Top Five Health News of the Week: 19th Jan – 24th Jan
Greetings to all our HealthJockey readers! We have come to the end of yet another progressive week. Numerous discoveries and revelations have been unveiled in the past week. No matter whatever happens, our dedicated scientists and researchers will not be deterred, in their selfless act of developing novel techniques for the betterment of the overall society. These astounding and even potential life saving interventions may aid in abolishing various deadly diseases and illnesses. As always, we have selected five of the most eye-catching happenings of the past week, for your reference. Without any further delay we begin our Top Five News of the Week.
Some people eat to live, while some live to eat! Food is the only thing required for mankind to survive. Certain foodstuffs may even have the capacity to curb or even prevent the onset of mild or deadly diseases. Thus researchers from the Emory University attempted to evaluate what role was played by which particular food compound in the prevention of certain diseases. Omer Kucuk from the Emory Winship Cancer Institute states that food compounds like soy isoflavones and circumin could possibly improve the effect of chemotherapy and radiation in a patient! The reason for the said improvement is as yet unknown though. But this astounding discovery is enough to urge patients and even healthy people to pay more attention to what constitutes their daily diet. How hard can it be to make the right food choice? For instance, instead of going for the fizzy drink, opt for the yummy banana milkshake. While you sip on your milkshake, we will proceed to our next news of the week.
If banana milkshake is one of your favorite drinks, then we are sure our female readers must have raced our male readers to it. It’s alright; don’t be embarrassed, there is a logical reason behind it. A latest study by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Brookhaven National Laboratory states that women face more difficulty in restricting themselves from their favorite foodstuffs, as compared to men. The brain activities of various male and female subjects were observed in order to determine the difference that varying sex brings to their confrontation of their most desirable food. Lead author Gene-Jack Wang says that all the subjects were asked to “inhibit” their urge, on a confrontation with their favorite food. It was noticed that there was a frivolous activity in the brain of women, while lesser activity was noticed in the male brain. Thus they conclude that women may find it more difficult to control their urge for food as compared to men. No wonder more often women feel the need to diet as opposed to men!
Still lurking in the foodstuffs zone, it seems that fish oil can prevent the early onset of skin cancer. Consumption of the fatty acid present in certain fishes is said to increase a person’s skin immunity against the development of skin cancer. A study on animals has supported this claim. However a human study has yet to be conducted in order to determine if they produce similar results. While we wait for the human study to commence, we can indulge ourselves in some fish recipes in the meanwhile. And who doesn’t like to eat fish? Moreover if consumption of fish has potential capability to prevent skin cancer, that’s all the more reason to eat it. Bring it on!
Consumption of certain foodstuffs may help in curbing or treating certain diseases and ailments, in addition to medical treatments. Not all prefer to undergo and expose their body to various chemicals and drugs, so they opt for more traditional methods of treatment. One such traditional approach is acupuncture. This Chinese medical therapy has proved to be beneficial for curing various painful points in the body. For such treatments people usually prefer to go to the best, in order to avoid any misconstrued complications. However reviews by Cochrane researchers have concluded that irrespective of fake or authentic acupuncture used, they both yield similar results in the patient. Klaus Linde, lead author of both studies, suggests doctors to be more wary about the longevity of the acupuncture treatment used in patients. They should be aware of the difference in the type of treatment received by a profession acupuncturist and a basically trained acupuncturist. These results have not yet been verified.
Earlier having stated that women are more prone to dieting as compared to men, our last news will further divide the dieting category in: low calorie diet followers and low carbohydrate diet followers. There are various forms of diets that a person, more appropriately a woman, may follow. However not all the forms of dieting are considered healthy and can promise consistent results in the long run. A latest University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center study states that people on a low carbohydrate diet burned more liver fat as compared to the people on a low calorie diet. The low carbohydrate diet followers had to depend mainly on their liver fat for energy, as compared to the low calorie diet followers. The authors state that excessive accumulation of liver fat may be the causal factor of non-alcoholic liver disease. Thus they feel that their study findings may help in developing new treatments for obesity, insulin resistance, etc. The authors strongly state that this study was not conducted with the aim of verifying which diet promises more weight loss. A check on an individual’s weight and food intake may be of great help in avoiding various forms of diseases and illnesses in the long run.
We conclude that everyone should eat healthy and live healthy; after all life is worth saving and enjoying. We hope to have prompted you to follow a healthy life style henceforth. For those of you, who would like to know more about your health, can continue reading HealthJockey. Until next week, we wish all of you a nice, fun filled and a safe weekend. Adieus!
