Swine flu virus has killed up to 149 people in Mexico and infected people in the US and Europe, as the world moved closer to its first flu pandemic in 40 years.

The last outbreak, a “Hong Kong” flu pandemic in 1968, killed about million people.

What is Swine Flu?

Based on Wikipedia description, Swine influenza (also swine flu) refers to influenza caused by any strain of the influenza virus endemic in pigs (swine). Strains endemic in swine are called swine influenza virus (SIV).

Swine flu is common in swine and rare in humans. People who work with swine, especially people with intense exposures, are at risk of catching swine influenza if the swine carry a strain able to infect humans. However, these strains rarely are able to pass from human to human. Rarely, SIV mutates into a form able to pass easily from human to human. The strain responsible for the 2009 swine flu outbreak in humans (a strain of influenza A virus subtype H1N1) is believed to have undergone such a mutation.

In humans, the symptoms of swine flu are similar to those of influenza and of influenza-like illness in general, namely chills, fever, sore throat, muscle pains, severe headache, coughing, weakness and general discomfort. The strain responsible for the 2009 swine flu outbreak in most cases causes only mild symptoms and the infected person makes a full recovery without requiring medical attention and without the use of antiviral medicines.

Of the three genera of human flu, two are endemic also in swine: Influenzavirus A (common) and Influenzavirus C (rare). Influenzavirus B has not been reported in swine. Within Influenzavirus A and Influenzavirus C, the strains endemic to swine and humans are largely distinct.

Prevention of spread in humans

Recommendations to prevent spread of the virus among humans include using standard infection control against influenza. This includes frequent washing of hands with soap and water or with alcohol-based hand sanitizers, especially after being out in public. Vaccines against the H1N1 strain in the 2009 human outbreak are being developed and could be ready as early as June 2009.

Experts agree that hand-washing can help prevent viral infections, a surprisingly effective way to prevent all sorts of diseases, including ordinary influenza and the new swine flu virus. Influenza can spread in coughs or sneezes, but an increasing body of evidence shows little particles of virus can linger on tabletops, telephones and other surfaces and be transferred via the fingers to the mouth, nose or eyes. Alcohol-based gel or foam hand sanitizers work well to destroy viruses and bacteria. Anyone with flu-like symptoms such as a sudden fever, cough or muscle aches should stay away from work or public transportation and should see a doctor to be tested.

Social distancing is another tactic. It means staying away from other people who might be infected and can include avoiding large gatherings, spreading out a little at work, or perhaps staying home and lying low if an infection is spreading in a community.

The Aussie tradition of a steak on the barbecue is in the gun, after a major dietary study found people who eat red meat are more likely to die from cancer or heart attack.

Barbecuing red meat was also the cooking method that caused the most cancer causing “carcinogens”, experts have warned.

The US study looked at the diets of more than 500,000 people and a follow-up 10 years later found those who ate the most red, or processed, meat had a higher incidence of death.

Eating white meat – poultry or fish – did not have the same effect and was associated with a slightly decreased risk.

Cancer Council Australia chief executive Professor Ian Olver says that while the study could not be said to show that red meat caused cancer, the apparent link warranted further research.

“Such population studies demonstrate these relationships between red meat and cancer deaths but are not able to prove that one causes the other,” he says.

“With red meat, for example, the method of cooking is important.

“For example, more carcinogens would be expected to be produced from barbecue than by slow cooking (while) the other factor predisposing to cancer is the fat content of the meat.”

The research, produced as part of the National Institutes of Health-AARP Diet and Health Study, is published in the journal Archives of Internal Medicine.

The study raised the question of what role meat should play in the diet, says Mark Wahlqvist, Director of the Asia Pacific Health and Nutrition Centre at Victoria’s Monash University.

He says that red meat in small amounts – even about an ounce or 30 grams daily – could make a significant difference to the risk of micronutrient (vitamins and minerals) deficiency.

“(But) the corollary is that a plant-based diet is a preferred orientation for food intake in the human species and many studies support this conclusion,” Professor Wahlqvist says.

Source:http://www.theage.com.au

Loneliness is as bad as for your health as smoking or obesity, it’s being warned.
Isolation could increase blood pressure, stress and the risk of depression, weaken the immune system and make it harder to sleep.
Loneliness can even sped up the progression of dementia, with regular socializing keeping the brain supple.
Loneliest people had blood pressure readings up to 30 points higher than gregarious types and equated the health divide to that between smokers ans non-smokers and gym-users and couch potatoes. It is better to have strong friendships than lots of acquaintances and that it had deep evolutionary roots.
When time takes its toll on the body, loneliness steepens that slope of descent.

This morning I heard a true and sad story from a colleague of mine. She told me that one of her friends is always having abortions. When the fetus gets to be 2-3 months old she loses it. This happened several times over. The couple went to check with many doctors and at last one of the doctors examined the dead baby and found that the baby’s body cells kept dying as the baby was growing in the womb until he/she could not survive. This was because her uterus was affected by mobile phone radiation. The doctor told her she now has no chance to give birth to a healthy baby because the radiation has affected her uterus so that the major portion of the cells in her uterus has already died.

This happened because she has been keeping her mobile phone in her working jacket so that the phone rested against just on the right side of the uterus. She had been wearing it like this for a few years.

Please beware of this and take note if you don’t want what has happened to this woman to happen to you.

Please do not ignore hand phone radiation which will damage our health or body organs. Please put away your hand phone whenever you don’t need
it much.
Guys, please do not keep your mobile phone near to the kidney position and pants pocket as this will damage your genital area and affect your ability to father a baby.
The other doctor also advised another friend to keep her hand phone away from her newborn baby to avoid radiation damage to the baby’s brain cells.

Do not let the baby or toddler play with the mobile phone. This is
because the small young baby of a toddler is still vary fragile and growing, so he/she is much more vulnerable to radiation damage…… ..

Please remember not to sleep together with your mobile phone or put it next to your bed….Keep any other electronic goods such as TVs) which also give off radiation away from your bedroom to reduce risk as we have to sleep a few hours every day in our bedroom at night.

Further, do not imagine that if you switch off the TV there will be no radiation… Actually, it is still around in your room. It is not advisable to have even a small digital alarm clock close to your head while sleeping.

Take Care of yourself and your loved ones.

Please tell this to your friends and family. If these words are known to you at least you’re reminded.

I would rather be careful than regret it…

Source: Forwarded email.

I’m not used with a very cold weather temperature as what Melbourne Australia has to offer. People here is all the time ready for the sudden weather change. After one year of living here, I thought I’m already well-adjusted with the weather. I was very confident that I’m healthy and I can tackle whatever the changes of the weather. I was wrong. Now I’m sick. I mean I catch a very bad cough that no matter how I tried to cure, the more it gets worst. Many sleepless nights, my abdominal muscle is aching due to the dry and hard cough that last for more than two weeks. My duty as a mother of three all boys kids were affected. I can’t attend to their activeness. I used to be playful with them but now they’re bored on me. They always said “please mommy through your cough away”. I learned from my mistakes of being confidently healthy. I have to be careful and watchful from now on. I ignore the fact that weather triggers many health problems. No wonder why my Migraine triggers most of the time.
I found a site that offers a free service that alerts you in advance of flare-ups for migraines, heart disease, diabetes, arthritis and asthma. Unfortunately, it’s only available to everyone in Canada, the USA (lower 48 states) and the UK. The name is MediClim.Com. If you sign up, you’ll get email alerts the day before your health problem may be aggravated due to changes in the weather. They should offer the service nationwide even if’s a free service.

Internet addiction should be recognized as a clinical disorder, a psychiatrist claims.
Dr Jerald Block says there are four main telltale symptoms:
losing all track of time or neglecting to eat or sleep;
cravings and feelings of withdrawal including anger,
tension or depression when a computer cannot be accessed;
an increased need for better computer equipment and software;
arguments,
lying,
fatigue,
social isolation and poor achievement.
Block, of Oregon Health and Science University, made the claim in an editorial for the American Journal of Psychiatry.
Block claims to many hours spent online gaming, viewing porn or emailing can cause a compulsive-impulsive disorder.
Estimates of the prevalence of the disorder are lacking. Attempts to measure the phenomenon are clouded by shame, denial, and minimization.
Unfortunately, Internet addiction is resistant to treatment, entails significant risks and has high relapse rates.
A computer becomes a tremendous amount of time in their life. Then if you try to cut the cord in a very abrupt fashion, they’ve lost essentially their best friend. That can take the form of depression or rage, said Block.
British psychiatrists have previously reported that a “significant minority” – between 5 and 10 per cent of online users – are Internet addicts.
Anyway, Block didn’t mention about blogger. What do you think? Are we blogger addict? You know the answer for yourself. We know our limitations especially work at home mommies. We know also how to control if our children is into this so called “Internet addiction”. Too much is too bad.

Tall tales about what causes breast cancer can do more harm than good.

MYTH ONE

Having a family history of breast cancer means you will get the disease
Most women who get breast cancer don’t have a family history of the disease, Boyages says. “Therefore, all women should think about their breast health,” he says. “For women aged 50-69, that means going for regular mammograms. Call 132 050 for information about the free breast-screening program.”

MYTH TWO

Breast cancer is a young woman’s disease
With the public face of breast cancer featuring the young faces of Belinda Emmett, Jane McGrath, Kylie Minogue and Christina Applegate, you could be forgiven for thinking it’s a young woman’s disease. It’s not.

“The data is quite strong,” Henderson says. “In Australia we are not seeing an increase in young women [under 50] with breast cancer. The [most common] age is the late 50s and 60s.”

MYTH THREE

Antiperspirants and underwire bras cause breast cancer
“These are urban myths that have been debunked many times,” Henderson says. Boyages says: “Breast cancer has been around since the ancient Egyptians and I don’t think they had underwire bras.”

MYTH FOUR

Freezing water in plastic, or microwave cooking with plastics releases cancer-causing toxins
One email doing the rounds warns of the dangers of the above and is attributed to the John Hopkins Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Centre in Baltimore. John Hopkins has labelled the email a hoax.

“Freezing water does not cause the release of chemicals from plastic bottles,” Boyages says. “And there are clear recommendations to only use microwave-safe containers. “

MYTH FIVE

Lumpy breasts increase your risk
Boyages says: “A lot of women get lumpier breasts before their period or may have cysts, which are common in the breast. Nine out of 10 lumps are not cancer. But if you have a lump that doesn’t go away, have a triple test.”

MYTH SIX

Small breasts reduce your risk
Breast size has nothing to do with the risk of breast cancer but Henderson says obese women, specifically women who are post-menopausal, have an increased risk.

MYTH SEVEN

Implants increase your risk of breast cancer
Silicon breast implants are not linked to breast cancer risk. The National Breast and Ovarian Cancer Centre reports that a large study on the long-term effects of implants followed women for more than 10 years and showed no increased risk.

Boyages says: “In some ways it’s easier to find breast cancer, because the implant pushes the breast tissue forward.”

MYTH EIGHT

Breast pain indicates breast cancer
Most breast cancers don’t cause significant pain but a few do. “So you can’t be complacent if a lump is painful,” Boyages says. “In about 10 per cent of cases of breast cancer there is pain.”

MYTH NINE

Nipple discharge indicates breast cancer
The majority of nipple discharge has nothing to do with cancer but Henderson says bloody discharges are a concern. “Even then, more often than not, it is not breast cancer,” he says. Boyages says doctors will also be concerned by discharge that is coloured “like straw”.

MYTH TEN

Mammograms cause breast cancer
Exposure to ionising radiation can cause cancer. However, given the limited number of mammograms a woman has in her lifetime and the standards of mammographic equipment in use in Australia, the increased radiation exposure from a mammogram is minimal, says the NBOCC.

“If you are 50 [and] having a mammogram every two years, the risk of radiation is far less than other risks we take every day,” Boyages says.

However, having radiation for other cancers does increase your risk of breast cancer.

“If, for example, someone had Hodgkin’s lymphoma as a teenager and had radiation treatment, they would be at much higher risk of breast cancer, so should start having mammograms 10 years after their initial treatment.
Read more….

This is a shocking news to all mothers using formula for their babies. If you’re using products from China, you should think to stop now because of this horrible news. A lot of babies already sick and four had already died. How come China did this to all their consumers. How come they put the life of the people in danger. Are they human? They been covering this issue for long time, now it’s time for them to pay.

A CHINESE company whose tainted baby milk has made thousands of children ill failed to report complaints about the product for months, state media has reported.

Sanlu Group, the dairy company first found to be selling melamine-contaminated goods, began receiving complaints of sick children as early as last December, state television said yesterday, citing a cabinet investigation. But the problem was covered up until August.

Tainted milk products from Sanlu and other companies have left a total of 53,000 babies ill. Four have died.

The report came as Australian food safety authorities said Chinese lollies recalled overseas but available in Australia would not be pulled from shelves unless there was evidence they were contaminated.

Tests in Singapore revealed White Rabbit Creamy Candy contained traces of melamine. The company has since recalled the product. Australian food authorities are waiting for test results, expected by tomorrow.

Lydia Buchtmann from Food Standards Australia and New Zealand said no Chinese-made infant formula products were imported, and products with milk as a primary ingredient had not been imported in more than a year. Authorities were now trying to detect other Chinese products that may contain minor amounts of milk.

In Beijing, the state media report appeared to be the first official confirmation that news of the risks posed by the milk products was suppressed.

It said Communist Party officials in the north Chinese city of Shijiazhuang, where Sanlu is based, delayed referring the matter to higher authorities for more than a month after Sanlu finally told them of the problem on August 2 — just before the Beijing Olympics.

“In the eight months from December 2007 to August 2, 2008, Sanlu made no report to relevant authorities in Shijiazhuang and took no corrective measures, allowing the situation to worsen further,” the report on state-run CCTV’s news channel said. “(Sanlu and Shijiazhuang officials) violated rules on reporting major incidents involving food safety.

Reports of tainted milk emerged in state-run media only this month. The chemical melamine, normally used in making plastics, was apparently added to milk to give the appearance of higher protein levels.

Although it knew children were falling ill last December, Sanlu Group did not even begin testing its milk for dangerous substances until June, the cabinet probe reportedly found.

The Government has blamed tainted products for four deaths, and said that 12,892 children remained in hospital with kidney problems, 104 of them in a serious condition.

The repercussions outside mainland China continued to mount, with Hong Kong officials reporting a second child ill with a kidney stone after drinking Chinese dairy products.

The scandal claimed its biggest political scalp so far with the resignation of China’s product-safety watchdog chief, Li Changjiang, on Monday.

AFP, with ANIELLA MILETIC
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Schools and universities may need to test students sitting exams for brain-improving drugs.
The Academy of Medical Sciences said drugs for diseases such as Alzheimer’s were being used be healthy people to boost alertness and memory.
The experts said if it became more of an issue, urine drug tests might be needed.
But they added brain science technology also held he key to more effective addiction and mental illness drugs.
The academy set up a working group in 2006 led by Cambridge University neuroscience expert Gabriel Horn after look at psychoactive drugs.
It said future drugs had huge potential, thanks to greater understanding of the workings of the brain.
For example, research has identified that many addictive drugs and some behavioral addictions such as gambling “hijack” neural circuits in a particular region of the brain.
Meanwhile, genes were identified that make the brain vulnerable to mental illness.
But the experts said these breakthrough had, as yet, led to limited progress in drug treatment.
The group’s report aid vaccines could be developed to neutralize addiction, pointing to the work currently being done on a jab for smoking as evidence that is was possible.
The team also turned its attention to drugs that improved brain performance, so-called cognitive enhancers.
They pointed out brain enhancers, such as caffeine, had been used for a long time.
But they warned there was anecdotal evidence drugs such as Aricept, a treatment for Alzheimer’s, were also being used by otherwise healthy people to boost alertness and memory.
Horn said regulation might be needed, adding: “We see similarities in the future use of cognition enhancers with the current use of performance enhancing drugs in sport.

Overworked corporate young guns are aging prematurely, a health expert warns.
Workaholic habits left 25-year old looking and feeling 35, with a list of lifestyle diseases to match.
Haggard faces on bloated bodies were the sure signs.
Career crusaders who slaughter their health often suffer from high blood fat, high blood pressure, frequent coughs and colds, diabetes and low energy.
And having a six-pack was no reason to relax.
Lean people abuse their bodies all week, then gorge on exercise at the weekend.
They’re going to developing the lifestyle of the weekend warrior at 25, not 35.
Despite their best intentions, weekend super-sessions are more likely to cause injury or dehydration.
It was easy to see why so many workers got hooked on the deprivation/reward cycle.
It happens because they’re working ’til 10 at night and… what sort of food is being brought into the office at seven or eight o’clock at night?
They’re aging prematurely.
Fresh food shops in the city and getting active midweek were health lifelines for workaholics.
And getting active midweek was he other side of the solution for people walking the tightrope between work goals and life commitments.
“They should act their age.” said Karen Inge, a dietitian consultant.