Most of us suffer from moments of memory loss — walking into a room and forgetting what you were looking for or grasping for the name of the person you have just bumped into on the street.

You could be suffering from brain anaemia, according to psychologist Jane G. Goldman.

She’s not talking about the nutritional condition caused by a lack of iron: she means a lack of new experiences and mental challenges that the brain needs to keep it in tip-top condition.

Read the rest of this entry »

• 0 Comments

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.

Read the rest of this entry »

• 0 Comments

Sleep problems are not just tiring and frustrating, they can also cause health problems, raising the risk of heart disease and stroke, according to a study recently published in the European Heart Journal.

So what are the causes of nightmares, teeth-grinding, restlessness and early waking? There are 89 different sleep disorders.

Read the rest of this entry »

• 0 Comments

This is the first peek of Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban’s daughter Faith Margaret.

The couple recently announced the birth of the baby, who was born via a surrogate.

And last night Urban couldn’t resist showing a picture of his bundle of joy to camera crews at the Screen Actors Guild Awards in Los Angeles.

Revealing the picture of mother and daughter on his iPhone, country singer Urban cooed: ‘She [Faith Margaret] looks just like her [Nicole], don’t you think?’

Read the rest of this entry »

• 0 Comments

It’s something that happens to all of us as we age. Our arteries – the vessels that deliver oxygen-rich blood to our tissues – stiffen and lose their ability to easily expand and contract.

Having stiffer arteries increases the risk of high blood pressure, heart attack, stroke and cognitive decline even among people who don’t have outward symptoms of cardiovascular problems.

According to a report that will be published in the February issue of The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, the foods you eat – and don’t eat – can help keep your arteries young by reducing stiffness.

Read the rest of this entry »

• 0 Comments

A curry a day may help keep cancer away.

Bharat Aggarwal, a professor of experimental therapeutics at the University of Texas’s M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, began studying the cancer-fighting properties of curcumin – the active ingredient in turmeric – in the 1990s. Back then, he says, it was hard to get his colleagues to take him seriously; he recalls one oncologist politely shooed him out of his office when he tried to share his findings.

These days, however,his is an expanding field of research.The scientific community is discovering the medicinal powers of not just turmeric, but all kinds of spices.

Read the rest of this entry »

• 0 Comments

To the natural-born yogis out there, reaching down to touch your toes may not seem like much of a goal. But then there those of us who began ordering the daily newspaper online because bending down to get the dead-tree version is too much of a challenge. If your muscles are tighter than your budget, maybe it’s time to stretch.

Actually, the concept of stretching has taken somewhat of a beating in recent years. A research retrospective commissioned by the IDEA Health & Fitness Association in 2010 found that stretching before a workout doesn’t diminish the risk of injury and, in fact, may increase it by making the joints less stable. Stretching doesn’t seem to mitigate the muscle soreness that comes from running a marathon or moving the furniture, either, and it may have a negative impact on both strength and athletic performance.

Read the rest of this entry »

• 0 Comments