The Korea Herald

Mobile app provides instant nutrition information

Jan 12, 2012

If you are at a supermarket, wondering if a food item will make you fat, a new smartphone app by Korea Food and Drug Administration can tell you.The newly released application, New High-fat and Less Healthy Food Alert-e, contains information about the nutritional value of nearly all popular snacks, candies and ice creams. By simply scanning the barcodes on snack packages, the app will automatically tell whether the food is healthy or not. And by inputting a product name or a main ingredient, con
Women with larger breasts suffer backaches: hospital

Jan 12, 2012

Women with larger breasts are more likely to suffer backaches than those with smaller breasts, TnTn Hospital said Monday. According to Cho Tae-yeon, chief of the network hospital specializing in spinal health, larger breasts could pull the torso forward and in the worst case cause a herniated disk. A herniated disk is a condition when the disk between two bones in the spine presses on the nerves around the backbone.“One additional kilogram on the torso, especially in the chest area, could amplif
Alcohol releases addictive endorphin: study

Jan 12, 2012

Drinking alcohol helps to release endorphins in areas of the brain that produce feelings of pleasure and reward, a study found.According to the study led by researchers at the University of California, San Francisco, endorphin release in the nucleus accumbens and orbitofrontal cortex in response to
Nicotine could ward off memory loss: study

Jan 10, 2012

Older adults who are starting to have problems with memory may benefit from small amounts of nicotine therapy, according to a US study published on Monday.The research in Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology, included 74 non-smokers with an average age of 76. Half were
Healthy eating may help ADHD kids: U.S. study

Jan 9, 2012

WASHINGTON (AFP) ― Simply eating healthier may improve the behavior of children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder if therapy and medication fail, said a study published Monday in the journal Pediatrics.Researchers, however, said that their review of recent controlled scientific studies had shown conflicting evidence on the impact of supplements and restricted diets ― in some cases they were no better than the placebo effect.Nutritional interventions should therefore be considered an
Red wine may reduce breast cancer risk

Jan 9, 2012

Red wine may reduce one risk factor for breast cancer, challenging the widely-held belief that alcohol increases breast cancer, U.S. researchers say.Bottles of wine are displayed on a shelf at the Capercaillie Wine Co. cellar in Lovedale, in the Hunter Valley region of Australia, on Tuesday, O
Brain power can decline from age 45: study

Jan 6, 2012

Cognitive skills can start to fall from the age of 45, not from around the age of 60 as is commonly thought, according to research published on Friday by the British Medical Journal (BMJ).Researchers led by Archana Singh-Manoux from the Centre for Research in Epidemiology and Population Health in Fr
Siblings bound by blood to fight rare cancer

Jan 5, 2012

MILWAUKEE ― In the course of a few hours on a recent fall day, all of Ann Merrell’s blood slowly exited her body through a tube in her left arm, then re-entered through a tube in her right.Two lives were bound up in this circle of blood.The night before, in her own bed in South Beloit, Ill., she’d tossed and turned. Some of it was fear of the unknown. Yet Ann had decided that what she knew about her brother’s disease outweighed what she didn’t know about this effort to save him. Since 2006, her
Sudden cardiac death

Jan 5, 2012

When the temperature falls, the heart can be put under greater stress and the probability of sudden cardiac death surges among those in mid-life. Excessive drinking, excessive smoking and chronic fatigue in day-to-day life may lead to the onset of sudden chest pain followed by cardiac arrest and death. Sudden death refers to an unexpected natural death caused within one hour of the onset of symptoms. Most cases of sudden death are the result of heart disorder. Therefore, sudden death is normally
Gender wars: Men, women more different than thought

Jan 5, 2012

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Mars and Venus are much further apart than previously thought -- and we're not talking about planets.In research published Wednesday, three European psychologists, using a new model for analyzing personality differences between men and women, claimed the gap between the genders ha
AIDS vaccine made by J&J protects monkeys in study as human trials begin

Jan 5, 2012

An experimental vaccine developed by a Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) unit and the U.S. military protected monkeys against an animal version of the AIDS virus, a study found. Monkeys that got the vaccine were as much as 83 percent less likely than those that got a dummy shot to become infected with simian
Calories, not protein, boost body fat: study

Jan 4, 2012

People who eat too much of a high-calorie, low-protein diet tend to gain more body fat than people who overeat high amounts of protein, US researchers said Tuesday.A study published in the January 4 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association included 25 people in Louisiana who agreed t
Critics assail crime laws aimed at people with HIV

Jan 3, 2012

NEW YORK (AP) -- A man in Texas is serving a 35-year prison sentence for spitting at a police officer _ because he has the virus that causes AIDS and his saliva was deemed a deadly weapon. In Michigan, an HIV-positive man who allegedly bit a neighbor during an argument faced a bioterrorism charge. C
Viagra may help treat heart failure

Jan 2, 2012

BOCHUM, Germany, Dec. 31 (UPI) -- Sildenafil, the active ingredient in Viagra, may ease heart symptoms because it makes stiffened cardiac walls more elastic, U.S. and German researchers say.Dr. Wolfgang Linke of the Ruhr-Universitat Bochum Institute of Physiology, in cooperation with colleague
As sales soar, experts warn about energy drinks

Jan 1, 2012