White rice ‘raises diabetes risk’, say US experts

Replacing white rice with brown rice and wholemeal bread could cut the risk of diabetes by a third, US experts say.

White rice poses a diabetes threat because it causes steep rises in blood sugar, say Harvard researchers in Archives of Internal Medicine.

Brown rice and other wholegrain foods are a healthier option as they release glucose more gradually, they say.

The study is based on questionnaires; some say the data is not robust enough to base firm conclusions on.

It may be that people who eat less white rice tend to live healthier lifestyles, for example.
‘Brown is better’

In the study of nearly 200,000 US people, white rice consumption was linked to type 2 diabetes.

After adjusting for age and other diabetes risk factors, those who ate five or more 150g servings of white rice per week had a 17% increased risk of diabetes compared with people who consumed less than one serving – about a cup of rice – per month.
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Scientists in sleeping sickness ‘breakthrough’

Scientists say they have identified a potential treatment for sleeping sickness, a killer disease that infects about 60,000 people in Africa a year.

British and Canadian experts say drugs could attack an enzyme the parasite causing the illness needs to survive.

They say the orally-administered drug could be ready for human clinical trials in about 18 months.

The disease, spread by the bite of a tsetse fly, is caused by a parasite attacking the central nervous system.

It has similar symptoms to malaria, making it difficult to diagnose. Left untreated, it moves to the spinal column and brain, resulting in mental confusion and eventual death.

Fatal side effects

The “breakthrough” came at the University of Dundee in Scotland, where scientists were funded to research diseases neglected by major drugs companies.
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‘Internet addiction’ linked to depression, says study

There is a strong link between heavy internet use and depression, UK psychologists have said.

The study, reported in the journal Psychopathology, found 1.2% of people surveyed were “internet addicts”, and many of these were depressed.

The Leeds University team stressed they could not say one necessarily caused the other, and that most internet users did not suffer mental health problems.

The conclusions were based on 1,319 responses to an on-line questionnaire.

Recruitment was via links on social networking sites. People were asked how much they used the internet and for what purposes.

They were also asked a series of questions to assess whether they suffered from depression.
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Late-night teens ‘face greater depression risk’

Going to bed earlier protects teenagers against depression and suicidal thoughts, New York research suggests.

Of 15,500 12 to 18-year-olds studied, those who went to bed after midnight were 24% more likely to have depression than those who went before 2200.

And those who slept fewer than five hours a night had a 71% higher risk of depression than those who slept eight hours, the journal Sleep reports.

It is estimated 80,000 UK children and young people have depression.

The researchers from Columbia University Medical Center in New York looked at data from 15,500 teenagers collected in the 1990s.

One in 15 of those studied were found to have depression.
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People who look young for their age ‘live longer’

People blessed with youthful faces are more likely to live to a ripe old age than those who look more than their years, work shows.

Danish scientists say appearance alone can predict survival, after they studied 387 pairs of twins.

The researchers asked nurses, trainee teachers and peers to guess the age of the twins from mug shots.

Those rated younger-looking tended to outlive their older-looking sibling, the British Medical Journal reports.

Survival advantage

The researchers also found a plausible biological explanation for their results.

Key pieces of DNA called telomeres, which indicate the ability of cells to replicate, are also linked to how young a person looks..
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‘Female Viagra’ discovery claim

A drug that failed tests as an antidepressant is being hailed as “Viagra for women” after surprising but not unpleasant side effects.

In three separate trials, the drug flibanserin did wonders for women’s flagging sex drive despite doing nothing to lift mood.

The accidental discovery is akin to Viagra’s – it was originally designed as a heart medicine but failed.

The US work was presented at a sexual medicine meeting in Lyon, France.

Lead researcher Professor John Thorp, of the University of North Carolina, told the European Society for Sexual Medicine: “Flibanserin was a poor antidepressant.

“However, astute observers noted that it increased libido in laboratory animals and human subjects.
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New warning on ‘perfect vaginas’

Women are undergoing surgery to create perfect genitalia amid a “shocking” lack of information on the potential risks of the procedure, a report says.

Research published in the British Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology also questions the very notion of aesthetically pleasing genitals.

Operations to improve the appearance of the sex organs for both psychological and physical reasons are on the rise.

But surgeons said the report overplayed the risks of an established procedure.

Researchers from University College London reviewed all the existing studies on cosmetic labial surgery – which generally involves reducing the amount of tissue that protrudes from the lips which cover the vagina. They found there had been little work to document any longer-term side effects.

Labioplasty, as it is known, costs about £3,000 privately and is offered for a variety of reasons: some women complain that wearing tight clothes or riding a bike is uncomfortable, while others say they are embarrassed in front of a sexual partner.
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US declares swine flu ‘emergency’

US President Barack Obama has declared swine flu a national emergency.

The White House said the president signed the proclamation concerning the 2009 H1N1 outbreak on Friday evening.

It increases the ability of treatment facilities to handle a surge in H1N1 patients by easing the implementation of emergency plans.

Last week US officials said swine flu activity was widespread in 46 states. More than 1,000 US deaths have been linked to the virus.

Health officials say the infections are already comparable to peak season flu levels.
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Schoolgirl dies after cancer jab

A 14-year-old girl has died after being given a cervical cancer jab as part of a national immunisation programme, but the exact cause of death is unknown.

The pupil was taken ill at Blue Coat CofE School in Coventry shortly after she received the Cervarix vaccine. She died in the town’s University Hospital.

The batch of the vaccine used has been quarantined by the local NHS.

The injection offers protection against a sexually transmitted disease, which is linked to most cervical cancers.

A routine programme of vaccinating 12- and 13-year-old girls started in September 2008 across the UK using the Cervarix vaccine made by GlaxoSmithKline. A catch-up campaign is now under way for older girls.

The injection offers protection against the human papilloma virus (HPV), the most common cause of cervical cancer.
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Why Exercise Won’t Make You Thin

Whether because exercise makes us hungry or because we want to reward ourselves, many people eat more — and eat more junk food, like doughnuts — after going to the gym.
Ben Bloom / Getty

As I write this, tomorrow is Tuesday, which is a cardio day. I’ll spend five minutes warming up on the VersaClimber, a towering machine that requires you to move your arms and legs simultaneously. Then I’ll do 30 minutes on a stair mill. On Wednesday a personal trainer will work me like a farm animal for an hour, sometimes to the point that I am dizzy — an abuse for which I pay as much as I spend on groceries in a week. Thursday is “body wedge” class, which involves another exercise contraption, this one a large foam wedge from which I will push myself up in various hateful ways for an hour. Friday will bring a 5.5-mile run, the extra half-mile my grueling expiation of any gastronomical indulgences during the week.

I have exercised like this — obsessively, a bit grimly — for years, but recently I began to wonder: Why am I doing this? Except for a two-year period at the end of an unhappy relationship — a period when I self-medicated with lots of Italian desserts — I have never been overweight. One of the most widely accepted, commonly repeated assumptions in our culture is that if you exercise, you will lose weight. But I exercise all the time, and since I ended that relationship and cut most of those desserts, my weight has returned to the same 163 lb. it has been most of my adult life. I still have gut fat that hangs over my belt when I sit. Why isn’t all the exercise wiping it out?
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