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Vegetarians cut heart risk by 32%

Ditching meat and fish in favour of a vegetarian diet can have a dramatic effect on the health of your heart, research suggests. A study of 44,500 people in England and Scotland showed vegetarians were 32% less likely to die or need hospital treatment as a result of heart disease. Differences in cholesterol levels, blood pressure and body weight are thought to be behind the health boost. The findings were published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition Heart disease is a major blight in ...

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Common sleeping pills linked with higher death risk

PARIS, Feb 29 — Commonly-prescribed sleeping pills are linked to a more-than fourfold risk of premature death, according to an American study published in the journal BMJ Open on Monday. These medications were also associated at higher doses with a 35-per cent increased risk of cancer as compared with non-users, but the reason for this is unclear. Doctors led by Daniel Kripke of the Scripps Clinic Viterbi Family Sleep Center in La Jolla, California, looked at the medical records of more than 10,...

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Dengue caused by 4 viruses; no specific cure

Dengue is a mosquito-borne seasonal viral infection caused by four closely related viruses (DENV 1-4) transmitted by the bite of a female mosquito of the genus Aedes. These domestic mosquitoes thriving around human habitations typically bite in daylight hours. They are easily recognized by their peculiar white spotted body and legs. In India, the outbreak of the disease usually occurs in the post-monsoon season when the mosquito population reaches its peak. Dengue cases are predominantly ...

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Over 50s should be taking statins

The risk of a heart attack or stroke is cut by a fifth in those who have no sign of heart disease, shows research by scientists at Oxford University. Treatment guidelines should be reviewed in light of the findings, the experts said, and the NHS should impose a blanket policy of prescribing up to 20  million people statins at a potential cost of £240 million a year. Currently, the only people considered at high risk, those with a one-in-five chance of having a heart attack in the next 10 ye...

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Study shows physical inactivity kills 5 million a year

PARIS — A third of the world’s adults are physically inactive, and the couch potato lifestyle kills about five million people every year, experts said in the medical journal The Lancet on Wednesday. “Roughly three of every 10 individuals aged 15 years or older — about 1.5 billion people — do not reach present physical activity recommendations,” they said in a report that described the problem as a “pandemic.” The picture for adolescents is even more worr...

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  • Vegetarians cut heart risk by 32%
  • Common sleeping pills linked with higher death risk
  • Dengue caused by 4 viruses; no specific cure
  • Over 50s should be taking statins
  • Study shows physical inactivity kills 5 million a year

Oregon scientists get stem cells from cloned human embryos

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A team of researchers said Wednesday that it had produced embryonic stem cells — a possible source of disease-fighting spare parts — from a cloned human embryo. Scientists at the Oregon Health and Science University accomplished in humans what has been done over the past 15 years in sheep, mice, cattle and several other species. The achievement is likely to, at least temporarily, reawaken worries about “reproductive cloning” — the production of one-parent duplicate humans. But few Read more

Red meat links to heart disease

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A chemical found in red meat helps explain why eating too much steak, mince and bacon is bad for the heart, say US scientists. A study in the journal Nature Medicine showed that carnitine in red meat was broken down by bacteria in the gut. This kicked off a chain of events that resulted in higher levels of cholesterol and an increased risk of heart disease. Dieticians warned there may be a risk to people taking carnitine supplements. There has been a wealth of studies suggesting that Read more

Processed meat links to early death

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Sausages, ham, bacon and other processed meats appear to increase the risk of dying young, a study of half a million people across Europe suggests. It concluded diets high in processed meats were linked to cardiovascular disease, cancer and early deaths. The researchers, writing in the journal BMC Medicine, said salt and chemicals used to preserve the meat may damage health. The British Heart Foundation suggested opting for leaner cuts of meat. The study followed people from 10 European Read more

Volunteering good for the heart

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OTTAWA, Feb 27 – Volunteer work has long been touted as good for the soul, but the practice is also good for your heart, according to a study out Monday in the journal JAMA Pediatrics. Researchers at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver wanted to find out how volunteering might impact one’s physical condition, and discovered that it improves cardiovascular health, said study author Hannah Schreier. And “the volunteers who reported the greatest increases in empathy, altruistic Read more

Bad sleep ‘dramatically’ alters body

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A run of poor sleep can have a dramatic effect on the internal workings of the human body, say UK researchers. The activity of hundreds of genes was altered when people's sleep was cut to less than six hours a day for a week. Writing in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the researchers said the results helped explain how poor sleep damaged health. Heart disease, diabetes, obesity and poor brain function have all been linked to substandard sleep. What missing Read more

Vegetarians cut heart risk by 32%

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Ditching meat and fish in favour of a vegetarian diet can have a dramatic effect on the health of your heart, research suggests. A study of 44,500 people in England and Scotland showed vegetarians were 32% less likely to die or need hospital treatment as a result of heart disease. Differences in cholesterol levels, blood pressure and body weight are thought to be behind the health boost. The findings were published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition Heart disease is a major blight Read more

DNA map offers hope on cancer treatments

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All patients will soon have their tumour’s DNA, its genetic code, sequenced, enabling doctors to ensure they give exactly the right drugs to keep the disease at bay. Doctors hope it will be an important step towards transforming some types of cancer into a chronic rather than fatal disease. The technique could enable terminally ill patients, who can currently expect to live only months, to carry on for a decade or more in relatively good health, according to specialists at Read more

How Doctors Die

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This article was written by KEN MURRAY, MD Years ago, Charlie, a highly respected orthopedist and a mentor of mine, found a lump in his stomach. He had a surgeon explore the area, and the diagnosis was pancreatic cancer. This surgeon was one of the best in the country. He had even invented a new procedure for this exact cancer that could triple a patient’s five-year-survival odds—from 5 percent to 15 percent—albeit with a poor quality of life. Charlie was uninterested. He went home the Read more

Do not mix grapefruit with your pills

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Doctors have warned of a "lack of knowledge" about the dangers of mixing some medications with grapefruit. The fruit can cause overdoses of some drugs by stopping the medicines being broken down in the intestines and the liver. The researchers who first identified the link said the number of drugs that became dangerous with grapefruit was increasing rapidly. They were writing in the Canadian Medical Association Journal. The team at the Lawson Health Research Institute in Canada said the Read more

Stress can truly kill

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Emotional distress, also known as psychological distress, can increase the risk of death in the general population. Anecdotal evidence has shown that distress leads to a myriad of health disorders. [Psychol Med 1995;25(5):1073-86, Ann Epidemiol 2004;14:467-72] Emotional distress, a term referring to the signs and symptoms of depression and anxiety, has been linked to an increased risk of premature mortality, cardiovascular disease, susceptibility to infection and, potentially, all cancers. [Psychol Read more