Exercise helps no matter how old and out-of-shape you are when you start according to a new study. NBC’s Chief science correspondent Robert Bazell reports in the video below on a the Physician’s Health Study – a study following more than 20,000 male doctors over a 25-year period – that found the benefits are greater than even previously thought. Bazell also notes earlier studies that have found that exercise even helps people add the cellular level. You can also read about the study here.

An unhealthy lifestyle can lead to obesity, heart disease, low energy level, depression or even skin or hair problems. The words ‘healthy eating’, ‘healthy lifestyle’, ‘fitness’, etc. sound complicated and seem rather difficult to practice in the course of the daily life. However, it is not! You can sneak in healthy habits in your existent [...]

Jill Bolte Taylor became a brain scientist because she wanted to study her brother’s schizophrenia. In this talk at TED she explains how she analyzed her own stroke after a blood vessel exploded in the left side of her brain. She explains how she felt her own brain fuctions slip away. She says she became an “infant in a woman’s body.”

Neuroanatomist Jill Bolte Taylor had an opportunity few brain scientists would wish for: One morning, she realized she was having a massive stroke. As it happened — as she felt her brain functions slip away one by one, speech, movement, understanding — she studied and remembered every moment. This is a powerful story about how our brains define us and connect us to the world and to one another.

An Associated Press probe has found traces of pharmaceuticals in the water supply of 41 million Americans. The amounts of individual medications in the drinking water is tiny but they include a wide range of meds including antibiotics and sex hormones.

A vast array of pharmaceuticals – including antibiotics, anti-convulsants, mood stabilizers and sex hormones – have been found in the drinking water supplies of at least 41 million Americans, an Associated Press investigation shows.



To be sure, the concentrations of these pharmaceuticals are tiny, measured in quantities of parts per billion or trillion, far below the levels of a medical dose. Also, utilities insist their water is safe.



But the presence of so many prescription drugs – and over-the-counter medicines like acetaminophen and ibuprofen – in so much of our drinking water is heightening worries among scientists of long-term consequences to human health.

People take pills. Their bodies absorb some of the medication, but the rest of it passes through and is flushed down the toilet. The wastewater is treated before it is discharged into reservoirs, rivers or lakes. Then, some of the water is cleansed again at drinking water treatment plants and piped to consumers. But most treatments do not remove all drug residue.

Even users of bottled water and home filtration systems don’t necessarily avoid exposure. Bottlers, some of which simply repackage tap water, do not typically treat or test for pharmaceuticals, according to the industry’s main trade group. The same goes for the makers of home filtration systems.

The BBC reports that German researchers have found that tattooing may be a better delivery mechanism for vaccines than injections. Studies with mice found that mice had a bigger immune response with tattoos than with needle-based injections.

Now researchers in Germany say that the rapidly vibrating tattoo needle could be a useful way of delivering vaccines under the skin instead of insoluble ink.



In studies with mice, tattooing a vaccine produced 16 times more antibodies than a simple injection into muscle tissue.



The level of antibodies indicates the strength of the immune system’s response.



Dr Martin Mueller, one of the researchers behind this work, says that the greater damage to the body caused by the tattoo needle may explain the better immune response.

Olympic figure skating champion Peggy Fleming has teamed up with a company called Health Saver. Below Peggy Fleming and Health Saver offer some practical tips for getting a grip on stress and for getting back on a healty lifestyle track if you have veered off a little.



Peggy Fleming says, “Plan a ’self make-over’ for better health, improved fitness, less stress and more time for yourself to reach your goal and achieve significant success in 2008. To lose weight, incorporate physical activity into your daily routine and establish a smart diet. A balance between calories consumed and calories burned will leave you looking and feeling your best.”



Get a Grip on Stress

You probably learned at an early age, but may have lost sight of diet
rule No. 1: Eat your fruits and vegetables. The more fruits and
vegetables you eat per day, the less likely you are to develop
cardiovascular disease.



Permalink | Recent Headlines | News Feeds