Arthritis sufferers are familiar with pain's immobilizing effects. Yet an 81-month study suggests movement may be the medicine they require.
For the first time ever, researchers have established a direct link between the amount of cigarette smoking children see in films and their decision to try smoking.
A team of scientist led by pediatrician James Sargent at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Centre in New Hamshire asked 4919 children between the ages of nine and 15 about the movies they'd seen. they then calculated the number of smoking scenes each movie contained.
Children exposed to the largest number of smoking scenes were two-and-a-half time more likely to start than those exposed to the fewest scenes. And the team accounted for factors such as rebelliousness and whether the child's parents smoked.
In a previous study, Sargent found that star power may also contribute. Adolescents whose favorite actors smoked in three or more likely to be smokers.
"Movies are a bigger influence than anything other than whether the child's friends smoke," says Sargent. "The movie industry has to take responsibility for this."
If your blood pressure is normal, do you have to exercise and eat healthily? So what if your reading is on the high side of normal - only people with high blood pressure have a raised risk of heart disease, right? Wrong.
Us researchers with the Framingham Heart Study in Boston tracked 6859 people with normal blood pressure for 12 yeas. They found people with readings from 130 to 139 over 85 to 89 were about twice as likely to suffer a heart attack, stroke or heart failure than those with optimal pressure - below 120 over 80. Experts want to se if this group would benefit from medication. Meanwhile, it still appears that exercise and a good diet could save your life.
Soon, when you catch a cold, your nose may get a break - the good kind. A new drug, Picovir (pleconari), reduces the duration and severity of colds. While over-the-counter remedies relieves only symptoms, Picovir is the first to target the rhinovirus, the cause of about half of all colds.
When sufferers took Picovir, they were sick a day less than people who were give a placebo - six days versus seven. But Picovir takers also had milder symptoms after just one day on the drug.
Main PageEXPERTS HAVE LONG thought depression could be bad for your heart. A new study demonstrates just how dangerous it can be. Brensa Pennix, a gerontologist at Wake Forest University, North Carolina, and colleague followed 2874 people over the age of 55 - both with and without heart disease - for four years to trace the effects of depression.
In the end, people with major depression were at least three times as likely to die of heart disease as were patients who weren't depressed. Even subjects with mild depression experienced a fatality rate that was 50 per cent higher than normal.
Pennix isn't sure exactly what the connection is, but since depression can raise stress, and stress triggers an outpouring of the hormone cortisol, this could cause heart rate and blood pressure to rise.
Other factors could play a part: Depressed people are less likely to exercise or eat right than those who don't suffer from the malady. "Depression deserves a lot more attention than it usually gets," Pennix warns. "It's a huge cardiac risk factor, so it's really crucial to take care of your emotions."
Variety may be the spice of life, but it can also be the death of diets. Researchers at the University of Buffalo, in New York state, analyzed results from 58 previous diet studies and found that those people who are offered a varied menu eat far more kilojoules on average - 60 per cent in one study - than people who have fewer choices. The researchers suspect that when we sit down to a simple meal, we tire of the food more quickly once our hunger is satisfied. Remember that the right kind of variety can be good - eating fruit, vegetables and grains helps prevent cancer and other diseases.
A study by Australia's Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization has found that tea is one of the richest sources of antioxidants in the average diet - accounting for about 36 per cent of total intake.
Adding milk or lemon does not reduce the absorption of these compounds, which are widely believed to play a role in protecting against cancer and cardiovascular disease. Both green and black tea are potent antioxidant sources.
Chocolate may not be the dietary disaster we once thought. Moderate consumption may cut the risk of blood clots. "It is a rich source of stearic acid," says Alan turner, head of the Diet and Thrombosis Research Groups at Mlebourne's RMIT University. "This compound reduces blood-platelet size and doesn't raise bad cholesterol."
Volunteers at RMIT ate 100 grams of chocolate daily for three weeks. Their platelet size fell by more than 25 per cent, reducing the chance of producing the blood clots.
We're still waiting for good news on kilojoules.
In Asia, about two millions women had cervical cancer in 2001, and 150,000 died from it. Cancer of the cervix, part of the wombs, is the most common type of cancer that occurs within the female reproductive system, according to the Singapore Cancer Society. Some of the risk factors associated with cervical cancer include:
Fortunately, cervical cancer can be detected early and offers a nearly 100 per cent cure rate when treated at an early stage. The most common form of screening is the Pap smear, which should be done annually or as advised by a doctor. For more information, visit the Singapore Cancer Society's website at www.cancer.org.sg and click on Cancer Info.
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