The research conducted using a rat model showed that prolonged exposure can increase levels of the stress hormone norepinephrine and enzymes in the heart that have the potential to reshape the left ventricle.

Over the period of five weeks, the researchers found that cigarette smoke turned on enzymes called mitogen-activated protein kinases linked to cell growth and survival in heart muscle.

Lead researcher Mariann Piano, professor of biobehavioral health science in the UIC College of Nursing and said that activation of these enzymes may be a key event in cigarette smoke-induced heart injury.

They blamed the modern trend towards shorter nights’ sleep for increasing the risk of suffering a heart attack or stroke.

The average Briton gets seven hours’ sleep, but a third regularly have five hours or less.

The health ministry is likely to adopt a new manual on Internet addiction next year drawn up by Chinese psychologists that recognises it as a condition similar to compulsive gambling or alcohol addiction, the China Daily reported.

It cited psychologists involved in drafting the diagnostic manual.

The girls have the rare medical condition Long QT Syndrome, which causes an abnormality of the heart’s electrical system.

As a result of their illness, any sudden rush of adrenaline or a sharp rise in blood pressure could prove fatal.

Even any type of exercise – especially swimming – could be fatal.

According to leading doctors, the financial turmoil has resulted in increase in stress leading to hypertension, lower immunity and also gastro-intestinal problems among a number of people who were considered healthy six months ago.

“I have come across patients with hypertension as a result of the global meltdown. We have seen in the recent past that fair number of youngsters now suffer from different heart ailments basically because of the high stress life that they lead.

These are just some of the questions that the Canadian Institutes of Health Research’s Institute of Musculoskeletal and Arthritis (IMHA) will tackle over the next five years through its strategic plan unveiled at the Saskatchewan University (SU).

“As Canada’s population ages and grows, the burden of arthritis, osteoporosis, and other musculoskeletal, oral and skin conditions
on our health care system will increase,” said Jane E. Aubin, IMHA’s scientific director.

Patients swabbed with probiotic bacteria called Lactobacillus plantarum 299 escaped infection as well as those cleaned up using the antiseptic chlorhexidine, they reported.

Both approaches worked equally well in preventing pneumonia among 50 critically ill patients using ventilators, Bengt Klarin of University Hospital in Lund, Sweden, and colleagues found.

A new study headed by Navah Ratzon, director of occupational therapy department at Tel Aviv University (TAU), can be applied to any number of leisure sport activities.

“Increasing numbers of adults are pursuing amateur athletics during their leisure hours. But we’ve found worrying indications that this activity — when not done properly — may have negative effects on the musculoskeletal system,” Ratzon warned.

2. What’s the popping sound in my hip (or elbow or knee) when I do certain stretches or exercises?

When you stretch a joint, it creates a vacuum that literally sucks gas out of the fluid inside the joint. Pop. No big deal.

3. Does warm water quench thirst as effectively as cold water?

No. Cold water actually slows gastric emptying, and because the water hangs around longer, it gives your stomach time to tell your brain that you’re hydrated.

The University of Rochester study, published in a psychology journal, supports other evidence linking the colour to attractiveness.

Men said they would spend more money on a woman pictured in red, compared with the same woman wearing a blue shirt.

Then check out this neat Health and Fitness Blog map created by Mike from Beach Fitness.

You can’t see the names of the blogs here as I had to reduce the�size to get the map�to fit.

The antibody drug tocilizumab works in conjunction with an existing treatment, methotrexate, to stop the condition in which the body attacks its own joints.

The drug, which will be sold under the brand name RoActemra by Roche, is awaiting approval by drugs regulators in Europe and the US.

The work was presented at a meeting of the American College of Rheumatology.

Inspecting their handiwork, Bessler said, “I don’t think you’ll get much better than that.”

The operation, meant to make people feel full after eating very little, is strictly experimental. Only a few patients have tried it in this country, as part of a study paid for by Satiety Inc., which makes the staplers and hopes the Food and Drug Administration will approve them.

Researchers from Japan examined the effects of music therapy on stress, anxiety and depression in pregnant women. They studied 236 pregnant women and randomly assigned them to either a music group or a group that stayed with standard prenatal care alone. Women in the music group were asked to listen to any of 4 CDs for 30 minutes per day over 2 weeks. The music included classical, lullabies, nature sounds and children’s music. The data was collected through questionnaires on stress, anxiety and depression symptoms at the beginning and at the end of the study.

The bones were excavated from Alit-Yam, an ancient Neolithic village near Haifa, which has been submerged in the Mediterranean for thousands of years.

The experts from University College London and Tel-Aviv University used DNA technology to confirm the bacterium.

Others have found remains that hint at TB dating from about 500,000 years ago.

About a third of all men are affected by male pattern baldness by age 45. The condition’s social and economic impact is considerable: expenditures for hair transplantation in the United States alone exceeded $115 million (U.S.) in 2007, while global revenues for medical therapy for male-pattern baldness recently surpassed $405 million. Male pattern baldness is the most common form of baldness, where hair is lost in a well-defined pattern beginning above both temples, and results in a distinctive M-shaped hairline. Estimates suggest more than 80 per cent of cases are hereditary.

This study was conducted by Dr. Vincent Mooser of GlaxoSmithKline, Dr. Brent Richards of McGill University’s Faculty of Medicine and the affiliated Jewish General Hospital (and formerly of King’s College), and Dr. Tim Spector of King’s College. Along with colleagues in Iceland, Switzerland and the Netherlands, the researchers conducted a genome-wide association study of 1,125 caucasian men who had been assessed for male pattern baldness. They found two previously unknown genetic variants on chromosome 20 that substantially increased the risk of male pattern baldness. They then confirmed these findings in an additional 1,650 caucasian men.

Previous studies had shown pregnant women suffer a decrease in mental capacity, dubbed “baby brain”. Now, a team at Richmond University has found that having a toddler makes a woman brighter.

According to researchers, moms-to-be rewire their brains to cope with motherhood — and their intelligence soars when the tots are actually born.

Most smokers are well aware that the habit may shorten their lives but what they may not realise, and what is so clearly evident in the following study, is that the effect of smoking is there in their lives every day.

Researchers studied 1,658 men who were healthy and between the ages of 40 and 55 at the start of the study. At that time, 37 percent said they had never smoked, while 39 percent were former smokers and the rest were current smokers. Over the next 26 years, the majority of smokers eventually quit.

Recent TV and radio ads by opponents feature actor Martin Sheen, who calls the measure a “dangerous idea” that could be used by the most vulnerable in society. Supporters are on TV with an ad spotlighting a widow
who says it lets those who are suffering have control over their final days.

The 42-year-old mum of one lost her hubby, 31, when a routine op to remove his appendix went wrong.

She was desperate for another child and within hours of his death, a court granted permission for his sperm to be removed while still healthy.

An international team has carried out the study and found that sweet drinks do give people a sugar rush that helps supply the brain with the fuel required to suppress outspoken opinions.

“The findings suggest a link between glucose levels and the expression of prejudice and the use of stereotypes.

Cut to reality. Scientists in Britain have developed a blood test which they claim can assess the level of a cancer marker, called Prostate Specific Antigen, in ten minutes, the Daily Mail reported.

Prostate Specific Antigen (PSA) is a protein which leaks out of the prostate gland when it is damaged. A raised
PSA level does not necessarily mean the patient has prostate cancer, but could suggest the need for further investigation.

Vitamin D deficiency has already been linked to several diseases including increased rates of multiple cancers and diabetes.

In the new study scientists examined a small number of patients with moderate to severe atopic dermatitis, a chronic skin disease that affects 10 to 20 per cent of children and one to three per cent of adults.

This is because bananas contain tryptophan, a type of protein that the body turns into serotonin known to help us relax, improve mood and up your happy vibes.

Banana are great for tons of other health-related problems too. Did you know they are great for curing PMS symptoms, constipation, the terrible hangovers, heart burn, anaemia and morning sickness?

Don’t like them raw? Throw one in your protein shake or slice one up and mix in into a small bowl of fat-free yoghurt.

Genetic analysis pushes the estimated origin of HIV back to between 1884 and 1924, with a more focused estimate at 1908.

Previously, scientists had estimated the origin at around 1930. AIDS wasn’t recognized formally until 1981 when it got the attention of public health officials in the United States.

The new result is “not a monumental shift, but it means the virus was circulating under our radar even longer than we knew,” says Michael Worobey of the University of Arizona, an author of the new work.

This is especially true when you’re working toward long term goals that might not be realized for a few months or even years. I’ve been working on building my blog for the past seven months. I eventually want to turn this into the main source of my income, so I can quit my job and stop selling my time to someone else. While I feel very passionate about this goal, it probably won’t be realized for a few months or a year (at the most). It’s difficult for me sometimes to stay excited about my goals, when I’m currently working toward someone else’s to pay the bills (see this article).

It’s time like these when I get bored with work. I get bored with routines and monotony. The opposite of happiness after all isn’t sadness or depression.

It’s boredom.

I recurrently have to keep myself in check. I have to balance my goals that will be realized in the future, with being happy now. After all, isn’t now all we’ve got?

So how can we stay excited about life? How can we remain passionate about living, and not get trapped in the cycle of routines?

Here are some things that I personally do to help keep me stay excited about life.

The authorities must not make the same mistakes over possible links between mobile phones and brain cancer as they did with cigarettes and lung cancer, experts warned a powerful U.S. congressional committee.

Researchers in Sweden have carried out the study and found that kids are five times more likely to get brain cancer later in life if they use mobile phones, a leading British daily reported.

According to them, kids are more at risk because their brains and nervous systems are still developing and as their heads are smaller and their skulls are thinner, the radiation penetrates deeper into their brains.

The average waistline of the Indian population has increased by two centimeters since the 1970s according to a recent study conducted by AIIMS and Max Healthcare.

Viktor Matveev said on Thursday that scientists around the world are currently considering a proposal by their Russian colleagues to build a new collider. The idea was put forward by scientists from the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research in Dubna, who suggested that a new device be built in the Moscow region.

But in India, where the practice of aborting female fetuses is widespread, such advertisements for prenatal gender selection kits are neither innocuous nor legal.

Researchers led by Sudhir Paul at The University of Texas Medical School, Houston, believe that they have found the weak spot of the virus, a tiny stretch of amino acids numbered 421-433 on gp120, which is now under study as a target for therapeutic intervention.

In a public hearing held in Manipur by NGO’s and Manipur Network of Positive People in presence of Santha Sinha, Chairperson of the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights, the parents of the HIV infected and affected children revealed that the needy are not actually getting the benefits.