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

Scientists are slowly unlocking the secrets of ageing, and some suggest treatments may soon be at hand to slow or even reverse the ageing process.

But what can science really achieve, and what are the dangers of meddling with our biological clocks?

Could such treatments induce cancers in humans, for example, and what about the world’s burgeoning population and the West’s “pension time bomb”?

Read the rest of this entry »

• 0 Comments

It’s been the scourge of dieters for years. Now, one baking obsessive celebrates as experts admit bread is actually good for you.

Dr Atkins must be ­spinning in his grave. After years of demonisation by the diet police, bread — crust, crumb and optional thick layer of golden butter — is back.

Sales of bread are rising for the first time in 36 years: Tesco, Asda and the Co-op have each reported an overall increase of up to 10 per cent, while speciality bakeries are mushrooming, their shelves groaning with ever more inventive breads, studded with everything from chocolate to potato.

Read the rest of this entry »

• 0 Comments

When Carol Thomas decided to quit ­smoking she found it pretty easy. As a typical social smoker she’d never had more than a few cigarettes a day and, for months at a time, would not smoke at all.

Like many people, she assumed ­quitting would mean any damage to her lungs would be reversed.

But five ­cigarette-free years later, Carol was shocked to learn that her ‘habit’ had left her with an incurable lung condition — chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, known as the smokers’ disease.

Read the rest of this entry »

• 0 Comments

In addition to shedding unwanted pounds, there is another reason to put healthy eating on your 2011 resolution list: to live longer.

According to a study published in the January issue of the Journal of the American Dietetic Association, eating healthier can increase your life expectancy.

Since the number of adults worldwide aged 65 years and older is expected to climb to 973 million in 2030 from 420 million in 2000, an increasing amount of research is investigating the effect of diet on longevity.

Read the rest of this entry »

• 0 Comments

Green tea could protect the brain against Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia, say scientists.

The drink, which originated in ancient China, may also play a vital role in guarding against cancer, their study suggests.

Scientists at Newcastle University set out to discover whether the protective properties of the tea – previously shown to be present in the freshly brewed form – are still active once it has been digested.

Read the rest of this entry »

• 0 Comments

Including too many ready-made items in a Sunday roast could lead to excessive salt intake, says research from a health charity.

In a survey of 600 supermarket products, Consensus Action on Salt and Health (CASH) found that unnecessary amounts of salt are being hidden in certain items of prepared food.

But cooking and preparing fresh food reduces levels dramatically, it says.

Read the rest of this entry »

• 0 Comments

Think back to last year when a provocative study found that being overweight – but not obese – may help you live longer. It certainly wasn’t the first bit of research to challenge the conventional medical view of the ideal body weight. These reports, which got big play in the contrarian news media, helped fuel the appealing notion you can be fat and fit.

But people who now consider themselves to be pleasantly plump should brace for a reality check.

Read the rest of this entry »

• 0 Comments