MORE than one million babies could be saved worldwide if mothers were to start breastfeeding within the first hour of birth. That was the message the World Alliance for Breastfeeding Action (WABA) sent out in conjunction with World Breastfeeding Week 2007. A global synchronised breastfeeding event was held in the Penang Caring Society Complex where 60 mothers joined their counterparts in over 21 countries to breastfeed simultaneously for one minute. Join discussion...

Last Monday, NPR (very good US-based radio station) had a program on "do brain training programs work?" that reflected very old-fashioned thinking. In short, the guest speakers talked and talked about the importance of nutrition and physical exercise (both very important, as we have covered in this blog multiple times), and expressed skepticism about the concept of exercising our brains to improve attention, memory and other skills...I guess it takes a while to change old mental paradigms (And yes, some programs work better than others). Neuroscientists have finally debunked that old thinking that our brains decline inexorably after a certain age and that there is little each of us can do to "exercise" and "train our brains". But don't trust me. During the last year I have had the fortune to interview 11 cutting-edge neuroscientists and cognitive psychologists on their research and thoughts. Here are some of my favorite quotes (you can read the full interview notes by clicking the links): Join discussion...

Thin sheets of polymer coated with living muscle could be used to test new drugs, repair damaged body parts, or even create life-like bio-machines, researchers say. The Harvard University team created the "muscular thin films" by attaching muscle cells to elastic polymer sheets. By laying down striped patterns of proteins on these polymers, they were able to make the muscle cells arrange themselves into muscle fibres, similar to those in animals. When shocked with electricity, the resulting hybrid material can be made to bend, roll up, or wriggle, at a rate that can easily be controlled. Join discussion...

A team of American researchers say they may have found the "skinny" gene after they were able to manipulate obesity among worms and mice. Published in the Sept. 5 issue of the journal Cell Metabolism by researchers at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, the report looks at the role played by a single gene in fat formation. Greater activity in the "adipose" gene -- first discovered in fruit flies 50 years ago -- was found to keep fruit flies, worms and mice skinny, regardless of how much they ate. Join discussion...

Light drinking helps heart health. But more than one drink a day for women and more than two daily drinks for men are harmful. That's the bottom line from a state-of-the-art review of drinking and health by University of Missouri cardiologist James H. O'Keefe, M.D., and colleagues. The researchers note that study after study shows health benefits for moderate drinking. These benefits appear to come not from the type of alcohol, but from the alcohol itself. Join discussion...

For many of us, the goal of life isn't ultimate wealth, a massive amount of stuff, or the perfect car. It's happiness, plain and simple. Some people may be created happier than others, with enjoyment of life programmed into their hardwiring. For others, getting to happiness isn't always that simple. You weren't programmed that way. But like any programming, yours can be changed. Rewrite your life program to include as many of the following tips as appeal to you, and the ultimate goal of happiness can be yours. If you've already achieved complete happiness, well done! Join discussion...

While the media bombards us with alarming statistics about the number of teenagers having sex, few reports shed light on what might encourage teens to become sexually active in the first place. Three studies offer some insight into sexually active teens: environment, age of partner and perceived family support may affect young people's decisions to have sex. Join discussion...

The prospect of holding back the years with a simple injection could be closer than we think. Scientists have taken a step towards developing a treatment that could erase the health problems associated with ageing. While their breakthrough relates to rogue genes behind two rare genetic diseases, the approach they used could one day be harnessed to slow down the ageing process - creating an "elixir of life". Join discussion...

With antibiotics now over-prescribed for treatments of bacterial infections, and patients failing to complete their courses of treatment properly, many bacteria are able to pick up an entire array of antibiotic resistance genes easily by swapping genetic material with each other. MRSA – the multiple drug resistant strain of Staphylococcus aureus - and newly emerging strains of the superbug Clostridium difficile have forced medical researchers to realise that an entirely different approach is required to combat these bacteria. “By using a virus that only attacks bacteria, called a phage – and some phages only attack specific types of bacteria – we can treat infections by targeting the exact strain of bacteria causing the disease”, says Ana Toribio from the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute in Hinxton, Cambridgeshire, UK. “This is much more targeted than conventional antibiotic therapy”. Join discussion...

Dutch doctors today reminded hospital visitors to turn off their cell phones -- for the sake of health, not etiquette. The reason: Cell phones may interfere with critical care equipment such as ventilators and external pacemakers, report the University of Amsterdam's Erik Jan van Lieshout, MD, and colleagues. With that in mind, van Lieshout's team supports the practice of keeping cell phones at least a meter (about 3.28 feet) away from medical equipment or hospital beds Join discussion...