Breastfeeding lowers heart risks for mother: study
April 26, 2009
WASHINGTON : Postmenopausal women who have breastfed a child have a lower risk of heart attacks, stroke and cardiovascular disease, a study released Tuesday found.
The study of 139,681 postmenopausal women found that those participants who breastfed for at least one month had lower blood pressure, better cholesterol and less frequent diabetes, all known factors for cardiovascular risk, according to the study in the May issue of “Obstetrics and Gynecology.”
And the longer mothers breastfed, the more apparent the cardiovascular benefit, the study Read more
Research shows sex can lead to good health and a longer life
April 9, 2009
0 Survey shows sex associated with long life
0 Needs to “get your heart racing”
0 Just as good as a trip to the gym
SEX can help fight flab, ward off colds and make you live longer.
“There is definitely a correlation between health and sex. If you are healthier, you are going to have more sex,” Jennifer Bass, of the British sex research centre The Kinsey Institute, said.
“Making love provides a cardiovascular workout and floods the body with feel-good chemicals.”
A survey by the American Association Of Read more
Steaming hot tea linked to cancer
March 27, 2009
Drinking steaming hot tea has been linked with an increased risk of oesophageal (food tube) cancer, Iranian scientists have found.
The British Medical Journal study found that drinking black tea at temperatures of 70C or higher increased the risk.
Experts said the finding could explain the increased oesophageal cancer risk in some non-Western populations.
Adding milk, as most tea drinkers in Western countries do, cools the drink enough to Read more
Study finds clues to sudden death of healthy people
March 24, 2009
IANS
NEW YORK: An Indian-born, Kolkata-educated scientist at Johns Hopkins University and his fellow researchers have found an answer to sudden death of
healthy people, including athletes.
Describing it as sudden cardiac death, they say it is caused by abrupt stopping of the heart due to an abnormality in its electrical impulses.
In a study published in Nature Genetics, Aravinda Chakravarti of Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and fellow scientists say that in such cases, the heartbeat becomes very irregular – either very fast or very slow – leading to fatal results.
They say their research has linked sudden cardiac death to congenital problems with the heart.
One such congenital problem is called ‘long QT syndrome’ (LQTS). People with this problem are prone to have either a prolonged or Read more
‘Take control of your sleep’
March 24, 2009
IANS
NEW DELHI: If you didn’t sleep well last night or feel exhausted all day long, you are probably one of thousands suffering from sleeping disorders.
It’s possible that hypertension, acidity and several other lifestyle diseases are playing havoc with your sleep.
Good sleep helps you to be alert, awake and keeps you energetic throughout the day and hence a good night’s sleep is vital for good health, experts say.
“As sleep is vital to our health and well-being, we must not cut ourselves short from the amount of sleep that we get or suffer from sleep problems. Take control of your sleep problems before it takes control of you,” advised Read more
11 Healthy Foods You Should be Eating and Reasons Why -
March 15, 2009
For many of us our busy lives are ruled by convenience and this causes us to eat unhealthy foods too often, and skip some really great foods that are also great for us.
Below you will find a list of ten foods you should be eating and reasons why.
Healthy Food #1 – Papaya
Papaya seems too big for most westerners to buy because in most stores it is not cut into manageable pieces, an because the exterior is not very appealing. But it tastes great and of all the fruits it has the highest ratio of proteins to fats and calories. It has good fiber and is high in vitamin A.
Healthy Food #2 – Spinach
Popeye had it right – spinach is a great source of just about everything – all the B vitamins, folate for pregnant Read more
Older fathers’ children are less intelligent, research finds
March 10, 2009
MELBOURNE : Children fathered by older men are likely to be less intelligent than the offspring of younger dads, Australian and US scientists have found in a report published Tuesday.
The research contrasted sharply with earlier studies showing that older mothers produced children more likely to record above average intelligence scores, the researchers concluded.
Lead scientist John McGrath, from the Brisbane-based Queensland Brain Institute, said the result was a world first and had implications for men in Western societies who have delayed fatherhood until their 40s or Read more
Hormone therapy doubles breast cancer risk
February 7, 2009
WASHINGTON : Post-menopausal women who take combined hormone replacement therapy for at least five years double their risk of developing breast cancer, according to a study published Wednesday.
However, once they stop taking the combination of oestrogen and progestin their risk of cancer falls by at least 28 per cent within one year, said the researchers at Stanford University in California.
“This is very strong evidence that oestrogen plus progestin causes breast cancer,” said Marcia Stefanick, co-author of the study that appears in the February 5 edition of the Read more
Is Sex Necessary?
January 25, 2009
Your Health
Is Sex Necessary?
Alan Farnham
Fans of abstinence had better be sitting down. “Saving yourself” before the big game, the big business deal, the big hoedown or the big bakeoff may indeed confer some moral benefit. But corporeally it does absolutely zip. There’s no evidence it sharpens your competitive edge. The best that modern science can say for sexual abstinence is that it’s harmless when practiced in moderation. Having regular and enthusiastic sex, by contrast, confers a host of measurable physiological advantages, be you male or female. (This assumes that you are engaging in sex without contracting a sexually transmitted disease.)
In one of the most credible studies correlating Read more
Chronic obstructive lung disease
January 22, 2009
Easir Abedin
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a lung disease in which the lungs are damaged, making it hard to breathe. In COPD, the airways-the tubes that carry air in and out of your lungs – are partly obstructed, making it difficult to get air in and out.
Cigarette smoking is the most common cause of COPD. Most people with COPD are smokers or former smokers. Breathing in other kinds of lung irritants, like pollution, dust, or chemicals, over a long period of time may also cause or contribute to COPD.
The airways branch out like an upside-down tree, and at the end of each branch are many small, balloon-like air sacs called alveoli. In healthy people, each airway is clear and open. The air sacs are small and Read more