Drinking a pint of beer a day is good for you, a new study claims. Moderate drinking of ale and lager can cut the risk of diabetes and high blood pressure and even help people lose weight, doctors say. The Spanish researchers suggest combining beer with exercise and a healthy Mediterranean diet high in fish, fruit and vegetables and olive oil. Beer contains folic acid, vitamins, iron and calcium and has the same health benefits already attributed to moderate wine drinking, researchers found. And they blamed fatty foods like chips, a lack of exercise and binge drinking for beer bellies in Britain....

Cash machines are as dirty as public lavatories, according to tests showing they carry bacteria which can cause sickness and diarrhoea. Experts took swabs from the numeric key pads on a string of city centre ATMs around England which are used by thousands of shoppers every day. They then took similar swabs from the seats of nearby public lavatories and compared the bacteria under microscopes in a lab. The swab were left to grow overnight and samples from both locations were found to contain pseudomonads and bacillus, bacterias which are known to cause sickness and diarrhoea. Yesterday (Mon)...

Early blood pressure treatment is safer and more effective with two medicines than one, a study has shown. The results are likely to change the way doctors treat the condition, a major risk factor for heart attacks and strokes. Patients are normally given one drug, with others added, if needed, over a period of months. But the Accelerate study shows it is best to start treatment with two medicines together at the same time as it can result in much faster and more effective control of blood pressure, with fewer side effects. Professor Morris Brown, from Cambridge University, who led the trial,...

By Gerry Bellett, Postmedia News VANCOUVER — B.C. researchers have identified the gene that destroys brain cells in people with Alzheimer’s disease and Down syndrome. Dr. Weihong Song, Canada Research Chair in Alzheimer’s disease and University of B.C. professor of psychiatry, said the discovery opens the way to find a drug that could hold off dementia for people with either condition. “It will likely take years to find a therapy or drug that could block the spread of the disease and that’s our next target,” said Song, who led the research team. The team found that...

Q. High cholesterol runs in my family. What can I do to avoid it? A. High cholesterol can be caused by a combination of both genetics and having too many of the wrong substances in your diet. The three dietary culprits to be aware of and limit in your food are: Saturated fats Trans fats Dietary cholesterol Foods high in these substances can raise the LDL (low-density lipoprotein), the major cholesterol carrier in your blood. LDL cholesterol is also known as the “bad” cholesterol as a high amount in your blood can increase your risk of heart disease. LDL cholesterol contributes to the...

Aging population means cost of care will increase by 27 percent in the next decade Following the life stages of baby boomers has become somewhat of a national pastime — and now, as the flower-power generation reaches the age of Medicare eligibility, policymakers are wondering how much their health care will cost. A new study published today by researchers at the National Cancer Institute predicts how much more the nation can expect to spend on its collective cancer care a decade from now. The aging of the population alone means that the cost of cancer care will increase by 27 percent between...

(Ivanhoe Newswire) — India is rapidly growing, with its economy progressing to make it one of the biggest players on the world stage. However, its health care and public health systems are not sufficient and fail to address the needs of its continually growing population, according to a series of seven papers published in The Lancet. Experts in the articles have pinpointed problems faced by India’s health care system and call on the country to establish a truly universal health care system by 2020. According to the articles, India faces problems with infectious diseases. Patients often...

66-Year-Old At Risk for Recurrence, Researchers Say After months of radiation and chemotherapy for late-stage throat cancer, actor Michael Douglas is tumor-free, he told NBC’s Today Show viewers this morning. Not a trace of the stage-IV, walnut-sized tumor at the base of his tongue could be detected on medical imaging, Douglas said. That’s a signal, researchers told MedPage Today and ABC News, of complete response to treatment. Yet they caution that the 66-year-old Douglas is hardly out of the woods. “We always hope that our treatments cure the patient but the reality is that...

By Shari Roan, Los Angeles Times Cocaine addiction is difficult to treat. Doctors have no specific therapies for the addiction. However, an experiment in mice has produced promising results on a vaccine approach. Researchers at Weill Cornell Medical Center created a vaccine by using elements of a common cold virus that elicit an immune response and linking it to a chemical that is similar in structure to cocaine. They injected the vaccine into ordinary mice and found a strong immune response was generated by the vaccine. They also found that mice who received the vaccine were less hyperactive...

(SIDS) Brochures from the National Institutes of Health show parents and caretakers how a safe sleep environment can lower the risk of SIDS. (Screen grab from www.nichd.nih.gov) Babies who die from SIDS are 33% more likely to die on New Year’s Day than any other day of the year, a new study finds. Researchers say alcohol use the night before by parents or caretakers may play a role in SIDS deaths. The study from UC San Diego examined 129,090 cases of SIDS, or sudden infant death syndrome, between 1973 and 2006 by using data from the Fatality Analysis Reporting System. It suggests that caregivers...