Public Health

We all know that feeling of the Midnight Munchies, when you're watching your favorite movie on late night HBO and you suddenly feel starving, even just a few hours past dinner. Instead of sleeping with the growing you sneak into the kitchen for a little snack, I'm guilty of this too so don't be ashamed. It's normal, and the culprit is actually your own tiny hormones, sparking late night signals tricking your mind into eating. This might sound like a one time only occurrence, but as more information on these hormones are revealed, a link between sleep deprivation and obesity can sound…

When broadcaster and health campaigner Anne Diamond reviewed some videogames earlier this year, her damnation was so scathing that it overshadowed The Byron Review, a major government-commissioned report on the subject. Fast forward eight months and the leading health campaigner is now working with researchers to test a theory that certain casual games may actually help weight loss and she's recruiting volunteers for a clinical trial to put the theory to the test. This study was prompted by work already undertaken in the U.S. by East Carolina University research published in May 2008 which…

Bacteria that cause stomach ulcers and cancer could also be giving us bad breath, according to research published in the December issue of the Journal of Medical Microbiology. For the first time, scientists have found Helicobacter pylori living in the mouths of people who are not showing signs of stomach disease. The mouth is home to over 600 different species of bacteria, some of which can cause disease. Helicobacter pylori has recently been shown to cause stomach ulcers and is also responsible for a large proportion of gastric cancers. Scientists estimate that between 20 and 80 % of people…

A team of investigators from Valencia has developed a machine that separates automatically the seeds from the rind and pith of the pomegranate. The mechanism uses a computer vision system to distinguish and sort the different parts of this fruit, according to a study published on-line by the Journal of Food Engineering. The difficulty in peeling pomegranates and separating out the seeds disheartens many consumers when they eat the fruit of the pomegranate (Punica granatum). Now this Spanish invention enables the food to be de-seeded automatically. “This involves a machine that discards the…

Did you know that the kind of water you drink affects your wellness? Research in Japan and Korea in both hospitals and farms with using alkaline ionized water with patients or livestock supports the claim that alkaline ionized water improves health and reduces or eliminates instances of cancer and many other diseases and unhealthy conditions.

Sometimes, you have to read between the lines. As a columnist, I receive a host of press releases that fill up my mailbox with mostly unintelligible medical jargon which mostly amounts to nothing. So this past weekend, when I was sent a report from JAMA (Journal of the American Medical Association) saying that results from a six year study were being published in the following week’s journal, I eagerly awaited the study. However the study concluded that its six year evaluation on the effects of Ginkgo biloba extract on cognitive function in Alzheimer’s disease (AD) patients yielded nothing.…

A review of previously published studies suggests that rates of adverse outcomes for mothers or pregnant women and newborn babies, such as gestational diabetes and low birth weight, may be lower after bariatric surgery compared with pregnant women who are obese, according to an article in the November 19 issue of JAMA. That's right, women who have their stomachs stapled have healthier babies. "Obesity has reached epidemic levels in the United States and is a leading cause of health-related disorders. Rates of surgical weight loss procedures have grown steeply and women account for many of…

Pasteurization was invented for a good reason and raw milk is illegal in many countries because it can be contaminated with potentially harmful microbes. Contamination can also spoil the milk, making it taste bitter and turn thick and sticky. Now scientists have discovered new species of bacteria that can grow at low temperatures, spoiling raw milk even when it is refrigerated. According to research published in the November issue of the International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology, the microbial population of raw milk is much more complex than previously thought.…

Psychological stress and anxiety have been shown to produce an activation of coagulation and fibrinolysis. Resulting hypercoagulability is a risk factor for cardiovascular diseases, and could therefore contribute to an increased prevalence of coronary artery disease in anxiety patients. However, hemostasis function has not yet been studied in patients with clinically relevant anxiety disorders. A group of anxiety patients (panic disorder with agoraphobia or social phobia) and a healthy control group (each n = 29) completed some questionnaires [SCL-K9 (a short form of the SCL-90-R), State…

There are a few things that are a given when it comes to understanding the human body. Long periods of stress are bad. We all know this. Stress from relationships, work or other causes are bad for us. We get less sleep, eat worse and we get sick more often. We also know that exercise is good for us. This is also a given. When we exercise, our hearts get stronger, our muscles get more efficient, our metabolism is balanced and we protect ourselves from complications like high cholesterol, high blood pressure, heart disease and diabetes. But these two assumptions are contradictory. When we…