Happiness may be a key to staying healthy in old age. A new long-term study involving nearly 3,200 people ages 60 and older found that those who enjoy life are better able to handle physical activities such as eating, getting dressed, and showering; the} even walk faster. By contrast, the unhappiest people were about 80 percent more likely to have […]
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Women who are trying to get pregnant through IVF (in vitro fertilization) are finding that if they eat too many fruits and vegetables that are sprayed with pesticides might be the reason they can’t conceive. A study of Pesticides and IVF was conducted on 325 women trying to conceive. They were given questionnaires to fill out with the information regarding […]
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■ Tourists at a Los Angeles hotel were distressed to learn they’d been drinking, bathing, and brushing their teeth with water from a rooftop tank in which a dead body had been decomposing. The body was discovered by a maintenance worker who was trying to figure out why the water pressure was so low. “The water did have a funny […]
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People who use sleeping pills regularly are far more likely to die prematurely than those who don’t, according to a new study. Researchers compared the health records of more than 10,000 sleeping-pill users with those of other patients of similar ages and health histories who didn’t use the drugs. They found that the heaviest sleeping-pill users were five times more […]
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■ A husband’s act of solidarity on behalf of his cancer-stricken wife may have saved his life. When Dolly Stringer of Moultrie, Ga., shaved her head last spring in preparation for chemotherapy to treat breast cancer, her husband, Bud, shaved his too. Only then did he discover a black mark on his pate, which was an aggressive form of skin […]
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Alaska man shot himself – Waited 5 days to go to doctor An Alaska man who accidentally shot himself in the head self-treated his wound for five days with antibiotic ointment rather than go to a doctor. Police said that James Doppler, 43, was “playing around” with his .22 long rifle when he pulled the trigger, blasting himself in the […]
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A huge virus discovered in sediment on the Chilean coast and another in an Australian pond are not only the largest scientists have ever seen, but also among the most baffling. A single so-called pandora virus is 1,000 times the size of the influenza virus and holds 2,556 genes, compared with the flu’s 13. Only 6 percent of its genes […]
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To the surprise of doctors, new research on acupuncture has found that the ancient Chinese healing technique provides real pain relief. Acupuncture involves sticking needles into specific points in the body that Chinese healers believe contain unseen energy pathways; the needles supposedly stimulate the flow of “qi,” or energy. Western medicine has viewed these claims with deep skepticism, contending that […]
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