A joint English-Canadian research team has discovered genetic markers that can identify people predisposed toward developing Type 2 diabetes. The group believes these discoveries will help them to understand up to 70 percent of the disease's genetic background, and can help prevent people from developing Type 2 diabetes, the most common form of the disease. The research is published online in the journal Nature. Led by scientists from Imperial College London and Canada's McGill University, ... [full story]

Being a parent means having to make tough decisions. Determining when your child is big enough to move out of a car seat. Figuring out if or when your child should cross the street alone. And, on a more regular basis, deciding when your child is too ill to go to school. Lori Price, an Encinitas, Calif., mother of two, had to make that decision on a recent Monday morning. Her 5-year-old son Nate had ... [full story]

Performing a sitting spine rotation can put you back in circulation. QUITE A STRETCH - Firefighter Jill Murray stretches her lower and mid back in a seated rotation movement. Maintaining erect posture, she rotates her chest with the help of her arms as she exhales. CNS Photo by Howard Lipin. THE MOVE: Sitting spine rotation WORKS ON: Stretches the lower and middle back and shoulders, and opens the chest. Improves blood flow to muscles that ... [full story]

New Survey Highlights the Importance of Health and Fitness During Preconception and Pregnancy According to BabyCenter, the leading online resource for new and expectant parents, a majority of women increase their focus on health, fitness and nutrition once they become a mother, than before they planned to conceive and/or had a child. New research shows approximately 65 percent of women exercise more or try to exercise more since becoming mothers, and 82 percent reported eating ... [full story]

A recent study by Harvard researchers (Psychological Science, February 2007) found that people who believe their daily activities are giving them a good workout gain more benefits from those activities. Study participants who were informed that their work was exercise and enough to maintain a healthy lifestyle were in better shape after four weeks than their peers who were not given the same information. The informed group lost weight, lowered blood pressure, and reduced body ... [full story]

More than 38 million women in the US—about 64% of women of childbearing age—practice some form of contraception.  All women should know what their contraceptive options are, how they work, and how they meet different lifestyle needs.   Dr. Laube is President of The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. Birth control falls into five main categories—hormonal contraception, barrier methods, intrauterine device (IUD), sterilization, and natural family planning.  For maxium effectiveness, hormonal, barrier, and natural family planning ... [full story]

MEDTRONICA Vestibular Disorders Association www.vestibular.org Vestibular disorders involve problems of the inner ear, resulting in dizziness, vertigo, nausea, fatigue and many other ailments. This Web site provides a starting point for learning more, with sections describing symptoms, plus links. BODY OF KNOWLEDGE Leprosy is the oldest documented disease, with described cases dating back to 1350 B.C. GET ME THAT. STAT! LOTION IN MOTION - A study is looking into the relation between skin cancer incidence ... [full story]

Hindsight is 20/20. For Cynthia Pappas, looking back at her son Josh as a toddler, she remembers a boy who had no interest in being read to. It was typical boy behavior, maybe. But, Josh, 11, now gets tutored at the 32nd Degree Masonic Learning Center for Children with dyslexia. Pappas recalls Josh's kindergarten year as one of tears and frustration. "He couldn't learn his letters. He cried every day," she said. The first week of ... [full story]

While mothers of football players, basketball players and other athletes ply their children with calorie-laden foods to try to keep them filled up, mothers of wrestlers face a different challenge. Many wrestlers are trying to lose weight while retaining muscle mass - a tricky balancing act. "They have to learn that crash dieting is not doing them any good - they'll lose muscle," said Diane Miller, dietitian and mother of Mike Miller, three-time state champion ... [full story]

Smoking isn't the only cause for lung cancer. In fact, more nonsmokers are now being diagnosed with the dreaded disease than in the past. Lung cancer kills more than 180,000 Americans each year. It has a higher death rate than breast, prostate and colon cancers combined, according to Dr. Heather Wakelee, assistant professor of medicine at Stanford. And, according to the Feb. 10 issue of the Journal of Clinical Oncology, female nonsmokers are developing lung ... [full story]

You work on your abs, condition your hair and pay dearly to have someone make your feet presentable. But what are you doing to make your mind sparkle? Well, good news. There is a virtual gym for mind workouts on the Internet. Schedule regular workouts there and see if someone doesn't sashay up to you with the compliment, "Wow, great mind." The Web site www.sharpbrains.com is designed to provide a personalized brain fitness evaluation and ... [full story]

Exercises that strengthen the "core" - the large muscles of the trunk that stabilize the body - are hot because they improve posture and support the rest of the body through its motions. WORKS ON: Stabilizes core (abdominal and low back) muscles and strengthens gluteus maximus (buttocks) and hamstrings (back of your thighs) muscles. BRIDGE EXERCISE - Firefighter Joe Penolio demonstrates the bridge exercise to strengthen core and gluteal muscles. On his back with knees ... [full story]

Smok­ing ma­ri­jua­na re­duced in­tense foot pain as­so­ci­at­ed with HIV in­fec­tion by 34 per­cent in a ran­dom­ized tri­al, re­search­ers at the Uni­ver­si­ty of California-San Fran­cis­co re­port. The smok­ers’ pain re­duc­tion was found to be twice as much as that of a com­par­i­son group, who smoked ma­ri­jua­na with the ac­tive in­gre­di­ent re­moved.The clin­i­cal tri­al was the first in many years in the Unit­ed States, and helps fill in a ma­jor gap in know­l­edge re­sult­ing from the pau­ci­ty ... [full story]