Insomnia linked to higher heart attack risk

WASHINGTON, USA: As if you didn't have enough to worry about during those sleepless nights, a Norwegian study out Monday suggests that people with insomnia face a 27% to 45% higher risk of heart attack. Read more >>

Busting myths of psoriasis

29 October is World Psoriasis Day and an important occasion to raise awareness of psoriasis - a misunderstood condition. It is an opportunity to raise awareness amongst to South Africans who bravely live with this condition their whole lives and often suffer from severe discomfort. Read more >>

Wall of Hope opens at Melrose Arch

An interactive art installation, entitled Wall of Hope, was opened at the Melrose Arch Piazza, Johannesburg on 25 October 2011 to draw attention to the cause of child hunger. This KFC Add Hope initiative encourages public participation in reaching its target for this year's October World Hunger relief month of enough money to provide a million meals in the coming year. Read more >>

Yoga, stretching help lower back pain: study

WASHINGTON, USA: People who suffer chronic lower back pain saw about the same improvement after taking yoga classes taught by highly trained teachers as they did from stretching classes, said a US study. Read more >>

New test can precisely pinpoint food pathogens

ITHACA, NY, USA: With salmonella-tainted ground turkey sickening more than 100 people and listeria-contaminated cantaloupes killing 15 this year, the ability to detect outbreaks of food-borne illness and determine their sources has become a top public health priority. Read more >>

R500m to fund NHI pilot sites

About R500 million is expected to be set aside in the 2012 Budget to fund pilot sites for the National Health Insurance (NHI) system, the Minister of Finance Pravin Gordhan revealed yesterday, 25 October 2011. Read more >>

BPA linked to behavior problems in girls

WASHINGTON, USA: Girls who were exposed to the industrial chemical bisphenol A (BPA) while in the womb showed more behavioral problems at age three than those whose moms had lower BPA levels, said a study released Monday. Read more >>

Largest study of causes of cancer in India begins

A large study to investigate causes of common cancers in India is being carried out through a collaboration between Oxford University in the UK and 12 leading cancer centres in India. Read more >>

New protein structure expands nature's repertoire of biomolecules

A new, artificial protein structure has been made by a team of University of Bristol chemists, biochemists and mathematicians, a paper in Nature Chemical Biology reports this week. Read more >>

Plastic-brained teens have big IQ swings

PARIS, FRANCE: Youngsters experience huge swings in intelligence during their teenage years, a finding with widespread implications for education, scientists reported last week. Read more >>

Body boosters - fruit and vegetables

Nutritional science is showing why your mother was right when she told you to eat your vegetables. Johannesburg registered dietician Ashleigh Caradas says adding fruit and veggies to a meal increases its nutritional value and healthgiving properties. Read more >>

Teen violence linked to heavy soda diet

PARIS, FRANCE: Researchers in the United States said on Tuesday, 25 October 2011, they had found a "shocking" association - if only a statistical one - between violence by teenagers and the amount of soda they drank. Read more >>

The link between natural killer cells and infertility

More and more women experiencing frequent miscarriages are learning of natural killer (NK) cells as the potential culprits behind their inability to achieve an ongoing pregnancy. And while killer cells are in fact our protectors against various infections and diseases such as cancer, they are being pinpointed in medical circles as a potential cause of infertility and recurrent pregnancy loss with increasing regularity. Read more >>

Pill and pregnancy have biggest effects on ovarian cancer risk

Taking the Pill for 10 years can reduce the risk of ovarian cancer by almost half (45%), new research part-funded by Cancer Research UK shows. Read more >>

Polio vaccine paralyses child

A Gauteng child has been paralysed as a result of a rare complication from polio vaccination, said the Department of Health. Read more >>

US doctors discourage videos for babies under two

WASHINGTON, USA: Like 90% of American parents, Matthew Sullivan allows his infant daughter and five-year-old son to watch television, videos and sometimes web-streamed content on his smartphone. Read more >>

More people turn to clinics

An increasing number of people are showing confidence in Gauteng's primary health care (PHC) facilities, with more than three million people having visited the facilities in the last quarter of the current financial year. Read more >>

NHI pilots for 10 districts

National health insurance pilot projects will take place in 10 districts to test feasibility and "scalability", Treasury said in its 2011 medium-term budget policy statement, tabled in the National Assembly on Tuesday, 25 October 2011. Read more >>

Performance of health services put to test

The attainment of goals set for the Health Department's Negotiated Service Delivery Agreement (NSDA) will receive sharp scrutiny as Health Deputy Minister, Dr Gwen Ramokgopa continues to assess the performance of health district services. Read more >>