The NHS will in future offer acupuncture to patients suffering back pain as part of new guidelines from the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE). This is the first time NICE has formally backed the use of complementary therapies. NICE believes that using active therapies – such as acupuncture and spinal manipulation – …
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Category:Health
Don’t stress about swine flu.
The scare of a potential pandemic of swine flu is newsworthy, but you shouldn’t get too concerned. While the rise in deaths (now ~150) makes headlines, these numbers are modest compared to historical pandemics and compared to other causes of death. The resources available to maintain health and cure illness are far better than they …
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Get happy – get off the earnings ladder!
People who compare their earnings with others are damaging their health, becoming less happy, more depressed, and less satisfied with life overall, according to new research by Professors Andrew Clark and Claudia Senik from the Paris School of Economics, to be presented at the annual conference of the Royal Economic Society. (BBC report here.) This …
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GM rice to poison the world?
In a few days the EU will decide whether or not to allow GM rice to be imported to the the EU. Most countries have shied away from allowing risky experimentation with the world’s most important staple crop and at present, no GE rice is grown commercially anywhere in the world. But Bayer, the German …
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Stress promotes female births
Research reported in the Royal Society biology letters indicates that when a conceiving mother is under stress there is more chance that the foetus resulting will be female. The research focussed on statistics in tropical climates but the conclusion focusses on environmental stress conditions. Female foetuses are more resilient than male foetuses. This appears to …
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Legalisation is the least bad solution: stop the drug wars and save money.
How to stop the drug wars – An unusual leader for The Economist, and perhaps a bit surprising in this economic crisis. But the arguments are sound. In a nutshell, prohibition doesn’t work, it rewards criminals, penalises poor farmers, and costs governments much money. Legalisation, though imperfect would save billions and allow governments to focus …
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Don’t forget to breathe!
It might sound like a strange suggestion, but in this age we have become so disconnected from nature that it is sometimes necessary to remind ourselves how to live, even at the most basic level. A report linked here tells us how children with a sedentary lifestyle are more likely to develop asthma and generally …
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Cooking makes humans intelligent.
It’s a pet hypothesis that interesting food makes interesting (and interested) people. There seems to be a correlation between interesting people and their interest in food and cooking. People who appreciate variety in food and who can play in the kitchen seem to be that little bit more passionate about life. … well, that’s the …
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Mind over matter – the brain controls obesity.
New genetic research suggests that the brain has a significant role in controlling obesity, far more so than metabolism. However, the research suggests that one’s natural genetics do influence the propensity to build body fat, but that propensity is a brain physiology rather than metabolic. It remains true that a healthy lifestyle leads to a …
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Ignorance is not bliss when eating out
A report by the Uk Food Commission shows that information about ingredients and nutrition in restaurants, especially fast food, is woefully lacking. The report Ignorance is not bliss when eating out is here. (Don’t get the munchies while you read it.) It is interesting to see that simply having easy access to the calorie information, …
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