When Matthew Green leaves hospital, the one thing he really mustn’t forget is his rucksack. By Andrew Levy The father of one will be carrying part of his new heart in it. Mr Green, 40, will be the first Briton to be discharged from hospital with a completely artificial heart. The device in his chest is slightly larger than the organ it replaces and weighs less than six ounces. It delivers blood to the body with the help of a pump that is carried in the rucksack, along with a battery. Read More…

* Risk higher among children exposed during pregnancy CHICAGO, Aug 1 (Reuters) – Children whose mothers had high exposure to electromagnetic fields while pregnant may have an increased risk of developing asthma, U.S. researchers said on Monday in a study that adds to an ongoing debate. Many prior studies have failed to consistently show that chronic exposure to electromagnetic fields — from power lines and appliances such as microwaves ovens, hair dryers and vacuum cleaners — are harmful to human health. But many of these studies required people to estimate their exposure levels...

The first antibody which can fight all types of the influenza A virus has been discovered, researchers claim. Experiments on flu-infected mice, published in Science Express, showed the antibody could be used as an “emergency treatment”. It is hoped the development will lead to a “universal vaccine” – currently a new jab has to be made for each winter as viruses change. Virologists described the finding as a “good step forward”. Read more…

INDIANAPOLIS — Instead of grouping hot dogs with Mom and apple pie, a national medical group wants you to consider them as bad for your health as cigarettes. The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, a Washington, D.C., group that promotes preventive medicine and a vegan diet, unveiled a billboard Monday near the Indianapolis Motor Speedway with the advisory: “Warning: Hot dogs can wreck your health.” The billboard features a picture of hot dogs in a cigarette pack inscribed with skull and crossbones. It aims to increase awareness of a link between colorectal cancer and...

LONDON: Are you experiencing fragmented sleep? If yes, then it’s high time that you consult a doctor, for a study says it affects the ability to build memories and could raise the risk of developing dementia in later life. “Sleep continuity is one of the main factors affected in various pathological conditions that impact memory including Alzheimer’s disease and other age-related cognitive deficits,” said Dr Luis de Lecea, who led a team at Stanford University which carried out the study. Read more…

(Reuters Life!) – Men are more concerned with their partner’s body type than women but they also seem to value family more highly, according to a new survey released on Tuesday. Nearly half of men questioned in the poll of 70,000 people said they would ditch a partner who gained weight, compared to only 20 percent of women. Two-third of men also said they had fantasized about their partner’s friends, while only one-third of women had done so. “Even as men are getting more comfortable with meeting their girlfriends online and less anxious about who she’s ‘friending’...

(Reuters Health) – Swedish teenagers who consumed more folic acid got better school grades, a small study published in the journal Pediatrics has found. But don’t run out and stock up on the B vitamin with the rest of your school supplies just yet, one expert warns. “There is very little deficiency of folic acid in North America,” Deborah O’Connor, a nutrition researcher who was not involved in the study, told Reuters Health. “If you’re already sufficient, there is not a lot of evidence that taking more supplements will help.” Read more…

A strain of gonorrhea is that is resistant to all currently available antibiotics has been identified by researchers in Japan. Gonorrhea is a bacterial infection that can be transmitted through oral, genital or anal sex with an infected person. If left untreated, the disease can cause other problems, including sterility and a greater susceptibility to HIV. The newly identified strain of the sexually transmitted infection, called H041, is resistant to the last remaining drugs that treat gonorrhea, known as cephalosporin-class antibiotics, researchers told the International Society for Sexually Transmitted...

MADRID, Spain — Doctors in Spain have carried out the world’s first double leg transplant, giving new lower limbs to a patient who lost both legs at mid-thigh in an accident, officials said Monday. The Valencia regional government said the surgical team was led by Dr. Pedro Cavadas, who in 2009 carried out Spain’s first face transplant — the first anywhere to include a new tongue and jaw. The government statement said the operation at La Fe Hospital in Valencia was extremely complex and Cavadas will wait at least 48 hours to release more information. “Today we can say...

Probing colons has never been this much fun. Japanese researchers have developed the world’s first self-propelled endoscopy device, a remote controlled tadpole-like camera that can “swim” through the digestive tack gathering imagery along the way. This kind of endoscopy isn’t wholly new, of course, but previous iterations of ingestible cameras relied on natural muscle contractions to move them through the body. The “Mermaid,” as it is known, simplifies the process by moving quickly through the digestive tract to its destination, whatever that point may be. Read more…