The body’s healing system could be “supercharged” after a new discovery which gives people with heart disease or broken bones new hope of a better, faster recovery. By Richard Alleyne, Science Correspondent British researchers have developed a technique that boosts the number of repair cells released by the body after a major injury or disease. The discovery means more than 100 times the amount of cells are released, and the scientists hope the breakthrough could lead to speedier recoveries from serious injuries, heart attacks and other organ failures. When a person has a disease...

The humble egg should be considered a superfood thanks to its ability to boost health and even help tackle obesity, according to researchers behind a new study. Nutrition scientists have found that eggs are one of the most nutrient-dense foods available and are recommending that we eat at least one egg a day to get the optimum benefits. In the study, to be published in the journal Nutrition and Food Science, researchers discovered that eggs can play an important role in maintaining health as well as help with weight-loss and dieting. Read More…

Philip Morris, the tobacco giant, is planning to take the Norwegian state to court in an attempt to overturn a law in the Scandinavian country banning the display of cigarettes in stores. Following in the footsteps of several other Western countries like Ireland and Iceland, Norway on January 1 this year banned the display of cigarettes in stores in an attempt to cut impulse buys of tobacco products. In Norway, cigarettes have been banished to closed cases, while cigarette dispensers may no longer display brand labels. The company, which manufactures Marlboro, said in a statement on Tuesday:...

A hairdresser gave birth to a baby girl – just three hours after being told she was pregnant by doctors. Belinda Waite, 21, had been to her local hospital several times during the past nine months and says she was told she had a severe case of Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) and gout. In fact she was pregnant with a healthy baby girl who arrived a month ago. Miss Waite, known as Billy, from Bampton, Devon, said:”You read about these stories in magazines but you never think they happen to real people and I certainly never thought it would happen to me.” Read More…

A Facebook application to help people quit smoking has been launched by a charity. WeQuit will help people and their friends challenge each other to give up nicotine as well as create rewards for success and forfeits for failure. Quitters will also be able to raise money for charity and track each other’s progress by accessing www.WeQuit.co.uk/facebook and adding the application to the social networking site. The launch, by the No Smoking Day charity, is supported by Dragons’ Den star Duncan Bannatyne, who is president of national No Smoking Day. He said: “We feel that quitting...

By Deborah Kotz The advice for losing those stubborn extra pounds seems so simple: Eat less, and exercise more. But as anyone who’s ever tried to lose a few pounds knows, putting that advice into practice is very tough. Cut back on calories too much, and you’re overwhelmed by hunger and your metabolism may slow. Exercise like crazy, and the hunger pangs you feel a few hours later may trigger you to eat back all you’ve burned off—and then some. And let’s be honest, no one really wants to keep track of every bite of food. Read More…

When someone you love is depressed, what are the warning signs that suicide is a possibility? Every 17 minutes, someone dies by suicide in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Suicide is the 11th-leading cause of death for Americans, and while it often comes as a surprise to friends and loved ones, it is largely considered to be preventable if warning signs are heeded. “The tragedy of completed suicide is that most could have been prevented if family members knew what to look for,” says Lisa Boesky, a psychologist and author of When to Worry:...

In Campaign-Like Appearance, Obama Takes Aim at Insurance Companies By BRADLEY BLACKBURN At a campaign-like rally in Pennsylvania today, a combative President Obama criticized insurance companies, pushed members of his own party, and called for the public’s support in a final push for health care reform legislation before Congress. The White House has said it hopes to have a health care bill signed into law by March 18, but even with the president’s full support, passage of the bill is far from certain. Read More…

Scientists at the University of Copenhagen have discovered that Vitamin D is crucial to activating our immune defenses and that without sufficient intake of the vitamin, the killer cells of the immune system – T cells – will not be able to react to and fight off serious infections in the body. For T cells to detect and kill foreign pathogens such as clumps of bacteria or viruses, the cells must first be ‘triggered’ into action and ‘transform’ from inactive and harmless immune cells into killer cells that are primed to seek out and destroy all traces of a foreign...

10-minute body language. This week: ways to tell if someone is lying. By James Borg Society would quickly collapse were it not for the dozens of tiny lies we permit ourselves every day. Mostly we use this for simple good manners. For instance, when breaking up with a partner, we reassure them that “It’s not you, it’s me”, when in reality it most certainly is them. We all learn to lie at such a young age: every parent will recognise the moment where a child first puts their hand to their mouth before stating a blatant lie. From that moment, we get steadily better at lying...