offspring

Sunday, February 27, 2011

Scramble back to eggs!

Scramble back to eggs! Forget those high cholesterol warnings, they're healthier than ever, say experts

By Sophie Borland
Last updated at 10:39 AM on 14th February 2011

Good egg: The high cholesterol content which previously made eggs a health risk is now much lower compared to ten years ago 
Good egg: The high cholesterol content which previously made eggs a health risk is now much lower compared to ten years ago

If you're eyeing up your breakfast options and fancy going to work on an egg, there’s no need to hold back.
For after years of telling us to shun them as an everyday food, the health police now say that eggs have become better for us.

The cholesterol content of eggs – which was previously believed to be a health risk – is now much lower compared with ten years ago, a study  suggests.

Eggs also contain more vitamin D, which helps protect the bones, preventing diseases such as osteoporosis and rickets.

The reason eggs have become more nutritious over the past decade is that hens are no longer fed bone meal, which was banned in the Nineties following the BSE crisis, the researchers claim. Instead the birds are normally given a mixture of wheat, corn and high-protein formulated feed, which makes their eggs more wholesome.

A U.S. government study found that modern eggs contain 13 per cent less cholesterol and 64 per cent more vitamin D compared with a decade ago. 
This is backed by British research which shows that a medium-sized egg contains about 100mg of cholesterol, a third of the 300mg recommended daily limit.

Hen diet: Researchers claim that the reason that eggs have become so nutritious in the past decade is that hens eat more healthily since bone meal was banned in the 1990s following the BSE crisis 

Hen diet: Researchers claim that the reason that eggs have become so nutritious in the past decade is that hens eat more healthily since bone meal was banned in the 1990s following the BSE crisis

Andrew Joret, deputy chairman of the British Egg Industry Council, whose firm Noble Foods made the findings, said: ‘We believe the reduction is due to changes in the feeds used in British plants since the Nineties when the use of bone meal was banned.’ 


page 3 pugh.jpg 
Two years ago Canadian researchers claimed that eggs actually helped lower blood pressure. 

They suggested that when eggs are digested they produce proteins that mimic the action of powerful blood pressure-lowering drugs, known as Ace inhibitors. 

A recent Surrey University study found eating one or two eggs for breakfast could help with weight loss as the high protein content makes us feel fuller longer. 

The study, which involved volunteers eating two eggs a day for 12 weeks, also found that none had raised cholesterol. 

In the Sixties many Britons ate up to five eggs a day but by the Nineties this had dropped to two or three a week – in part due to warnings about high cholesterol levels.

Charles Saatchi, husband of TV chef Nigella Lawson, recently claimed to have lost five stone by eating eggs for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Saturday, February 26, 2011

Facebook leaves users 'anxious and stressed'

Facebook leaves users 'anxious and stressed' as they agonise over online friends

By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 8:33 AM on 17th February 2011


The more ‘friends’ you have on Facebook, the more likely you are to feel stressed, a study has found.
Psychologists believe that those who are most addicted to the website can develop ‘Facebook-related anxiety’.

And they said that for a significant number, the negative effects of using the site – which has more than 500million members – outweighed the benefits of staying in touch with friends and family.


Popular: The more friends you have on Facebook, the more likely you are to feel stressed, a study has found 

Popular: The more friends you have on Facebook, the more likely you are to feel stressed, a study has found

Researchers from Edinburgh Napier University questioned students on their use of the site.
Many said turning down friend requests left them feeling guilty, while more than one in ten found just being on the site a ‘nervous’ experience.

 
Others could not handle the pressure to be ‘entertaining’, while others became ‘envious’ of users who had more friends or seemed to be having more fun than them.

Dr Kathy Charles, who led the study, said: ‘We found it was actually those with the most contacts, those who had invested the most time in the site, who were the ones most likely to be stressed.’

Dr Charles added that many users could give no real reason why they used the site. 

But she said: ‘Many also told us they were anxious about withdrawing from the site for fear of missing important social information or offending contacts.’

Facebook refused to comment.

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Soap and Water

Why soap and water is the best cure for a grazed knee

By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 7:42 AM on 23rd February 2011
It will be welcome news to any child who has squealed and squirmed while a caring parent dabs stinging antiseptic on to their cuts.

Washing playground wounds with soap and water may be more effective than applying antibiotic creams, according to a study. 

Scientists claim that cleaning a child’s cuts and grazes carefully under the tap helps the healing process more than using antibacterial lotions and treatments.

The researchers originally intended to compare two antibiotics commonly used to treat skin infections to find out which was more effective.

Cure: The best remedy for a grazed knee in the playground in soap and water according to a new study 

Cure: The best remedy for a grazed knee in the playground in soap and water according to a new study

After cleaning and dressing the wounds of 191 patients at a children’s hospital, they gave each child one of the treatments at random – but found that the choice of drug made no difference.

Within a week, 95 per cent of the participants had recovered completely, regardless of which antibiotic they had received.

The researchers concluded that the secret to successful healing was proper wound care and cleaning, not antibiotics.

The study’s lead author, Dr Aaron Chen, said: ‘The good news is that no matter which antibiotic we gave, nearly all skin infections cleared up fully within a week.

The better news might be that good low-tech wound care – cleaning, draining and keeping the infected area clean – is what truly makes the difference between rapid healing and persistent infection.’

Dr Chen added that keeping wounds clean had always been the cornerstone of skin infection treatment, but that more doctors had started prescribing antibiotics in recent years – despite the raised costs and risk of developing side effects or drug resistance.

Paediatrician Dr George Siberry said: ‘Many physicians understandably assume that antibiotics are always necessary for bacterial infections, but there is evidence to suggest this may not be the case.

‘We need studies that precisely measure the benefit of antibiotics to help us determine which cases warrant them and which ones would fare well without them.’

The 191 children in the study, aged from six months to 18 years, were treated for skin infections at Johns Hopkins Children’s Centre in Baltimore, Maryland, between 2006 and 2009.

Of these, 133 were infected with community-acquired MRSA bacteria, a virulent strain which does not respond to many antibiotics. The remainder had simple skin infections with non-resistant strains of the bacterium.

The researchers said a follow-up study was necessary to compare patients receiving a placebo with those on antibiotics, along with proper wound cleaning and dressing.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1359753/Why-soap-water-best-cure-grazed-knee.html#ixzz1En3PyH7E

Saturday, February 19, 2011

Mobil phones do not lead to brain tumors

It’s good to talk: Study suggests mobile phones do not lead to brain tumours

By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 8:30 AM on 18th February 2011
Britain’s 48 million mobile users have been assured they are not at the risk of developing cancer from talking on their phone.

Mobile phones have been regularly linked with brain disorders as their usage increased over the last decade and health authorities advised people to try and limit their time on the phone.

But new research from a nine-year study could allay the concern that mobile phones are bad for your health.

Cleared to call: Mobile phone usage has not led to a rise in brain cancer, researchers say 

Cleared to call: Mobile phone usage has not led to a rise in brain cancer, researchers say

Scientists from Manchester University found that there had been a rise in one form of brain cancer in England but said its increased incidence was too small to be linked to mobile phone usage.

Another form of brain cancer decreased in the period studied and researchers believe Britons should not need to spend less time with a mobile phone to their ear.

No need to cut down: Manchester University researchers said mobile phones were unlikely to cause a 'brain cancer epidemic' 

No need to cut down: Manchester University researchers said mobile phones were unlikely to cause a 'brain cancer epidemic'

The study, published in the journal of Bioelectromagnetics, concludes: ‘The increased use of mobile phones between 1985 and 2003 has not led to a noticeable change in the incidence of brain cancer in England between 1998 and 2007.’

Dr Frank de Vocht, who led the research published yesterday, commented: ‘It is very unlikely that we are at the forefront of a brain cancer epidemic related to mobile phones, as some have suggested.

‘We cannot exclude the possibility that there are people who are susceptible to radio frequency exposure or that some rare brain cancers are associated with it, but we interpret our data as not indicating a pressing need to implement public health measures to reduce radio frequency exposure from mobile phones.’

Britain has the highest number of mobile phone users per head of population on the planet, with 89 per cent of Britons using a mobile, compared with 17 per cent of households in 1996.

Professor Malcolm Sperrin, director of medical physics at Royal Berkshire Hospital, said the study’s findings were encouraging.

‘It adds to the bulk of evidence to suggest there is no substantial link between mobile phones and brain cancer.’

Being Bilingual would protect your Brain

People who speak two languages are 'better at multi-tasking and less likely to develop Alzheimer's'

By David Derbyshire
Last updated at 4:59 PM on 18th February 2011

Learning a second language boosts your brain power and can protect against Alzheimer's disease, scientists say.

New research has shown that bilingual people do better in mental challenges and are more skilled at multi-tasking than those who have just one tongue.

They also develop symptoms of dementia an average of four or five years later.

Language barrier: Bilingual people do better in mental challenges and are more skilled at multi-tasking than those who have just one tongue, scientists claim 

Language barrier: Bilingual people do better in mental challenges and are more skilled at multi-tasking than those who have just one tongue, scientists claim

The researchers who made the discovery say bilingual people are constantly exercising their brains - and that being fluent in two languages serves as a 'mental gymnasium'.

The effects are strongest for people who learnt to speak two languages as children.

But the authors say people can still benefit from learning a new language in their 40s or 50s.

Linguists once argued that children raised in bilingual homes suffered problems in both languages.
But recent studies have shattered that belief - and suggest they do better at key mental skills.

 
Psychologist Dr Judith Kroll, of Penn State University, America, told the American Association for the Advancement of Science meeting: 'The received wisdom was that bilingualism created confusion, especially in children.

'The belief was that people who could speak two or more languages had difficulty using either. The bottom line is that bilingualism is good for you.'

The latest studies were carried out at York University in Toronto on 211 Canadians suffering from Alzheimer's disease. Around half were bilingual, the rest spoke just one language fluently.

The bilingual patients had been diagnosed with dementia an average of 4.3 years later - and reported the onset of symptoms 5.1 years later than those who spoke just one language.

The groups had similar incomes and social backgrounds - while the monolingual patients actually had a more formal education.

'Switching between languages is a stimulating activity - it is like carrying out brain exercises which builds up higher levels of what we call brain or cognitive reserve'

Dr Ellen Bialystok, who led the study, said the effect was strongest for people who were fluent in two languages since childhood.

However, people who try to master a second language later in life - including in middle age - are likely to get some protection.

Bilingual people easily slip in and out of both languages - and are constantly working out which word to use. When they talk to each other they often select the word or phrase from the language that most clearly expresses their thoughts.

However, fluent bilinguals rarely make the mistake of slipping into another language when talking to someone who understands just one language.

As a result, they become more practised at multi-tasking - doing two or more things at once.

Juggling two languages boosts one of the most important parts of the brain known as the executive control system, said Dr Bialystok.
'We know that this system deteriorates with age but we have found that at every stage of life it functions better in bilinguals,' she said.

'They perform at a higher level. It won't stop you getting Alzheimer's disease but they can cope with the disease for longer.

'Switching between languages is a stimulating activity - it is like carrying out brain exercises which builds up higher levels of what we call brain or cognitive reserve.

'It is rather like a reserve tank in a car. When you run out of fuel, you can keep going for longer because there is a bit more in the safety tank.'

Learning a language at school - and continuing to practice it - could also be useful.

She added: 'It works best for people who speak two languages every day like immigrants moving to a new country who speak their own language at home.

'But every little bit helps.'
Further research, which is due to be published later this year by Dr Bialystok, suggests that using two languages may change the structure of the brain.

However, the boosted brain power does not make bilinguals more intelligent or better learners, the researchers told the meeting.
 

Thursday, February 17, 2011

Upper-casing your Password

How simply upper-casing your password can frustrate a hacker's attempts at breaking into your account

By Graham Smith
Last updated at 4:09 PM on 10th February 2011

Passwords? Pin numbers? There was a time before Internet shopping when they were barely needed.

But their prevalence has, in turn, led to a growth in online accounts being hacked and the need to memorise increasingly unwieldy passwords.

Now, researchers have found that simply by upper-casing your password you can minimise a hacker's chance of breaking into your account.

Moment of truth: Simply by upper-casing your password you can minimise a hacker's chance of breaking into your account


Moment of truth: Simply by upper-casing your password you can minimise a hacker's chance of breaking into your account

A six-letter password in lower-case text takes a hacker's computer just ten minutes to crack, according to statistics collated by Bloomberg Businessweek.


But make those letters upper-case and it takes ten hours for it to randomly work out your password.

Add numbers and/or symbols to your password and the hacker's computer has to work for 18 days.

Despite widespread warning, 50 per cent of people choose a common word or simple key combination for their password.


IS YOUR PASSWORD SAFE?

 

Length - 6 characters
Lower-case: 10 minutes
+ Upper-case: 10 hours
+ Numbers and symbols: 18 days

Length - 7 characters
Lower-case: 4 hours
+ Upper-case: 23 days
+ Numbers and symbols: 4 years

Length - 8 characters
Lower-case: 4 days
+ Upper-case: 3 years
+ Numbers and symbols: 463 years

Length - 9 characters
Lower-case: 4 months
+ Upper-case: 178 years
+ Numbers and symbols: 44,530 years

Data: Gartner, Forrester, Duo Security, Imperva, LastBit Software as collated by Bloomberg Businessweek
The most used passwords are 123456, password, 12345678, qwerty and abc123.

However, the security conscious among you may want to try this - choose a nine letter password that includes numbers and/or symbols as this would take a hacker's computer a staggering 44,530 years to break.

Sometimes though it's not the fault of the individual.

In December, media firm Gawker urged subscribers to change their passwords after its user database was hacked and more than 1.3million passwords were stolen.

The company, which runs a series of irreverent blogs on media and technology, warned that simple passwords could be vulnerable to attacks by hackers' computers.

A file containing the password details was then published on a file-sharing site by a group allied to the notorious image board 4Chan, which has been linked to a series of recent 'Anonymous' attacks on major websites.

Also last month, the Visa and MasterCard sites were inaccessible for a short time because of attacks by supporters of WikiLeaks.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1355603/How-simply-upper-casing-password-frustrate-hackers-attempts-breaking-account.html#ixzz1E2paWiAE

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

The Benefit of Lavender Oil

Lavender oil is revealed to be the fragrant way to give athlete's foot the boot

By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 11:43 AM on 15th February 2011
Athlete's feet bear the brunt: Lavender oil could be used to aid sufferers of fungal infections, a study has shown 

Athlete's feet bear the brunt: Lavender oil could be used to aid sufferers of fungal infections, a study has shown

Lavender oil could provide a sweet-smelling solution to infections such as athlete’s foot, thrush and ringworm, research suggests.

Tests showed that even at low concentrations, lavender oil had ‘highly potent’ anti-fungal properties.


Tests on the constituents of the essential oil, which is already used to aid sleep and repel moths, showed the effects were mainly due to a compound called alpha-pinene, also found in rosemary and turpentine.


It was not clear how it worked, but it could be by damaging the structure of disease.


Professor Ligia Salgueiro, one of the scientists behind the research at the University of Coimbra in Portugal, said: ‘In the last few years there has been an increase in the incidence of fungal diseases.

'Unfortunately, there is also increasing resistance to anti-fungal drugs used to treat them.


‘Research by our group and others has shown that essential oils may be cheap, efficient alternatives that have minimal side-effects.


‘This is a good starting point for developing this oil for clinical use to manage fungal infections.’


The research, reported in the Journal of Medical Microbiology, was conducted in the lab and the scientists pointed out that real proof would come from testing lavender oil on people, which Professor Salgueiro hopes to start soon.
Conditions such as athlete’s foot are painful, unsightly and hard to treat, often requiring repeated applications of ointments and creams.

In those with weakened immune systems, fungal infections can be extremely serious and even fatal.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1357098/Lavender-oil-revealed-fragrant-way-athletes-foot-boot.html#ixzz1EBwSEF4m

How coffee can boost the brainpower of women...

How coffee can boost the brainpower of women... but scrambles men's thinking

By Pat Hagan and Fiona Macrae
Last updated at 12:57 AM on 2nd February 2011
Next time you have a high-pressure meeting at work, keep an eye on what goes into your colleagues’ cups.
Drinking coffee improves women’s brainpower in stressful situations – but sends men into meltdown, according to a study.

While sipping a cappuccino or downing an espresso boosts women’s performance when working with others, the same drinks impair men’s memories and slow their decision-making.


Drinking coffee improves women¿s brainpower in stressful situations - but sends men into meltdown, according to a study.


Boost: Drinking coffee improves women¿s brainpower in stressful situations - but sends men into meltdown, according to a study. 
And given that Britons get through some 70million cups of coffee a day, the implications are significant, say the researchers.

Psychologist Dr Lindsay St Claire said: ‘Many meetings, including those at which military and other decisions are made, are likely to be male-dominated.

‘Because caffeine is the most widely consumed drug in the world, the global implications are potentially staggering.’

The researchers, from Bristol University, wanted to examine what coffee does to the body when it is already under stress, such as during a tense meeting.

They recruited 64 men and women and put them in same-sex pairs. Each pair was given a range of tasks to complete, including carrying out negotiations, completing puzzles and tackling memory challenges, and told they would have to give a public presentation relating to their tasks afterwards.

Half of the pairs were given decaffeinated coffee, while the others were handed a cup containing a large shot of caffeine. 

The researchers found that men’s performance in memory tests was ‘greatly impaired’ if they drank the caffeinated coffee.

 Britons get through some 70million cups of coffee a day


Stress: Britons get through some 70million cups of coffee a day

They also took an average of 20 seconds longer to complete the puzzles than those on the decaffeinated coffee.

But women completed the puzzles 100 seconds faster if they had been given caffeine, the Journal of Applied Social Psychology reports.

Previous studies have suggested that coffee may provide protection against diabetes, Alzheimer’s disease, liver damage and gout.

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Exercise really does make you clever

Exercise really does make you clever: Fit children have better memories say experts

By Sophie Borland
Last updated at 10:42 PM on 16th September 2010

If you want to boost your child’s results at school, you could do a lot worse than ensuring that they do plenty of exercise. 

Scientists have already shown that physical activity can make you brainier. But a team in America has used scans to show that an important part of the brain actually grows in children who are fit.

These youngsters tend to be more intelligent and have better memories than those who are inactive.


Physically fit children performed better in memory tests and had larger hippocampi, according to a new study


Physically fit children performed better in memory tests and had larger hippocampi, according to a new study (posed)
Scientists also found that one of the most important parts of their brains was 12 per cent larger than those of unfit youngsters.

They believe that encouraging children to take exercise from a very young age could help them do better at school later. 

Researchers from the University of Illinois, in the U.S., studied the brains of 49 children aged nine and ten using a magnetic resonance imaging scan, a technique which provides very detailed pictures of organs and tissues in the body.

They also tested the fitness levels of the children by making them run on a treadmill. The scientists found that the hippocampus, a part of the brain responsible for memory and learning, was around 12 per cent larger in the fitter youngsters.


They found that these children performed much better in memory tests. 


20 and 45 Minutes

Professor Art Kramer, who led the study published in the journal Brain Research, said the findings had important implications for encouraging individuals to take part in sport from a young age. 


Pugh Exercise
‘We knew that experience and environmental factors and socioeconomic status all impact brain development,’ he said.

‘If you get some lousy genes from your parents, you can’t really fix that, and it’s not easy to do something about your economic status. 

But here’s something that we can do something about. ‘This is the first study I know of that has used MRI measures to look at differences in brain between kids who are fit and kids who aren’t.’

The findings could encourage parents and schools to make exercise more of a priority for young children. 

Figures show the majority of youngsters lead inactive lifestyles, with a third of those of primary school age either overweight or obese.

Einstein

Socrates

Confucious

 

blogger templates 3 columns | Make Money Online