Health & Food

Washington, Aug 9: Blue light emitted from smartphones and other digital devices can accelerate blindness by transforming vital molecules in the eye's retina into cell killers, a study has found. Macular degeneration, an incurable eye disease that results in significant vision loss starting on average in a person's 50s or 60s, is the death of photoreceptor cells in the retina. Those cells need...

Washington, Aug 8: A uniquely designed experimental vaccine against Zika virus has proven powerful in mice, scientists have found, paving the way for preventing the infection that causes babies to develop serious birth defects. The vaccine, developed by researchers at Ohio State University in the US employs an uncommon two-pronged approach to fighting the virus, which is spread by mosquitoes and...

Washington D.C, Aug 8: Did you know! Women and men experience different benefits from low-calorie diets. In the study of more than 2,000 overweight individuals with pre-diabetes who followed a low-calorie diet for eight weeks, men lost significantly more body weight than women, and they had larger reductions in a metabolic syndrome score, a diabetes indicator, fat mass and heart rate. Women had...

New Delhi, Aug 3: If you feel artificial sweeteners are a perfect substitute to sugar, you might want to think again! Marketed as 'sugar-free' or 'diet option', artificial sweeteners - commonly found in a variety of food and beverages, including soft drinks, chewing gum, jellies - give a person the same pleasure as sugar but reduce the calories. But, are these popularly marketed sweeteners the...

New Delhi, Aug 2: Healthcare experts are arguing that there is a need for an all-inclusive and result oriented fitness for children in India. Children's health is becoming a matter of concern globally. According to the World Health Organisation obese children tend to fall prey to lifestyle diseases to the extent of 60-70% when they reach their 30s and 40s (the most productive years of their lives)...

London, Jul 30: Adhering to a healthy diet, drinking less alcohol, and exercising may reduce the risk of developing cancer, researchers have found. The review, published in the journal Cancer Research, drew data from the NutriNet-Sante study, launched in 2009 to investigate associations between nutrition and health in a French cohort. This study included a large sample of 41,543 participants aged...

The Indian Dietetic Association (IDA) today claimed that vegetarian diets in the country are 84 per cent protein deficient, mainly due to lack of awareness among the public. Citing a study by market research firm IMRB, IDA said, "93 per cent of Indians are unaware of their ideal protein requirement and Indian vegetarian diets are worst affected with 84 per cent being deficient in protein, while 65...

Boston, Jul 23: Scientists have successfully restored the ability to walk in mice that were paralysed after a spinal cord injury, an advance that may pave the way for similar treatments in humans. Most people with spinal cord injury are paralysed from the injury site down, even when the cord is not completely severed. Researchers at Boston Children's Hospital in the US provided insight into why...

Washington D.C, Jul 19: Good news for coffee lovers! Turns out, smelling a coffee-like scent, which has no caffeine in it, creates an expectation for students that they will perform better on tests. Research at Stevens Institute of Technology revealed that the scent of coffee alone may help people perform better on the analytical portion of the Graduate Management Aptitude Test, or GMAT, a...

Washington, Jul 18: Rising seas could significantly affect the global internet infrastructure, say scientists who found that thousands of miles of buried fibre optic cables in densely populated coastal regions of the US may soon be flooded. The study portrays critical communications infrastructure that could be submerged by rising seas in as soon as 15 years, said Paul Barford, a professor at the...