Newzity

Okay, the blind part is a joke. But scientists think regular masturbation helps men reduce the risk of prostate cancer. The same is not true for regular intercourse though.

Australian researchers came to the conclusion form a survey of 1,000 men with prostate cancer and 1,250 healthy men. They found men between 20 to 50 years of age with frequent ejaculation were least likely to have the cancer. It is more effective for younger men in their 20’s, and a frequency of more than five times a week reduced the risk of prostate cancer by a third. They think ejaculation helps men flush out the cancer-causing chemicals that accumulate in the prostrate glad. One such chemical is 3-methylchloranthrene, also found in cigarette smoke. However, frequent intercourse with multiple partners actually increases the risk by 40% due to the increased risk of STIs.

This is similar to the connection between breast cancer and lactation: breastfeeding also helps to get rid of cancer causing chemicals in women.

It may sound odd, but scientists think so. Women who opt for low calorie diet and skip breakfasts during conception and pregnancy are more likely to have baby girls. Women who eat high energy meals and have regular breakfasts are more likely to have boys.

No, this does not mean women determine the sex of the baby. It is still the man’s job. So what’s going on? Scientists are not really sure. They think the high level of glucose in mother’s blood helps the development of male embryos while it works against females. As a result, woman with low glucose level tend to have baby girls more often. When a woman skips breakfast, her body reads it a sign of food shortage, and as a natural response the body lowers glucose level. Even a subtle change in glucose level is enough to change the viability of the embryos. The findings may explain why in the developed countries there is a decline in birth rate of boys in the recent years. Young women in wealthy countries tend to prefer low calorie diet. That is ironic, since they adopt low calorie diet as a response to the abundance of food.

This means malnourished woman would give birth to more baby girls. Not sure how many women would use the breakfast as a tool to control the sex of their baby.

You might have to consider the question if PETA has its way. After trying to fight the meat eating habits for a long time, PETA now wants to give up. Not entirely though, they want you to eat test tube meat. They are offering $1 million prize for anyone who can make commercially viable meat in the lab.

Growing meat in the lab is nothing new. Scientists can grow tissue cultures that can be shaped and textured like the real meat using the same techniques used for soy burgers. The advantage is that it would need much less resource like land and water to produce, and for PETA it won’t involve any real animal. So cruelty against animal is out of the question. With right flavoring and texture the test tube meat can be made to replace chicken, beef, fish, or anything else you want. A separate organization called New Harvest that promotes meat substitute points at other benefits:

“Because meat substitutes are produced under controlled conditions impossible to maintain in traditional animal farms, they can be safer, more nutritious, less polluting and more humane than conventional meat.”

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It worked for Edna Parker, the oldest living person on the planet. Today is her 115-th birthday. Her 59 year old grandson said she has been always thin and happy, and that did the trick. But no one really knows the secrets of longevity, but scientists think her gene and life style played a major role.

Edna was born in April 20 1893, and last august become the oldest person when a Japanese women four months older than her died. In the whole world, there are only 75 people that are 110 or older: most of them women and only 11 men. Average life expectancy in US is about 76 year and in Japan it is about 80, the longest in the world. Japan also has the largest number of people over 110, or the super-centenarians. Edna celebrated her 115 birthday with her family at her nursing home.

Over the years she has lost all people from her generation and most from the next one. Her husband died 70 years ago and her two sisters, who lived to be 99 and 88, are no longer with her. She even outlived her two sons. Now her family members include five grandchildren, 13 great-grandchildren, and 13 great-great grandchildren.

We wish her a happy birthday and hope she continues to inspire others to live a long and healthy life.

Yes. The National Toxicology Program says exposure to BPA, a chemical found in plastic packaging including baby bottles, early in life makes a fetus or child more susceptible to breast or prostate cancer, ADD, early puberty for girls, and other reproductive or neurological disorders.

The estrogen-like chemical BPA is one of the most common in industry today. It is everywhere: from water bottles to baby bottles and even the plastic lining of cans of infant formula. The chemical seeps to our food and drinks and enters our body. Though we all have some level of BPA, only babies and fetuses suffer. This is the first time a national agency has expressed concern about safety of BPA. Even FDA so far has insisted that BPA was safe. The plastic industry responded saying there is “no serious or high-level concerns.” If damage to brain, prostate and mammary glands are not serious, it is hard to imagine what is.

Though the plastic with BPA is everywhere, there are plastic products for babies that are free of BPA. Environmental groups have long been warning about BPA, and soon it may be banned in Canada.

Yes, according to a new research. We would exchange sex for favor even if we have everything we need. And it has been like this forever, and other animals do it too.

The research surveyed 475 University of Michigan students of ages from 18 to 26 year. More than one in four boys made offers to help someone for sex and one in seven girls made such offer. But while one in ten girls offered sex for favor, only one in twenty boys tried that approach. As expected, boys mostly tried to exchange favor for sex, while girls attempted sex for favor. Overall, one in four such offers to help for sex were successful. And if you think the favors were really big or necessary you would be wrong. They were simple day to day things: tickets to games; doing homework or laundry; a handbag, and voice lessons. On the receiving end, people got more offers to exchange favors for sex: 14% boys and 20% girls were offered favors for sex with them compared to 8% boys and 5% girls were offered sex for their favors.

Though this kind of exchange is universal, what surprised the researchers was that they found people so young and rich would try such exchange though they have everything they need. It is expected that older people do it more often since they have more need and experience.

I am not sure if this is just laziness or the favor is just an excuse to explore our desires.

Louisiana, Mississippi and the two Dakotas for sure. These four states have passed laws that will automatically ban abortion once Roe v. Wade is overturned.

With decisions like Gonzales vs. Carhart making the overturn of Roe v. Wade a distinct possibility, a recent study looks at what the the abortion rights landscape of the nation would be under that scenario. To assess a state’s risk level, the study uses a bunch of factors that include bans in waiting, existence of bans blocked by court, and vulnerability of new anti-abortion new law getting enacted by the legislature. Based on these, there are a total of 21 states that considered high risk. Though the list is full of the usual suspects there are a couple of notables like Rhode Island and Delaware. 20 other states are considered safe based on explicit protection in state’s constitution or friendly legislature. The standouts in this list include Wyoming, Montana, and Tennessee. And the remaining 9 states are considered to be medium risk ones.

Any volunteers for creating a color coded abortion rights map of the US? As the list shows, one cannot just use the red and blue political map to make the decision.

The question is not an easy one to answer. Epidemiological studies that measure the side effects of vaccines in common population have found no link between vaccines and autism. But that does not rule out all serious side effects for a small group of children that are more susceptible.

The case in point is nine year old Hannah Poling who got five shots when she was 19-month old. After getting the shots she became sick and later diagnosed with autism. Her parents sued, and last year government settled the case, but denied any connection between vaccination and autism. They said the vaccines possibly worsened her already existing rare medical conditions involving mitochondria. Doctors like Hannah’s father believe that mitochondrial disorders are related to autism, and hence vaccines can cause autism. Of course, many others do not share that view and think Poling case does not provide any clue about what causes autism.

On Friday, government started working on developing safety guidelines to be used by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for the next five years. However, CDC cannot perform the clinical studies needed to determine any possible link between vaccine and autism. That is usually done by the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

Yes, if you are a patient of New York-Presbyterian Hospital. Dwight McPherson, who works in the admissions department, is charged with stealing 50 thousands patient records and selling them to identity thieves.

He had access to all the registration information stored at the hospital’s computer. In 2006, when he was approached by ID thieves for records of 38 to 58 year old male patients, he agreed to steal the information for money. He collected the names, addresses, and social security numbers and sold them over the period of two years leading to his arrest on Friday night. Police uncovered his scheme when a print out of the record showed up in Atlanta during a postal investigation. How much did he get for selling those records? About $600 to $700 dollars for a batch of 1000 records. For less than a dollar, our identity can be in the hands of crooks. His lawyer claimed that “He is a hard working, honest man.” Right, stealing people’s personal information is really hard work.

Identity theft is a serious problem - besides the financial loss it can ruin someone’s life. And of all places we would think hospitals, where we need to disclose all our personal information and history, would be a safe place. But as it turns out that is not the case.

Yes, trans-fat can double the risk of breast cancer. By now we all know trans-fat is bad, but researchers in Europe found the link to breast cancer.

The researchers recorded food habits of 25 thousands women for three years and studied them a long time for cancer. They compared the blood fat level of 363 women that have cancer with that of healthy women. They found that women with highest level of trans-fats are twice more likely to have breast cancer than those women with the lowest level of trans-fat. Those margarines which are supposed to be better than butter are no better, if not worse. Unfortunately, the good fat known as omega-3 does not help in reducing the risk of breast cancer.

I guess life is like Murphy’s laws. Things that claim to be better are usually worse. Things that taste good are either immoral, illegal, or cause cancer.