Why having lots of brothers and sisters is bad for your heart | Mail Online

Heart disease is Britain’s biggest killer, with one person in the UK dying of a heart attack every six minutes.

While we all know that smoking, lack of exercise and obesity increase the risk, there are many other, more unexpected factors that could affect whether you’ll experience a heart attack or other heart problems.

Last month, Spanish researchers revealed that patients who had a heart attack between 6am and noon suffered up to a fifth more damage to their heart compared with those whose attack occurred in the afternoon. This was due to a surge in blood pressure upon waking.

Here, we reveal other surprising causes of heart trouble.

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Let them eat pizza: Parenting guru's recipe for bringing up children | Mail Online

Children should be allowed to eat pizza and watch more television, says a parenting guru.

Dr Bryan Caplan believes parents try too hard when bringing up their offspring and advises a more relaxed approach.

He claims‘investment parenting’– music lessons, organised sports and educational games– does not make the slightest difference to children when they become adults.

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Texas school pilots nationwide project to photograph how much students are eating for lunch | Mail Online

• Computer program analyses calorie content
• Project piloted in area where third of children are overweight
  

An inventive - if rather complex - experiment has been introduced to help curb obesity and improve pupils' eating habits.

A $2 million project photographs students' lunch trays before they sit down to eat and then takes a snapshot of the leftovers.

A computer program then analyses the images to identify every piece of food on the plate - right down to how many ounces in a leftover lump of mashed potato - and calculates the calories each student has eaten.

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Forget Atkins... carbs could help you LOSE weight | Mail Online

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An explosive new book claims carb-heavy foods - including potatoes - can actually help you lose weight

For years, dieters have berated themselves for every bite of bread or pasta that has passed their lips.

But tucking into carbs could actually help us lose weight, according to scientists.

An explosive book that claims bread, pasta, pizza and chips are the ingredients for a perfect body is threatening to consign the Atkins diet and other high-protein regimes to history.

The Carb Lover’s Diet, due for release in the UK next month, remained on bestseller lists in the U.S. for six months after it was published in August.

The book claims that resistant starch, found in carb-rich foods such as bananas, oatmeal, brown rice and potatoes, has the power to suppress appetite, boost metabolism, improve mood, reduce stress levels and speed up weight loss.

According to its authors, scientists at the University of Colorado Centre for Human Nutrition in Denver found evidence that certain carb-rich foods speed up metabolism and curb hunger pangs.

In their study of 4,451 volunteers, it emerged that the slimmest ate the most carbs in the form of whole grains, fruits and vegetables, while the fattest consumed the least.

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AIDS vaccine 'could remove all traces of disease from sufferers' | Mail Online

• Vaccine enables immune system to be constantly 'on the alert' for HIV
• More than half of infected monkeys given vaccine showed 'no signs' of virus in tests
• Human trials is next step for vaccine development

An experimental drug helped monkeys with a form of the Aids virus control the infection for more than a year, suggesting it may lead to a vaccine for people, or even a cure.

Researchers said Cytomegalovirus (CMV) works by priming the immune system to quickly attack the HIV virus when it first enters the body, a point at which thevirus is most vulnerable.

Dr Louis Picker of the Oregon National Primate Research Centre, whosestudy appears in the journal Nature, said he thinks it will be possibleto have a vaccine ready to test in people within three years.

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Could five cups of coffee a day protect against breast cancer? | Mail Online

Findings: Studies have claimed that drinking coffee could reduce the overall risk of breast cancer

Women who drink coffee could be protecting themselves against an aggressive form of breast cancer, research suggests.

Those who regularly enjoy the hot drink are far less likely to develop oestrogen-receptor negative breast cancer– particularly if they drink five cups or more a day.

These types of tumours do not react to a wide range of drugs, meaning chemotherapy is often the only option.

In the study, experts from the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm found coffee drinkers had a lower incidence of breast cancer than women who rarely drank the beverage.

They analysed data from almost 6,000 women who were past the menopause.

Those women who drank five or more cups a day had a 57 per cent reduced risk of breast cancer compared with those who drank less than one cup a day.

Writing in the journal Breast Cancer Research, the scientists concluded:‘A high daily intake of coffee was found to be associated with a statistically significant decrease in oestrogen-receptor negative breast cancer among post-menopausal women.’

The authors also found a small reduced risk for all types of breast cancer, although this link was not significant when factors such as age and weight were taken into account.

Previous studies have suggested coffee cuts the risk of other cancers, including those targeting the prostate and liver.

However, experts are divided on the benefits of coffee and some studies have shown it could even promote cancer. Research has suggested coffee may in fact cause cells to proliferate or prevent them from being repaired.

 

More...

• Paracetamol found to have link to blood cancers
• Can snack bars and bread count as one of your five-a-day?
• Taking painkillers increases risk of death to heart attack victims by '55 per cent'

The Karolinska Institute experts said they suspected coffee could contain compounds that affect different types of breast cancer in different ways. It is possible that the drink fuels oestrogen-receptor positive breast cancers but reduces the risk of oestrogen-receptor negative breast cancer, they said.

This would match the finding that drinking coffee could reduce the risk of breast cancer overall, although the experts said further studies were needed.

It comes as a separate U.S. study found that parsley and some fruits and nuts contain a compound which could prevent breast cancer cells multiplying.

Researchers from the Missouri University found that rats with breast cancer given apigenin, which is found in parsley, celery, apples, oranges and nuts,‘developed fewer tumours and experienced significant delays in tumour formation’ compared with rats with breast cancer who were not.

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The average Brit spends more than 5 YEARS of their life with a hangover | Mail Online

• Almost 2,000 days spent hungover in lifetime
  

• Average Brit suffers for 22 days a year until aged 60
  

The average Brit will spend more than five years of their life with a hangover, according to new research.

They will suffer the ill effects for a whole day - usually a Sunday - at least once-a-week between the ages of 21 and 38.

During that period, another 12 days-a-year will be spent retching, sweating and feeling lousy because of weddings, birthdays and office parties.

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