Hamburgers, fries and pizza were always considered unhealthy for the organism. However, the latest researches demonstrated that fast food makes us depressed which is pretty surprising. Experts revealed that the regular consumption of these food items can generate negative changes in our mental health. According to recent studies regular fast food consumers are no less than 51% more likely to suffer from depression than those who consume pizza or hamburger every once in a while. Moreover, it was also revealed that people who were regular visitors at fast food restaurants became less active and had more chances to stay single.

The latest research was published in the Journal of Public Health Nutrition and it was realized with the help of 9,000 people who had never suffered from depression. Individuals were analyzed over a period of about six months. The partial and final results also revealed that 493 of these individuals started to take anti-depressants and were diagnosed with depression.

Lead researcher, Dr Almudena Sanchez-Villegas from the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria claimed that, “Even eating small quantities is linked to a significantly higher chance of developing depression.[...]Although more studies are necessary, the intake of this type of food should be controlled because of its implications on both health (obesity, cardiovascular diseases) and mental well-being.”.

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Numerous researchers demonstrated the beneficial effect of tea consumption. According to the latest studies two cups of tea per day increase chances of having a baby. However, the results of numerous experiments also reveal that it is highly recommended to stay away from fizzy drinks which could make dramatic changes in our organism. Boost your chances to become pregnant with this simple nutritional trick. According to experts women who drank tea regularly were ’27 per cent more likely to become pregnant’(DailyMail)compared to the ones who skipped this ritual. The same experiment also revealed that women who consumed more than two fizzy drinks per day reduced their chances to become pregnant by 20 per cent. The research focused on a group of 3,600 women who were trying to have a baby.

Professor Elizabeth Hatch as the author of the study and scholar at Boston University in the United States wanted to find out if the regular intake of caffeine has an effect on the organism of women who tried to have a baby. This time the scientist monitored each of the individuals included in the program for a year. Professor Elizabeth Hatch claimed that, “We found that women who drank tea two or three times a day did have a 27 per cent increased chance of becoming pregnant. We don’t know how they took the tea or if they added milk or lemon, but they had this increased chance of getting pregnant over women who did not drink tea at all.[...] It may be linked to caffeine but clearly there may be other factors linked with the women’s lifestyle or there may be beneficial properties in tea itself.”.

The professor also added that, “I think drinking two or three cups of tea a day for anyone wishing to get pregnant will be fine. I would love to say tea is a miracle cure to get pregnant but that is not realistic. There may be other factors. The tea drinkers tended to be older women and there may be something else in their diet or lifestyle that helped.”.

Find out more about this experiment from future news reports.

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The new strain of tuberculosis that hit India has caused a lot of stir and concern internationally. Health activist have been trying to find out the cause of the breakout especially since today is the World Tuberculosis Day and the findings have heightened potential for raising awareness on the disease. It appears that in the latest case of drug resistant TB strains the way the Indian government has handled the TB treatment.

In order to be effective, the treatment must be administrated continuously over a six or nine months period. It appears that the alternating the days in which patient received antibiotics is the most likely cause that determined the mutations in the bacterial strain which cannot be cured with current antibiotics.

Piero Gandini, head of Doctors Without Borders in India states that the findings mean that “There is an urgent need for regulatory control of sale and administration of TB drugs in the private sector” in order to prevent similar consequences in the future. The latest findings are extremely worrisome especially since 20% of the multi drug resistant TB strains are found in India.

The latest scientific reports reveal the fact that daily aspirin intake could possibly treat and prevent cancer. The revolutionary discoveries published in The Lancet shed light on the anti-cancer power of these drugs. According to statistics numerous people take at least one aspirin a day to prevent heart disease. However, experts also warn the public that aspirin can have a negative impact on our organism especially on our stomach. The latest research was led by Prof Peter Rothwell, from Oxford University  and his colleagues and managed to find evidence on the beneficial effect of this drug on bowel cancer.

Specialist reports from the past years also claim that it is a must to take aspirin for no less than 10 years to benefit from protection. This year, however, the same experts revealed that it could be enough to consume the drugs for 3-5 years to take advantage of the anti-cancer power of aspirin. According to the results of the latest research aspirin could also stop the spreading of cancer. The results of the tests made on an aspirin-taking group show that taking a low dose of aspirin per day could reduce the total number of cancer cases “by about a quarter after only three years” (BBC News). Furthermore, if the patients took aspirin for more than 5 years their death risk of cancer went down by no less than 37%.

In addition to the results, experts also revealed that a moderate dose of aspirin per day could reduce the spreading of bowel cancer by as much as half in some cases.  However, Prof Peter Rothwell, claim that people should also opt for healthier options to prevent cancer like giving up smoking, a balanced diet and exercising. He added that, “We now need some definitive advice from the government as to whether aspirin should be recommended more widely,”.

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Healthy lifestyle and in particular healthy eating has been associated with a lower chance of getting serious diseases and even enhanced chances of getting cured, with antioxidants receiving lots of attention due to their alleged role in fighting aging. However it seems that they might not be the ‘cure it all’ miracle some like to believe it is. A new study shows that antioxidants might not be beneficial in improving Alzheimer symptoms.

In fact, in the study conducted by Dr. Douglas Galasko from the University of California, San Diego a peculiar effect was observed. The research included 78 patients with mild to moderate Alzheimer’s disease, all over 70 and all previously medicated with Alzheimer drugs. The patients were divided into three groups: one group was given a vitamin C, vitamin E and alpha-lipoic acid supplement daily, the second received supplements of coenzyme Q while the last group received placebo. None of the group was informed as to what they received.

16 weeks later the participants were checked again. Differences were most notable in the vitamin group where small decrease in spinal fluid markers of central nervous system damage were observed. However, those same patients performed worse on cognitive tests like thinking and memory tests, a warning sign for the researchers who concluded that these supplements ”would not be likely to make a substantial contribution to the treatment of established Alzheimer’s disease”.

Sultan Kosen (8 feet 3 inches tall) was been named the world’s tallest living man by Guinness World Records for three years in a row but it seems that he won’t be making any more height world records thanks to an advanced treatment for his condition.

Kosen’s extreme height is not the result of heredity but the result of  gigantism, a condition in which the pituitary gland produces an excess of growth hormone. His pituitary gland developed a non cancerous tumor.  The condition has had many unpleasant symptoms which affected his help. His joints were weak as a result and, despite the fact that the condition was diagnosed when he was 10 years old, the location of the tumor has made it extremely risky to perform surgery.

All of this started changing in August 2010 when  Dr. Sheehan performed gamma knife radiosurgery. The surgery was a success but the effects were notable only one or two years after it. But three months ago, the doctors have learned that the tumor has stopped growing and the production of growth hormone has been stopped entirely.

According to a study made by Japanese scientists at Keio University in Tokyo, taking vitamin E supplements may be bad for the bones. Researchers led by Shu Takeda found that mice given large doses of vitamin E had lower bone mass, while those deficient in this vitamin actually had higher bone mass.

“It is possible that with the volume (of vitamin E) contained in health supplements, bones may become fragile,” Takeda told the Mainichi Shimbun newspaper.

Despite the fact that prior experiments revealed the opposite, suggesting that vitamin E is in fact beneficial for bone health, the new study shows that maintaining a balance between bone-forming cells (osteoblasts) and bone-degrading (osteoclasts) keeps bones strong. Researchers explain that vitamin E could encourage the formation of osteoclast cells, which meant more bone was lost than would be laid down.

However, much more research is needed to better understand how vitamin E works in the skeletons of humans. “Before we start telling people to throw away their vitamin E, let me state that these results are in mice and more studies are needed to see the risks and benefits in humans,” said Dr. Robert Graham, an internist at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City.

Getting regular Pap smears is one of the most effective methods to detect and boost cervical cancer survival, a new Swedish study confirms. The study followed 1,200 Swedish women diagnosed with cervical cancer between 1999 and 2001 and analyzed the differences between those who got their diagnosis early via regular Pap smears and those who were diagnosed based on symptoms.

The difference between the two groups in terms of survival was significant. While 66 percent of the women diagnosed through symptoms were cured for those diagnosed early with Pap smears the percent jumped to a staggering 92 percent, a 26 percent difference which can be easily explained by the fact that symptoms don’t appear until cancer has spread to other body parts. Moreover, the survival changes were highest among those who were screened regularly.

Among 400 women who died from cervical cancer, 75 percent of them did not do Pap smears as recommended by the guidelines. In light of these findings, the recommendations for yearly checkups might make even more sense as problems can be detected before they aggravate and turn into cancer. Current guidelines recommend getting a vaccine and starting screening as soon as women become sexually active and every one or two years after that depending on the findings. A the age 30, women who had three normal screening in a row should repeat the test every 3 years.

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Studies have shown that omega-3 fatty acids in fish oils are essential when it comes to brain development and nerve cell regeneration, while a low amount of these acids are associated to mental decline.  A recent study made on 1,575 people with an average age of 67 reveals a bigger rate of brain shrinkage in those lacking docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), a fatty acid that helps nerve cells communicate with each other.

Dr Zaldy Tan, an Alzheimer’s researcher from the University of California at Los Angeles, who led the US research reported in the journal Neurology, said that, “People with lower blood levels of omega-3 fatty acids had lower brain volumes that were equivalent to about two years of structural brain ageing.”

According to the study, people with lower levels of DHA had smaller brains than those with higher levels. Moreover, these low levels also resulted into poor test scores for visual memory, problem solving, multi-tasking and abstract thinking. Important sources of omega-3 fatty acids are oily fish such as sardines, mackerel and herring. Also, keep in mind that eating fish helps increasing the immunity of a person.

A recent research made by a team of scientists at Rockefeller University in New York lead to a great discovery that might be the first step in finding an effective cure for insomnia. The experiment developed on fruit flies revealed that those carrying a mutation in the protein slept two thirds less than normal and also had much shorter lifespans.

“Sleep is a fundamental behaviour in all animals, and it is poorly understood from a scientific standpoint. This work gives us several new clues about how sleep is controlled at the molecular level, and could prove useful in understanding and treating sleep disorders,” Dr Nicholas Stavropoulos, of Rockefeller University in New York, said.

Researchers cloned and tested the gene, known as insomniac, in more than 20,000 fruit flies and discovered a new mechanism by which sleep is regulated. They used an infrared beam to detect when the flies nodded off and detected those with the variant slept for an average of just 317 minutes a day instead of the typical amount of 927 minutes. The flies with mutations also snoozed for shorter periods, slept and woke more frequently, and lived only about two thirds as long as others.

“The results showed a dramatic loss of both the duration of the flies  sleep and their ability to remain asleep after they dozed off. But what’s especially interesting is the insomniac gene may function through homeostatic mechanisms. These are distinct from the well-studied circadian clock pathways linked to sleep, and have an effect on the body regardless of the time of day,” Stavropoulos said.

By eliminating the gene from neurons, the dissimilarity disappeared and the resulting animals slept poorly but lived just as long. “This suggests reduced sleep can be ‘uncoupled’ from reduced lifespan, supporting the idea some disruptions of sleep do not effect overall health, at least as far as lifespan is concerned,” Dr Stavropoulos added.