A British study has revealed that light smokers and non-smokers pay more attention to health warnings on cigarette packs that lack branding graphics.

The revelation supports initiatives being considered by some nations to draw more attention to the warnings.

From Reuters.com:

“Repeated exposure to health warnings on cigarette packs might mean that daily smokers may be able to over-ride the automatic tendency to focus more on these (warnings) on plain packs — in other words, ignore them,” said Marcus Munafo, a professor at the University of Bristol and lead researcher on the small study, published in “Addiction.”

Australia is set to be the first country to require plain packaging on cigarettes and from 2012 cigarettes sold in the United States will be required to carry pictorial warnings.

Researchers tracked eye movements of 43 people as they looked at cigarette packs that had either branded information or plain packaging, each paired with pictorial health warnings — such as those of lungs damaged by smoking.

“In other words, if you don’t look at a health warning it won’t influence your behavior, but if you do it might,” Munafo wrote.

Loneliness could be as bad for your health as obesity, smoking, and alcoholism, according to a recently concluded study.

The study disclosed that the chances of living to a healthy old age increase by 50 percent with the support of family, friends, and neighbors.

From Dailymail.co.uk:

But the findings, based on an analysis of more than 300,000 people, suggest social isolation is as bad for your health as smoking 15 cigarettes a day or being an alcoholic.

It also does more damage to your health than not exercising – and is twice as harmful as obesity.

The American scientists who made the discovery say lack of social support should be added to the ‘short list’ of risk factors for an early grave.

Dr Julianne Holt-Lunstad, of Brigham Young University in Utah, who led the study, said friends and family influenced health for the better by offering a ‘calming touch’ or by helping people find meaning in their lives.

A spokesman for the journal PLoS Medicine, which published the study, remarked, ‘The idea that a lack of social relationships is a risk factor for death is still not widely recognised by health organisations and the public.’

A spokesman for the journal PLoS Medicine, which published the study, said: ‘The idea that a lack of social relationships is a risk factor for death is still not widely recognised by health organisations and the public.’

Health experts have urged for a ban on sun creams below factor 15 and said low factor sun creams offer low protection to the users who are falsely assured that they are safe.

Experts also said the government should also scrap VAT on creams with higher factors for ensuring that they were affordable.

From Dailymail.co.uk:

At present, 57 per cent of people never use sunscreen in Britain, while 60 per cent of those who do use it buy products with a Sun Protection Factor below 15.

Dr John Ashworth, a consultant dermatologist, said a radical shift in Government health policy was required.

‘I think anything less than factor 15 is worthless,’ he said. ‘If you have only got a tiny bit on, and it’s a really hot day then the little protection it does give you will be quickly sweated off.

‘People underestimate the strength of the UK sun and at the first hint of a glimmer people rush outside and lie in it and get as pink as a lobster.

‘A lot of people think they might get a little bit burned and that’s that. However, lying in the sun unprotected is like someone smoking 80 cigarettes a day – it carries big risks.’

Lloyds Pharmacy decided to stop stocking any sun creams below factor 15 five years ago. Now the pressure is on others to follow suit.

Chemists should not sell cream below factor 15, according to Rod Tucker, a community pharmacist who was involved in the all party parliamentary group on skin’s report into cancer.

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Men with prostate cancer could halve their risk of dying if they are given hormone therapy as well as radiotherapy, according to a recently concluded research.

It was found by the study that hormone therapy reduces the levels of male hormones that can boost the growth of tumours.

From in.news.yahoo.com:

“[This] is an important trial, and has two clear messages for current clinical practice. First, it confirms that NADT significantly reduces mortality after radiotherapy for high-risk prostate cancer, and is a standard of care,” the Telegraph quoted Chris Parker from London’s Royal Marsden Hospital, as saying.

“Second, it helps to resolve the uncertainty regarding NADT duration, and strongly suggests that men receiving NADT should have at least six months’ treatment,” added Parker.

In the new research, a team from Australia and New Zealand looked again at results of a trial involving 802 men with locally advanced prostate cancer, some of whom were only treated with radiation and others who also received either three or six months’ worth of hormone therapy.

The researchers looked at the patients 10 years on and found there was an 11 per cent death rate among those who had the six-month NADT treatment combined with radiotherapy, compared with 22 per cent who just had radiation.

The study has been published in The Lancet.

Scientists have claimed that a traditional remedy made from foxgloves can lower the risk of prostate cancer by a quarter.

Digoxin, the drug, is already used for treating congestive heart failure and abnormal heart rhythms.

From Dailymail.co.uk:

Scientists from the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore found digoxin lowered the risk of prostate cancer by 24 per cent among the 47,000 men tested.

But they warn the results do not prove digoxin, whose side-effects include nausea, headaches and male breast enlargement, prevents the disease.

Professor Elizabeth Platz said: ‘We realised that combining our laboratory and epidemiologic approaches could reduce the possibility that results on the candidate drugs might be due to chance.

‘Adding the epidemiology study to the drug screen step provided an assessment of the drug’s potential activity in people.’

According to the Cancer Discovery journal, researchers say Digoxin could help to combat prostate cancer by stopping the growth of the disease.