The first of its kind study, conducted at a Surrey University in England suggests that eating eggs for breakfast helps reduce calorie intake at lunch and dinner. Researchers say this because eggs keep us fuller for longer compared with other breakfast foods. Eggs also help reduce the urge to snack on biscuits, cake or chocolate during the day.

Eggs For Breakfast Aids Weight-Loss

The study compared three typical breakfast meals, all containing the same amount of calories – eggs on toast, cornflakes and milk, and croissant and orange juice.

Participants who ate eggs breakfast all said they felt fuller for longer and had a lower desire to eat during the day. This was echoed in the results, which showed eating eggs led to a significant decrease in energy intake at lunch and dinner.

The study didn’t look at how bacon and sausage compare to other breakfasts, however since these contain high levels of fat, it’s no doubt that eggs are the healthier option when it comes to your morning meal.

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Cathy Bukaty of the Laser Center of Orlando, one clinic offering the treatment, said:

“If you sweat profusely, clinical studies show that you can burn up to 600 calories in a hour of being in there.”

Infrared Sauna Burns Calories

Developed by NASA in early 80s, the infrared sauna creates the same rays as the sun but without the UV radiation. Studies have shown how traditional saunas do not cause the body sweat out toxins, but with the infrared sauna, this actually happens.

This is because the heat is different. The infrared sauna reaches temperatures up to 140 degrees and this extreme heat breaks up the water molecules that hold toxins. Bukaty explained:

“The traditional saunas of the past go a half inch into the tissues. This goes an inch and a half, so three times deeper. Even the sweat produced for this is different.”

Studies conducted by the Mayo Clinic show that infrared saunas can also help treat people with high blood pressure and heart failure.

“It’s amazing everything that it can do from helping cancer patients, heart patients,” Bukaty added.

Another major benefit is that the sauna is not hot and stuffy; it’s lighted and even has music playing! All things designed to help you stay in there for longer, and according to Bukaty, “the longer you stay in, the more benefits.”

Reports show that everyone can benefit from the infrared dry heat sauna, and according to the Mayo Clinic, no adverse side effects have been reported.

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Strange Side Effects

Ambien

Ambien is designed to help insomniacs get a good night’s sleep. However many users report strange side effects such as sleep-walking, sleep-driving, and sleep-eating, and most of the time the person has no recollection of this when they wake.

Statins

Statins are taken to help lower cholesterol and reduce the risk of heart disease. Unfortunately, this drug can also cause amnesia in some users.

Alli

Alli is the only FDA approved diet pill. It works by blocking some of the fat you eat; however it also requires the user to reduce their intake of fat. This is because the drug causes the fat that wasn’t absorbed to pass straight through the body, which can lead to unpleasant side effects such as gas and loose stools.

Xeloda

A cancer drug capecitabine, marketed under the brand name Xeloda, can produce severe side effects such as inflammation of the hands and feet, peeling of skin, blistering and bleeding, and in extremely rare cases the medication can even cause finger prints to disappear – however these do return once the medication has been stopped.

Vasotec

Vasotec is often used to control high blood pressure and treat congestive heart failure, but it can also cause users to lose their sense of smell and taste.

Chantix

Chantix is a drug taken by smokers to help them quit. However it has been shown to cause insomnia, and vivid dreams and nightmares when the user does eventually falls asleep.

Viagra

Aside from helping men with ED, Viagra even has beneficial side effects for those with heart problems. However in rare cases excessive uses can cause sensitivity to light and a self-explanatory condition known as blue vision.

Mirapex

Mirapex can help those with restless leg syndrome relax when they are in bed, it is also prescribed to patients with Parkinson’s disease. However some users taking Mirapex report having problems with gambling, compulsive eating, and increased sex drive. While these symptoms may seem like fun, they are in fact very serious and anyone experience such side effects should see the doctor immediately.

Pepto Bismal

Pepto Bismal is the mainstay in many households to relieve heartburn or an upset stomach. But the commonly taken medicine can cause black and furry tongues, as well as black/grey stools.

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Amy Joyce Francis, 77, was scheduled to have her kidney removed at the Royal Gwent Hospital in Wales, instead the doctor tried to remove her liver. The complications lead to a huge loss of blood and as a result, Mrs. Francis suffered a fatal heart attack.

At the inquest, consultant urologist Adam Carter, the surgeon who performed the operation, explained that Mrs. Francis underwent keyhole surgery to remove a cancerous right kidney. After making the incisions, Mr. Carter asked a trainee doctor to remove the organ because that is easiest part of the procedure.

However, inside the body the trainee found the peritoneal sac – the organ the thin membrane protecting the liver –covered by more fluid and matter than normal. Not confident enough to proceed Mr. Carter took over.

At this point of the surgery the endoscopic camera cannot be used, and the doctors must work by touch alone.

Mr. Carter mistakenly grabbed hold of Mrs. Francis’s liver and pulled down on it causing it to rupture. The anesthetist immediately reported a fall in the patient’s blood pressure. Carter said he knew at that point he had torn the wrong organ. Two senior surgeons were called to the scene but were unable to save her.
Mr. Carter said it was possible that the trainee had breached the peritoneal sac while she was trying to reach the organ:

“I think that what happened is that the peritoneum had been breached and the liver fell down and became more accessible than it usually is.” [BBC]

The courts declared the verdict an unintentional mistake. The coroner for Gwent released this narrative:

“Whilst undergoing keyhole surgery for the necessary removal of the cancerous right kidney, Mrs. Francis’s liver was ruptured when it was mistakenly and unintentionally identified as the kidney and was catastrophically torn and damaged, resulting in death.” [BBC]

The family, saddened by their loss but grateful for the doctors efforts accepted the verdict. Mrs. Francis’ son, Alan, said:

“We accept the decision and we also accept that Mr. Carter and his team acted in good faith to prolong my mother’s life…

“We appreciated Mr. Carter’s honesty and him coming along here today and hope that we can put it all behind us now…

“I think that it was the honesty that saved the hospital. If we thought that they had not answered our questions it would have been different. This was an honest mistake.” [BBC]

As a result of the tragic death, the procedure has been modified to prevent any similar mistakes, and these adjustments have been communicated to the medical community worldwide.

Since the death, Mr. Carter has carried out the operation 20 times without complications.

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The study involved around 800 adult smokers who had recently quit smoking. During two three year periods, from 2001 – 2006, doctors recorded any nicotine replacement therapy used – which included patches, gum, inhalers, and nasal sprays – as well as any counseling they had received.

Within each two-year time frame, approximately one-third of those who had quit began to smoke again. NRT was found to have no impact on the relapse rate, regardless of accompanying counseling. Participants who took NRTs for any duration of time were just as likely to start smoking as those who didn’t, and this was true for both heavy and light smokers.

Nicotine Replacement Therapies May Not Work In The Long Run

Lead author of the study Hillel Alpert, a research scientist with the Harvard School of Public Health’s Center for Global Tobacco Control in Boston, said:

“Even though other well-controlled studies have shown that nicotine replacement therapy can be effective, our study looked at real-world use over the long-term…

“And in the real world, cigarettes are simply a very powerful addiction. And NRT is apparently not an effective replacement for that addiction.”

The study noted that 70 percent of the smokers interviewed said they wanted to quit, and more than 45 percent said they tried to so in the past year.

Researchers concluded that the findings raise “serious questions” about the effectiveness of NRT, outside a carefully controlled clinical setting.

Stanton Glantz, a professor of medicine in the division of cardiology at the University of California, San Francisco’s Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education, said the new study “is a real challenge to the routine use of over-the-counter NRT outside of a clinical setting.” However he also noted that:

“This is just one study, and it’s not terribly huge. And this study isn’t saying that these pharmacologic aids don’t work at all. It just says that NRT doesn’t work in the unsupervised, over-the-counter context. So we don’t necessarily want to throw out the baby with the bathwater.”

Alpert’s study, which was funded by the U.S. National Cancer Institute was published in the Jan. 9 online edition of Tobacco Control.

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When the device first emerged in 2010, many were skeptical about its claims – claims that are still under scrutiny. According to the company just 8-12 minutes a day are wearing the device is all that’s need to help improve mood during those dark and dingy winters.

However continued research into the benefits of such light therapy have uncovered a rather beneficial side effect of the mood-enhancing portable headset.

Valkee Brain Stimulation Device

The recent study conducted by Verve Research in Finland, involved members from the Finnish national ice hockey league. Some were given the device to use, and others were given a placebo device for control.

The researchers found that those who has been exposed to 12 minutes of light every day sped up their reaction times by as much as 20 percent. Lead researcher Mikko Tulppo in a news release:

“The placebo-controlled study showed a significant improvement in motoric reaction times of top athletes using bright light via the ear canal.”

With all the research that suggest sunlight provides the body with essential vitamin D, it’s completely plausible that light can have a great affect on the body and mind. Still I have to say I remain a little skeptical.

Nevertheless, should such research continue to produce positive results, the treatment would not only increase the performance of athletes, but it could improve safety in situations where reactions times are key, e.g. driving, operating machinery.

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Don Wright had competed in his first marathon just two weeks prior to his devastating diagnosis. But thanks to the new wonder drug, he continues to run marathons together with his wife and daughter – who run half marathons while he goes the distance.

In total he’s run sixty-one 26-mile races in 41 states; his ultimate goal to run a marathon in every state.

Pomalidomide is an immunomodulating agent (similar to thalidomide that caused birth defects in the 60s) and works by altering the pathways of the cancer cells to keep the disease at bay.

Miracle Drugs Keeps Cancer Patient Running Marathons

Wright takes just one pill a day, a drastic difference from the hard-hitting doses of chemotherapy and radiation that were the standard treatments for myeloma 10 years ago.

The drug is one of several emerging therapies that are still in clinical trials. However cases like Wright’s have doctors amazed. Dr. Brian Durie, the co-founder and chairman of the International Myeloma Foundation, says “its mind boggling, for God’s sake. It’s amazing.”

He likens the treatment to taking insulin for diabetes, or statin for high cholesterol; it doesn’t cure the condition, but it does make it more manageable. For cancer patients, a lifetime of taking one pill per day or months of hair loss and severe nausea is a no-brainer.

Most newly diagnosed patients are now offered trails of one of these drugs, since they can be extremely effective. Unfortunately the results aren’t the same for everyone. And that’s where the focus of the study now lies – to find which patients respond best to the drug.

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The woman, reported that that her “body swallowed one of the implants” whilst performing Pilates stretches.

At the hospital, x-rays revealed that that implant had migrated through an intercostal space created during the previous surgery, and ended up in the pleural cavity – the space between the lungs.

Breast Implant Disappears During Pilates

With the implant dislodged the patient’s her upper right chest ballooned outward when she performed the Valsalva maneuver. Surprisingly the patient reported experiencing no chest pain or dyspnea – shortness of breath (SOB).

Following the diagnosis, the woman underwent another surgery to replacement the breast prostheses, and the intercostal space was patched up with mesh.

A previous article we noted how breast reconstruction following mastectomy is a safe procedure for the elderly. And although the story does highlight important complications that can occur, it’s also testament to the advancement in medical technology and the increased safety of cosmetic plastic surgery, even when complications do occur.

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The plasma brush, isn’t actually a toothbrush, in fact it’s a multifunctional tool that can effectively break up plaque, as well as prepare teeth for stronger, longer-lasting fillings.

Plasma Toothbrush

The plasma torch, which is no hotter than room temperature, targets the bonds that cause plaque to stick to the teeth. The same plasma torch can also be used to help fillings stay in place for longer.

Hao Li, associate professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering in the University of Missouri College of Engineering, explained how some cavities need to be refilled every 5-7 years, and this can only be done a few times before the tooth has to be pulled out.

The plasma brush primes cavities by etching tiny grooves in hole; creating more surface areas for filling to adhere to. According to the research team, the plasma-assisted fillings could be up to 60% stronger than traditional fillings.

Human trials are set to begin early next year at the University of Tennessee at Memphis. All being well, the team hopes that the plasma brush could be approved by the FDA and available to dentists by 2013.

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For some, the popping is easily bearable and no precautions need to be taken, but for others, especially children and those suffering from colds, the feeling can be extremely painful.

The popping is caused by unequal pressure when ascends, or descend quickly.

To prevent this, many chew gum, or suck on hard-boiled candy. But another great way to stop the popping is to use the Valsalva Maneuver.

Prevent Ears Popping On Airplanes

To perform the Valsalva technique, simply pinch your nose, close your mouth and exhale with a reasonable amount of force.

Without over exerting, you should feel a slight pop in the ears. This equalizes the pressure and stops the sensation of pressure in the ears.

The same popping sensation can also be experienced when driving down a mountain. In the car you can prevent the popping sensation by leaving the window open slightly as you descend.

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