Healthy Living and All About health

Find out how your unborn baby is changing from week to week, and get advice on your health and what to expect. Simply enter your details and let us provide you with your own personalised pregnancy calendar. Eating well A good diet can help you stay fit, get in good condition for the birth and maintain your energy levels. Aim to include in your daily diet: Fresh fruit and vegetables, especially citrus fruits and dark green vegetables, which contain folic acid Carbohydrates such as bread, pasta, grains, potatoes and cereals Milk and other dairy produce such as yoghurt, fromage frais and cheese - choose lower fat options where possible Lean meat or fish, which has high levels of essential fatty acids Research indicates that mothers who eat fish once a week are less likely to give birth prematurely. Oily fish, which includes fresh tuna, mackerel, sardines and trout, eaten in pregnancy also helps children's eyesight. But don't have more than two portions of oily fish a week....

Mesothelioma Life Span The life span of those diagnosed with  mesothelioma  is typically poor due to the severe latency period associated with the disease. In most cases, patients do not experience  symptoms  until at least 20 years have passed since the initial exposure to asbestos occurred, resulting in a late diagnosis. Another reason for the poor life span is the fact that there is no definitive cure. However, many patients elect to undergo treatment to combat the cancer, improve their quality of life and relieve symptoms. Improving Life Span The average life span for a newly-diagnosed mesothelioma patient ranges from four to 18 months. While  treatments  are commonly used to help with symptoms and provide comfort, they can also be utilized to prolong the length of a patient’s life.  One such treatment is  radiation therapy , which is used to slow the spread of the cancerous tumor. This particular type of treatment can also be used during...

Surgeons creating new ears for girl from Trinidad A team of medics in Scotland is creating new ears for a 15-year-old girl from Trinidad. Kade Romain was born without ears and missing part of her ear canal, leaving her partially deaf and facing a future begging for a living. The medical team from the Spire Murrayfield hospital in Edinburgh has given its time for free to construct new ears so that she faces a brighter future. Kade came to Scotland after meeting Robina Addison, a Scottish dance teacher, who was visiting the orphanage Kade was living in. I fell in love with her the first time I saw her because she was such a character,” Ms Addison said. Because she was born without ears, Kade couldn’t go to mainstream school and was attending a day care unit for children who are mentally handicapped. “I would liken it to a sanatorium here 40 or 50 years ago,” Ms Addison added. Inspired to act, she organised a temporary visa for Kade to come to Scotland for a very unusual operation....

Unethical use of humans as research guinea pigs has long darkened medicine’s history. Most famous are the experiments carried out on large numbers of prisoners by the German Nazi regime in extermination camps during World War II. Sadly, a new example has recently come to light – the deliberate infection of hundreds of people in Guatemala with sexual diseases like gonorrhoea and syphilis in medical tests that started the year after the war ended. Evidence of the programme  was unearthed by Professor Susan Reverby at Wellesley College, reports the  Journal of the American Medical Association . Its aim was to find a better treatment for venereal diseases. With troops having returned from the war field incapacitated by venereal diseases rather than battle-wounds, the US government was acutely aware of the dangers of soldiers indulging in sex with prostitutes. Although they had the drug penicillin to fight syphilis – as well as the calomel-sulpha-thiazole ointment provided in...