If you get cancer today you are now more likely to survive it. New government research shows there has been a 30 per cent increase in five-year cancer survival rates since 1986. According to the Cancer Council here in Australia, 64 per cent of Australian women and 58 per cent of men have survived five years after a cancer diagnosis compared with 53 and 41 per cent respectively, between 1982 and 1986. The findings reflect the effectiveness of early detection and advances in chemotherapy, radiation therapy and surgery. These treatments extend the lives of people who have been diagnosed with a range of cancers.

Listening to your favourite songs may keep your heart healthy.
Scientists have found that happy music caused the lining of blood vessels in the body to expand, increasing the amount of blood flow to the heart.
But listening to “stressful” music, such as heavy metal, caused the vessels to contract and put more strain on your heart.
Endorphins released by the brain to induce a feeling of well-being could be affecting the blood vessels. I love listening mellow music, classical and any with soft melody. So without my knowing, I’m almost every day keeping my heart healthy.

An American man with AIDS appears to have been cured 20 months after receiving a targeted bone marrow transplant normally used to fight leukemia.
While his doctors and AIDS researchers caution the case might be no more than a fluke, others say it may inspire a greater interest in gene therapy to fight the disease that claims two million lives a year.
The virus has infected 33 million people worldwide.
The American man who is living in Berlin, had been living with AIDS virus for more than a decade. But 20 months after undergoing a transplant of genetically selected bone marrow, he no longer showed signs of the virus. He had stopped taking conventional AIDS medication. “We waited every day for a bad reading,” the doctor of the American man said. But the bad reading did not come.
Researchers in Berlin’s Charite Hospital and medical school say tests on his bone marrow, blood and other organ tissues showed no sign of AIDS.
What do you think? Maybe those tests were probably not extensive enough right? But if it’s really because of the marrow transplant, should we say that AIDS carrier has now more hope to get rid of the virus? Hopefully. According to a doctor, a lot of scrutiny from a lot of different biological samples would be required to say that the AIDS virus is not present.
Marrow transplants have been used before to treat AIDS and HIV.

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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This bundle of blubber may only be 11 months old, but he is already the size of an eight-year-old.

The giant baby tips the scales at a whopping 61lbs 12oz (28kg) and stands four and a half stone larger than his older brother. Due to his hefty frame the toddler also has to wear huge nappies.

His mother, Milena Orosco de Agudelo, said her son started ballooning at just two months old.

The baby has had undergone a number of medical examinations which suggest he may have a problem with his endocrine system.

Ms Orosco said: ‘He had some tests done and the results show that he has a thyroid malfunction.

‘Then, he had a cardiogram test done and that test shows that he has the bones of an eight-year-old boy, but they have not told me where that came from.’

The normal weight for a boy his age is between 13lbs 4oz and 15lbs 7oz (6-7kg) and now baffled doctors in Colombia are trying to work out how he became so big.

Doctor David Dias, of the Barranquilla Pediatric Hospital, said: ‘The baby will undergo more tests to see if he’s obese or we’re dealing with hyperthyroidism.’

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