Tomatoes hailed as major health source: "Tomatoes are being hailed as the super food of the decade, with growing evidence they help fight against cancer, heart attack and stroke. Full of vitamins and the anti-oxidant lycopene, tomatoes are credited with deterring cancer cell growth. New research shows tomatoes may also reduce blood clotting, preventing the chance of heart attacks and strokes. Reports from Britain say the tomato can reduce the "stickiness" of platelets in the blood so they flow freely through blood vessels and reduce the chance of a blockage. Clinical trials published in the journal Platelets found that anti-clotting properties were discovered in the yellow fluid surrounding tomato seeds." 11:34 PM
Sunday, May 28, 2006
Another beer festival: "Dirndl-clad waitresses weave through the crowds with huge mugs, more beer is finding its way to the floor than to drinkers' lips and even the tables seem to be moving as people sway to folk tunes played by a band. Yes, this is Bavaria. And the only way this beer festival could be more stereotypically Bavarian would be if it was played out against snowy alpine peaks. "Everybody gets together. All boundaries and borders merge into one," says Hans-Christian Brockerhoff as we chat over seemingly endless litres of beer that has been specially brewed for the annual festival called Bergkirchweih. For 12 days, every (northern) spring, the inhabitants of Erlangen, a university town near Nuremberg, forget their daily routines and devote themselves to the serious business of drinking beer - and lots of it. The Berg, as it is commonly called, has been held every year since 1755 and is Germany's second-largest beerfest after Oktoberfest, held in Munich." 11:35 PM
Booze best for men: "Men who drink alcohol every day have a lower risk of heart disease than those who do not, but the habit does not offer the same protection for women, research suggests. A study of more than 50,000 people indicates correlations between alcohol consumption and heart disease rates in both sexes, with men the biggest beneficiaries of drinking. Researchers found that the risks of coronary heart disease were lowest for the most frequent male drinkers. Men who drank on one day a week had a 7 per cent reduced risk, whereas men who drank daily had a 41 per cent reduced risk. Although women who drank alcohol at least once a week had a lower risk of heart disease than those who drank less frequently, the study also indicated that the risks were similar if they drank daily (36 per cent reduced risk) or weekly (35 per cent)." 11:36 PM
Friday, May 26, 2006
Ban ladders!: "More than 80 Australians have died falling from a ladder in the past five years, prompting a warning from the consumer watchdog. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) today released a guide to using ladders safely, after a recent Royal Adelaide Hospital study showed deaths and injuries from ladder falls were increasing. "At least 83 Australians have died during the past five years after falling from their ladder and thousands more have been seriously injured," Commissioner John Martin said. "The majority of these deaths and injuries were suffered by people using a ladder for home repairs and renovation." Mr Martin said the study showed men in their retirement, and working around the home, were the most at risk of death or injury from falling from a ladder."
Danish royals' chef quits in disgust: "Japanese-born Takashi Kondo, 58, who has worked in the kitchen at Copenhagen's Amalienborg Palace for 24 years, said he could no longer bear to feed the monarchs, who occasionally opted for reheated leftovers. "All the soul has gone," said the chef who blamed labour efficiency and time constraints for the shift from fine fare to convenience fodder. "Everyone has to run around and hurry everything." Kondo also criticised budget cuts, which have seen the allowance for the royal menu slashed by _12,000 ($20,370) to just _73,000 ($123,920) per year. "It's all about cost-cutting, it's more beggarly than kingly," he said. "Soon they will end up getting rid of the silver and eating off monogrammed plastic plates." 11:37 PM
Thursday, May 25, 2006
Chocolate may boost brain power: "Chocolate lovers rejoice. A new study hints that eating milk chocolate may boost brain function. "Chocolate contains many substances that act as stimulants, such as theobromine, phenethylamine and caffeine," said Dr Bryan Raudenbush from Wheeling Jesuit University in West Virginia. "These substances by themselves have previously been found to increase alertness and attention, and what we have found is that by consuming chocolate you can get the stimulating effects, which then lead to increased mental performance." To study the effects of various chocolate types on brain power, Dr Raudenbush and colleagues had a group of volunteers consume, on four separate occasions, 85 grams of milk chocolate, 85 grams of dark chocolate, 85 grams of carob and nothing (the control condition). After a 15-minute digestive period, participants completed a variety of computer-based neuropsychological tests designed to assess cognitive performance including memory, attention span, reaction time and problem solving. "Composite scores for verbal and visual memory were significantly higher for milk chocolate than the other conditions," Dr Raudenbush said. And consumption of milk and dark chocolate was associated with improved impulse control and reaction time." 11:38 PM
No sex please. We're French?: "This spring, we are being told that France is turning off sex. This may just be media trend-making, but thanks to a recent survey and new books, we are being told by television, radio and the press that younger French men and women are increasingly doing without sex and that many prefer it that way. To be precise, the survey by Ipsos, carried out in 2004, showed that 25 percent of women and 15 percent of men live in "sexual solitude". Over a quarter of these said that they felt happy abstaining. The thesis of the supposedly new French abstinence is being pushed by Jean-Philippe de Tonnac, author of La R,volution Asexuelle, and by David Fontaine, whose book is called No Sex last year -- la vie sans sexe. The pair, whose works are full of case studies, are making the points that we have been hearing for years from the trend-trackers of the Anglo-Saxon world: People are retreating from the over-sexualisation of society and the pressure to perform. De Tonnac, who starred on last weekend's talk shows says: "Asexuality is a defensive reaction to the terrorism of le tout-sexuel". But France being France, the explanation is more abstract and part of the blame falls on capitalism...." 11:39 PM
Tuesday, May 23, 2006
Brits get "women's wine": "In a marketing ploy that would have Bridget Jones choking on her chardonnay, a reduced-alcohol white wine is to be aimed at women who find conventional brands too strong. According to research by Sainsbury's, many women find that wine, which has crept up to between 12.5 and 14.5 per cent alcohol in strength, is simply too intoxicating. After years in development, the supermarket is about to introduce a new Australian wine, Early Harvest semillon sauvignon blanc, on the basis of its 9.5 per cent alcohol content. It insists that the wine will be indistinguishable from its stronger equivalents in terms of taste and quality. Early Harvest will also have 19 per cent fewer calories than that of the average bestselling wines, according to Sainsbury's."
Bureaucratic British idiocy again: "A council fired its tea lady then hired 200 pound-a-day consultants -- to tell staff how to make a brew. Jill Melvin, 46, was sacked from her 8,000 pounds-a-year post at the Tory-run council in March. Since then staff have been without a trolley service and have to negotiate stairs and fire doors with hot tea on their return from a self-service machine. Some workers ended up injuring themselves. One scalded a hand while brewing up. Another broke a wrist. Bosses at East Herts Council's offices in Bishop's Stortford so called in experts to advise on health and safety at the cost of 200 pounds-a-day. The 150 staff were asked how accidents could be reduced and told bosses to bring back the tea lady.... A council spokesman said: "We've spent 200 pounds in one day reducing the chances of an accident. We could have saved the 200 pounds and risked a payout of thousands if someone had been hurt. "We think very carefully [No sign of it!] about where we spend our budget and our sensible approach has been praised by our auditors as the best in Hertfordshire.""
Japan opts for oxygen fix: "Japan's largest convenience store operator, 7-Eleven Japan, has started selling cans of flavoured oxygen in Tokyo. The new portable cans of oxygen will be able to help customers replenishing their oxygen level whenever they feel fatigue for lack of oxygen, the company said. Unlike normal air that contains 21 per cent oxygen, the oxygen concentration of the new product is 95 per cent, enough for customers to feel invigoration when they breathe it. 7-Eleven Japan is the first Japanese convenience store or supermarket to enter the growing oxygen market. The launch was jointly developed by 7-Eleven Japan and Hakugen, a Tokyo-based lifestyle-related goods manufacturer. The company will sell two types of canned oxygen: "O2supli zuno-kan" with mint flavour and "O2supli karada-kan" with grapefruit flavour. Each can contains 3.2 litres of oxygen for about 35 two-second inhalations, enough for a customer to keep it for a week, using it five or six times a day." 11:39 PM
REALLY healthy milk: "It's a magical liquid 100 times stronger than penicillin in combating bacteria - and it comes ready-made in a pouch. Scientists have found that wallaby milk could be nature's greatest elixir for fighting disease. Doctors believe that an ingredient in the milk that protects joeys - wallaby babies - from infection in their mother's pouch until they are old enough to develop antibodies could one day shield humans from antibiotic-resistant hospital superbugs such as MRSA. The question of how to milk a wallaby will not, however, arise. If it could be bottled, it would, no doubt, leap off the shelves. Instead the scientists plan to synthesise its elements as a medicine." 11:40 PM
Sunday, May 21, 2006
Athlete tent gives druglike boost: "All athletes dream of reaching great heights - but in a minivan? Top US mountain biker Carl Wecker says his first mentor used to drive up to the top of a nearby mountain every night and sleep in his car to get the endurance benefits associated with high altitude. 'It's not too big a price to pay when you're training hard,' says the Oregon native and four-time participant in the mountain biking world championships. 'It just sounds weird.' Today, Mr. Wecker has a more convenient solution: an altitude tent, which simulates thin mountain air right in his bedroom." 11:41 PM
Saturday, May 20, 2006
What a piker! "A young Chinese woman is undergoing medical tests in Beijing after dining on dirt for 11 years. The 18-year-old from Inner Mongolia was taken to Beijing by her parents, who wanted to know why she finds dirt appetizing. She told Chinese television she started the habit when she was just 7 years old when she consumed dirt that was attached to the roots of grass. Yellow mud is her favorite. Her eating habits have caused problems for the family's next-door neighbor, who has a mud roof. Chinese television reported that the woman can't help herself and keeps eating the roof.
Portly piranhas put on a diet: "A shoal of piranha fish on show at a British aquatic centre have had to be put on a diet after putting on weight in captivity, officials said today. Regular mealtimes mean the razor-toothed predators have become a bit podgy in the past month so they are now only being fed half-portions in a bid to shift the excess, Lynsey Thompson, from Birmingham's Sea Life Centre said. Piranha, which are normally found in the River Amazon in South America, are capable of stripping a whole dead pig to the bone within minutes and can literally eat themselves to death, she explained. "Each mealtime has turned into a frantic feeding frenzy as they fight for meaty chunks of trout, prawns and mussels," she added. "In the wild, species of piranha can go for days without any food."
But how gassy is it?: "For those who find baked beans on toast just too messy to put together, help is on the way. Heinz has devised a frozen baked bean sandwich which simply needs to be heated in a toaster. Heinz chief Bill Johnson said the company needed to give people "new ways to use beans". "If people take the time to cook beans and put it on toast, why shouldn't we cut the process for them and give them beans on toast?" he said. The technology is being developed by Heinz researchers in New Zealand."
Beer grief for Germany: "Ii is brown-gold and alcoholic but, then, in the scathing verdict of German beer fans, so is paint thinner. The Germans are furious that Budweiser will be the official tipple for the World Cup, which starts next month. The American lager has secured a near-monopoly of beer sales inside World Cup stadiums and within a 500m radius of the grounds, supplanting more than 1,270 domestic breweries. And what most upsets the fans is that Budweiser - advertised as the "King of Beers" in the US - fails to meet the ancient German standards for purity, which stipulate that beer can be brewed only from malt, hops and water. Budweiser uses rice in its production process and therefore does not qualify as a beer in the German sense. Budweiser's World Cup status is a slap in the face for a country that attaches such importance to beer production." 11:42 PM
Friday, May 19, 2006
"Fat" mirror: "For those who dread looking at themselves in the mirror, life is about to get a little bit worse. A bathroom mirror that predicts future weight gain based on personal habits has been developed by technology company Accenture to assist those engaged in the battle of the bulge. The experimental technology dubbed the "Persuasive Mirror" was developed at the company's laboratory in France that specialises in embedding technologies into everyday household items. The prototype is based on a standard bathroom mirror which feeds in information gathered from webcams and sensing devices positioned around the home, monitoring visits to the refrigerator, use of the treadmill, or spending too much time on the couch". 11:43 PM
Thursday, May 18, 2006
Why sleeping at work is good: "Ever felt like sleeping on the job? Rather than crumbling into unsightly heaps on their desks, Sydney workers may soon have access to a comfortable and legitimate place to nap at their offices. MetroNaps Australia is this week launching its sleep pods in the foyer of the ABN AMRO building, on the corner of Phillip and Bent Sts in the city. Busy workers are invited to stop in and put up their feet for 20 minutes to relax and rejuvenate in style. Nappers' privacy is secured by the darkness of the dome-shaped pod, which lets them drift into a light sleep to the sound of relaxing music on a pair of headphones. It is a pastime that people in Copenhagen and New York are already starting to enjoy. With Access Economics figures showing a $1.7 billion productivity loss in Australia due to sleep disorders in 2004, MetroNaps' Australian directors Alex Silva and Brendan Torazzi are promoting their sleep pods as a human resource tool. "Our main focus is to emphasise the increase in productivity reaped through proper rest," Mr Silva said". 11:44 PM
Tuesday, May 16, 2006
Unsafe movies: "Watching many modern movies may be a health hazard, particularly for impressionable teenagers, an Australian researcher suggests. Scientists analysed 87 of the most popular films of the past 20 years, counting 53 sex scenes in about a third of the movies, yet found only one suggestion of using a condom. They found 8 per cent of the blockbusters included scenes involving cannabis, 7 per cent contained episodes of non-injecting illicit drug use, 32 per cent depicted alcohol intoxication and 68 per cent had actors smoking tobacco. They said the movies tended to portray drug use in a positive light and nothing of the consequences." 11:45 PM
Unsafe movies: "Watching many modern movies may be a health hazard, particularly for impressionable teenagers, an Australian researcher suggests. Scientists analysed 87 of the most popular films of the past 20 years, counting 53 sex scenes in about a third of the movies, yet found only one suggestion of using a condom. They found 8 per cent of the blockbusters included scenes involving cannabis, 7 per cent contained episodes of non-injecting illicit drug use, 32 per cent depicted alcohol intoxication and 68 per cent had actors smoking tobacco. They said the movies tended to portray drug use in a positive light and nothing of the consequences." 11:45 PM
Monday, May 15, 2006
British sauce war: "People in Birmingham are being urged to boycott HP Sauce in an attempt to stop the product's manufacturing operation being moved to the Netherlands. Heinz announced yesterday that it wanted to close its plant in Aston, making 125 workers redundant. Campaigners are furious at the loss of a product "as British as the Houses of Parliament" after which it was named. Britons eat an average of 1.2kg of HP Sauce each a year. Heinz, which bought HP last year, denied that it was reneging on a promise to keep the factory open, adding that the closure would allow the bottling operation for Lea & Perrins Worcestershire Sauce to return to its site in Worcester. But Clare Short, the MP for Birmingham Ladywood, joined calls from a local newspaper for a boycott of HP Sauce to put pressure on the US company. Ms Short said: "This is another closure with good jobs moving abroad." 11:51 PM
Don't believe it? Go here and read how it happened. In reply to the racist supermarket claim, a student said: "Just because a grocery store doesn't have an aisle of fried chicken, cornbread, and watermelon doesn't mean they are racist". If you think that's a reasonable comment you would be right but where the student went wrong was in saying just WHAT foods might be eaten by a certain racial group. You are not allowed to mention that -- and the student was punished accordingly.
It's a sort of Catch 22 situation, of course: You are not allowed to mention anything that would be evidence for what you are saying.
The most amusing thing about the whole affair, however, is what one of the professors said: "There is a hesitance in people to discuss difficult and divisive issues like racism". I wonder why? 12:51 AM
Sunday, May 14, 2006
Fiery fart: "A patient's flatulence has been blamed for bringing his hemorrhoid operation to a fiery end. The man suffered minor burns in a brief but dramatic operating theatre fire. The patient was at the Southern Cross Hospital in Invercargill, New Zealand, to have hemorrhoids removed when the accident happened. A hospital source said there was a sort of flash fire. The hospital confirmed a fire did occur, and has ordered an investigation. [Sounds like an urban legend] 11:52 PM
Thursday, May 11, 2006
Cyberchondriacs: "You can pick up a thousand cures for cancer, diagnose glandular fever in your tea break and identify any number of diseases likely to strike in the next 24 hours. But while the internet may be a mine of medical information, it is not always good news for your health. Concerns about people using the internet to self-diagnose - leaving GPs overwhelmed with visits from "cyberchondriacs" - has prompted doctors to set up a website offering independent and jargon-free health advice. The website, BestTreatments.co.uk, was officially announced yesterday by the British Medical Journal in an attempt to help patients struggling with myriad sources of information on symptoms and therapies on the internet. The website covers information on more than 120 different conditions ranging from long-term disorders such as cancer, back pain and depression, to acid reflux, wisdom teeth and infant colic. It not only covers symptoms, treatments and questions to ask the doctor, but current evidence on medical research." 11:53 PM
Folate leads to multiple births: "Women undergoing in-vitro treatment who take large doses of folic acid, a supplement designed to prevent foetal defects, may be far likelier to give birth to twins than to singletons, a study suggests. Only about one in every five attempts at in-vitro fertilisation (IVF) results in a live birth, so doctors often try to boost the success rate by implanting several embryos at a time. But multiple pregnancies run a higher risk of congenital abnormalities, foetal growth retardation and miscarriage, so understanding the causes and risks of twinning and reducing it if possible is useful. In a paper that appears in next Saturday's issue of The Lancet, researchers at the University of Aberdeen, Scotland, recruited 602 women undergoing IVF treatment and assessed levels of folic acid in their blood. The study sought to establish the correlation between high levels of folic acid and multiple pregnancies and only speculated as to possible underlying causal links. Folic acid, also called folate or vitamin B9, is widely recommended as a supplement for women who want to conceive, as it protects against spina bifida and other so-called neural tube abnormalities. The investigators found women with high levels of folic acid in their blood plasma were 52 per cent likelier to have twins than singletons, in cases where multiple embryos were implanted". [Twins are usually greatly treasured so this is not a disaster story] 11:55 PM
Now red meat is good for you: "Replacing two or three slices of bread or a handful of pasta a day with a small serving of lean red meat may help people lower their blood pressure, Australian research suggests. The findings are expected to fuel the debate surrounding how much red meat should be included in people's diet, particularly given the study was funded by Meat and Livestock Australia. University of Western Australia nutritionist Jonathan Hodgson, who led the research, said the study was the first of its type looking at the effect on blood pressure of increasing animal protein at the expense of carbohydrates. He studied 60 non-smoking men and women with high blood pressure over eight weeks, randomly selecting them to either follow their normal diets or to swap a small amount of carbohydrates each day with lean red meat - equating to replacing about two slices of toast with a 180g steak". 11:56 PM
A dog's dinner for all: "An award-winning Italian chef has become a chum of pampered dogs everywhere by devising cordon bleu "canine recipes". Bruno Barbieri, of the Michelin-starred Arquade restaurant at the Villa del Quar, a 16th-century hotel at Pedemonte, near Verona, said the recipes were so good that you could share them with your dog. "You eat them at the table, he eats them from his bowl." Signor Barbieri, 44, who honed his culinary skills on cruise ships before moving to the hotel amid the vineyards of Valpolicella, has created 51 "sophisticated recipes for dogs and their owners". He said he his own dog, a schnauzer named Alima, had enjoyed them all."
Let them eat cake! "Australians are being told to eat cake as part of International No Diet Day. Young Women's Christian Association spokeswoman Shannon Rees says too many young women are dieting and it could have long term implications for their health. "The community needs to take notice of these issues and step up and address body image and to say dieting is bad and to get out there and accept women for the sizes that they are," she said. Ms Rees says the day will highlight the problems like eating disorders among young women and promote healthy eating habits. "What we're asking women to do this morning is to get a group of girlfriends together, to go out and have breakfast or have lunch and if they're having lunch, to say, 'OK, lets eat cake,' because we're encouraging healthy diets but a part of that is also having cake as well," he said."
Rare sanity from the nervous Europeans! "Aspartame, the artificial sweetener used in thousands of foods and drinks, does not pose a cancer risk, contrary to the findings of a scientific study, the European Union's food safety agency said yesterday. Aspartame, which is 200 times sweeter than sugar, is used in a wide range of lowcalorie products from Diet Coke, Lucozade and Robinson's fruit squashes, to Muellerlight yoghurts, Walkers prawn-flavoured crisps, sugar-free gum and many puddings and desserts. It is marketed under trademarks including NutraSweet and Canderel and is thought to be consumed by one in fifteen people worldwide every day." 11:57 PM
Friday, May 05, 2006
Asthma wisdom now found to be wrong: "Medical guidelines on dealing with asthma attacks may have to be rewritten after researchers discovered that doubling a person's medication does not help and could be dangerous. Queensland researchers tested the common medical practice of doubling an asthmatic's preventative medication during an attack and found in most cases it was not effective. The study, funded by the Asthma Foundation of Queensland, tested lung capacity after using oral steroids, preventative medication and a placebo on separate occasions and in varying amounts. Researchers found taking the double amount of preventative inhaler was as unsuccessful as using a placebo.... The study found a marked improvement in those who took oral steroids, confirming the view they were the best form of treatment for acute asthma." 11:58 PM
Since the permitted milk and fruit juices are highly calorific, nothing will be achieved 11:31 PM
Thursday, May 04, 2006
Ban cooked vegetables!: "Cooking vegetables in certain ways can make them as acidic as tooth-eroding fizzy drinks, scientists say. Eggplants, green capsicums and zucchinis turn very acidic when roasted in the oven, while red capsicums become heavily acidic when stewed, a study at the University of Dundee in Scotland found. But the acidity level of onions or tomatoes does not change with the cooking method, it said. The researchers studied how different methods of cooking a vegetarian dish like ratatouille could affect its acidity. Ratatouille was acidic no matter how it was cooked, but oven-roasting significantly increased the acidity of the dish, compared to stewing. Head researcher Graham Chadwick said: "The acidity of ratatouille prepared by oven-roasting is the same as that of some carbonated drinks that, when consumed in excess, are believed to contribute to the development of dental erosion."" 11:58 PM
Vitamin miracle: "Young offenders are to be given vitamin pills in a bid to control their criminal behaviour after the Scottish Prison Service agreed to a 2 million pound study by scientists from Oxford University. Previous similar experiments have recorded significant reductions in anti-social activity by inmates when their diet was supplemented with vitamins, fatty acids and trace minerals.... Last night, the groundbreaking research was also welcomed by former Chief Inspector of Prisons in Scotland Clive Fairweather and the Soil Association, which represents the organic food movement. The study will be spearheaded by Bernard Gesch of the department of physiology, anatomy and genetics at the University of Oxford. In a previous experiment involving 231 inmates at Aylesbury YOI, Buckinghamshire, Gesch's team noted remarkable results. A group whose diet had been enriched committed an average of 26 per cent fewer violations of the prison code than before the experiment began. Serious breaches - which usually involved an element of violence - dropped by 37 per cent." [One hopes that placebo/Rosenthal/Pygmalion/Hawthorne effects are being controlled for. No mention of it, regettably]
More medical dogmatism: "A Toowoomba paediatrician says he has noticed an unusually high number of genital defects in baby boys on the Darling Downs, west of Brisbane, and is linking it to water supplies. Doctor John Cox says the problem is being caused by phthalates, which are found in polystyrene plastics, insecticides and cosmetics and are released into water supplies during the break down process. Dr Cox has been involved in research work in the UK that is looking at the chemical and its links with hyposapdius, which is a deformity of the penis. Dr Cox says there is too much phthalate in water supplies and that must be changed. "The water supply level here is accepting too high a level," he said. "I mean they keep saying our water supply fits the Australian Standards, but the Australian level of hyposapdius is three times what it was when I came to Toowoomba. "So obviously the level has been set too high for what we accept. "It's got to be brought down to a lower level." See here for what the good doctor has overlooked
Your skin-cancer cured by a herb: "Early clinical trials of a new gel to treat skin cancer have returned promising results. The gel, developed by Brisbane-based company Peplin, can be rubbed on to the skin to treat certain types of skin cancer. Initial trials show just two applications of the PEP005 Topical gel on two consecutive days cleared up 71 per cent of basal cell carcinomas, or BCCs, the most common type of skin cancer. The trials on 60 people throughout Australia built on an early study by Peplin in 2002 using the common garden weed, petty spurge. "That was a very different study and that was just using the raw sap of petty spurge," said Michael Aldridge, Peplin's managing director and chief executive. "This is the same company and we have now identified the molecule responsible for that activity and we have put that into a formal development program, formulated a gel and developed a manufacturing technology. "We ran a phase one study in the US, two phase-two studies looking at sunspots, and this is our third phase-two study looking at basal cell carcinomas." Mr Aldridge said it was the first time the molecule from petty spurge had been used to treat BCCs, which are usually surgically removed. "We've seen some very, very impressive results," he said."
Drug no good: Makes you fat: "In recent years, psychiatric researchers have been experimenting with a bold and controversial treatment strategy: they are prescribing drugs to young people at risk for schizophrenia who have not yet developed the full-blown disorder. The hope is that while exposing some to drugs unnecessarily, preemptive treatment may help others ward off or even prevent psychosis, sparing them the agonizing flights of paranoia and confusion that torment the three million American who suffer schizophrenia. Yet the findings from the first long-term trial of early drug treatment, appearing today in The American Journal of Psychiatry, suggest that this preventive approach is more difficult to put into effect - and more treacherous - than scientists had hoped. Daily doses of the antipsychotic drug Zyprexa, from Eli Lilly, blunted symptoms in many patients and lowered their risk of experiencing a psychotic episode in the first year of treatment, the study found. But the drug also caused significant weight gain, and so many participants dropped out of the study that investigators could not draw firm conclusions about drug benefits, if any."
Chocolate benefits mythical: "Chocolate may inspire cravings but it is neither addictive nor an anti-depressant. Addicts have long consoled themselves with the belief that it is cheaper than therapy and you don't need an appointment. But, say Gordon Parker and colleagues from the Black Dog Institute in Sydney, a thorough review of the scientific evidence fails to substantiate that belief. Far from lifting a bad mood, eating chocolate may prolong it, the team says in Journal of Affective Disorders. That's enough to induce a bad mood on its own. "Any mood-state effects of chocolate are as ephemeral as holding a chocolate in one's mouth," Professor Parker says. Many claims have been made for chocolate's healthy properties, attributed to a range of pharmacologically active constituents such as serotonin, theobromine, phenylethylamine, caffeine and magnesium. Italian researchers have even claimed that women who enjoy chocolate have a better sex life than those who don't." 11:59 PM
