who have been exposed to the radiation for long enough to get the disease, and are therefore of little or no value in assessing the real risk.
Last month, Britain's largest investigation into the health risks of the technology, the £8.8m Mobile Telecommunications and Health Research (MTHR) programme – funded by "government and industry sources" – reported that "mobile phones have not been found to be associated with any biological or adverse health effects".
But its chairman, Professor Lawrie Challis, admitted that only a small proportion of the research had covered people who had used the phones for more than a decade. He warned: "We cannot rule out the possibility at this stage that cancer could appear in a few years' time."
Source - Independent
In the raw
It's the drink of choice for West-Coast health fiends, and now it's coming over here.
It’s organic in the truest sense of the word, but the latest food fad from America is not without controversy. Raw milk – unpasteurised and straight from the cow – is billed by many as the ultimate tonic, higher in nutrients and disease-fighting compounds than regular milk, and linked to relieving all manner of ailments, from hay fever to irritable bowel syndrome. It is drunk by more than 100,000 health-conscious Californians, and New Yorkers apparently can’t get enough of it. Now farm shops in England and Wales, where it is sold in green-topped bottles, are reporting a sharp increase in demand.
What makes raw milk so good, claim proponents, is not just its rich, creamy flavour, but its unadulterated, wholesome nutritional profile. They argue that pasteurisation – a process by which milk is subjected to short bursts of heat, followed by rapid cooling, to kill harmful bacteria such as listeria, salmonella and E.coli – also destroys vitamins, beneficial bacteria and digestive enzymes. According to the Campaign for Real Milk, a US-based organisation, raw milk contains 10% more B vitamins and 25% more vitamin C. That’s not all, they say. Homogenisation, which is widespread in regular milk production to ensure even distribution of fat globules and avoid separation, can make pasteurised milk difficult to digest.
But critics argue that, far from being beneficial, raw milk is potentially dangerous. In Britain, the government’s Food Standards Agency says that tests on raw milk have shown it contains “illness-causing pathogens” in the form of bacteria that could leave people prone to infection. The Food and Drug Administration in America recently issued a warning to consumers that getting caught up in the raw-milk trend could damage their health. Sales of the milk, which must carry a label warning of its risks, are restricted to farm shops or milk rounds in England and Wales; in other words, it cannot be sold in supermarkets. In Scotland, raw milk has been banned for more than 20 years. “Milk is pasteurised for a reason – to keep it safe from harmful bacteria,” says Bridget Aisbitt, a nutrition scientist at the British Nutrition Foundation.
Despite such warnings, the demand for its natural properties is soaring. Raw milk is sold at the fashionable Chelsea Farmers’ Market in London, and John Barron, of Beaconhill Farm, in Herefordshire, says he now sells about 50 litres a week. “There has never been a single case of food poisoning reported to me,” he says. Celia Haynes, who bottles raw milk at Meadow Cottage farm in Hampshire, says her customers are increasingly couples with young families and adds that “many doctors are referring children with asthma and eczema, because they are not getting adequate exposure to bacteria in mass-produced milk”.
Source - Times
It’s organic in the truest sense of the word, but the latest food fad from America is not without controversy. Raw milk – unpasteurised and straight from the cow – is billed by many as the ultimate tonic, higher in nutrients and disease-fighting compounds than regular milk, and linked to relieving all manner of ailments, from hay fever to irritable bowel syndrome. It is drunk by more than 100,000 health-conscious Californians, and New Yorkers apparently can’t get enough of it. Now farm shops in England and Wales, where it is sold in green-topped bottles, are reporting a sharp increase in demand.
What makes raw milk so good, claim proponents, is not just its rich, creamy flavour, but its unadulterated, wholesome nutritional profile. They argue that pasteurisation – a process by which milk is subjected to short bursts of heat, followed by rapid cooling, to kill harmful bacteria such as listeria, salmonella and E.coli – also destroys vitamins, beneficial bacteria and digestive enzymes. According to the Campaign for Real Milk, a US-based organisation, raw milk contains 10% more B vitamins and 25% more vitamin C. That’s not all, they say. Homogenisation, which is widespread in regular milk production to ensure even distribution of fat globules and avoid separation, can make pasteurised milk difficult to digest.
But critics argue that, far from being beneficial, raw milk is potentially dangerous. In Britain, the government’s Food Standards Agency says that tests on raw milk have shown it contains “illness-causing pathogens” in the form of bacteria that could leave people prone to infection. The Food and Drug Administration in America recently issued a warning to consumers that getting caught up in the raw-milk trend could damage their health. Sales of the milk, which must carry a label warning of its risks, are restricted to farm shops or milk rounds in England and Wales; in other words, it cannot be sold in supermarkets. In Scotland, raw milk has been banned for more than 20 years. “Milk is pasteurised for a reason – to keep it safe from harmful bacteria,” says Bridget Aisbitt, a nutrition scientist at the British Nutrition Foundation.
Despite such warnings, the demand for its natural properties is soaring. Raw milk is sold at the fashionable Chelsea Farmers’ Market in London, and John Barron, of Beaconhill Farm, in Herefordshire, says he now sells about 50 litres a week. “There has never been a single case of food poisoning reported to me,” he says. Celia Haynes, who bottles raw milk at Meadow Cottage farm in Hampshire, says her customers are increasingly couples with young families and adds that “many doctors are referring children with asthma and eczema, because they are not getting adequate exposure to bacteria in mass-produced milk”.
Source - Times
Wine and berry pills to aid fight against cancer
Pills made from rice, berries and red wine could soon be available to help prevent cancer.
British scientists are pioneering the use of food compounds to protect against tumours in the breast, colon and prostate.
They are studying four different pills after examining the diets of people who are less likely to develop cancer.
The tablets are made from isolated chemical compounds in Thai sticky rice, bilberries, red wine and spices, and should be available by 2010. Scientists have been given financial backing to test the red wine pill in the laboratory by Cancer Research UK.
Professor Will Steward, a cancer and molecular medicine expert, said it was the latest step in the fight to find drugs that stop cells becoming malignant - a technique called chemoprevention.
"These agents have proved highly effective in the laboratory - it is extraordinary," he said.
"They act in numerous ways on pre-cancerous cells but they also appear to be effective on cancerous cells. We know they are safe to use but we want to establish if they are effective in humans."
Many people already take supplements such as selenium in the belief it might cut the risk of them developing lung, bowel and prostate cancer.
A trial in America is looking at the role of selenium in protecting against prostate cancer but the full results are not expected until 2012.
Professor Steward said: "We want to be more scientific about developing a tablet that can have an effect by focusing on the chemical compound that already appears to reduce the risk in some people."
His work at the University of Leicester is based on evidence that rural populations in Thailand who eat a high proportion-of sticky rice are less likely to develop breast cancer.
Source - Daily Mail
British scientists are pioneering the use of food compounds to protect against tumours in the breast, colon and prostate.
They are studying four different pills after examining the diets of people who are less likely to develop cancer.
The tablets are made from isolated chemical compounds in Thai sticky rice, bilberries, red wine and spices, and should be available by 2010. Scientists have been given financial backing to test the red wine pill in the laboratory by Cancer Research UK.
Professor Will Steward, a cancer and molecular medicine expert, said it was the latest step in the fight to find drugs that stop cells becoming malignant - a technique called chemoprevention.
"These agents have proved highly effective in the laboratory - it is extraordinary," he said.
"They act in numerous ways on pre-cancerous cells but they also appear to be effective on cancerous cells. We know they are safe to use but we want to establish if they are effective in humans."
Many people already take supplements such as selenium in the belief it might cut the risk of them developing lung, bowel and prostate cancer.
A trial in America is looking at the role of selenium in protecting against prostate cancer but the full results are not expected until 2012.
Professor Steward said: "We want to be more scientific about developing a tablet that can have an effect by focusing on the chemical compound that already appears to reduce the risk in some people."
His work at the University of Leicester is based on evidence that rural populations in Thailand who eat a high proportion-of sticky rice are less likely to develop breast cancer.
Source - Daily Mail
Simple eye exercises that help the blind see again
The world is a dismal looking place for anyone with macular degeneration.
They can't distinguish between people's faces, can't drive, can't read or even watch TV — words and images are just a blur. Some can't see in colour.
For the half a million Britons who have it, macular degeneration is a pretty bleak diagnosis — and there is no cure.
But now a simple new approach to treating the condition could greatly improve patients' lives.
This treatment — known as "eccentric viewing" involves changing one's angle of vision to make use of healthy parts of the eye that can still see. It can help even those with severe sight impairment to read and see people more clearly.
Two years ago Richard Elliott, 66, a retired civil engineer, from Shrewsbury, developed macular degeneration in his right eye.
"My vision became distorted, so straight lines, like lampposts, looked bent," he says.
"I sing with my church male-voice choir and started singing wrong notes because I wasn't seeing the first note in each bar; only the second. I was terrified I was going to go blind."
He underwent eccentric viewing training in July and is now able to read again.
"I was so moved I cried," he says. "I was elated."
Ophthalmologists describe the technique as a breakthrough.
Source - Daily Mail
They can't distinguish between people's faces, can't drive, can't read or even watch TV — words and images are just a blur. Some can't see in colour.
For the half a million Britons who have it, macular degeneration is a pretty bleak diagnosis — and there is no cure.
But now a simple new approach to treating the condition could greatly improve patients' lives.
This treatment — known as "eccentric viewing" involves changing one's angle of vision to make use of healthy parts of the eye that can still see. It can help even those with severe sight impairment to read and see people more clearly.
Two years ago Richard Elliott, 66, a retired civil engineer, from Shrewsbury, developed macular degeneration in his right eye.
"My vision became distorted, so straight lines, like lampposts, looked bent," he says.
"I sing with my church male-voice choir and started singing wrong notes because I wasn't seeing the first note in each bar; only the second. I was terrified I was going to go blind."
He underwent eccentric viewing training in July and is now able to read again.
"I was so moved I cried," he says. "I was elated."
Ophthalmologists describe the technique as a breakthrough.
Source - Daily Mail
Tailored herbal medicine 'futile'
There is no evidence to suggest herbal medicines "tailored" to the individual work, and they may even do serious damage, according to a study.
Scientists writing in the Postgraduate Medical Journal examined what they said were the only three clinical trials to have been conducted on the treatments.
They expressed doubts as to the skills of those in the UK who offer treatments specially formulated for individuals. But UK herbal practitioners said such treatments can make a real difference. The UK is currently reviewing the law in relation to the regulation of this field, so at present it is unclear how many such practitioners there are in the country.
Drawing on Chinese and European traditions among others, the practitioners offer a wide variety of treatments for conditions ranging from minor skin ailments to cancer, using a multitude of herbs.
Expertise
The team from the Peninsula Medical School, a partnership between Exeter and Plymouth universities and the NHS in Devon and Cornwall, stressed that there were many herbs with health benefits, but that studies on these tended to involve standard preparations or single herb extracts.
They said they searched widely for randomised clinical trials of tailored treatments across the world in any language and contacted 15 professional bodies in the process, but were only able to find three trials.
One compared a tailored Chinese herbal preparation with a standard herbal preparation and a placebo for irritable bowel syndrome (IBS).
Source - BBC
Scientists writing in the Postgraduate Medical Journal examined what they said were the only three clinical trials to have been conducted on the treatments.
They expressed doubts as to the skills of those in the UK who offer treatments specially formulated for individuals. But UK herbal practitioners said such treatments can make a real difference. The UK is currently reviewing the law in relation to the regulation of this field, so at present it is unclear how many such practitioners there are in the country.
Drawing on Chinese and European traditions among others, the practitioners offer a wide variety of treatments for conditions ranging from minor skin ailments to cancer, using a multitude of herbs.
Expertise
The team from the Peninsula Medical School, a partnership between Exeter and Plymouth universities and the NHS in Devon and Cornwall, stressed that there were many herbs with health benefits, but that studies on these tended to involve standard preparations or single herb extracts.
They said they searched widely for randomised clinical trials of tailored treatments across the world in any language and contacted 15 professional bodies in the process, but were only able to find three trials.
One compared a tailored Chinese herbal preparation with a standard herbal preparation and a placebo for irritable bowel syndrome (IBS).
Source - BBC
Hocus pocus or reliable remedy?
The UK's most eminent expert in complementary medicine says high street herbal remedies are either useless or dangerous, while a study suggests the "tailored" preparations concocted by herbal practitioners are a waste of money. But are we really wrong to have fallen in love with the humble herb?
It is said we've never had it so good: living longer thanks to the leaps and bounds made by medical science.
And how do we express our thanks? According to the critics, by turning our backs on the mainstream and dabbling in the occult - or at the very least the unproven: spending millions of pounds each year on herbal formulas for conditions ranging from an itchy patch of skin to terminal disease.
"I used to say if it made my patients feel better then it was ok by me," says Professor Michael Baum, a professor emeritus of surgery.
"But increasingly I feel one has to speak out against it - because there's no knowing where this hocus pocus will end up."
Really that bad?
As far as Professor Baum is concerned, if a treatment is subjected to scientific rigours and found to be efficacious then it should be integrated into mainstream medicine and put in the hands of doctors - at which point the label "alternative" ceases to apply.
And there are indeed herbs which have passed these tests - although only about a dozen of the many hundreds on offer.
Source - BBC
It is said we've never had it so good: living longer thanks to the leaps and bounds made by medical science.
And how do we express our thanks? According to the critics, by turning our backs on the mainstream and dabbling in the occult - or at the very least the unproven: spending millions of pounds each year on herbal formulas for conditions ranging from an itchy patch of skin to terminal disease.
"I used to say if it made my patients feel better then it was ok by me," says Professor Michael Baum, a professor emeritus of surgery.
"But increasingly I feel one has to speak out against it - because there's no knowing where this hocus pocus will end up."
Really that bad?
As far as Professor Baum is concerned, if a treatment is subjected to scientific rigours and found to be efficacious then it should be integrated into mainstream medicine and put in the hands of doctors - at which point the label "alternative" ceases to apply.
And there are indeed herbs which have passed these tests - although only about a dozen of the many hundreds on offer.
Source - BBC
Why rubbing it better can really soothe bumps and cuts
It seems mother really does know best when it comes to treating troublesome aches and pains.
Gently rubbing the ailment not only helps to soothe soreness, but can also reduce stress and pain, according to a new study.
Research by the University of Cumbria shows that patients' symptoms improved when "touch healing" was used to treat bumps and bruises. Three hundred patients with a wide range of ailments were given four hour-long treatments within six weeks at the Centre for Complementary Care in Muncaster, Cumbria.
Following the sessions, patients showed significant improvements in psychological and physical functioning, particularly in stress reduction, pain relief, and increased general health. The most substantial improvements were seen in clients with the most severe symptoms when they entered the study.
Further analysis of clients with cancer, musculo-skeletal ailments and with mental health disorders or psychological stress also showed clear benefits.
Gentle touch healing is based on sessions of about 40 minutes in which complementary medicine experts apply light, non-invasive touches to the patient's head, chest, arms, legs and feet. Benefits include improved sleep, reduced pain levels and increased energy levels.
Helen Leathard, professor of healing science at the University of Cumbria, said: "On the basis of this evidence, healing by gentle touch should play a part in the treatment of people with cancer, mental health problems, or a wide variety of illnesses where help with pain or stress reduction will enhance their wellbeing.
Source Daily Mail
Gently rubbing the ailment not only helps to soothe soreness, but can also reduce stress and pain, according to a new study.
Research by the University of Cumbria shows that patients' symptoms improved when "touch healing" was used to treat bumps and bruises. Three hundred patients with a wide range of ailments were given four hour-long treatments within six weeks at the Centre for Complementary Care in Muncaster, Cumbria.
Following the sessions, patients showed significant improvements in psychological and physical functioning, particularly in stress reduction, pain relief, and increased general health. The most substantial improvements were seen in clients with the most severe symptoms when they entered the study.
Further analysis of clients with cancer, musculo-skeletal ailments and with mental health disorders or psychological stress also showed clear benefits.
Gentle touch healing is based on sessions of about 40 minutes in which complementary medicine experts apply light, non-invasive touches to the patient's head, chest, arms, legs and feet. Benefits include improved sleep, reduced pain levels and increased energy levels.
Helen Leathard, professor of healing science at the University of Cumbria, said: "On the basis of this evidence, healing by gentle touch should play a part in the treatment of people with cancer, mental health problems, or a wide variety of illnesses where help with pain or stress reduction will enhance their wellbeing.
Source Daily Mail
Folic acid fortification warning
Fortifying flour with folic acid to cut birth defects may lead to a range of health problems, warn scientists.
The move was approved earlier this year by the Food Standards Agency as a way to reduce defects such as spina bifida.
However, an Institute of Food Research team has shown the liver could easily become saturated by folic acid.
Writing in the British Journal of Nutrition, they warn this could lead to unmetabolised folic acid entering the blood, which could damage health. The latest study follows a letter to the Food Standards Agency from Sir Liam Donaldson, the Chief Medical Officer of England, requesting further expert consideration of two recent studies linking folic acid to bowel cancer before the government gives the final go-ahead for mandatory fortification.
Source - BBC
The move was approved earlier this year by the Food Standards Agency as a way to reduce defects such as spina bifida.
However, an Institute of Food Research team has shown the liver could easily become saturated by folic acid.
Writing in the British Journal of Nutrition, they warn this could lead to unmetabolised folic acid entering the blood, which could damage health. The latest study follows a letter to the Food Standards Agency from Sir Liam Donaldson, the Chief Medical Officer of England, requesting further expert consideration of two recent studies linking folic acid to bowel cancer before the government gives the final go-ahead for mandatory fortification.
Source - BBC
Cleaning sprays 'raise the risk of asthma'
Using household cleaning sprays and air fresheners as little as once a week can raise the risk of developing asthma, scientists say.
A study found air fresheners and furniture cleaners could be contributing to as many as one in seven cases of adult asthma. Although these products have been associated with increased asthma rates in cleaning professionals, this is the first time a similar effect has been found in those who use such products occasionally.
Asthma is very common in Briton with one in every 13 adults receiving treatment for the condition. Allergens and chest infections are known to trigger asthma attacks in which the airways become inflamed.
The latest study looked at more than 3,500 subjects across 22 centres in 10 European countries. Subjects were assessed for asthma, wheezing and allergies twice over nine years. They were also asked to report the number of times per week they used cleaning products. On average the researchers found the risk of asthma was forty per cent higher in people regularly exposed to cleaning sprays than in others.
The risk of developing asthma increased with frequency of cleaning and number of different sprays used. The researchers found that cleaning sprays, especially air fresheners, furniture cleaners and glass-cleaners, had a particularly strong effect.
"Frequent use of household cleaning sprays may be an important risk factor for adult asthma," wrote lead author Dr Jan-Paul Zock, from the Municipal Institute of Medical Research in Spain.
Source - Daily Mail
A study found air fresheners and furniture cleaners could be contributing to as many as one in seven cases of adult asthma. Although these products have been associated with increased asthma rates in cleaning professionals, this is the first time a similar effect has been found in those who use such products occasionally.
Asthma is very common in Briton with one in every 13 adults receiving treatment for the condition. Allergens and chest infections are known to trigger asthma attacks in which the airways become inflamed.
The latest study looked at more than 3,500 subjects across 22 centres in 10 European countries. Subjects were assessed for asthma, wheezing and allergies twice over nine years. They were also asked to report the number of times per week they used cleaning products. On average the researchers found the risk of asthma was forty per cent higher in people regularly exposed to cleaning sprays than in others.
The risk of developing asthma increased with frequency of cleaning and number of different sprays used. The researchers found that cleaning sprays, especially air fresheners, furniture cleaners and glass-cleaners, had a particularly strong effect.
"Frequent use of household cleaning sprays may be an important risk factor for adult asthma," wrote lead author Dr Jan-Paul Zock, from the Municipal Institute of Medical Research in Spain.
Source - Daily Mail
Wii computer games to help stroke victims
Stroke victims are being nursed back to health by playing on the smash-hit games console Nintendo Wii.
Doctors have discovered the game helps to rewire the brain after it has been damaged by a blood clot. Unlike most computer games, the Nintendo Wii involves acting out all the physical movements involved in normal sports, such as tennis, golf or boxing. The player strikes the ball or throws a punch by swinging their arms and pressing a button on a hand-held controller.
Doctors in the U.S. have started to use it to help stroke victims regain movement in their arms and legs. German clinicians are also reported to be using it to speed up recovery in injured soldiers.
Stroke is the third most common cause of death in England and Wales, after heart disease and cancer. The NHS spends an estimated £2.8 billion a year dealing with the aftermath of strokes.
They occur when the blood supply to the brain is cut off because of a clot in a blood vessel in the head. Blood carries vital nutrients and oxygen to the brain and, without it, cells become damaged or destroyed. Any damage has a knock-on effect on things most of us take for granted - such as lifting a cup or brushing our hair.
Six months after a stroke, around 50 per cent of survivors need help with everyday tasks like eating, dressing and going to the toilet.
Doctors know that intensive physiotherapy can help the brain 're-learn' how to move the limbs.
Although brain cells cannot regenerate once they have been damaged or killed, the brain can be trained to find new ways of getting messages to the arms and legs. It does this by recruiting other undamaged nerve cells to set up new 'pathways', through which instructions can be passed.
But to do this requires prolonged and repeated therapy, during which patients must try to move their paralysed limbs. It can take months of intensive exercises before results are seen.
American experts believe the Nintendo Wii could be a fun and cheap form of therapy.
Researchers at the Abbott Northwestern Hospital in Minneapolis have started experimenting on patients who find conventional exercises too tedious.
Source - Daily Mail
Doctors have discovered the game helps to rewire the brain after it has been damaged by a blood clot. Unlike most computer games, the Nintendo Wii involves acting out all the physical movements involved in normal sports, such as tennis, golf or boxing. The player strikes the ball or throws a punch by swinging their arms and pressing a button on a hand-held controller.
Doctors in the U.S. have started to use it to help stroke victims regain movement in their arms and legs. German clinicians are also reported to be using it to speed up recovery in injured soldiers.
Stroke is the third most common cause of death in England and Wales, after heart disease and cancer. The NHS spends an estimated £2.8 billion a year dealing with the aftermath of strokes.
They occur when the blood supply to the brain is cut off because of a clot in a blood vessel in the head. Blood carries vital nutrients and oxygen to the brain and, without it, cells become damaged or destroyed. Any damage has a knock-on effect on things most of us take for granted - such as lifting a cup or brushing our hair.
Six months after a stroke, around 50 per cent of survivors need help with everyday tasks like eating, dressing and going to the toilet.
Doctors know that intensive physiotherapy can help the brain 're-learn' how to move the limbs.
Although brain cells cannot regenerate once they have been damaged or killed, the brain can be trained to find new ways of getting messages to the arms and legs. It does this by recruiting other undamaged nerve cells to set up new 'pathways', through which instructions can be passed.
But to do this requires prolonged and repeated therapy, during which patients must try to move their paralysed limbs. It can take months of intensive exercises before results are seen.
American experts believe the Nintendo Wii could be a fun and cheap form of therapy.
Researchers at the Abbott Northwestern Hospital in Minneapolis have started experimenting on patients who find conventional exercises too tedious.
Source - Daily Mail
How your mother's hips can raise the risk of cancer
Women whose mothers have wide hips could be seven times more likely to develop breast cancer, researchers have warned.
A study of thousands of women has revealed a clear link between the two. In general, daughters of women with wide hips are 60 per cent more likely than others to be diagnosed with breast cancer, which claims the lives of more than 1,000 British women a month.
But the risk rises to more than seven-fold if the mother carried them for the full 40 weeks of pregnancy and if they have older siblings.
Researcher Professor David Barker said the phenomenon can be explained by the effect of oestrogen and could eventually lead to a drug to prevent breast cancer.
It is thought that high levels of the hormone in a woman's blood at the start and end of pregnancy cause dangerous changes to the immature breast tissue in the developing baby. The width of a women's hips is directly related to the amount of oestrogen she is producing - and so the amount her unborn baby is exposed to.
Prof Barker, of Southampton University, an internationallyrenowned medical researcher, said: "A women's hip size is a marker of her oestrogen production. Wide, round hips represent markers of high sex hormone concentrations in the mother, which increase her daughter's vulnerability to breast cancer."
Source - Daily Mail
A study of thousands of women has revealed a clear link between the two. In general, daughters of women with wide hips are 60 per cent more likely than others to be diagnosed with breast cancer, which claims the lives of more than 1,000 British women a month.
But the risk rises to more than seven-fold if the mother carried them for the full 40 weeks of pregnancy and if they have older siblings.
Researcher Professor David Barker said the phenomenon can be explained by the effect of oestrogen and could eventually lead to a drug to prevent breast cancer.
It is thought that high levels of the hormone in a woman's blood at the start and end of pregnancy cause dangerous changes to the immature breast tissue in the developing baby. The width of a women's hips is directly related to the amount of oestrogen she is producing - and so the amount her unborn baby is exposed to.
Prof Barker, of Southampton University, an internationallyrenowned medical researcher, said: "A women's hip size is a marker of her oestrogen production. Wide, round hips represent markers of high sex hormone concentrations in the mother, which increase her daughter's vulnerability to breast cancer."
Source - Daily Mail
How a rocky relationship can give your heart a bad beating
Being in a stormy relationship is bad for the heart.
Research shows those in a marriage or relationship marred by rows are 34 per cent more likely to suffer from heart disease - including fatal heart attacks - than those in more peaceful partnerships.
It is thought the strain of conflict can damage the heart in a range of ways, from causing fluctuations in heart rate and blood pressure to interfering with blood clotting and the immune system.
The University College London researchers made the link after tracking the health of civil servants for more than 12 years.
At the start of the research, the women, who were aged between 35 and 55, were asked how often they argued with those closest to them. By the end of the study, almost 600 of the 8,500 taking part had had a heart attack or been diagnosed with angina.
Further analysis showed those in the most tumultuous relationships were 34 per cent more likely to have suffered heart problems than those with the most calm partnerships.
Both men and women were equally affected - despite women being generally thought to be more susceptible to relationship ups and downs.
The link held true even when other factors linked to heart disease, such as obesity and smoking, were taken into account, the journal Archives of Internal Medicine reports.
The researchers said bad relationships and marriages were linked to depression and low self-esteem, which can cause changes in heart rate, blood pressure, the immune response, blood clotting and hormones.
Over time, these changes can cause cumulative "wear and tear" on the heart.
Source - Daily Mail
Research shows those in a marriage or relationship marred by rows are 34 per cent more likely to suffer from heart disease - including fatal heart attacks - than those in more peaceful partnerships.
It is thought the strain of conflict can damage the heart in a range of ways, from causing fluctuations in heart rate and blood pressure to interfering with blood clotting and the immune system.
The University College London researchers made the link after tracking the health of civil servants for more than 12 years.
At the start of the research, the women, who were aged between 35 and 55, were asked how often they argued with those closest to them. By the end of the study, almost 600 of the 8,500 taking part had had a heart attack or been diagnosed with angina.
Further analysis showed those in the most tumultuous relationships were 34 per cent more likely to have suffered heart problems than those with the most calm partnerships.
Both men and women were equally affected - despite women being generally thought to be more susceptible to relationship ups and downs.
The link held true even when other factors linked to heart disease, such as obesity and smoking, were taken into account, the journal Archives of Internal Medicine reports.
The researchers said bad relationships and marriages were linked to depression and low self-esteem, which can cause changes in heart rate, blood pressure, the immune response, blood clotting and hormones.
Over time, these changes can cause cumulative "wear and tear" on the heart.
Source - Daily Mail