Sitting for long periods bad for health

Sitting for long periods increases the risk of diabetes, heart disease and death, experts suggest.

Scientists from Leicester and Loughborough universities say harm is done even if people also exercise, the BBC reported Monday.

The study analysed 18 existing studies involving almost 800,000 people.

The researchers say the opportunities for sedentary behaviour in modern society such as watching TV, sitting in a car or using a computer are "ubiquitous".

Many people head to the gym to redress the balance. But the research team, led by Emma Wilmot from the Diabetes Group at the University of Leicester, says going to the gym or pool after work is better than heading straight for the sofa, according to the BBC.

Gene behind skin disease identified

British researchers have identified a gene that plays a key role in causing a type of skin disease.

A team led by the University of Dundee has identified the "p34 gene" that plays a key role in causing punctate PPK, according to the BBC Monday.

The condition causes dots of hard, thickened skin which are painful and uncomfortable.

It is believed the discovery will allow for easier diagnosis of punctate PPK and help developing new therapies.

Higher doses of statins best against cholesterol

Treatment with higher doses of statins is usually the best way of lowering cholesterol levels, suggests a comprehensive review study.

"Statins are proven medications that can reduce heart attacks and strokes by about 30 percent in the patients that need them," said Matt Ito, study author and professor of pharmacy practice at Oregon State University.

"What we looked at here was whether adding other drugs or therapy to the use of statins could further reduce problems, and in most cases the research indicates that they didn't help," added Ito, the journal Annals of Pharmacotherapy reported.

"What did help was increasing the statin dose to higher levels within the range for which they are approved. And there did not appear to be a significant change in side effects based on any approved dosage," said Ito, according to an Oregon statement.

The review examined the range of treatment options for "dyslipidemia", or concerns about LDL cholesterol that is too high; HDL cholesterol that is too low; elevated triglycerides; and other issues that affect millions of people around the world.

Coming soon: a pacemaker with no battery

An implantable pacemaker as tiny as a pinhead is set to revolutionise medicine with its big advantage. It is powered by radio waves from outside the body and does not need batteries.

The breakthrough by Stanford University engineers could lead to a host of new medical sensors that could function without batteries. The implanted device is housed in a cube less than a millimetre in radius.

Millions of pacemakers, cochlear implants and drug pumps are today helping people live relatively normal lives, but these devices are not without engineering challenges. First off, they require power, which means batteries. And batteries are bulky, the journal "Applied Physics Letters" reports.

In a pacemaker or a similar device, the battery alone accounts for as much as half the volume of the device it powers. Second, batteries have limited lives. New surgery is needed when they are spent, according to the "Daily Mail".

"Wireless power solves both challenges," said Ada Poon, professor of electrical engineering at Stanford, who led the research. Last year, Poon made headlines when she demonstrated a wirelessly powered, self-propelled device capable of swimming through the bloodstream.

Pan-fried meat induces prostate cancer

 Red meats fried at high temperatures, especially in pans, could shoot up the risk of advanced prostate cancer by as much as 40 percent, says a study.

"We found that men who ate more than 1.5 servings of pan-fried red meat per week increased their risk of advanced prostate cancer by 30 percent," said research team leader Mariana Stern at the Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California.

"In addition, men who ate more than 2.5 servings of red meat cooked at high temperatures (per week) were 40 percent more likely to have advanced prostate cancer," added Stern, the journal Carcinogenesis reports.

The research is based on an analysis of data from nearly 2,000 men who took part in the California Collaborative Prostate Cancer Study, according to a Keck School statement.

Previous studies have stressed a link between diets high in red meat and risk of prostate cancer, but evidence is limited.

Attention to cooking methods of red meats, however, shows the risk of prostate cancer may be a result of potent chemical carcinogens formed when meats are cooked at high temperatures.

Harmless bug makes you suicidal

A seemingly harmless bug may be priming suicide bids by causing subtle changes in the brain.

New research adds to the growing work linking an infection caused by the Toxoplasma gondii parasite to suicide attempts, according to Michigan State University's Lena Brundin.

About 10-20 percent of people in the United States have T. gondii in their bodies, but in most it was thought to lie dormant, said Brundin, associate professor of experimental psychiatry at Michigan, The Journal of Clinical Psychiatry reports.

In fact, it appears the parasite can cause inflammation over time, which produces harmful metabolites that can damage brain cells, according to a Michigan statement.

"Previous research has found signs of inflammation in the brains of suicide victims and people battling depression, and there also are previous reports linking T. gondii to suicide attempts," she said.

"In our study, we found that if you are positive for the parasite, you are seven times more likely to attempt suicide."

The work by Brundin and colleagues is the first to measure scores on a suicide assessment scale from people infected with the parasite, some of whom had attempted suicide.

Simple test detects fake drugs in minutes

A simple 10-minute test that involves swiping a pill over chemically treated paper could detect fake drugs and slash the incidence of illness and deaths.

A team led by Toni Lo Barstis, chemistry professor, St Mary's College in Notre Dame University, has devised a new test for Panadol and other drugs, which takes less than 10 minutes. Testing suspect drugs may often take as much as three to six months as it is usually done in Europe or the US.

Problems have been documented in India, Kenya, Nigeria, Vietnam and Panama. Many of the deaths occur among people who unknowingly take fake antibiotics and anti-malaria drugs that lack the active ingredient to combat those diseases, according to a St Mary's statement.

Barstis' test consists of chemically treated business card-size paper. A person simply swipes the pill over the paper and dips it in water. Colour changes indicate suspicious ingredients. Barstis validated the test on 570 pills, including many with fake ingredients added by researchers. The college has applied for a patent for the test.

Panadol is one of multiple brand names used abroad for the pain-and-fever-reliever acetaminophen, most familiar in the US as Tylenol. Scientists emphasised that no such problem exists with Tylenol or other acetaminophen products marketed in the US.

However, Barstis said that counterfeit Panadol and other fake brand-name acetaminophen products are the tip of the iceberg in a wider problem of fake drugs sold in developing countries.

Juice from potato cures ulcers
Juice from the humble potato could treat gastric ulcers, thanks to its unique anti-bacterial properties, says a new research.

A Manchester University microbiology team now hopes the compound, dubbed 'potato juice' could go into production as a daily diet supplement. Inspiration came as one of the department's scientists tucked into a spud for Sunday lunch.

It led to the discovery of a key molecule which could both cure and prevent the bacteria that lives in the stomach and causes stomach ulcers and heartburn.

Uniquely, unlike with anti-biotics, the gut bug cannot develop resistance to the 'potato juice' which also does not cause any side-effects. Scientists even carried out the test on different types of potatoes -- discovering that Maris Piper and King Edward varieties worked the best.

The process to extract the as yet unnamed molecule has now been patented, with hopes it could one day be sold as a supplement similar to pro-biotic yoghurt drinks, the Daily Mail reported.

Ian Roberts, professor of microbiology at the Faculty of Life Sciences, who worked on the discovery, said: "When I first heard about the idea of using potatoes to treat stomach ulcers I have to admit I was a bit sceptical. But on another level I wasn't surprised - a lot of botanical products have very interesting compounds and we just have to find them."

"We see this 'potato juice' as a preventative measure to stop stomach ulcers developing that people would take as part of a healthy lifestyle. It could be a huge market if we can get it developed," added Roberts.

Mothers have sharper memories after childbirth

Childbirth seems to invest women with a sharper, improved memory. Mothers performed better in tests regarding the ability to perceive and remember information about their surroundings compared with those who didn't have children.

Melissa Santiago from Carlos Albizu University in Miami, US, who led the study, said the findings negate the belief that women experience a decline in memory and cognitive function after they have children. "You don't have to feel that because you have kids, your memory isn't the same," she said.

Previous studies on the topic have had mixed results: some showed motherhood hurts cognition, and others showed the opposite. Santiago analysed information from 35 first-time mothers whose children were aged 10 to 24 months, and 35 women who had never been pregnant.

To test such memory, the women were shown a paper containing six symbols for 10 seconds, and then asked to draw what they remembered. This task was repeated several times. The first time women were shown the paper, both groups remembered about the same amount, according to the Daily Mail.

On the second and third occasions, mothers performed better than those without children, indicating that the mothers garnered more information each time than the other women.

Later, the women were shown a variety of different symbols and asked to remember which ones were present on the earlier task. Again, the mothers displayed a better memory. In pregnancy, many physiological changes happen to the body, and previous research has suggested the brain even shrinks up to five percent.

It returns to its normal size six months after childbirth, and during this time of re-growth, the brain may re-map itself in a way that is responsible for the memory changes seen in the study, Santiago said.

These findings would be presented at a meeting of the American Psychological Association in the US.

Carbon monoxide's damaging role in heart rhythm found


The way that even low levels of carbon monoxide can be fatal, by disrupting the heart's rhythm, has been unravelled by researchers in Leeds.

They found that levels common in heavy traffic could affect the way the heart resets itself after every beat.
Their study in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine showed a common angina drug may reverse the effect.

The British Heart Foundation said the research was a promising start.

Carbon monoxide is produced by faulty boilers, cigarettes and car exhausts.

It is deadly at high levels as it "shoulder-barges" oxygen out of the blood, meaning less is transported around the body. Carbon monoxide poisoning kills more than 50 people in the UK each year and many more around the world.

However, studies have suggested that even low levels, such as that found in built-up cities with lots of traffic, may also damage the heart.

The University of Leeds research team found that the gas kept sodium channels, which are important for controlling the heartbeat, open for longer.
Disrupting the sodium channels can disrupt the heart's rhythm, leading to cardiac arrhythmia, which can be fatal.

Solution
In collaboration with researchers in France they tested an angina drug - which also affects the sodium channels - on rats.

Prof Chris Peers, from the University of Leeds, told the BBC: "It was very exciting for us. When we monitored rats exposed to levels of carbon monoxide similar to heavy pollution, they had the same heart problems and we could reverse them.

"At the moment no one knows how to treat this. We're saying look there's a drug on the shelf that might be able to help.
"Of course it needs clinical trials, but we believe it is a great start."

Dr Helene Wilson, a research advisor at the British Heart Foundation, said: "This study is a good example of research being used to better understand the underlying causes of an abnormal heart rhythm and in this case it has uncovered the ability of an old drug to perform a new trick.

Night shifts raise heart attack risk

 Shift work can dramatically increase the risk of heart attacks and strokes, warn researchers.

A study of two million people found shift workers are almost 25 percent more likely to suffer, the Daily Mail reported Friday.

Night shift workers run the highest risk of 41 percent, says a study published on the British Medical Journal website bmj.com.

People working shifts also have higher levels of unhealthy behaviours such as eating junk food, sleeping badly and not exercising, which are linked to heart problems.

But researchers said they took this into account - and the excess risks remained.

The latest study is the biggest analysis of shift work and likelihood of vascular problems, including heart attacks, strokes and angina.

Heartburn pills could increase cancer risk: Study
 A class of drugs that bring instant relief from heartburn could actually increase your chances of getting cancer, according to a study.

It suggests that if you take the drug, known as proton pump inhibitors (PPIs), for more than a year - the risks can include infections, cancer and heart disease.

The drug are among the most widely prescribed in Britain - 43 million prescriptions for them were written last year, the Daily Mail reported Tuesday.

Taken about an hour before a meal, PPIs block the enzymes that make stomach acid so that you produce only about 10 percent of normal levels.

Too much light at night causes depression
  Sleeping in a room with too much light can cause depression, experts claim.

Even just the glow from leaving the television on while you sleep can be enough to trigger the effect, the Daily Mail reported Tuesday.

Lack of darkness during sleeping hours can cause changes to the brain and depressive symptoms, according to animal studies.

Researchers believe staying up late to watch TV or go online might have the same impact on humans.

But the evidence also suggests the effects can be reversed by switching the lights off at night, the Mail said.

Cheese cuts risk of diabetes by 12 percent
Eating just two slices of cheese a day cuts the risk of type 2 diabetes by 12 percent, scientists have discovered.

The findings go against current health guidelines, which advise cutting back on dairy products and other high-fat foods to help prevent the illness.

British and Dutch researchers looked at the diets of 16,800 healthy adults and 12,400 patients with type 2 diabetes from eight European countries, including Britain.

The study found that those who ate at least 55 gm of cheese a day were 12 percent less likely to develop type 2 diabetes, the Daily Mail reported Monday.

The risk fell by the same amount for those who ate 55 gm of yoghurt a day. The study was published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

One theory is that the so-called 'probiotic' bacteria in cheese and yoghurt lower cholesterol and produce certain vitamins which prevent diabetes.

Low birth weight, poor diet impair girls' learning ability
 Lower birth weight and poor diet in childhood can lead to poor learning and behaviour in children, particularly girls, according to a new study.

Researchers from Australia's Monash University and Taiwan's National Defence Medical Centre as well as the National Health Research Institute, found girls with lower birth weight experienced a greater inability to learn and weaker overall competence than girls of normal birth weight.

The study linked the national birth registry to Taiwan's Nutrition and Health Survey to examine possible relationships between lower birth weight, childhood diet and learning outcomes in children between six and 13 years old, the journal Research in Developmental Disabilities reports.

Chemicals in cosmetics may spike diabetes risk
The presence of phthalates (endocrine disrupting chemicals) in moisturizers, nail polishes, soaps, hair sprays and perfumes may elevate diabetes risk in women, says new research.

Researchers led by Tamarra James-Todd, from Division of Women's Health at Brigham and Women's Hospital, analyzed urinary concentrations of phthalates in 2,350 women who participated in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey.

Phthalates interfere with endocrine (or hormone system) in animals, including humans. These disruptions can cause cancerous tumours, birth defects, and other developmental disorders, the journal Environmental Health Perspectives reported.

Specifically, phthalates are known to cause learning disabilities, severe attention deficit disorder, cognitive and brain development problems, deformations of the body (including limbs); sexual development problems, feminizing of males or masculine effects on females, according to a university statement.

TV habits can foretell kids' fitness
Each hour of TV that a two to four-year-old watches elevates the risk of a larger waistline and reduction of muscle fitness, says a study.

According to experts, children should not watch more than two hours of TV a day.

"We already knew that there is an association between pre-school television exposure and the body fat of fourth grade children, but this is the first study to describe more precisely what that association represents," said Linda Pagani, who conducted the research with Caroline Fitzpatrick, both from the University of Montreal and its St-Justine Mother and Child University Hospital.

"Parents were asked about their child's TV habits. Trained examiners took waist measurements and administered the standing long jump test to measure child muscular fitness," said Pagani.

World's first anti-obesity shot promising

The world's first anti-obesity vaccine has shown promising results in boosting weight loss, according to a study.

Keith Haffer from Braasch Biotech LLC, south Dakota, who developed the vaccines in two versions JH17 and JH18, derived from a peptide hormone somatostatin, tested them in two groups of diet induced obese male mice, and compared with a group of mice that received saline injections.

Somatostatin inhibits the action of growth hormone (GH) and insulin like growth factor (IGF1), both of which increase metabolism and result in weight loss.

Obesity and obesity related disease is a growing health issue worldwide.

Mice in all groups had been fed a high fat diet for eight weeks prior to the study and continued to eat the same food for the duration of the six week study. The vaccinations were administered twice at the start of the study followed by a booster vaccination on day 22, the Journal of Animal Science and Biotechnology reported.

Four days after the first injection of modified somatostatin, the vaccinated mice had a 10 percent drop in body weight (not seen in the mice receiving saline shots), said a university statement.

Later, results showed that both vaccines induced antibodies to somatostatin and significantly reduced body weight, sustaining the lower body weight, without affecting normal levels of the growth hormone IGF1, or insulin levels.

"This study demonstrates the possibility of treating obesity with vaccination," Keith explained. "Treatment of human obesity with vaccination would provide physicians with a drug and surgical free option against the weight epidemic."

Braasch Biotech LLC is a privately held company that specializes in the development of bio pharmaceutical vaccine products for the human and veterinary health care markets. Specifically, Braasch has developed the world first anti-obesity vaccine.

Cannabis can help treat obesity
Two cannabis compounds can raise the quantum of energy the body burns and keep obesity at bay. Called THCV and cannabidiol, they were found to have an appetite suppressing effect too for a short while.

Animal tests have shown these compounds can help treat type two diabetes while also lowering levels of cholesterol in the blood stream and fat in key organs like the liver.

Scientists also found the compounds also had an impact on the level of fat and its response to insulin, a hormone that controls blood sugar levels, the Telegraph reports.

THCV was also found to increase the animals' sensitivity to insulin while also protecting the cells that produce insulin, allowing them to work better and for longer.

Steph Wright, director of research and development at GW Pharmaceuticals developing the drugs, said: "The results in animal models have been very encouraging. We are interested in how these drugs effect the fat distribution and utilisation in the body as a treatment for metabolic diseases".

"We are conducting four Phase 2a clinical trials and we expect some results later this year," Wright said.

Tests in mice showed the compounds boosted their metabolism, leading to lower levels of fat in their livers and reduced cholesterol in their blood stream.

They are now conducting clinical trials in 200 patients in the hope of producing a drug that can be used to treat patients suffering from "metabolic syndrome", where diabetes, high blood pressure and obesity combine to increase the risk of heart disease and stroke.

Mike Cawthorne, director of metabolic research at the University of Buckingham who has been conducting the animal studies, said: "Over all, it seems these molecules increase energy expenditure in the cells of the body by increasing the metabolism".

647 British teenage girls have breast reduction surgery

A total of 647 British girls aged 15 to 18 have undergone state-funded breast reduction surgery in the past five years, a media report said Friday.

Shadow Health Minister Diane Abbott said the surgeries, which cost around 5,000 pounds each, were often a waste of precious funds of the National Health Service, The Sun reported.

She said it was due to women's "obsession with physical perfection".

"An obsession with physical perfection is driving women. Society needs to debate whether scarce NHS resources are best spent on a 15-year-old who has convinced herself her breasts are too big" Abbott said.

However, a total of 359 women in their 70s also had the surgery, according to official statistics.

In total, 21,328 women had reductions between 2006 and 2011.

Diabetes drug spurs growth of brain cells
Popular diabetes drug metformin offers an unexpected yet alluring side effect - it encourages the growth of new brain cells.

The discovery is an important step toward therapies that aim to repair the brain not by introducing new stem cells but rather by spurring those that are already present into action, says the leader of the study team, Freda Miller, from the University of Toronto-affiliated Hospital for Sick Children.

The fact that it is a drug that is so widely used and safe makes the news all that much better.

Earlier work by Miller's team highlighted a pathway known as PKC-CBP for its essential role in telling neural (brain related) stem cells where and when to differentiate into mature neurons (brain cells).

As it happened, others had found before them that the same pathway is important for the metabolic effects of the drug metformin, but in liver cells, reports the journal Cell Stem Cell.

"We put two and two together," Miller says. According to a Toronto statement, it was felt that if metformin activates the CBP pathway in the liver, it could perhaps also do the same in neural stem cells of the brain to encourage brain repair.

The new evidence lends support to that promising idea in both mouse brain and human cells. Mice taking metformin not only showed an increase in the birth of new neurons, but they were also better able to learn the location of a hidden platform in a standard maze test of spatial learning.

While it remains to be seen whether the very popular diabetes drug might already be serving as a brain booster for those who are taking it, there are already some early hints that it may have cognitive benefits for people with Alzheimer's disease.

It now appears that metformin may improve Alzheimer's symptoms by enhancing brain repair.

Strawberries prevent heart disease, diabetes

Strawberries, the traditional summer treat, could offer unexpected health benefits of preventing development of heart disease and diabetes, says a study.

University of Warwick scientists have been studying the beneficial effects of strawberries on cardiovascular health, particularly around how they prevent the development of heart disease and diabetes.

Paul Thornalley, professor at the Warwick Medical School, heads the team that discovered extracts from strawberries positively activate a protein in our bodies called 'Nrf2', which is shown to increase antioxidant and other protective activities.

This protein works to decrease blood lipids and cholesterol, the very things which can lead to cardiovascular problems, said a university statement.

Eating strawberries has previously been found to counter post-meal blood glucose and low density lipoprotein, or 'bad' cholesterol and therefore decrease risk of diabetes and heart disease, but this is the first time that strawberry extracts have been proved to actively stimulate proteins that offer us protection against disease.

Thornalley explained: " We've discovered the science behind how strawberries work to increase our in-built defences to keep cells, organs and blood vessels healthy and which can reduce the risk of developing cardiovascular problems such as heart disease and diabetes."

Screening and math modelling techniques developed at Warwick can now take this research further to help identify the best varieties of strawberries, how they are served or processed and how many strawberries should be eaten for optimum health benefit.

Thornalley will be presenting these findings at the 16th biennial meeting for the Society for Free Radical Research International (SFRRI), Imperial College London.

Children exposed to violence suffer health problems: Study

Children exposed to community violence may be traumatised up to a year after the event, which may carry long-term negative consequences for health, says a study.

"We know that exposure to violence is linked with aggression, depression, post-traumatic stress symptoms and academic and cognitive difficulties in the short term, but little is known about the long-term effects of such exposure," said Elizabeth Susman, professor biobehavioural health, Penn State University, US.

The scientists from the Penn State and University College London, chose 124 children, aged between eight and 13 years and living in small city and rural communities, to participate in the study, the Journal of Adolescent Health reports.

"We focused on children who live in small towns, so you would normally not expect them to be exposed to a lot of violence. Also, these were healthy children without a history of reported maltreatment," said Melissa Peckins, biobehavioural health graduate student from Penn State.

The researchers gave each of the adolescents a questionnaire, which identified their exposure to violence during lifetime and within the past 12 months, according to a Penn State statement.

The adolescents were then given the beginning of a story and asked to complete it in front of two mock judges, whom they were told were evaluating their responses and performances for later comparison to those of other children the same age.

Following the story-completion task, adolescents were also given a serial subtraction task.

The team measured the children's stress responses by comparing the cortisol levels present in samples of their saliva collected before and after the stress test was administered.

Cortisol is a steroid hormone, produced by adrenal gland and is released in response to stress.

"In males, we found that as exposure to violence increased, cortisol reactivity decreased, so cortisol reactivity was attenuated; it was a habituation effect," Peckins said. The finding was not present in females.

"In enduring stressful conditions, we may have adapted evolutionarily to suppress our cortisol levels because higher and more prolonged levels of cortisol in the bloodstream can lead to negative health consequences, such as autoimmune disorders, lowered immunity, arthritis and atypical depression," Susman said.

This may explain why cortisol reactivity was lower for males," Susman added.

"However, there is a theory that females may react to stressful situations by talking about it, which may be their way of reducing the negative effects of cortisol in the bloodstream," Susman said.

Coffee lowers risk of common skin cancer

Drinking more coffee could lower the risk of basal cell carcinoma, the commonest form of skin cancer, according to a new study.

"Our data indicate that the more caffeinated coffee you consume, the lower your risk of developing basal cell carcinoma (BCC)," said Jiali Han, associate professor at Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston.

"I would not recommend increasing your coffee intake based on these data alone. However, our results add basal cell carcinoma to a list of conditions for which risk is decreased with increasing coffee consumption," said Han, the journal Cancer Research, reported.

Even though BCC is slow-growing, it places a burden on health care systems. Though the cancer rarely kills, it can cause significant destruction and disfigurement by invading surrounding tissues.

"Given the large number of newly diagnosed cases, daily dietary changes having any protective effect may have an impact on public health," said Han, according to a university statement.

Of the 112,897 participants included in the analyses, 22,786 developed basal cell carcinoma during the more than 20 years of follow-up in the two studies.

"These results really suggest that it is the caffeine in coffee that is responsible for the decreased risk of basal cell carcinoma associated with increasing coffee consumption," said Han.

Menopausal women could 'work out' hot flashes

Menopausal women who exercise may experience fewer hot flashes, according to researchers.

Women who are relatively inactive or are overweight tend to have a risk of increased symptoms of perceived hot flashes, noted Steriani Elavsky, assistant professor of kinesiology at Penn State University.

Perceived hot flashes do not always correspond to actual hot flashes. Most previous research analysed only self-reported hot flashes. This is the first study known to the researchers to look at objective versus subjective hot flashes.

Elavsky and colleagues studied 92 menopausal women for 15 days. The women recruited for this study were different from many earlier menopause studies, said Elavsky, according to a university statement.

"Our sample included women with mild to moderate symptoms and they were recruited for a study of physical activity, not for a study of menopause," said Elavsky.

The women were 40 to 59 years old, with an average of two children and were not on hormone therapy. During analysis the researchers separated the women into normal weight and overweight/obese categories and higher fit and lower fit categories. These categories were not necessarily mutually exclusive.

"For women with mild to moderate hot flashes, there is no reason to avoid physical activity for the fear of making symptoms worse," said Elavsky. "In fact, physical activity may be helpful, and is certainly the best way to maximize health as women age.

"Becoming and staying active on a regular basis as part of your lifestyle is the best way to ensure healthy aging and well being, regardless of whether you experience hot flashes or not," Elavsky added.

Therapy boosts sexual function in sleep disorder patients

Men who suffer from obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), a sleep related breathing disorder, are seeing another potential benefit from continuous positive airway pressure therapy (CPAP) -- improved sexual function and satisfaction in non-diabetic men under 60.

CPAP is the most common and effective treatment for OSA, which keeps the airway open and restores normal oxygen levels during sleep. This helps maintain a steady, healthy level of breathing through the night.

A study out of Walter Reed National Military Medical Centre in Bethesda, assessed the erectile function (ED) and libido of 92 men newly diagnosed with OSA, who were starting CPAP therapy.

OSA occurs when the tissue in the back of the throat collapses and blocks the airway, causing the body to stop breathing during sleep. OSA can increase the risk of heart disease and stroke, according to a Walter Reed statement.

ED is common in OSA patients, and nearly half of the men in the Walter Reed study reported the presence of ED. Patients were assessed again after one, three and six months of CPAP therapy.

The results show that CPAP improved the sexual function and satisfaction in the majority of men in the study regardless of their level of erectile function reported at the very start. Those with ED had more robust improvements and even many without ED reported improved sexual function and satisfaction.

"We were surprised at how prevalent ED is in a relatively young population of men with sleep apnea. The average age was 45," said Joseph Dombrowsky, the study's primary investigator from Walter Reed.

"But we were similarly surprised at how robust a clinically significant response the men had with CPAP therapy."

Smoking fathers pass on damaged genes to kids

British researchers have found the men quite fond of smoking actually go on to pass damaged DNA to their children as fathers while raising risk of cancer among them.

Researchers at the University of Bradford found in their study that smoking harms the father's DNA, and these damaged genes can be inherited by his children. This raises the risk of youngsters developing childhood cancers, particularly leukaemia, Daily Mail reported.

Because a fertile sperm cell takes three months to fully develop, fathers should kick the habit 12 weeks ahead of conceiving to avoid the risk, said Diana Anderson of the university of Bradford.

"Smoking by fathers at the time around conception can lead to genetic changes in their children. These changes may raise the risk of developing cancer," she added.

Meanwhile, scientists at the University of Glasgow have found that the men drinking lots of tea are far more likely to develop prostate cancer. They found that those who drank seven or more cups a day had a 50 percent higher risk of contracting the disease than men who had three or fewer cups.

The warning comes after researchers tracked the health of over 6,000 men for over four decades.

The latest findings contradict a previous research, which suggested that drinking tea lowers the risk of cancer, as well as heart disease, diabetes and Parkinson's disease.

Stress can be good for immune system

Stress is bad for you -- you've heard it a thousand times. But it can be good for your immune system, says a study.

Short-term stress, the fight-or-flight response, a mobilisation of bodily resources lasting minutes or hours in response to immediate threats -- stimulates immune activity, said Firdaus Dhabhar, associate professor of psychiatry and behavioural sciences and member of the Stanford University Institute for Immunity, Transplantation, and Infection.

And that's a good thing. The immune system is crucial for wound healing and preventing or fighting infection, and both wounds and infections are common risks during chases, escapes and combat, the Journal of Psychoneuroendocrinology reported.

Working with colleagues at Stanford and two other universities, Dhabhar showed that subjecting lab rats to mild stress caused a massive mobilization of several key types of immune cells into the bloodstream and then onto the skin and other tissues, according to a university statement.

This large-scale migration of immune cells, which took place over two hours, was comparable to the mustering of troops in a crisis, Dhabhar said. He and colleagues had previously shown that a similar immune-cell redistribution in patients experiencing the short-term stress of surgery predicts enhanced postoperative recovery.

Investigators were able to show that the massive redistribution of immune cells throughout the body was orchestrated by three hormones released by the adrenal glands, in different amounts and at different times, in response to the stress-inducing event. These hormones are the brain's call-to-arms to the rest of the body, Dhabhar said.

"Mother Nature gave us the fight-or-flight stress response to help us, not to kill us," said Dhabhar, who has been conducting experiments for well over a decade on the effects of the major stress hormones on the immune system.

The findings paint a clearer picture of exactly how the mind influences immune activity. "An impala's immune system has no way of knowing that a lion is lurking in the grass and is about to pounce, but its brain does," Dhabhar added.

Apple compound may help burn fat, reduce obesity

A waxy compound found in apple peel may help reduce obesity and its associated health problems by increasing the amount of muscle and brown fat, two tissues recognised for their calorie-burning properties, a study says.

The study conducted at the University of Iowa, US, found that the compound known as ursolic acid helped mice burn calories and shed weight, besides keeping pre-diabetes and fatty liver disease at bay, even when they were being given a high-fat diet.

"From previous work, we knew that ursolic acid increases muscle mass and strength in healthy mice, which is important because it might suggest a potential therapy for muscle wasting," says Christopher Adams, associate professor of internal medicine, who led the study, the journal Publric Library of Science ONE reports.

"We tested ursolic acid in mice on a high-fat diet - a mouse model of obesity and metabolic syndrome. Once again, the compound increased skeletal muscle. Interestingly, it also reduced obesity, pre-diabetes and fatty liver disease," said Adams, according to an Iowa statement.

"Since muscle is very good at burning calories, the increased muscle in ursolic acid-treated mice may be sufficient to explain how the compound reduces obesity. However, we were surprised to find that it also increased brown fat, a fantastic calorie burner. This increase in brown fat may also help protect against obesity."

Until quite recently, researchers believed that only infants had brown fat, which then disappeared during childhood. However, improved imaging techniques have shown that adults do retain a very small amount of the substance mostly in the neck and between the shoulder blades.

Some studies have linked increased levels of brown fat with lower levels of obesity and healthier levels of blood sugar and blood lipid, leading to the suggestion that brown fat may be helpful in preventing obesity and diabetes.

The research team, which also included Steven Kunkel, Christopher Elmore, Kale Bongers, Scott Ebert, Daniel Fox, Michael Dyle and Steven Bullard, studied mice on a high-fat diet over a period of several weeks.

'Changing plate's colour helps you shed weight'

Scientists have suggested an easy way out for those who want to shed pounds. They should simply change the colour of their plates.

People tend to take more generous helpings when the food they eat is of the same hue as the crockery on which it is placed, says a new study.

When foods "blend in" with their background, people serve themselves 20 percent more than if they were serving the same meal on a plate of contrasting colour.

In the study, people were given either a red or a white dinner plate and led to one of two buffet tables offering pasta; one in tomato sauce, the other in cream sauce, the Telegraph reports.

Those given crockery which "matched" their food - red for tomato sauce, or white for cream sauce - gave themselves helpings between 17 and 22 percent larger than those with plates of contrasting colour.

Further, research has established that the average person eats around 92 percent of a portion they serve themselves.

The latest study by researchers at Cornell University, US, repeated several times on groups of 60 participants, found the actual colour of the food and plates made no difference; what mattered was the contrast between the two.

Study authors said the colour contrast appears to act as a "stop sign" reminding people to think about how much food they were serving.

Brian Wansink, professor who runs Cornell University's Food and Brand Lab, said: "People will generally serve themselves far more on a large dinner plate than they would on a smaller one, because the eye is tricked. It seems that colour contrast is one way to block this illusion."

The research author said those trying to lose weight could help themselves by buying brightly coloured or dark plates, to provide contrast with common white foodstuffs such as pasta, rice and potatoes.

Alternatively, green plates could be used as a way to trick children into eating more vegetables, he said.

Blogging de-stresses new mothers

New mothers who read and write blogs are likely to be less stressed out, as they begin to feel more connected to their extended family and friends, says a new study.

"It looks like blogging might be helping these women as they transition into motherhood because they may begin to feel more connected to their extended family and friends, which leads them to feel more supported," said Brandon T. McDaniel, graduate student in human development and family studies, Penn State University.

"That potentially is going to spill out into other aspects of their well being, including their marital relationship with their partner, the ways that they're feeling about their parenting stress, and eventually into their levels of depression," McDaniel was quoted as saying in the Maternal and Child Health Journal.

McDaniel and colleagues from Brigham Young University surveyed 157 new mothers about their media use and their well-being. The moms were all first-time parents with only one child under the age of 18 months -- most much younger than this, according to a university statement.

The researchers report that blogging had a positive impact on new mothers, but social networking -- mainly Facebook and MySpace -- did not seem to impact their well-being.

"We're not saying that those who end up feeling more supported all of a sudden no longer have stresses, they're still going to have those stressful moments you have as a parent," said McDaniel.

"But because they're feeling more supported, their thoughts and their feelings about that stress might change, and they begin to feel less stressed about those things."

Researchers found that 61 percent of the mothers surveyed wrote their own blogs and 76 percent read blogs. Eighty-nine percent of the mothers who wrote their own blogs did so to "document personal experiences or share them with others," and 86 percent wanted to stay in touch with family and friends through the blog.

Sarah M. Coyne and Erin K. Holmes, assistant professors, School of Family Life, Brigham Young University, also worked on this research.

Night shift elevates breast cancer risk


Women who did night shifts had a higher risk of developing breast cancer, as compared to sisters who worked in daytime, according to a study.


 "Our work has corroborated the results of previous studies and poses the problem of taking night work into consideration in public health management, especially since the number of women working a typical hours is on the increase," states Pascal Guenel, of Inserm (Institut National de la Sante et de la Recherche Medicale), who led the study.

 Breast cancer is the number one cause of female mortality. It affects 100 out of 100,000 women per year in developed countries. Every year, more than 1.3 million new cases are diagnosed, 53,000 of these in France, said a university statement.

 Inserm researchers examined the effect of night work on the health of 3,000 women in France between 2005 and 2008, including each period of night work. Over 11 percent of women had worked nights at some time during their career.

 This increased risk was particularly marked in women who had worked nights for over four years, or in women whose working rhythm was less than three nights per week, because this led to more frequent disturbances between night and day rhythms.

 Finally, the link between night work and breast cancer seemed to be more marked when we looked at women who had worked at night prior to a first pregnancy.

 An explanation for this result could be that the mammary cells, incompletely differentiated in women before their first pregnancy, are more vulnerable.

G-Spot Found?
Vaginal Dissection Reveals it! 

The elusive G-spot has been called the UFO of gynecology -- but now a retired surgeon says he has photographic proof it exists.

The alleged G-spot is a tiny bunch-of-grapes-like structure within a bluish sac buried deep within the front wall of the vagina, says Adam Ostrzenski, MD, PhD, of St. Petersburg, Fla.

"As an erectile body, this structure is causing elevation of the front of the vaginal wall at the beginning of the sexual excitement," Ostrzenski tells WebMD.


But Ostrzenski's finding is based on a single dissection, performed on a recently deceased 83-year-old woman.

"The feeling in my limited field is that this is not real," Elena Ratner, MD, assistant professor of obstetrics, gynecology, and reproductive medicine at Yale University, tells WebMD via email.

Ratner notes that findings from a single dissection, performed on an elderly woman, are not proof that the structure is common to all women -- or that it is a source of sexual sensation.

"Who is to say that this thing they found on her dissection was the center of pelvic pleasure?" Ratner asks.

Even more dismissive of Ostrzenski's claim is sex therapist Leonore Tiefer, PhD, clinical associate professor of psychiatry at New York University Medical Center.