Memory-Erasing Drugs

Memory-Erasing Drugs Worries Are Overblown, Some Ethicists Say

Are ethicists' fears of memory manipulation drugs overblown? One researcher believes so and states his case praising memory altering research in this week's Nature commentary. CREDIT: Kreefax | Dreamstime View full size image

Memory-erasing drugs could do more than erase a bad memory; they could help treat mental ailments such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and one neuroethicist argues that these drugs should be developed and used, regardless of ethical concerns.

Though a magic bullet, erase-any-or-all-memory drug has yet to hit the market and is still decades away, scientists have made great strides in that direction, with one human trial under way for a drug called propranolol that can dampen post-traumatic-stress related negative memories. Other newly discovered brain pathways can be manipulated to ratchet memory up and down.

Why we're so fat

8 Reasons Our Waistlines Are Expanding

The government

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In 1998, 29 million people suddenly became overweight without gaining an ounce. That summer, the U.S. government announced new guidelines lowering the threshold of what classifies a person as overweight. Previously, if your body mass index (BMI) was less than 28 for men, or 27 for women, you were considered "normal." Now only BMIs of 25 or below are considered healthy. (BMI is a ratio of weight to height, and is considered an indicator of how much body fat a person has.)

Sources of Vitamin D

9 Good Sources of Disease-Fighter Vitamin D

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Sunlight: A whopping 80 percent or more of the vitamin D we need could come from the sun — if we let it. Sunscreen blocks about 97 percent of our body's vitamin D production, according to Dr. Mark Hyman, founder and medical director of the UltraWellness Center in Lenox, Mass. But we needn't endanger ourselves to take advantage of the sun's benefits: Fair-skinned people need less than 30 minutes of casual exposure on bright days to meet their daily requirement, while darker-skinned individuals need about two hours, Hyman said.

6 Ways to Eat More Fruits and Vegetables

Ways to Eat More Fruits and Vegetables

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The new food plate unveiled by the Department of Agriculture today (June 2) sends a clear message: eat more fruits and vegetables. Chances are, you've heard this message before. And chances are, you're guilty of not heeding it. But meeting the daily requirement for fruits and vegetables need not be such a struggle.

Here are six easy ways to get more of these important foods into your diet, according to Heather Mangieri, a nutrition consultant and spokeswoman for the American Dietetic Association.

Exercise Routine

How to Stick to an Exercise Routine

Many people struggle to adhere to an exercise routine. Researchers are beginning to unravel what makes us more likely to stick to a workout regime and what strategies we can employ to boost our willpower.

A key is having the confidence that you can do it, a new study shows. The researchers call this type of focused confidence "self-efficacy."

"You can apply the concept of self-efficacy to every single health behavior you can think of, because in many ways that really is what gets us through the day, gets us through the tough times," said Edward McAuley, a University of Illinois kinesiology and community health professor who led the research. "People who are more efficacious tend to approach more challenging tasks, work harder and stick with it even in the face of early failures."

Radiation Exposure

Human Body Might Adapt to Radiation Exposure

Doctors who are regularly exposed to X-ray radiation may undergo changes in their cells that protect them from the radiation they encounter, a new study suggests.

These physicians have higher levels of a particular antioxidant called glutathione inside their red blood cells than physicians who don't use X-rays regularly, the study showed. In addition, some of these cells may be better able to self-destruct, which would be protective if they turned cancerous.

However, it's still not clear whether these changes will be beneficial in the long run, or reduce the physicians' cancer risk, said study researcher Dr. Gian Luigi Russo, a senior research scientist at the National Research Council (CNR) in Pisa, Italy. Instead, these alterations might be early indicators of a disease, Russo said.

Fighting Aging?

Fighting Aging? Skip the Botox and Go for the Face Cream

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People might like you more if you don't have surgery or get injections to look younger, a new study suggests.

The results show that study participants felt more warmth toward a woman, and said she was less vain, if they were told she fought the signs of aging by staying out of the sun or using face cream than if they were told she had used the cosmetic drug Botox or had a face-lift.

"This is important because it shows that despite the emphasis on looking younger in society, there are possible negative social consequences to fighting the signs of aging," using more extreme methods, said study researcher Alison Chasteen, a psychology professor at the University of Toronto.

Vitamin D

D for Vitamin D

First of all, vitamin D is very important for bone health. Vitamin D enhances calcium absorption. Together they keep bones strong and prevent breakdown of bone. Vitamin D decreases our risk for osteoporosis. Low blood values of vitamin D have been associated with hip fractures, vertebral fractures, and wrist fractures. With adequate calcium and vitamin D in all ages of people, bone loss would be prevented as well as tooth loss.

5 Ways To Avoid Rain Diseases

Avoid Rain Diseases

Rain diseases are a common seasonal inconvenience. Just as the first showers hit the earth, everybody starts saying 'now we are going to get sick!' However, there are ways to avoid these diseases. The rains are unpredictable and it is only human to forget your rain apparel once in a while. That does not mean that you will have to become a victim of rain diseases. You can actually prevent sickness if you take a few simple measures.

 

Ordinary vegetables with extraordinary benefits

Ordinary vegetables with extraordinary benefits

We absolutely love veggies here and we do have our reasons. And once you read this list of veggies and why you must have them, we are sure you'll agree.

Here are 10 anytime vegetables that are easy to cook, delicious, add colour to any meal and most importantly - provide you with the best of nutrition required in our daily lives. Here they are: 10 vegetables with extraordinary benefits.

Coffee's Mysterious Benefits Mount

Coffee's Mysterious

Scientists have yet to determine what compounds are responsible for coffee's weird -but wonderful- health benefits. Credit: sxc.hu

From lowered cancer risks to a sharper memory, more studies are showing that coffee is good for you – but why?

Regular coffee drinkers have a 39 percent decreased risk of head and neck cancer, according to a new study published in the journal Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention. Those who drank an estimated four or more cups a day had significantly fewer cancers of the mouth and throat than non coffee drinkers, the study found.

Four Cups of Coffee a Day Slash Diabetes Risk in Half

Cups of Coffee a Day Slash Diabetes

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Drinking four cups of coffee every day can decrease a woman's risk of developing Type 2 diabetes by more than half, according to a new study.

And the researchers say they've uncovered the reason why the new findings and other research have suggested a link between java and diabetes. They found that coffee raises the amount of sex hormone-binding globulin (SHBG) in the blood, and higher levels of SHBG are known to lower the risk of developing Type 2 diabetes.

It's likely something in the coffee besides the caffeine — or something about coffee drinkers that confers these protective effects, said James D. Lane, an associate research professor at Duke University Medical Center, who was not involved with the study.

Can Eating Less at Breakfast Help You Lose Weight?

Lose Weight

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We've heard time and time again about the importance of eating breakfast but a new study suggests cutting back on what you eat in the morning might help you eat less during the rest of your waking hours.

The results show that, the more calories people eat at breakfast, the higher their total daily calorie intake is. This finding was true of both obese and normal weight people.

Participants ate around 500 to 550 calories for lunch and dinner, regardless of how much they ate for breakfast — it didn't matter whether they skipped it entirely or had a hearty morning meal, the researchers said.

Vitamin D Levels Don't Decline During Progression of Parkinson's Disease: Study

Parkinson's Disease: Study

People recently diagnosed with Parkinson's disease are more likely than healthy people to have vitamin D insufficiency, but their vitamin D levels don't appear to decline during the progression of the disease as was previously thought, according to a new study.

At the beginning of the study, 69.4 percent of people with recently diagnosed Parkinson's disease had vitamin D insufficiency and 26.1 percent of people had vitamin D deficiency. (Vitamin D insufficiency was defined as having less than 30 nanograms of vitamin D per milliliter of blood, and vitamin D deficiency was defined as having less than 20 nanograms of vitamin D per milliliter of blood.)

5 Surprising Ways to Be Heart Healthy

Surprising Ways to Be Heart Healthy

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Live away from the freeway

The sound of horns, sirens and noisy trucks may take a toll on your blood vessels, according to a recent study that found an association between traffic noise and risk of stroke.

The results, based on surveys of more than 51,000 people in Denmark, showed that for every 10-decibel increase in noise level, the risk of stroke increased by 14 percent. For those over 65, the risk of stroke increased 27 percent.

For Smokers, Vitamins Don't Cancel Out Harmful Habit

Vitamins Don't Cancel Out Harmful Habit

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Taking vitamins gives smokers a false sense of safety when it comes to their health, a new study shows.

Smokers who took multivitamins believed they were reducing their risk of cancer, and therefore allowed themselves to smoke more, the study said.

"Smokers who take dietary supplements can fool themselves into thinking they are protected against cancer and other diseases," lead author Wen-Bin Chiou, of the National Sun Yat-Sen University in Taiwan, said in a statement.

A Hair-Raising Discovery: New Compound Regrows Hair

Hair-Raising Discovery

If you stress out so much  that your hair falls out, there could be hope for you — researchers have developed a compound that induces hair growth in mice by blocking a stress hormone, a new study has found.

Researchers found that mice engineered to overproduce a certain stress hormone were born bald, but grew back their hair when they were given a shot of the chemical compound astressin-B. When researchers gave the mice one shot a day for five days, their hair regrowth lasted four months, according to the study.

4 Common Skin Woes, and How to Fix Them

4 Common Skin Woes

To trim extra fat from the body, experts say exercise and a healthy, balanced diet is the best solution. But for cosmetic imperfections, like cellulite, spider veins and skin discoloration, the solution is less obvious.

Creams that claim to have a quick fix aren't always effective, and many times they just cover up the appearance of things like cellulite, said Dr. Shasa Hu, an assistant professor of dermatology at the University of Miami in Florida.

Hu explains why we get these common imperfections, and the best ways to be rid of them (or at least disguise them) in time for beach season.

Lose Weight Smartly: 7 Little-Known Tricks that Shave Pounds

7 Little-Known Tricks that Shave Pounds

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Say no to numbers

When the ingredient list on packaged food includes numbers, put it down. Ingredients that include numbers as part of their names usually identify an item as a "convenience food" that’s full of fat and preservatives, said Dr. Carson Liu, a Los Angeles-based bariatric surgeon.

"If you're trying to lose weight, it's very, very difficult to do so with processed foods," Liu said, “because they have so many carbs, sugars and hidden ingredients."

Move It: Sitting Boosts Your Risk of Chronic Diseases

Sitting Boosts Your Risk of Chronic Diseases

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An inactive lifestyle may put you at risk for chronic diseases, even if you find time to hit the gym, researchers say.

"If people spend the majority of their time sitting, even with regular periods of exercise, they are still at greater risk for chronic diseases," said John Thyfault, assistant professor of nutrition and physiology at the University of Missouri. "If people can add some regular movement into their routines throughout the day, they will feel better and be less susceptible to health problems."