What protects lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) youths from considering suicide and, conversely, what makes them most vulnerable to it?

The question is of paramount concern because these youths are at least twice as likely to attempt suicide than heterosexual youths, prompting the national "It Gets Better Project" with encouraging video messages from such public figures as Lady Gaga and President Barack Obama.

Now the first longitudinal study to look at suicide ideation and self-harm in this population shows support from friends and family offers the most protection in preventing youths from thinking about suicide. Adolescents who know they can talk to their parents about problems and know they have friends who care about them are less likely to consider ending their lives, according to new Northwestern Medicine research.

Adolescents most likely to consider killing themselves and engage in self-harm behaviors are those who feel victimized for being gay.

Although the age of consent is 16, the state colludes in pumping younger teenagers full of contraceptive hormones.

Mental health researchers got interested in ketamine because of reports that it could make depression vanish almost instantly.

In contrast, drugs like Prozac take weeks or even months. And the frustrating thing is that depression medications really haven't changed much since Prozac arrived in the 1970s, says Sanjay Mathew from Baylor College of Medicine, who is in charge of the ketamine study at Ben Taub.

"Everything since then has been essentially incremental," he says. "There have been tweaks of existing molecules."

But ketamine represents much more than a tweak, Mathews says.

"It's a completely different mechanism," he says. "And the focus is on really rapidly helping someone get out of a depressive episode."

A dose of ultrasound to the testicles can stop the production of sperm, according to researchers investigating a new form of contraception.

A study on rats published in Reproductive Biology and Endocrinology showed that sound waves could be used to reduce sperm counts to levels that would cause infertility in humans.

Researchers described ultrasound as a "promising candidate" in contraception.

However, far more tests are required before it could be used.

Measuring blood pressure in both arms should be routine because the difference between left and right arm could indicate underlying health problems, says a study review.

The Lancet research found that a large difference could mean an increased risk of vascular disease and death.

Although existing guidelines state that blood pressure should be measured in both arms, it is not often done.

Some bacteria can evade efforts to vaccinate against them by wearing a new disguise, researchers say.

A study, published in Nature Genetics, tracked how pneumococcus bacteria responded to the introduction of a vaccine in the US in 2000.

Doctors said the evasion would make some vaccines less successful in the long term.

An updated pneumococcus vaccine is already in use.

Euthanasia and assisted suicide should be banned in every country in the Continent, the Council of Europe has ruled.

If winter has you daydreaming of a vacation to sunny lands, you might want to consider the risk of dengue fever in your plans.

The number of cases of the disease, a severe flu-like illness with excruciating headaches, joint and muscle pain, is soaring, according to an update from the World Health Organization.

Now more than 40 percent of the world's population is at risk — 2.5 billion people, according to the group. In 2010, there were 1.6 million cases in the Americas

Eating fried food may not bad for the heart, as long as you use olive or sunflower oil to make it, experts say.

They found no heightened risk of heart disease or premature death linked to food that had been cooked in this way.

But the investigators stress that their findings, from studying the typical Spanish diet in which these "healthy" oils are found in abundance, do not apply to lard or other cooking oils.

India has reported its first cases of "total drug-resistant tuberculosis", a long-feared and virtually untreatable form of the killer lung disease.

RESEARCHERS are calling for all energy drinks to carry warning labels after finding a big increase in caffeine toxicity among consumers of the drinks.
The researchers from the University of Sydney and the NSW Poisons Information Centre say reports of adverse reactions to energy drinks increased from just 12 in 2004 to 65 in 2010.

The median age of people who were reported to the centre, which handles calls from NSW, the ACT and Tasmania, was just 17.

Some 57 per cent of people who were reported were male.

The symptoms which were most commonly reported were heart palpitations, agitation, tremors and gastrointestinal upset.

DRINKING alcohol makes people feel better because it produces the same chemicals in the brain as exercising and laughing, a study has proved for the first time.

Alcohol is addictive because it releases endorphins, which are the body's way of making us feel pleasure and reward, the researchers showed.

The stress and pain-relieving proteins are naturally released in the brain and other tissues, producing similar effects to opiates such as morphine.

... Dr Jennifer Mitchell, of the University of California, who led the study, said: ''This is something that we've speculated about for 30 years, based on animal studies, but haven't observed in humans until now. It provides the first direct evidence of how alcohol makes people feel good.''

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/technology/sci-tech/science-proves-alcohol-is-fun-20120112-1pxj7.html#ixzz1jKFEZHX2

The federal government has hit out at a major tobacco company that is using the kangaroo on cigarette packages overseas.

British American Tobacco is using an image of a kangaroo and the phrase "An Australian Favourite" on packets of Winfield being sold in France, News Ltd has reported.

Attorney-General Nicola Roxon has said the kangaroo packets are "outrageous".

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"This kind of weaselly marketing tactic will soon have no place here in Australia when all cigarettes will be in plain packaging from December," she told News Ltd.

Labor's laws will force all cigarettes to be sold in drab olive-brown packs from December 2012.

Researchers are investigating a 500-year-old Chinese hangover cure in the hope they can put its properties into a pill to help alcoholics and stave off sore heads.

The researchers say the ancient Chinese remedy contains a compound which can prevent alcohol from having its usual intoxicating effects on the brain.

The compound, DHM, which works by stopping alcohol from accessing the receptors in the brain, is extracted from an oriental raisin tree and has already proved its worth as an alcohol antidote in a series of experiments on rats.

In a study suggesting that red wine might be the next big thing in breast cancer prevention, a study has found that women who drank just under two servings of red wine daily experienced hormonal changes that mimic the effects of a drug used to prevent malignant breast tumors from coming back.

WEIGHT Watchers Australia has banned the word "fat'' from its online message board in what appears to be another case of political correctness going too far.

Disgusted members of the Weight Watchers community forum are being told the three-letter word is no longer considered acceptable language on the site.

Posts containing any mention of "fat'' are blocked and attract an automated reply: "Sorry, but your message contains language that we consider to be inappropriate for WeightWatchers.com.au message boards and violates our community standards and conduct guidelines, which are part of our terms and conditions.

"The following word is not permissible on our site: FAT.

"If you would still like to send your message, go back and delete the word.''

A shortage of Adderall, which is used to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, shows little sign of easing as manufacturers struggle to get enough active ingredient to make the drug and demand climbs.

Adderall, a stimulant, is a controlled substance, meaning it is addictive and has the potential to be abused. The Drug Enforcement Administration tightly regulates how much of the drug's active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) can be distributed to manufacturers each year.

Blowfish tablets claim to cure hangover symptoms. But doctors say that masking the pain may make things worse.

For those who plan to celebrate the New Year with a few toasts but aren't looking forward to the inevitable hangover, a new pill on the market may resolve the dread of the day after.

Tablets called Blowfish have recently been permitted by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to be sold as an over-the-counter drug. Their creator guarantees their effectiveness in chasing away the post-booze blues.

Nevertheless, some in the medical field remain sceptical, warning that such pills should not be seen as a licence to overdo the drinking.

Officially part of the country's tough austerity measures to combat the debt crisis, France will implement a new "soda tax" on Jan. 1. The legislation is also part of a growing trend in Europe to impose sin taxes on food and drinks associated with poor health and obesity.

While having a cat as a kid may protect against future allergies, getting one in adulthood nearly doubles the chances of developing an immune reaction to it -- the first step toward wheezing, sneezing and itchy eyes.

Drinkers will pay a minimum price for alcohol under plans instigated by David Cameron to tackle a growing health crisis, The Daily Telegraph can disclose.

The Prime Minister has ordered officials to develop a scheme in England to stop the sale of alcohol at below 40p to 50p a unit in shops and supermarkets.

Ministers could copy Scottish proposals, which would ban the sale of alcohol below 45p a unit, or bring in a more sophisticated system of taxes based on the number of alcohol units contained in the drink.

Both options would cost drinkers an estimated extra £700 million a year, with any extra tax revenue potentially going to the NHS.

 

New research from the University of Michigan suggests obesity can be seen as one of the unintended side effects of free market policies.

A study of 26 wealthy nations shows that countries with a higher density of fast food restaurants per capita had much higher obesity rates compared to countries with a lower density of fast food restaurants per capita.

AUSTRALIAN plastic surgeons are encouraging women with breast implants to sign up to a national register amid fears all implants may be linked to a rare form of cancer.

There is also concern about a high rupture rate for one implant called a Poly Implant Prosthese or PIP, which has been recalled worldwide after overseas health authorities found some contained industrial silicone instead of medical silicone.

In the northern hemisphere, cold and flu season is upon us. But the coughing, wheezing and spluttering masses that hit the streets each winter could, some scientists hope, soon be a thing of the past.

The reason for this optimistic thought is the progress being made towards the creation of a drug known as an antiviral.

Tobacco giant Philip Morris has become the latest cigarette manufacturer to file a High Court challenge against the federal government's plain packaging laws.

Philip Morris says the laws, which passed parliament in late November, breach the Australian constitution because they seek to acquire the company's property without providing compensation.

"The government has passed a law that acquires our valuable brands and intellectual property despite being unable to demonstrate that it will reduce smoking," Philip Morris spokesman Chris Argent said in a statement on Tuesday.

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The federal parliament passed world-first laws in November that will force all cigarettes to be sold in drab olive-brown packs from December 2012.

Legalising same-sex marriage may create a healthier environment for gay men, say US researchers.

The number of visits by gay men to health clinics dropped significantly after same-sex unions were allowed in the state Massachusetts.

This was regardless of whether the men were in a stable relationship, reported the American Journal of Public Health.

A UK HIV charity said there was a clear link between happiness and health.

Research has already suggested that gay men are more likely to suffer from depression and suicidal thoughts than heterosexual men, and that social exclusion may be partly responsible.

ALL teenage boys would be vaccinated against the sexually transmitted disease that causes some forms of cancer under an extension of a scheme now available to girls, the federal government's expert panel has recommended.

The Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee has proposed Gardasil vaccinations, available to all girls to protect against cervical cancer, should be administered to boys to prevent throat and anus cancers triggered by the human papilloma virus (HPV). About 400 cases a year can be attributed to the virus.

Hairier skin may be the key to avoiding being bitten by bed bugs, claim Sheffield academics.

Hungry bugs placed on shaved arms were more likely to try to feed compared with those on unshaved arms, the journal Biology Letters reported.

Researchers say the hair slows down the bed bugs and warns the victim.

Pest controllers say the UK is currently experiencing a steep rise in the number of bed bug infestations.

Just one injection could be enough to mean people with haemophilia B no longer need medication, according to an early study in the UK and the US.

Six patients were given a virus that infects the body with the blueprints needed to produce blood-clotting proteins. Four of them could then stop taking their drugs.

Doctors said the gene therapy was "potentially life-changing".

Council inspectors should start monitoring what private sector employees eat at work in order to help improve the country’s health and to reduce sickness rates, a report has concluded.

Over 90% of cases of a common form of food poisoning seen this year were due to people eating undercooked chicken liver pate, often at weddings, infection experts have said.

The Health Protection Agency (HPA) analysed 18 outbreaks of Campylobacter in 2011 across England.

In all, 443 people became unwell and one had to be hospitalised.

The Food Standards Agency (FSA) has reminded caterers to cook poultry livers to prevent infection.

Websites such as Black Dog Tribe have an important role to play in overturning the stigma surrounding this condition

Parents should avoid sleeping with their babies for at least the first six months of their lives to prevent infant deaths, an inquest has heard.

Victorian Coroner John Olle is investigating the deaths of five boys aged from two months to 19 months who died while sharing a bed or sleeping surface with an adult.

"These five infants are a small representative sample of a significant number I was first confronted with when I first became aware of this horror," Mr Olle said on Tuesday.

Bangladeshi activists have welcomed the abolition of a century-old act which confined leprosy patients to state-run institutions.

The 1898 Lepers Act was passed at a time the authorities believed leprosy was highly contagious. Officials now say the law contravenes human rights.

Correspondents say lepers currently face arrest and a fine if they venture out of their care centres.

Government estimates suggest Bangladesh has about 40,000 leprosy patients.

Parents will miss out on up to $2100 if their children are not fully immunised under an expanded federal government scheme.

From next year, parents who don't have their children immunised will miss out on three payments of $726 available under the family tax benefit A end of year supplement, Fairfax Media reports.

Health Minister Nicola Roxon and Families Minister Jenny Macklin say the scheme provides "stronger immunisation incentives".

The findings echo the recent Care Quality Commission report on older people’s care within hospitals in finding that the ‘basics’ of dignity, respect and adequate care are not being addressed in home care.
However, unlike hospital care, many home care users contribute towards the cost themselves, and this trend will continue.
There is a clear and obvious need to give consumers much more information and advice about choosing care services, and much more feedback on service quality.
At the moment, you can get far more consumer information before you buy a paperback book on Amazon than before you enter into a contract with a company that will be organising intimate and essential care for yourself or an older relative.

The daughter of a woman with Huntington's disease told how her mother received no help with eating or drinking.
She said: "Carers were supposed to feed and give drinks but simply left them beside a person who was physically unable to feed herself because the carers had to go to their next client. My mother went down to seven stone.
"Someone with Huntington's needs an hour per meal to swallow food/drink, and special care when it all falls out of their mouth, and they get very damp and dirty.
"They also need 4,000 calories per day to maintain body weight due to the chorea movements that constantly burn energy."

One in 12 teenagers self-harm, with girls more likely than boys to deliberately hurt themselves.

In the first study of its kind, Australian researchers followed about 2000 Victorian students from age 15 to see how many self-harmed during adolescence and into their 20s.

They found self-harm was most common among 15-year-olds, particularly girls and teenagers with symptoms of depression and anxiety.

Doctors and nutritionists have long recommended avoiding all animal fats to trim cholesterol, but Danish researchers say cheese may not be so bad, and probably shouldn't be placed in the same category as butter.

According to their study, published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, people who ate daily servings of cheese for six-week intervals had lower LDL cholesterol, the so-called "bad" cholesterol, than when they ate a comparable amount of butter.

The cheese eaters also did not have higher LDL during the experiment than when they ate a normal diet.

Nature's love drug, oxytocin, could hold the key to helping alcoholics overcome their addiction.

Australian scientists have launched clinical trials involving alcoholics using oxytocin nasal sprays, to see if extra doses of the hormone can make drugs less appealing.

The trials follow earlier studies in rats who were quite partial to drinking alcohol and getting high on methamphetamines.

US authorities have warned parents that posting infected lollipops to other families who want their children to get chickenpox is against the law. But why are the parents doing it?

The news that some parents have been apparently posting saliva-soaked tissues and licked lollipops to each other in an attempt to spread chicken pox among their children has been greeted with widespread condemnation.

The Australian federal government says there are 15,000 good reasons why parliament will pass the world's first tobacco plain-packaging laws on Thursday.

That's the number of Australians who die each year from smoking-related diseases.

Labor's legislation will require all cigarettes to be sold in drab olive-brown packets from December 2012.

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The packs will be dominated by graphic health warnings with the brand name and variant printed in a standard size and font.

The draft laws will be rammed through the Senate on Thursday evening under a guillotine which limits debate.

Wal-Mart wants to be your doctor.

The nation's largest retailer is planning to offer medical services ranging from the management of diabetes to HIV infections, NPR and Kaiser Health News have learned.

In the same week in late October that Wal-Mart said it would stop offering health insurance benefits to new part-time employees, the retailer sent out a request for partners to help it "dramatically ... lower the cost of healthcare ... by becoming the largest provider of primary healthcare services in the nation."

On Tuesday, Wal-Mart spokeswoman Tara Raddohl confirmed the proposal. She declined to elaborate on specifics, calling it simply an effort to determine "strategic next steps."

Banning sugar-filled sodas from American schools as an effort to combat childhood obesity doesn’t reduce overall consumption levels of sweetened beverages, research found.
In U.S. states that banned only soda, about 30 percent of middle-school students still purchased sugary drinks like sports and fruit beverages at school, similar to states that had no policy, according to a study released online today in the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine. In states that banned all sugar-sweetened beverages, students still consumed the drinks outside of school, the researchers said.

Thousands of asthma patients were queuing in soaring summer temperatures on Wednesday to eat live fish smeared in a masala spice mix to cure their condition.

The death toll in Germany from an outbreak of E.coli caused by infected cucumbers has risen to at least 10.

The cucumbers, believed to have been imported from Spain, were contaminated with E.coli which left people ill with hemolytic-uremic syndrome (HUS).

Hundreds of people are said to have fallen sick.

Officials in the Czech Republic said the cucumbers may also have been exported there, as well as to Austria, Hungary and Luxembourg.

A decision on when to destroy the last known stocks of live smallpox virus has been put off for another three years.

The World Health Organization (WHO) agreed to resume the discussion in 2014, following debate this week at its annual meeting.

Countries were divided on the issue at the 64th World Health Assembly.

A man who suffocated his chronically ill partner with a plastic bag has avoided jail, with a judge saying the offender was motivated only by love and compassion. David Scott Mathers, 66, on Thursday said he wished he didn't have to kill his partner of more than two decades, Eva Griffith, who had been suffering from a degenerative spine condition. In handing him a two-year suspended sentence, NSW Supreme Court Justice Peter Hall said the couple had been devoted and happy, and Mathers was faced with an "agonising conflict" when Ms Griffith became desperate to end her life.  ... Euthanasia advocacy group Exit International welcomed the judge's decision, but said Mathers, who pleaded guilty to manslaughter, should never have had to face court.

Kids who spend more time than average watching TV are more likely to develop heart disease, high blood pressure and diabetes in later life, a new Australian study has found.

The study, undertaken by University of Sydney researchers, found six-year-olds who spent the most time watching television had narrower arteries in the back of their eyes.

This increased their chances of developing heart disease, high blood pressure and diabetes when they were older, the study, released on Wednesday, said.

Consumers may be weary of hearing about what's wrong with their meat — from the calories to the E. coli to its heart unfriendliness. Unfortunately, there's another bit of bad news: Nearly a quarter of the meat and poultry sold in U.S. supermarkets is infected with nasty drug-resistant bacteria, too.

The world's first membership organisation dedicated to spreading happiness has been officially launched.

Action for Happiness, which claims to have 4,500 members in more than 60 countries, says it prioritises healthy relationships and meaningful activities as a means to happier living.

It has ambitions to become what it calls "a global mass movement for fundamental cultural change".

Its launch event in the City of London included tips on how to be happier.

AUSTRALIANS today got their first look at the plainer, uglier cigarette packets the Federal Government hopes will curb smoking among young people.

Shopping prolongs life, at least for the over 65s in Taiwan, according to research.

Even after adjusting for factors like physical and mental infirmity, men and women who shopped daily lived longer than those who shunned retail therapy, say scientists.

Shopping may provide companionship, exercise and an opportunity to maintain a healthy diet, they report in the Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health.

A leading UK expert said the findings "made sense" since shopping involves physical activity, social interaction and keeping mentally active.

Emergency contraception can now be obtained without charge from pharmacies across Wales.

Community pharmacists in Wales can also give the "morning-after pill" to under-16s, if clinically appropriate - a move that has angered campaigners.

Diamond Mojo, a six-year-old Australian waler, had been given up for dead by his owner Steve Clibborn after being struck down with a bout of potentially deadly colic, reported The Courier-Mail.

So, as desperate men do in desperate times, Steve turned to the bottle not for himself, but for his horse.

"I had pretty much kissed him goodbye," he said.

"I had spent 23 hours straight with him but nothing worked and then I remembered an old bush tale that said you could feed them beer.

"I don't know whether I really believed it or not but it was worth a shot and as soon as he had that beer, he burped and perked right up. So I gave him another couple."

OBESITY crisis? What obesity crisis? KFC will tomorrow unleash on the market its latest fat-and-sodium laden creation that has done away with the most basic of burger ingredients - the bun.

The Double Down instead has bacon, sauce and two slices of melted cheese between two pieces of deep fried chicken

DOCTORS have warned of a potentially fatal condition linked to a common pain killer which can be triggered, in rare cases, by even a standard dose.

Renal tubular acidosis (RTA) can lead to dangerously low levels of potassium in the blood, causing abnormal heart rhythms and the breakdown of muscle as well as fatigue and paralysis.

Researchers at hospitals in Perth and Sydney reviewed the cases of four patients who presented to the emergency department with these symptoms, and who were found to be routine users of pain killers containing ibuprofen.

Four Scottish universities are working on a "ground-breaking" project to manufacture blood for transfusions.

The universities are working with the Scottish Blood Transfusion Service to generate red blood cells on a large scale for Scotland.

Scientists have said that the industrial generation of blood from stem cells would end current supply problems.

It would also ensure compatibility between donor and recipient.

The University of Glasgow, along with Heriot-Watt, Edinburgh and Dundee universities are working on the project, which has just been given £2.5m from the Scottish Funding Council.

Guatemalans who were deliberately infected with syphilis or gonorrhoea in medical tests in the 1940s are suing the US government for compensation.

Hundreds of Guatemalan prisoners, psychiatric patients and orphans were infected without their consent in a programme to study penicillin.

A class action lawsuit was filed by lawyers for the Guatemalans and their relatives.

The US apologised last year for the "reprehensible" experiments.

Bovine colostrum — the milk produced by cows in the first few days after giving birth — sounds like another natural remedy on the line between science and wishful thinking.

Proponents call it "Nature's Healing Miracle" and point to mention of its healthful properties as far back as the Bible and an ancient Indian pharmacopeia. Modern vendors of the stuff claim it boosts immune function, supports muscle growth and can fight aging.

But now British scientists have published a study (coming out in the March edition of the American Journal of Physiology) suggesting bovine colostrum has at least one very real effect: reducing "gut leakiness" in athletes. Say what?

Restaurants and work canteens will put calorie counts on menus and food manufacturers will promise to cut down on salt and artificial fats under a set of agreements to be announced today.

Andrew Lansley, the British Health Secretary, believes that firms will be more likely to set ambitious targets for themselves if they are negotiated on a voluntary basis.

Euthanasia advocate Phillip Nitschke has been briefly detained at London's Heathrow Airport while on his way to Ireland to give seminars.

He was carrying a replica of the "deliverance machine" used to end the lives of four terminally ill people in the Northern Territory during the period when euthanasia was legal.

Boys are more likely to be diagnosed with a peanut allergy than girls, research has found.

The study in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology by Edinburgh University researchers analysed 2005 data from over 400 English GP practices.

Children from higher income homes also appeared more likely to be diagnosed.

However, a leading allergy expert said that "inequality of access" to health care could be the reason.

The researchers looked at data on peanut allergies actually diagnosed by a doctor, rather than the actual incidence amongst a population.

The records of a total of nearly three million patients were examined.

Babies and younger boys were up to 30% more likely to be diagnosed with a peanut allergy than girls of the same age, a figure that confirms previous research into peanut allergies.

TAXPAYERS are funding a guide to snorting cocaine and other party drugs under the guise of AIDS prevention.
A four-page booklet, titled Routes of Administration, details ways to protect the nose when snorting powdered drugs using common house and office utensils.
It is published by the former AIDS Council of NSW, now known as ACON, which was set up to promote health and reduce HIV transmission in the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community.
The document includes tips such as: finely chop powdered drugs before inhaling, alternate nostrils and rinse nostrils after snorting.

Bolivia has launched a diplomatic offensive to try to end an international ban on chewing coca leaf.

Foreign Minister David Choquehuanca is on a European tour in a bid to drum up support for taking coca off a UN treaty on banned drugs.

Coca has been used in the Andes for thousands of years as a mild stimulant and sacred herbal medicine.

But it is also the raw material for the production of illegal cocaine, and the US is expected to oppose the move.

Smoking is the main reason why on average men die sooner than women across Europe, according to research.

World Health Organisation figures on death rates reveal tobacco-related illness accounts for up to 60% of the gender health gap in most countries.

In the UK, women live an average of four years longer than men, although in recent years the gap has been closing.

Second to smoking, alcohol accounts for about 20% of the disparity, the journal Tobacco Control reports.

Experts monitoring the appearance of so-called "legal highs" in the UK, claim a new generation of drugs that circumvent the country's laws has been created in China by unscrupulous chemists and then exported to the UK.
Figures compiled by the Independent Scientific Committee on Drugs reveal that 40 new synthetic drugs appeared on sale in the UK during 2010. In the previous year there were 24 new drugs identified. In 2008 there were just 13.
Drug treatment experts said that young people taking the drugs were playing "Russian roulette" with their lives.

Young men could be risking their sexual health by taking a commonly used anti-baldness drug, claim some doctors.

They say finasteride, sold in the UK as Propecia, can cause serious side effects and isn't adequately labelled.

A quarter of men in their 20s show signs of male pattern baldness, with six and a half million males in the UK affected.

Propecia manufacturer Merck says it continually monitors the drug's safety and has updated the label.

A chemical in cocoa could soon be turned into a medicine for persistent cough, researchers claim.

Scientists are carrying out the final stages of clinical trials of a drug that contains theobromine, an ingredient found in chocolate and cocoa.

The UK developers say the drug could be on the market within two years.

MORE people are being diagnosed with cancer than ever before - but the good news is fewer are dying.

The Cancer in Australia report out yesterday showed at least 108,000 new cancer cases were diagnosed in 2007, reported The Daily Telegraph.

While advances in treatment have seen survival rates increase, baby boomers now account for the largest group diagnosed with the disease.

Only one in 10 women aged 50 or older say they have discussed their risk of heart disease during a GP visit, according to a survey.

The British Heart Foundation poll of more than 4,000 UK women also found many unaware of the symptoms of a heart attack.

It says that both women, and doctors, should be more aware of the threat.

PLASTIC surgeons are pushing for flat-chested women to claim fake boobs on Medicare.

Already hundreds of women are using taxpayer funds for breast enlargement surgery and doctors said many more should be eligible on medical grounds.

Medicare claims for breast augmentation have grown by more than 50 per cent during the past five years.

People who are overweight have a greater sense of smell for food, a study has found.

Researchers from the University of Portsmouth say their early findings may go towards explaining why some people struggle to stay slim.

Experts already know that part of the brain that processes information about odour is also connected to the feeding centres of the brain.

The latest research is published in the journal Chemical Senses.

Sir Elton John is to guest edit the Independent in early December with a themed edition to raise awareness of World Aids Day.

John, who follows in the footsteps of U2 frontman Bono and designer Giorgio Armani, will also guest edit the Independent's cut price 20p spin-off i on 1 December. All circulation revenue from the publications will go to the Elton John Aids Foundation.

"I'm really looking forward to spending a day in the editor's chair and I'm pleased to get the chance to put the subject of Aids at the top of the editorial agenda," said John. He also intends to "enlist the help of prominent friends from showbusiness and politics".

The one-off edition will be published on World Aids Day with the aim of raising awareness of prejudice against HIV and the need to protect against transmission.

The NHS needs to give more help to people who pull their own hair out, according to experts in hair loss.

The Institute of Trichologists says the NHS should be quicker to help people with trichotillomania, which is thought to affect up to 1% of people in the UK.

It wants psychological help, such as cognitive behavioural therapy, to be more easily accessible.

Young ecstasy users are unlikely to suffer worse health or behavioural problems than non-users of the party drug, a new study has found.

The Queensland Alcohol Drug and Education Centre (QADREC) study of 6051 young adults aged between 18 and 23 in Brisbane and the Gold Coast assessed the health of those who had taken the drug at least three times in 12 months, compared with those who had never taken it.

QADREC senior research officer Andrew Conroy said there was little difference in the mental health of the two groups when anxiety and depression levels were measured during telephone and face-to-face interviews.

The social engineers have become keen on telling us that the number of restaurants and the prevalence of obesity have been rising for a number of decades. The close correspondence between these series has led some researchers to propose that there is a connection between these trends. There appears to be broad consensus, write two academics from the University of California, Berkeley in a recently published paper, among the health policy community that greater availability of restaurants increases body weight.

But simple correlations between restaurant visits and overeating may conflate the impact of changes in supply and demand. People choose where and how much to eat, leaving restaurant consumption correlated with other dietary practices associated with weight gain.

A key question say Michael L. Anderson and David A. Matsa in Are Restaurants Really Supersizing America is whether the growth in eating out is contributing to the obesity epidemic, or whether these changes merely reflect consumer preferences.

The interesting causal parameter is how much more an obese person consumes in total because he or she ate at a restaurant. To the extent that changes in preferences are leading consumers to eat out more, regulating restaurants may only lead consumers to shift consumption to other sources rather than to reduce total caloric intake.
In part using data food intake data collected by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and US Census data, the Berkeley pair found there is selection bias in who eats at restaurants; people who eat at restaurants also consume more calories than other consumers when they eat at home. "Second, when including individual fixed effects," they write, "we find that people who eat large portions in restaurants tend to reduce their calorie consumption at other times during the day. After accounting for these factors, we find that although the average restaurant meal contains approximately 250 calories more than the average meal eaten at home, the existence of restaurants increases BMI by only 0.2 BMI points for the typical obese consumer"
The abstract for the journal article concludes:

While many researchers and policymakers infer from correlations between eating out and body weight that restaurants are a leading cause of obesity, a basic identification problem challenges these conclusions. We exploit the placement of Interstate highways in rural areas to obtain exogenous variation in the effective price of restaurants and examine the impact on body mass. We find no causal link between restaurant consumption and obesity. Analysis of food-intake micro-data suggests that consumers offset calories from restaurant meals by eating less at other times. We conclude that regulation targeting restaurants is unlikely to reduce obesity but could decrease consumer welfare.

Three brands of imported slimming products have been recalled in Australia after they were found to contain a prescription medication which can cause heart attacks.

Moti Angel Coffee, Sumabe Acai Berry Coffee and Leptin weight-loss chocolate were found to contain sibutramine, a prescription medication withdrawn from sale across the country due to concerns regarding its safety, NSW Chief Health Officer, Dr Kerry Chant, said on Saturday.

Higher rates of cardiovascular events such as heart attacks and strokes have been linked to overweight patients using sibutramine, which can also interact with other medication.

The pornography industry in Los Angeles is on edge after an actor tested positive for HIV. Although the incident led to renewed calls for the use of condoms in porn films, this remains a rarity. But as Ian Brimacombe reports, one adult film producer in South Africa has decided to make his actors wear condoms to promote safe sex.

One of the last taboos in sexual health is to be tackled by the BBC in an hour-long film presented by the film star Jaime Winstone.

The investigation tackles the link between oral sex and rising numbers of mouth and throat cancer cases among young Britons – described this weekend as "an emerging epidemic" by a Cancer Research UK expert.

Scientists have raised serious concerns about the widespread use of one of the world's most common painkillers after studies showing that codeine may be unsafe, ineffective and potentially addictive for the millions of people who take it regularly.

The Government's independent watchdog on the safety of medicines has withdrawn codeine-containing cough mixtures for children after hard-hitting criticism by two Canadian experts suggesting that the drug should be phased out in painkillers meant for either children or adults.

The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) issued its warning about cough medicines containing codeine after receiving fresh advice from its committee of independent experts on the Commission on Human Medicines.

A popular weight loss drug has been withdrawn from sale following a review by Australia's medical watchdog and research showing it could cause overweight people to suffer a heart attack or stroke.

Pharmaceutical company Abbott on Friday announced it would immediately cease distribution of its drug sibutramine, which is sold under the brand name Reductil.

AUSTRALIAN research has confirmed that undergoing IVF can tip the odds in the favour of having a baby boy.

A study which reviewed almost 13,400 babies born to couples who used assisted reproductive technology (ART) has shown how different laboratory techniques carry an unintended gender bias.

The biggest was seen in cases of IVF (In Vitro Fertilisation) where the embryo had remained in its petrie dish for five days before it was implanted in the uterus.

In 56.1 per cent of these cases, it resulted in a baby boy.

"When you convert that to the sex ratio at birth, that's around 128 boys to 100 girls - that's quite significant," said PhD student Jishan Dean from the University of NSW.

Scientists have identified a genetic defect linked to migraine which could provide a target for new treatments.

A flawed gene found in a family of migraine sufferers could help trigger the severe headaches, a study in Nature Medicine suggests.

Dr Zameel Cader of the University of Oxford said the discovery was a step forward in understanding why one in five people suffer from migraines.

China has issued a health alert in its south-western region of Tibet after five people were diagnosed with the plague, an often fatal infectious disease.

One of the five has already died from a severe lung infection attributed to the pneumonic plague, while one other patient was in a critical condition, the Tibet health department said in a statement on its website.

A five-week program teaches participants how diet, exercise and behavior can reduce the high death rate among black infants.

WIDESPREAD criticism of the Therapeutic Goods Administration has forced the Gillard government to look at overhauling Australia's drugs regulator because it is failing to adequately police the $2 billion industry in ''miracle'' cures and other quasi-health devices.

Claims that ''therapeutic'' products can cure everything from AIDS to cancer, guarantee weight loss or improve strength, balance and flexibility are misleading and deceptive and can sometimes lead to lethal results, health experts say.

Michelle Obama gave her healthy eating initiative a global showcase on Friday when she welcomed spouses of world leaders to tour a farm north of New York City.
Mrs Obama then treated them to a seasonal lunch featuring bounty from the farm and the White House garden.
The spouses included Chantal Biya, First Lady of Cameroon, Haiti's First Lady Elisabeth Preval and their counterparts from countries around the world, such as Mongolia, Swaziland and Latvia.

Witches, wizards and faith healers are to be banned from advertising in Russia over concerns that they are giving false hope to cancer sufferers.

Mushrooms with additional vitamin D are about to go on the market.

The extra vitamin content is achieved by exposing them to ultraviolet light during their growth.

South Australian Agriculture Minister Michael O'Brien says the 'super' mushrooms will go on sale within months.

A test which could stop women labouring for hours in the hope of a "normal" birth only to end up with a Caesarean section has been developed in Sweden.

Researchers have established that when high levels of lactic acid are measured in the amniotic fluid, it is unlikely the mother will deliver vaginally.

Measuring this acid could help decide whether to end a difficult labour and opt for a Caesarean earlier.

The test is being rolled out in a number of European hospitals.

New research about a steep drop in circumcisions made headlines this past week. According to one federal researcher, circumcision rates in U.S. hospitals slid from 56 percent in 2006 to fewer than a third of boys born last year.

Adversity and stress early in life leads to long-term ill health and early death, a group of psychologists warn.

A series of studies suggest that childhood stress caused by poverty or abuse can lead to heart disease, inflammation, and speed up cell ageing.

The American Psychological Association meeting heard that early experiences "cast a long shadow" on health.

California is in the midst of its worst outbreak of whooping cough in a half-century. More than 2,700 cases have been reported so far this year — eight times last year's number at this point. Seven of the victims, all infants, have died.

And here's what really worries pediatricians like UCLA's Harvey Karp: Doctors thought they wiped out whooping cough when they developed vaccines decades ago.

AN INDEPENDENT inquiry should look at Australia's swine flu pandemic response, including whether expert advisers had conflicts of interest involving drug companies, an infectious disease expert has said.

Brazilian supermodel Gisele Bundchen says that all mothers should be made to breastfeed their babies for the first six months of their lives.

In an interview with Harper's Bazaar magazine, she said: "I think breastfeeding really helped [me keep my figure].

"Some people here [in the US] think they don't have to breastfeed, and I think 'Are you going to give chemical food to your child when they are so little?'

"I think there should be a worldwide law, in my opinion, that mothers should breastfeed their babies for six months," she continued.

An all-party meeting aimed at tackling Scotland's alcohol problem is to be held at Holyrood.

The meeting was proposed by opposition parties in a bid to explore alternatives to the government's minimum alcohol pricing policy.

It will be attended by members of the government, as well as Labour, the Tories, Lib Dems and Greens.

The minority SNP government intends to push ahead with minimum pricing despite opposition from a majority of MSPs.

Kellogg's is reducing the sugar content in a range of its breakfast cereals by 15%.

The move comes after criticism that high levels of sugar, salt and fat in cereals are contributing to childhood obesity.

The change will happen next year in four of the company's Coco Pops brand.

People who sleep more or fewer than seven hours a day, including naps, are increasing their risk for cardiovascular disease, a United States study shows.

Sleeping fewer than five hours a day, including naps, more than doubles the risk of being diagnosed with angina, coronary heart disease, heart attack or stroke, the study conducted by researchers at West Virginia University's (WVU) faculty of medicine and published in the journal Sleep says.

The study found sleeping more than seven hours also increases the risk of cardiovascular disease.