New research, carried out at the University of Leicester, suggests that the British press may be guilty of promoting distorted views of mental illness.
Katy-Louise Morgan, Leicester’s Department of Media and Communication graduate says, “Both the tabloid and the broadsheet press have consistently given disproportionate and sensationalized coverage to psychotic illnesses such as schizophrenia, often read more »

A study following almost 2,000 people for up to 10 years suggests drinking fruit and vegetable juices frequently may significantly cut the risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease.
Apparently the risk was 76% lower for those who frequently drank juice (more than three times a week) compared to those who drank it less than once a read more »

According to an article on BBC News, anger can compromise lung function. Research, led by Dr Rosalind Wright of Harvard Medical School, found those with high levels of hostility had poorer lung function than their happier peers. The US team followed 670 male military veterans and also found that the angriest men suffered a more read more »

A new study has looked at alcoholics who have been sober for 6 months to 13 years – and the results indicate that long-term abstinent alcoholics can recover many – but not all – of their neurocognitive deficits.
“We found that the cognitive and mental abilities of middle-aged alcoholics who had been abstinent for six months read more »

Dr Philip Severn and Dr Scott Fraser, of the Sunderland Eye Infirmary, report in The Lancet that a woman has severely damaged her vision by taking a steroid drug purchased from an online pharmaceutical company in Thailand for four years.
The unnamed woman was found to have glaucoma and cataracts when she went to hospital – read more »

According to figures from the Office for National Statistics, Scots suicide rate is the highest in the UK. From 1991 to 2004 the suicide rate among men was 50% higher in Scotland than other UK countries, and the rate for women was double that of elsewhere.
The national suicide prevention strategy, Choose Life, was set read more »

According to tests conducted on mice, researchers found improvement in the health of the brains of rats that had eaten berries, compared with those who had not. “Berries vary in their nutrient mixes and may have different brain effects, but that’s not certain yet,” said the researcher.
The study was conducted on 60 young male rats, read more »

According to an article in The Guardian, the results of almost 50 clinical studies on t’ai chi revealed that ‘the almost meditative state of calmness it produces reduced anxiety and stress, and also lowered blood pressure’. Another study two years ago showed that t’ai chi boosts the immune system, which helps to raise protection against read more »

Three brisk 30-minute walks each week could help ease depression according to researchers at America’s Duke University. The walks had greater effects on reducing depression than drugs from the same family as Prozac. A sperate study at the University of Texas showed that a 30-minute walk offered a mental “pick me up” for the moderately read more »

Self-harming is clearly more widespread than previously thought; this new study of self-harm amongst 15 and 16 year olds in England found that girls are four times more likely to have tried to self-harm compared to boys, and 11% of girls and 3% of boys admitted that they had self-harmed within the last year.
In a read more »