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| Health
Bites
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Are
Supplements Necessary?
A healthy diet should contain
most of the necessary vitamins and minerals needed for a
well-balanced life. But our hectic lifestyles seldom allow
us the time to choose exactly what we want to teat. At such
times, health supplements can come in handy. Nevertheless,
there are some basic rules of thumb that will be useful
when considering health supplements.
Find
out what your body needs. Not all supplements are useful.
Some might even have a detrimental effect. Too many can
also be harmful – more may not be merrier. Worse,
taking a lot of a single vitamin may not be good for the
body. For example, too much vitamin C may cause diarrhoea
and also result in an unbalanced body system. The body’s
absorption of copper may be inhibited, which can result
in a copper deficiency that has knock-on effects on the
body.
There
many health supplements on the market and these come in
different combinations and forms. Note the active ingredients
and find out the optimum dosage. The Recommended Daily Intake
is a useful guide.
A
golden rule: When in doubt, ask a doctor. For general
advice on choosing health supplements, check with a retail
pharmacist and nutritionist. The Internet is also a good
source of information, but be wary of products that sound
too good to be true. Don’t depend on a single source
of information for a product.
Reported in The Sunday Times, 18 May 2004
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| 2. |
Smoking
cuts 10 years of Life
Smokers die ten years younger
on average than non-smokers, according to new findings from
the British study that first proved smoking causes lung cancer.
Oxford professor Sir Richard Doll, who has tracked 34,000
British doctors, published his initial results in the British
Medical Journal in 1954, triggering the birth of numerous
anti-smoking campaigns around the world. Now, a new follow-up
50 years later by the 91-year-old epidemiologist shows that
the overall risks of smoking are even greater than originally
suspected, wiping out the impact of health improvements.
British
Medical Journal, June 26 2004
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| 3. |
Cancer
Cells tricked into Suicide
It may be possible to beat
ovarian cancer by tricking it into committing suicide, say
UK scientists. Cancer spreads because a gene which normally
kills off cells is faulty in cancer cells. Scientists at Cancer
Research UK say they have been able to get around this problem
by inserting this "suicide" gene into cancer cells.
The results were presented at Cancer Research UK's Beatson
International Cancer Conference in Glasgow. Visit http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/3827627.stm
for more information.
BBC News, 22 June 2004
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| 4. |
Smokers,
Quit Early to Regain Health
People who quit smoking
before the age of 35 can eventually live as long and healthy
lives as people who never smoked, a new study shows. "If
you quit by age 35, you avoid nearly all of the harm smoking
has on lifespan and quality of life," study author
Dr. Donald H. Taylor, Jr. from Health Services Research,
told Reuters Health.
Reported in Reuters Health,
New York, 18 June 2004 |
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