“Alternate-day dieting” is when you gorge yourself with whatever you want to eat one day and eat only 500 calories the next day, according to news sources. This diet came into popularity the airing of a BBC documentary with health journalist Dr. Michael Mosley. In the feature, Mosley ate normally five days a week and only ate 600 calories the other two days. After a month, he lost 14 pounds and reduced his body fat by about 25 percent. The diet is now known as the 5/2 diet. Additionally, scienti

Mathematical calculation requires the two sides of the brain to "talk" to each other, U.S. scientists say, and the stronger the talk, the better the outcome.The research sheds light on the neural basis of human math abilities and suggests possible help for those who suffer from dyscalculia -- an inability to understand and manipulate numbers, the University of Texas at Dallas reported Wednesday.Pr

Sports drinks shouldn't take the place of regular water intake unless a person is playing sports or exercising, a U.S. registered dietitian says. Brooke Schantz, a Loyola University Health System registered dietitian and certified specialist in sports dietetics, said sports drinks will help hydrate you, but the average healthy child, adolescent and adult doesn't need the extra carbohydrates and ca

Yosemite National Park officials say a second person has died of a rare, rodent-borne disease after visiting the park earlier this summer.Spokesman Scott Gediman says health officials this weekend learned of a second death of a person who contracted hantavirus after visiting the park in June.There is one other confirmed case of the illness, and a fourth is being investigated.Park officials are war

Psychological interventions can provide benefits to patients with skin conditions such as psoriasis and atopic dermatitis, researchers in Britain said. Researchers at the University of Sheffield, England, conducted a meta-analysis of 22 studies involving more than 900 participants. The meta-analysis, published in the British Journal of Dermatology, found psychological interventions had a medium-sized effect on skin conditions but that a number of different factors influenced the effectiveness of

A chemical found in green tea can fight two types of skin cancer cells, experts say.Drinking the tea has no effect on cancer cells because the extract is too weak. However, when green tea extract is directly applied to cancer cells, the cells shrink or even disappear, according to news sources.Scientists at the University of Strathclyde and the University of Glasgow found in their research that green tea extract has epigallocathechin gallate (EGCg), a chemical that fights cancer cells without an

The current West Nile outbreak is one of the largest in the U.S., with four times the usual number of cases for this time of year, federal health officials said Wednesday.It's still too early to say how bad the year will end up because most infections are reported in August and September. But never before have so many illnesses been reported this early, said Dr. Lyle Petersen, of the Centers for D

Researchers have identified a mysterious new disease that has left scores of people in Asia and some in the United States with AIDS-like symptoms even though they are not infected with HIV. The patients' immune systems become damaged, leaving them unable to fend off germs as healthy people do. What triggers this isn't known, but the disease does not seem to be contagious.This is another kind of ac