Regular, moderate exercise is good for our immune system. It reduces the risk of common infections such as colds and flu. It also helps protect us from several serious diseases, including cardiovascular disease, Type 2 diabetes and some forms of cancer.
The Department of Health recommends a minimum of 30 minutes of at least moderate intensity activity on five days a week or more. You don't have to do 30 minutes at once; three 10-minute sessions will do just as much to help keep your defense system healthy.
Women who have an eating disorder often can't recognize the problem or they try to hide it, making diagnosis difficult. But a new method involving hair analysis may provide a more objective means of determining whether someone is a sufferer. As hair grows continuously by adding new proteins (the make-up of which is influenced by a person's nutritional state and eating patterns), each follicle becomes a chemical record of the individual's daily diet. A team of researchers at Utah's Brigham Young University analyzed the pattern of carbon and nitrogen molecules in hair strands to see if this varied between people with eating disorders and those who had normal eating behaviors. Careful statistical analysis enabled the scientists to give an 80% accurate prediction about whether a person had anorexia or bulimia, the two most common eating disorders.
Doctors find it more difficult to diagnose complex pain in women than men due to poor communication. New research suggests that women with chronic pain tend to give brief, vague details, while men readily describe their chronic pain in precise symptom-based facts. This means that doctors are better able to diagnose the sources of chronic pain in men, which may lead to more appropriate treatments where they're concerned.
Interestingly, the study also found that when doctors weren't present women would readily describe their pain in similar terms as men. It appears doctor-patient communicator also falls short in other areas, leading to disappointment for many patients.
Try these easy ways to improve digestion.
• Eat at least five portions of fruit and vegetables every day.
• Replace white bread with wholemeal, granary or multi-grain varieties.
• Serve casseroles and curries with brown rice or wholewheat pasta.
• In baking recipes, replace white flour with wholemeal, buckwheat or unrefined rye flour.
• Add cooked barley, wheat or seeds to salads.
• Eat a pot of pro-biotic yogurt daily.
