Oxford study claims slashing the official alcohol limit would save 4,500 lives a year

Guidance would see recommended consumption cut to half a unit a day


Findings could influence first review of drinking advice for 15 years

Britons should drink no more than a quarter of a pint of beer a day, scientists have said.

More than 4,500 lives could be saved annually by changing official advice on ‘safe’ levels of alcohol intake, they believe.

It would mean recommended consumption – for men and women – would be cut to half a unit a day, the equivalent of just a couple of gulps of beer or three glasses of wine each week.

The new advice flies in the face of previous studies, which have shown that drinking alcohol in moderation reduces the risk of dying from heart disease. 

But the researchers, from Oxford University, say this benefit is far outweighed by the harm to health caused by regular drinking. 

Cutting consumption could stem the epidemic of alcohol-related chronic diseases set to cause 210,000 deaths during the next 20 years. Currently, the Department of Health says ‘safe’ drinking levels are three to four units a day for men, or two to three for women.

A small glass of wine contains 1.3 units, while a pint of beer contains at least two units.

But the new study says the ideal intake to prevent chronic disease is five grams a day – around half a unit. This is less than half a small glass of wine and just a quarter of a pint of beer.

The findings could influence the first review of drinking advice for 15 years, amid concern the existing limit wrongly implies that daily drinking is healthy.

The review was prompted by a report earlier this year from the Commons Science and Technology Committee, which said advice on safe drinking was confusing. It suggested new guidelines could tell people to observe two teetotal days a week.

For the new study, scientists led by Dr Melanie Nichols, of the British Heart Foundation Health Promotion Research Group at Oxford University, analysed the death toll of 11 conditions known to be linked to long-term alcohol consumption.

They included heart disease, stroke, high blood pressure, diabetes, cirrhosis of the liver, epilepsy and five different cancers.

The team used data from large-scale studies on drinking and chronic disease risk, combined with estimates of weekly alcohol consumption among 15,000 adults in England from the 2006 General Household Survey. Just under a third of the adults were non-drinkers.

Their results, published in online journal BMJ Open, showed that cutting alcohol intake to half a unit a day would avert 4,579 premature deaths in England each year.

This amounts to three in 100 of all deaths from the 11 conditions studied.

Regarding the positive effects of alcohol on protecting against heart disease, the researchers pointed out that cutting consumption would lead to 843 extra deaths per year. 

But this would be offset by a reduction of deaths including more than 2,600 from cancers and almost 3,000 from liver cirrhosis.

Dr Nichols said: ‘When all of the chronic disease risks are balanced against each other, the optimal consumption level is much lower than many people believe.

‘More than 4,000 deaths from cancer, heart disease, stroke and liver disease in England could be prevented if drinkers reduced their average level of alcohol consumption to half a unit per person per day – a level much lower than current UK government recommendations.’

Earlier this year alcohol specialists Professor Ian Gilmore and Dr Nick Sheron calculated that drinking would cause 210,000 deaths in the next 20 years through illness, violence and accidents. 

Figures show alcohol-related injuries and illness cost the NHS in England £3.3billion a year.

Eric Appleby, of the charity Alcohol Concern, said current guidelines were already confusing – and telling people to drink very small quantities on a daily basis was no less confusing.

He said: ‘We need to make sure [guidelines] are an easy-to-understand way of watching what you drink that’s practical for people to apply to their everyday lives.’

A Department of Health spokesperson said: 'The Chief Medical Officer is reviewing current alcohol consumption guidelines.

'She will review the evidence on alcohol and health risks including whether advice is needed on the maximum amount of alcohol that can be drunk in one session.'

Courtesy- http://www.dailymail.co.uk 

Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has declared the results for Class 12

The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) results have been declared for various zones which include the Delhi, Guwahati, Allahabad and Chandigarh zones of CBSE.

The Central Board of Secondary Education examination (CBSE) for Class 12 was held from March 1 to April 13, 2012.

CBSE has started a proficiency test which will measure an individual’s abilities and skills in a domain or subject to know how well he/she has learned, understood and internalised the related concepts and principles.

The optional test will be conducted for English, mathematics, social sciences, science and Hindi. It comprises multiple choice questions and they have the option of taking one or more subjects.

Students are requested to be patient while checking the results due to heavy traffic on the official website of the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE).

To check the result click here 

Exercise Increases Brain Power

A team of researchers at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign has just given a new significance to the ancient Greek ideal mens sana in corpore sano.

 
Dr. Chuck Hillman and colleagues recently reported at the annual meeting of the Society of Psychophysiological Research in Montreal, Canada, that it’s true —creating a strong, healthy body through exercise can help lead directly to a strong, healthy mind.
In the study, the researchers, using an electroencephalogram (EEG), measured the thinking ability of 20 men and women asked to perform a computer test before and 30 minutes following intense treadmill running.
According to Dr. Hillman, exercising increased the speed of the decision-making process by an average of 35 milliseconds — quite a significant improvement as far as brain activity goes, he says.
What’s more, study participants answered test questions more accurately after exercise than they did when they had not exercised.

Courtesy - http://www.hlifestyles.com

Treadmills Work Best for Burning Fat Shows New Study

Between the stairsteppers, stationary cycles, cross-country ski simulators and the dozens of other pieces of cardio equipment jamming today’s typical gym, trying to figure out which of these machines is best for burning fat can be a real guessing game.
Fortunately, there are exercise scientists like Dr. Niall Moyna who actually test this sort of thing.

Recently Dr. Moyna and colleagues from the Center for Sport Science and Health in Dublin, Ireland, pit the popular cardio machines against one another in a battle for fat-burning supremacy.
And as it is with so many things, it seems basics are best for burning fat, as well.
Of all the latest, greatest newfangled cardio contraptions, the time-honored treadmill came out on top.
Subjects performed three exercise tests at selected intensities corresponding to ratings of perceived exertion (RPE): fairly light, somewhat hard and hard.
Energy expenditure (calories burned) at each RPE was highest on the treadmill for all subjects. Energy expenditure at all RPEs was lowest on the stationary bike.
“Our results indicated that there are large differences in energy expenditure between exercise machines,” the researchers write.
“Subjects can expend more calories at the same RPE during treadmill exercise, for example, than during exercise with other devices.”
And remember, more calories burned equals more fat lost.

courtesy  http://www.hlifestyles.com

Critique of Sarkari Lokpal

Posted by janlokpal team in micro blog 

To boost your brain and to remember more' Eat less '

Eating less could help you remember more, researchers have found.

Skipping dessert and having an after-dinner coffee instead could also be good for your brain, as well as your waistline.

The news comes from an Italian study into ‘calorific restriction’ – the idea that near-starvation rations boost health and extend life.

Scientists have long known of the phenomenon, but have struggled to work out just what it is about severely cutting calories that improves health.

Researcher Giovambattista Pani decided to focus on a protein called CREB1 that is known to be important to memory and learning.

In experiments on mice, he showed that cutting calories boosted learning if the animals could still make CREB1.

He also showed that cutting calories boosts the amount of the protein made in the brain.

The animals’ calorie count was only cut by 25 to 30 per cent. In human terms, this equates to about 600 calories a day.

A cup of tea or coffee may also be beneficial, with studies crediting caffeine with upping the amount of CREB1 made in the body.
The work by Dr Pani, of the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart in Rome is detailed in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Dr Pani said: ‘It is just 25 to 30 per cent fewer calories.  It is like not eating a cake at the end of the meal.
‘This gives us a tool to better investigate this brain circuitry and try to figure out more drugs that do the same.
‘We are trying a couple of compounds right now on animals but it is at a very preliminary stage.’
Keeping the brain young could be of huge value in an ageing population.
Alzheimer's and other forms of dementia affect more than 800,000 Britons, and the number expected to double in a generation.
Dr Pani said: ‘Our findings identify for the first time an important mediator of the effects of diet on the brain.
‘This discovery has important implications to develop future therapies to keep our brain young and prevent brain degeneration and the ageing process.
‘Our hope is to find a way to activate CREB1, for example through new drugs, so to keep the brain young without the need of a strict diet.’ 


(Courtesy -daily mail.co.uk)

A drug that can keep breast cancer at bay for longer

A breakthrough drug gives women suffering an aggressive form of breast cancer an extra six months before the disease advances.
Women on a combination treatment of pertuzumab alongside the ‘wonder’ drug Herceptin lived on average for 18 months without their disease worsening, compared with 12 months for those not taking it.
Doctors are hailing the dual therapy as a ‘quantum leap forward’ that will change treatment in the same way Herceptin did five years ago.
A quarter of the 48,000 Britons diagnosed with breast cancer each year have the HER2 positive form, which is more aggressive.
When the disease starts to spread they are prescribed Herceptin which holds the disease at bay for around a year – six months longer than chemotherapy alone.
But now pertuzumab can give the same benefit again, according to trial results released at the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium, Texas.

The Cleopatra study of 800 women – including Britons whose HER2 positive cancer was spreading – showed the new drug, plus Herceptin and chemotherapy, significantly improved the chances of stalling the disease.
Those on the new drug lived on average 18.5 months before the disease worsened, compared with 12.4 months for women on Herceptin and chemotherapy.

Dr David Miles, consultant medical oncologist, at Mount Vernon Cancer Centre, in Northwood, Middlesex, said: ‘The magnitude of the benefit we see from the addition of pertuzumab to Herceptin is impressive.’
Around four out of five patients positively respond to the drug, with most of the remaining patients having their disease stabilised with few side effects, he added.

Women with early breast cancer can cut their chances of dying from the disease by around one-third with a bone-strengthening drug, claim Austrian researchers. Zoledronic acid, a cheap drug widely used to prevent bone loss, when added to existing hormone therapies can reduce recurrence of the disease by 28 per cent.

(Courtesy - dailymail.co.uk)

Hypertension: A Lifestyle Disorder Needs a Lifetime of Attention-Do and Dont's

The term “lifestyle disorder” had to be invented to describe hypertension.  Almost no aspect of daily life – diet, sleep, exercise, work, and stress – can be implicated.  Your blood pressure responds to these things quite sensitively. This implies an optimistic attitude, because for many sufferers, a change in lifestyle serves as good prevention. But optimism is lost if lifestyle changes are not kept up for a lifetime.  For millions of patients, the arrival of high blood pressure as they get older comes at a stage when prevention may be too little, too late.

 It took a while before lifestyle disorders were recognized for what they are, a product of “normal” living that turns out not to be normal so far as the body is concerned. To previous generations of doctors, a creeping rise in blood pressure, for example, was considered normal with each decade of life. It was overlooked, or shrugged off, that hypertension needs a long span of years to cause damage and that even marginal hypertension – blood pressure on the border of being high – threatens the body almost as much as the full-blown disorder.

Because every cell is affected by the fluid pressure inside your body, let’s look at how a necessary condition turns damaging. Hypertension is publicized as the “silent killer” for its absence of symptoms detected by the afflicted person. The condition may go unnoticed for years, with few if any signs of discomfort – unlike the cartoon character sending his blood pressure through the roof, steam doesn’t come out of your ears, your face doesn’t turn red, and you don’t swell up. Generally speaking, nothing hurts.

Hypertension often isn’t seen as the culprit until a serious medical problem appears. It is a dangerous disease in its own right, however, with multiple complications. Hypertension can permanently damage the eyes, lungs, heart, or kidneys. Malignant (i.e., highly elevated) blood pressure is deadly: without treatment fewer than 10% of people with malignant hypertension survive for more than 1-2 years.

As to its frequency, high blood pressure is extremely common in the US and throughout the developed world. About 30% of adults aged 18 or older in the US have hypertension, about the same percentage as in other developed nations. African Americans have higher levels (42%) than non-Hispanic whites (29%) and Mexican Americans (26%). With the rise in childhood obesity, lack of exercise, and poor diet, the age at which blood pressure begins to rise has gotten younger. (There isn't a simple target blood pressure reading that indicates high blood pressure in children, because what's considered normal blood pressure changes as children grow.) About half of adults with hypertension don’t have their blood pressure under control.

Blood pressure is the force of circulating blood against the inner walls of blood vessels. The amount of pressure is determined by how much blood your heart pumps, how forcefully your heart is pumping, and the amount of resistance to blood flow in your arteries. Arteries are flexible, capable of narrowing or expanding. This isn’t the same, however, as the flexibility of a plastic hose, which responds mechanically to pressure inside it. Arteries are living tissue, and they can expand or contract due to stress or changing emotional states. Blood pressure isn’t steady, either; it normally fluctuates throughout the day. Hypertension is diagnosed as persistently high pressure in the arteries.

Measurement
Blood pressure is generally expressed as two numbers. The first or top number represents the pressure when your heart contracts: the systolic pressure. The second or bottom number represents the pressure when your heart rests between beats: the diastolic pressure. A single high reading isn’t enough for a diagnosis of hypertension. Healthcare practitioners will generally take a number of readings over several different days before making a diagnosis. Normal blood pressure is considered to be <120 systolic and <80 diastolic. Prehypertension is 120-139 systolic or 80-89 diastolic. High blood pressure, stage 1, is 140-159 systolic or 90-99 diastolic. Stage 2 is >160 systolic or >100 diastolic. Pressure of >180 diastolic or >120 systolic is a hypertensive emergency. This level of hypertension can permanently damage organs, so medical help must be sought immediately.

Three types of hypertension
Before considering prevention and treatment, one has to look at the three types of hypertension that exist, since they aren’t all alike. Primary, or essential, hypertension accounts for 90-95% of all cases and doesn’t have a specific medical cause. This is the type almost all of us must pay attention to in our lifestyle choices. Secondary hypertension, on the other hand, is caused by an underlying condition, for instance kidney disease. If the underlying condition is corrected, blood pressure usually returns to normal. A third type, pregnancy-related hypertension, may occur in pregnant women who already have a predisposition to hypertension.

Primary hypertension may have no specific cause, but still there are a number of factors that put you more at risk for developing it. Most can be managed while a few cannot.

Risk factors that can be managed include:

• Obesity (a primary risk factor)
• Smoking or using tobacco in any form
• Drinking too much alcohol
• Lack of exercise
• High levels of fat and cholesterol in your blood
• Too much salt (sodium) in your diet
• Too little potassium in your diet
• Too little vitamin D in your diet
• Oral contraceptives
• Stress
• Certain chronic conditions, like diabetes and sleep apnea

These risks all imply positive changes to reverse them. Before going into that area, let me finish with the medical details.

Risk factors that can’t be managed include:

• Age. The risk of hypertension increases as you age.
• Race. Hypertension is more common among African Americans.
• Genetics. High blood pressure tends to run in families.


Hypertension and atherosclerosis are intimately related. Hypertension can cause atherosclerosis, or hardening of the arteries, when the walls of the arteries try to defend themselves against high blood pressure by becoming stiffer, thicker, and narrower. On the flip side, atherosclerosis can raise blood pressure when arteries become stiff and choked by plaques, impeding blood flow.

The complications of atherosclerosis are many, and they can be very serious.

• Heart disease. Reduced blood flow to the heart can cause angina (chest pain). Heart attacks can result when coronary arteries are completely blocked. Uncontrolled hypertension is one of the major risk factors for heart disease, the leading cause of death in the US.

• Stroke. People with even prehypertension have a greatly increased risk of stroke. Atherosclerosis can cause blockage in the arteries that feed the brains as well as weakening of the smaller blood vessels of the brain.

• Enlarged heart. Narrowed arteries make it difficult for the heart to move blood through them. The heart overworks and in doing so becomes both larger and weaker. This can lead to congestive heart failure.

Among other complications, hypertension damages tiny capillaries as well as arteries. This can cause:

• Kidney disease. The kidneys are densely packed with millions of capillaries whose job it is to filter waste from the blood. Hypertension gradually destroys these capillaries, which are replaced by scar tissue.

• Vision damage. Hypertension can cause the capillaries in your eye’s retina to rupture and also damage the capillaries that supply it with blood to your retina. The results may be blurred vision and even blindness.

Lifestyle change
Doctors should advise patients with rising blood pressure to make healthy changes in their lifestyle before prescribing any medicine. Many times these changes are all that is needed to bring pressure down to a normal level. But the key is to make them yourself before symptoms arise or pressures elevate. A conscientious doctor may give you an early warning, but realistically, the responsibility lies with you, and the earlier you adopt a positive lifestyle, the greater the benefits decades from now. Last-minute intervention is the worst choice, since it usually sentences a patient to prescription drugs for the rest of his life.

Exercise
Exercise, and particularly aerobic exercise, lowers hypertension as much as some medications. Exercising regularly, for a minimum of 30 minutes a day, 5 days a week, lowers pressure by an average of 5-10 mm Hg. This can allow you to lower the amount of medication you take or even do without it altogether.

Being physically active:

• Strengthens the heart so it pumps more efficiently and with less force

• Increases production of nitric oxide, a naturally occurring substance that induces arteries to dilate

• Reduces inflammation, a major cause of artery-hardening plaque

• Improves cholesterol and triglyceride levels

• Reduces stress

Remember, exercise doesn’t necessarily mean running on a treadmill or swimming laps. Anything that increases your respiration and heart rate counts, from raking leaves to going up and down stairs.

Diet
Lowering your salt intake and eating whole foods that are high in nutrients and antioxidants are seen as keys to lowering your blood pressure through diet. But you should pay specific attention, because most people, up to 80% are not salt sensitive; that is, their salt intake doesn’t immediately translate into higher blood pressure. That’s not the same as saying that our national habit of overdoing on salt is healthy, since other considerations, such as putting stress on the kidneys, come into play. There is no “blood pressure diet” that resolves hypertension specifically, as long as you aren’t gaining excess weight or eating too many fats.

DO EAT
The following foods are rich in inflammation-fighting antioxidants, fiber, and essential nutrients:

• Whole grains, such as oatmeal, whole wheat, and quinoa
• Colorful vegetables, like dark leafy greens, tomatoes, sweet potatoes, and carrots
• Dark-skinned fruits, including black grapes, cherries, and plums
• Lean protein, such as fish, chicken, and vegetable protein
• Nuts, seeds, and legumes
• Canola oil and extra-virgin olive oil


AVOID
• Salt. Sodium (salt) causes some people to hold extra water, putting additional stress on their heart and blood vessels and causing blood pressure to rise. Watch out for processed food and restaurant food, especially fast food, which tend to be high in salt.
• Alcohol. Having more than two drinks a day raises the risk of hypertension by 1.5-2 times. The more alcohol your drink, the greater the risk.
• Caffeine. Caffeine can cause brief but dramatic increases in blood pressure.
• Sugar. There’s growing evidence that eating a diet high in sweets may lead to hypertension.

Quit smoking
If you smoke, quit. Smoking raises your blood pressure from 5-10 mm Hg or more every time you light up. Quitting smoking reduces inflammation and greatly decreases the chances of having a heart attack and stroke.

Reduce stress
Unmanaged stress increases blood pressure because stress elevates levels of corticosteroids, the “stress hormones.” Corticosteroids increase blood pressure, among other physiological effects.

Lose weight
Being overweight or obese makes hypertension worse. As your body weight increases, your blood pressure goes up, too.

The reverse also holds true: as you lose weight, your blood pressure goes down. Losing as little as 5 lbs. can reduce hypertension. The more weight you lose, the lower your blood pressure can go. In one study of over 1,200 people, those who lost 10 lbs. (4.5 kg) or more had reductions in diastolic and systolic blood pressure of, on average, 5.0 mm Hg and 7.0 mm Hg.

Get enough sleep
There’s a link between hypertension and not getting enough sleep. In a recent study, both systolic and diastolic blood pressure were higher in people who slept less than 8 hours a night. Sleep helps to regulate stress hormones and maintains the health of the nervous system. It’s possible that stress hormones that are unregulated due to lack of sleep could contribute to hypertension.

Treatment with medication
If lifestyle measures don’t lower blood pressure sufficiently, one or more medications may be prescribed.

• Thiazide diuretics dilate blood vessels and decrease fluid volume.
• Angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors dilate blood vessels.
• Angiotensin II receptor blockers (ARBs), like ACE inhibitors, dilate blood vessels.
• Beta-blockers slow heart rate, decrease cardiac output, lessen the force with which the heart muscle contracts, and dilate blood vessels.
• Calcium channel blockers decrease the pumping strength of the heart, slow the heart rate, and relax blood vessels and muscles.
• Renin inhibitors cause blood vessels to dilate.

Self-monitoring
It’s a reasonable idea to self-monitor your blood pressure, keeping track of your readings in a blood pressure diary. Self-monitoring shows you if your treatment is working and how well your hypertension is being controlled. But be aware that your readings will go up and down, with daily highs and lows along with weekly variations. That means monitoring your blood pressure at various times during the day so that you can see if there are times when your pressure spikes.

Ask your healthcare practitioner when and how often you should check your blood pressure. In general, it’s the low number that is significant since it shows the pressure of a body at rest, which is the pressure your cells and organs must live with. The higher number fluctuates, usually over a short period - only if it is persistently high, along with a bad reading of the low number, should you consider yourself at risk. Also, “white coat syndrome,” which causes many people to get an abnormally high spike because of the stress of visiting a doctor, can extend to home monitoring. Worrying about your blood pressure tends to make hypertension worse, so if self-monitoring is an extension of worry, reconsider how good it is for you.

There is no escaping that high blood pressure, like every lifestyle disorder, poses two choices that many people find unpalatable: live with positive habits or resign yourself to taking medication as you grow older. We live at a time when prevention has proven itself over and over, while the general population becomes more sedentary and obese. In the end, all lifestyle options are a matter of personal choice. Moving in the right direction doesn’t need to be drastic if you start early enough. Stay in your comfort zone while reassuring yourself that the zone can expand until you reach your ideal goal.





Courtesy  Dr Deepak Chopra
(http://www.deepakchopra.com/blog/view/125/hypertension:_a_lifestyle_disorder_needs_a_lifetime_of_attention)

 

3 ways to.. boost your charisma

1. 1 It’s all about making another person feel special, so when you’re introduced, let a big smile spread over your face.
2. 2 Don’t let your eyes wander around the room while you’re chatting – pay complete attention to the person you’re with.
   
3. Be as enthusiastic as you can about what they’re saying and don’t forget to use their name
   

Vitamins can help women get pregnant, study suggests

VITAMIN pills can help women conceive, according to a fertility study.

Almost twice as many patients who took the tablets during fertility treatment had babies compared to those not on supplements.

It worked out at a 60% success rate, instead of 25%, said the study in the journal Reproductive 

Biomedicine

But Dr Allan Pacey, of the University of Sheffield, dismissed the results, saying: “I can’t help but thinking that for most people, fresh fruit and vegetables would have much the same effect.”

Those undergoing fertility treatment were more likely to conceive if they took a daily dose of Pregnacare Conception, made by Vitabiotics, according to the report.

After four weeks on the vitamin pills, all the women had ovulation induced using standard drugs, including Clomid.

In the supplements group, 60% fell pregnant, compared to 25% who only took folic acid.

Fifteen out of 30 in the supplements group conceived at their first attempt after fertility treatment, compared to just two out of 28 in the other group.

Dr Rina Agrawal, a consultant and associate professor in reproductive medicine and obstetrics and gynaecology at the University hospitals of Warwickshire and Warwick University, insisted she would “absolutely” recommend pregnancy supplements.

She said: “All women considering pregnancy should take a specially-formulated prenatal micronutrient supplement including folic acid and vitamin B12.

“There is a large body of evidence establishing the relationship between placental development, foetal growth, pregnancy outcomes and adequate nutrition, particularly vitamin intake.”

The 58 women in the trial had healthy, balanced diets as recorded in food diaries.

At the start of the study, they either did not have regular periods, which was impacting on their ability to conceive, or had 12 months of unexplained infertility.

Experts took into account any other factors that could influence the results, such as age, weight, duration of infertility and likelihood of polycystic ovary syndrome.

Women who were heavy drinkers, smokers or whose partners had semen abnormalities were excluded.

Dr Agrawal said it was “highly significant” women on Pregnacare took half the number of attempts to get pregnant than those taking folic acid.

She added: “There is a need for further awareness and education in this area as many women are still unaware of the importance of lifestyle changes, having a healthy diet and taking a prenatal micronutrient supplement pre-conceptually.”

Her study said other research had shown vitamins and micronutrients helped improve egg quality, blood flow to the womb and were implicated in implantation of the embryo and growth of the foetus.

Dr Agrawal said other pregnancy supplements may work just as well but these did not form part of the current study.

Pregnacare contains a range of vitamins and minerals together with compounds such as zinc, n-acetyl cysteine, inositol and L-arginine.

Glenys Jones, a nutritionist at the Medical Research Council, said: “This is an interesting study and supports the body of evidence that diet plays an important role in supporting women’s health and their fertility.”

Alison Murdoch, professor of reproductive medicine at Newcastle University said: “A good diet is important if you are trying to conceive but most of us get sufficient nutrition in a normal diet and unless there is no evidence of dietary deficiency this does not provide evidence of the need for supplements.”

Daily Mirror. UK

Names Proposed for 2 New Elements on Periodic Table

Add two names to the periodic table of elements, although you may want to write them in pencil for now

The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry — the scientific body that is the keeper of the list of elements — unveiled Thursday the proposed names for elements 114 and 116: flerovium (atomic symbol Fl) and livermorium (atomic symbol Lv).

If you do not like them, now is the time to voice your objections. The chemistry union will have a five-month comment period open to anyone.

“We believe we have to let the world respond,” said Terry A. Renner, the chemistry union’s executive director. “It’s a desire to be fair and recognize everyone’s right to contribute as a scientist.”

The chemistry union, along with its physics counterpart, spent years checking data before finally accepting in June that the two elements had indeed been created in collaborative experiments by the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research in Dubna, Russia, and theLawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Livermore, Calif.

The process of coming up with what to call them was nearly as arduous.

Through all of human history, only 114 elements have been named, and the chemistry union has finicky rules about what is an acceptable name. For example, if the chemistry union rejects a name, that name cannot be proposed for any subsequent element discoveries, Dr. Renner said.

“We were thinking from all kinds of angles,” said Mark A. Stoyer, a Livermore physicist who was a member of the discovery team. Dr. Stoyer said Livermore scientists had “very open and honest” debates in narrowing 50 possible names to the three they offered to their Russian colleagues, who also offered three names.

In the end, they settled on the obvious ones. Livermorium is, of course, named after the laboratory and city where it is located.

Dubna has already been enshrined in the periodic table with dubnium (element 105), so the Russians chose to honor Georgi N. Flerov, the founder of the research institute.

The discoverers gave their suggestions to a committee at the chemistry union, which agreed.

The public comments can range from serious to not as serious. Dr. Renner recalled during the naming of element 112 — now known as copernicium — that an official from a school in New York called and said that students there thought it should instead be named after their school: P.S. 112.

Barring “a major kerfuffle,” Dr. Renner said, the proposed names will get the stamp of approval next May.

By KENNETH CHANG

Dev Anand dies of cardiac arrest in London

Dev Anand, the 'Evergreen Romantic Superstar' of Indian cinema, passed away in London on Saturday night following cardiac arrest. He was 88.

RIP Dev Sahab 

How to stay healthy in December?

A gift to yourself

One of the best ways to avoid gaining weight during the holiday eating season is to ramp up your exercise regimen.

Yeah, right.

Here are her tips for making exercise happen, no matter how busy or tired you are.

Build it into your schedule. Take 10 minutes first thing in the morning or, better yet, the night before to plan. First, schedule the things you absolutely must do, being sure to account for how much time those activities actually will take. Then add your daily exercise. “Treat it with the same dignity and respect you would any other important task,” Johnson says. Make use of the hour before dawn if you can. “Nobody needs you at 5:30 a.m.,” she says.

Whittle your list. Just for December, give yourself permission to drop a few things to make room for exercise. That could mean not volunteering in your kids’ schools, slowing down on the social media or cutting back on housecleaning. You could also outsource tasks such as gift-wrapping or untangling strands of lights.

Make your promise public. Telling people you plan to exercise regularly during the holidays makes you accountable. Enlist a friend (“someone who won’t let you slide”) to join you in person or on Facebook. Or get your office mates to agree to a daily lunchtime walk.

Create a “why” list. “Write down all the reasons why you want to make fitness a priority during the holidays,” Johnson says. Post it where you’ll see it every day. Or create it as a note or calendar item on your cellphone so you’ll have it with you all the time.

Dry skin? Moisturize your air.

Got the winter dry-skin blues? Unfortunately, that moisturizer you’ve been slathering on will only help so much.

“Your skin is 70 percent water,” says Robert Greenberg, a dermatologist practicing in Vernon, Conn. And the dry indoor heat this time of year saps the skin of its moisture.

“Your skin becomes dry because it lacks water, not because it lacks oil,” Greenberg says. Using moisturizers and creams doesn’t really help, he says, unless you apply them right after your shower or bath (or after washing your hands), when you have lots of water in your skin. Moisturizers act as a barrier against evaporating lots of water, but the effectiveness is temporary.

So, is drinking more water the solution? Greenberg says no, adding that dry skin is not a sign of overall dehydration.

The best way to combat dry skin in winter, Greenberg offers, is to “try to change the environment by putting more moisture in the air. Houseplants with lots of water, a humidifier, a pan of water on top of the wood stove” can help a room feel more like summer, he says.

Washingtonpost 

Cold and Flu Remedy Checklist

First and foremost, do yourself no harm with the cold and flu treatments you choose. Check these dos and don’ts.

Dos
* Do buy your own nasal spray. If you use someone else’s contaminated bottle, you can introduce bacteria into your nose.

* Do keep track of the ingredients in every medicine you’re taking to prevent double dosing. For example, many combination medications contain acetaminophen―so you don’t want to take additional Tylenol, since acetaminophen can be toxic to the liver in high doses. And scores of products, including cough suppressants and medicated cough drops, contain dextromethorphan (DXM). Take more than the recommended dose of DXM and you may feel woozy or experience an irregular heartbeat and temporary high blood pressur

Don’ts
* Don’t use a decongestant nasal spray more than twice a day for three or four days. Overuse can lead to rebound congestion, in which the capillaries of the nose reexpand, causing congestion to return. The rebound effect can require medical treatment.

* Don’t dose and drive. Antihistamines can cause intense drowsiness. A University of Iowa study using a driving simulator showed that people’s driving skills are impaired more by antihistamines than they are by alcohol.

* Don’t plead for pills. Antibiotics are useless against the viruses that cause colds and flus. They’re effective only in fighting infections, which are caused by bacteria. Doctors say that taking antibiotics inappropriately contributes to antibiotic resistance, a growing health crisis that makes new strains of infectious diseases more difficult to treat.

Courtesy  Fox News 

women takes bigger risks in professional life like Men

Washington Its not only men, but women also make risky choices in professional life - particularly when they are surrounded by other women, says a new study.

An international team has based its findings on an experiment at Essex University, which tested whether single- sex classrooms in coeducational environments altered students'risk- taking attitudes.

Prof Alison Booth at the Australian National University, who led the team, said the results showed risk- taking in women came down to social learning and environmental factors, rather than inherent gender traits.

'We designed a controlled experiment using first- year university students who made choices over realstakes lotteries at two different dates.

They weren't allowed to change group subsequently.

'We found that on average women are less likely to make risky choices than men at both dates.

However, after eight weeks in a single- sex environment, women were significantly more likely to choose the lottery than their counterparts in co- educational groups.

'Indeed, by week eight women in all- female groups behaved in a similar way to men.

Once they are placed in an all- female environment, this inhibition is reduced,'said Prof Booth.

The researchers said that the findings had implications for the labour market.

'Recent studies in experimental economics have shown that, on average, women are more risk averse than men.

If much of the remuneration in high- paying jobs consists of bonuses linked to a companys performance, relatively fewer women will choose highpaying jobs because of the uncertainty,'he said. - PTI

Apple juice can pose a health risk

It's true - apple juice can pose a risk to your health. But not necessarily from the trace amounts of arsenic that people are arguing about.

Despite the government's consideration of new limits on arsenic, nutrition experts say apple juice's real danger is to waistlines and children's teeth. Apple juice has few natural nutrients, lots of calories and, in some cases, more sugar than soda has. It trains a child to like very sweet things, displaces better beverages and foods, and adds to the obesity problem, its critics say.

"It's like sugar water," said Judith Stern, a nutrition professor at the University of California, Davis, who has consulted for candy makers as well as for Weight Watchers. "I won't let my 3-year-old grandson drink apple juice."

Many juices are fortified with vitamins, so they're not just empty calories. But that doesn't appease some nutritionists.

"If it wasn't healthy in the first place, adding vitamins doesn't make it into a health food," and if it causes weight gain, it's not a healthy choice, said Karen Ansel, a registered dietitian in New York and spokeswoman for the American Dietetic Association.

The American Academy of Pediatrics says juice can be part of a healthy diet, but its policy is blunt: "Fruit juice offers no nutritional benefit for infants younger than 6 months" and no benefits over whole fruit for older kids.

Kids under 12 consume 28 percent of all juice and juice drinks, according to the academy. Nationwide, apple juice is second only to orange juice in popularity. Americans slurp 267 ounces of apple juice on average each year, according to the Food Institute's Almanac of Juice Products and the Juice Products Association, a trade group. Lots more is consumed as an ingredient in juice drinks and various foods.

Only 17 percent of the apple juice sold in the U.S. is produced here. The rest comes from other countries, mostly China, Argentina, Chile and Brazil, the association says.

Television's Dr. Mehmet Oz made that a key point a few months ago when he raised an alarm - some say a false alarm - over arsenic in apple juice, based on tests his show commissioned by a private lab. The Food and Drug Administration said that its own tests disagreed and that apple juice is safe.

However, on Wednesday, after Consumer Reports did its own tests on several juice brands and called along with other consumer groups for stricter standards, the FDA said it will examine whether its restrictions on the amount of arsenic allowed in apple juice are stringent enough.

Some forms of arsenic, such as the type found in pesticides, can be toxic and may pose a cancer risk if consumed at high levels or over a long period.

All juice sold in the United States must be safe and meet U.S. standards, said Pat Faison, technical director for the juice association. As for making good nutrition choices, "a lot of the information that people need about fruit juices is on the label," she said.

So what's on those labels?

Carbohydrates, mostly sugars, in a much higher concentration than in milk. Juice has a small amount of protein and minerals and lacks the fiber in whole fruit, the pediatrics academy notes.

Drinking juice delivers a lot of calories quickly so you don't realize how much you've consumed, whereas you would have to eat a lot of apples to get the same amount, and "you would feel much, much more full from the apples," Ansel said.

"Whole fruits are much better for you," said Dr. Frank Greer, a University of Wisconsin, Madison, professor and former head of the pediatrics academy's nutrition committee.

He noted that the WIC program - the U.S. Department of Agriculture's nutrition program for Women, Infants and Children - revised its rules in 2005 to replace juice with baby food fruits and vegetables for children over 6 months. More than half of all infants born in the U.S. are eligible for WIC, and the government "really cut back severely on the ability of mothers to get fruit juices" through the program, Greer said.

If you or your family drinks juice, here is some advice from nutrition experts:

-Choose a juice fortified with calcium and vitamin D-3.

-Give children only pasteurized juice - that's the only type safe from germs that can cause serious disease.

-Don't give juice before 6 months of age, and never put it in bottles or covered cups that allow babies and children to consume it throughout the day, which can cause tooth decay. For the same reason, don't give infants juice at bedtime.

-Limit juice to 4 to 6 ounces per day for children ages 1 to 6, and 8 to 12 ounces for those ages 7 to 18.

-Encourage kids to eat fruit.

-Don't be swayed by healthy-sounding label claims. "No sugar added" doesn't mean it isn't full of naturally occurring sugar. And "cholesterol-free" is silly - only animal products contain cholesterol.

By MARILYNN MARCHIONE 
AP Chief Medical Writer