Indulging in bacon too frequently may be hazardous to your health, a new study suggests, while taking the skin off your chicken before you cook it might not be so good for you either.

At the Harvard School of Public Health, researchers found that people who ate bacon five times a week or more were nearly 60-percent more likely to develop bladder cancer, while those who ate skinless chicken this frequently had a 52-percent greater risk of the disease.

[Read](http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/news/fullstory_41769.html “Read the Story”) (Reuters via MedlinePlus)

Alzheimer’s has a range of disparate risk factors, but researchers may now have found one underlying cause that links them all: a lack of oxygen.

Previous studies have shown that diabetes, stroke, clogged arteries and ageing all increase the risk of developing Alzheimer’s, and only 5% of cases appear to have been strongly influenced by genetic factors. Now evidence has emerged that lack of oxygen may be the ultimate cause.

[Read](http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn10613&feedId=online-news_rss20 “Read the Story”) (New Scientist)

Men who suffer from migraine headaches appear to be at an increased risk for cardiovascular disease, mostly due to a higher risk of having a heart attack, researchers report.

“Migraine is not so much a risk factor, but a sort of risk marker,” added Dr. Gerald Fletcher, AHA spokesman and a professor of medicine at the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine in Jacksonville, Fla. “This should alert physicians and the public that this could be a problem.”

[Read](http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/news/fullstory_41374.html “Read the Story”) (HealthDay via MedlinePlus)

A substance found in fish oil may be associated with a significantly reduced risk of developing Alzheimer’s and other dementias, researchers reported yesterday. The scientists found that people with the highest [docosahexaenoic acid](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Docosahexaenoic_acid “Wikipedia Article”), or DHA, were about half as likely to develop dementia as those with lower levels.

[Read](http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/14/health/14alzh.html?ex=1321160400&en=84d1e746f912f5d0&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss “Read the Story”) (New York Times)

Johns Hopkins researchers have found that a small amount of dark chocolate a day can thin the blood and cut the risk of clots in much the same way as taking aspirin.

“Eating a little bit of chocolate or having a drink of hot cocoa as part of a regular diet is probably good for personal health, so long as people don’t eat too much of it, and too much of the kind with lots of butter and sugar.”

[Read](http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/6146070.stm “Read the Story”) (BBC)

Women from the mid-30s to mid-50s are less likely than Americans overall to be very happy, and many are racked by worries about aging parents and other family members.

Later marriages, later child-bearing and longer life spans are forcing more women into taking responsibility for their kids and their parents, says social demographer Janice Wassel of the University of North Carolina-Greensboro. The “sandwich” years don’t even go away by the 60s anymore.

“We’ve got these 60-year-olds who take care of 92-year-old parents and 16-year-old kids,” she says.

[Read](http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2006-11-12-women-study_x.htm?csp=34 “Read the Story”) (USA Today)

Starvation and malnutrition are fast becoming the twin perils of the AIDS fight, and doctors and health experts say millions of infected people in the developing world are rapidly approaching a tipping point where food will replace drugs as the biggest need. Without adequate nutrition, AIDS sufferers cannot absorb the drugs needed to slow the virus. The side effects from taking the pills without food can lead many patients to neglect treatment.

A recent World Food Program study found that it would cost only 66 cents a day to feed an AIDS patient and family, but health experts say that having poured billions into free drug programs, many donors are reluctant to take on the added costs of food supplements.

[Read](http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2006-11-12-aids-starvation_x.htm?csp=34 “Read the Story”) (USA Today)

Some 2,000 people mobbed a hospital in southwest China and clashed with police after a young boy died at the facility, temporarily shutting it down and leaving at least 10 people injured, a human rights organization and local residents said Sunday.

The boy was taken to the hospital by his grandfather on Tuesday after he accidentally swallowed some farming chemicals stored in an old soft drink bottle. Doctors told the grandfather that he didn’t have enough money for treatment and asked him to go home and fetch more. When he returned, the boy, who was between 3- and 4-years old, had died. It wasn’t immediately clear what effort was made to treat the child.

[Read](http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2006/11/12/asia/AS_GEN_China_Hospital_Riot.php “Read the Story”) (AP via International Herald Tribune)

Eating a low-carb, high-fat diet for years does not raise the risk of heart disease, a long-term study suggests, easing fears that the popular Atkins diet might set people up for eventual heart attacks.

The study of thousands of women over two decades found that those who got lots of their carbohydrates from refined sugars and highly processed foods nearly doubled their risk of heart disease. At the same time, **those who ate a low-carb diet but got more of their protein and fat from vegetables rather than animal sources cut their heart disease risk by 30% on average**, compared with those who ate more animal fats.

[Read](http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2006-11-08-low-carb-diet_x.htm?csp=34 “Read the Story”) (AP via USA Today)

Severely mentally ill people in Fairfax County, VA whose families are trying to get them emergency help are being released without receiving treatment — or even a hearing — because there are not enough independent psychologists to examine them.

The Fairfax Community Services Board advertised the psychologist positions widely in the mental health community and then among Community Service Boards across the state but got few responses. The job pays about $100 an hour.

[Read](http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/05/AR2006110500741.html?nav=rss_metro/va “Read the Story”)

Heavy use of mobile phones may damage mens fertility, a study has suggested.

Researchers found that men who used a phone for four hours or more a day had fewer sperm and their sperm moved less well and were of poorer quality.

[Read](http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/6079782.stm “Read the Story”) (BBC)

Researchers have found that eating vegetables appears to help keep the brain young and may slow the mental decline sometimes associated with growing old.

Elderly people who reported eating at least 2.8 servings of vegetables a day compared to people who ate less than one serving a day saw their rate of memory loss and other mental decline slow by 40 percent over six years, the researchers found.

People who ate the most green leafy vegetables such as lettuce and spinach had the least memory loss, on average. Next best were yellow vegetables such as squash and cruciferous vegetables such as broccoli. Legumes such as peanuts and lentils had the least effect, and eating fruit frequently did not have any apparent effect at all.

[Read](http://www.int.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=31&art_id=qw1161619561238S431 “Read the Story”) (Reuters via The Independent Online)

As you age, walking can keep the pounds away, according to new research.

In one study, scientists at the University of Pittsburgh found that overweight middle-aged people who walked briskly for 30 to 60 minutes a day lost 7 pounds in a year and a half, while similar adults who did not exercise consistently gained seven pounds in that time.

In another study, University of North Carolina researchers did an analysis of data on young adults, ages 18 to 30, over a 15-year period and found those who walked four or more hours a week were the least likely to gain weight as they aged.

[Read](http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2006-10-23-adults-walking_x.htm?csp=34 “Read the Story”) (USA Today)