No more sex this month, thank you - I'm a Zimbabwean

A Zimbabwe senator wants scientists to develop a chemical that will enable Zimbabwean men to have sex only once a month. Read more >>

South Africans urged to maintain HIV focus on Mandela Day

As the world commemorates Nelson Mandela International Day on 18 July, efforts to prevent the continued spread of HIV have once again come under the spotlight with New Start, South Africa's leading non-profit HIV Counselling and Testing (HCT) programme, calling on all South Africans to take inspiration from the day to play their part in the fight against the epidemic. Read more >>

Trial and major study find PrEP can reduce risk of HIV infection among heterosexuals

A new CDC study called the TDF2 study, along with a separate trial released yesterday, 13 July 2011 provide the first evidence that a daily oral dose of antiretroviral drugs used to treat HIV infection can reduce HIV acquisition among uninfected individuals exposed to the virus through heterosexual sex. Read more >>

Nearly all US patients with high-grade bladder cancer don't get recommended care

[Kim Irwin] A study at UCLA's Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Centre has found that nearly all patients with high-grade, non-invasive bladder cancer are not receiving the guideline-recommended care that would best protect them from a recurrence - a finding the researchers characterised as alarming. Read more >>

AA, addiction and the Professor

Addiction psychiatrist and University of Sydney professor, Stephen Jurd, has put his practice on hold to produce the off-Broadway hit Bill W and Dr Bob at Sydney's CarriageWorks theatre. Read more >>

2011 Shoprite Checkers Women of the Year: Health Care-Givers category finalists

Three exceptional and visionary women have been selected as finalists in the Health Care-Givers Category of the Shoprite Checkers Women of the Year Award. Their achievements are wide ranging and shows determination and foresight to make an impact on the future of fellow South Africans. Read more >>

Costs set private health care on fire

Soaring health-care costs in private hospitals remained the main contributor to the high cost of private health care in the country, and the Department of Health is working on ways to address this pricing issue, it said last week. Read more >>

New brain research suggests eating disorders impact brain function

Bulimia nervosa is a severe eating disorder associated with episodic binge eating followed by extreme behaviours to avoid weight gain such as self-induced vomiting, use of laxatives or excessive exercise. It is poorly understood how brain function may be involved in bulimia. Read more >>

Researchers discover new airway stem cell

[Kim Irwin] Researchers at UCLA have identified a new stem cell that participates in the repair of the lungs' large airways, which play a vital role in protecting the body from infectious agents and toxins in the environment. Read more >>

Popular TV shows teach children fame is most important value, UCLA psychologists report

[Stuart Wolpert] "Don't you know who I am? Remember my name. Fame! I'm gonna live forever." - Irene Cara, "Fame"... Fame is the No. 1 value emphasised by television shows popular with 9- to 11-year-olds, a dramatic change over the past 10 years, UCLA psychologists report in a new study. Read more >>

Ramadan fasting without the headache

The fasting month of Ramadan is an annual religious practice of Muslims prior to the "Hari Raya Puasa" celebration. During the one-month period, Muslims fast from sunrise to sunset (participants abstain from eating, drinking and smoking for 29 to 30 days). Many people who fast over Ramadan suffer mild or moderate headaches as a result of factors such as hypoglycaemia, caffeine withdrawal, change in sleep patterns and the stress of fasting itself. Read more >>

Is meditation the push-up for the brain?

[Mark Wheeler] Two years ago, researchers at UCLA found that specific regions in the brains of long-term meditators were larger and had more grey matter than the brains of individuals in a control group. This suggested that meditation may indeed be good for all of us since, alas, our brains shrink naturally with age. Read more >>

Are you eating too much salt?

High blood pressure affects 25% of adult South Africans, with black African people appearing to be more susceptible than other groups[1]. Experts suggest this may have a lot to do with the high levels of salt in our diets and that reducing this excessive consumption might be an effective, easy way of helping to protect ourselves from this devastating condition[2]. Read more >>

High sodium, low potassium diet linked to increased risk of death

Those who eat a diet high in sodium and low in potassium have a 50% increased risk of death from any cause, and about twice the risk of death from heart attacks, according to a study published recently in the Archives of Internal Medicine. The study was conducted by researchers at the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, Emory University and Harvard University. It is a US study, but its findings may be applied in SA. Read more >>

Indirubin: Component of Chinese herbal remedy might block brain tumour's spread

The active ingredient in a traditional Chinese herbal remedy might help treat deadly brain tumours, according to a new study by researchers at the Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Centre - Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute (OSUCCC - James). Read more >>

Lung cancer test results are unreliable

It turns out CT scans for measuring lung cancer spread can be irregular. Read more >>

Stop rubber necking

Millions of road users use our roads every day, so it's not unexpected that we stumble upon a road accident every now and then during our daily commute. However, what does that entail for systems like traffic departments, rescue workers and paramedics attending to those accidents? Read more >>

Abuse of elderly increasing

Elderly people in the Western Cape have it the hardest in the country, according to the national director for the Meals on Wheels charity. Read more >>

New method defibrillates heart with much less electricity - and pain

Cornell scientists, in collaboration with physicists and physician-scientists in Germany, France and Rochester, N.Y., have developed a new - and much less painful and potentially damaging - method to end life-threatening heart fibrillations. Read more >>

UCLA launches program to provide face, hand and abdominal wall transplants

[Roxanne Moster] In a major step into a new transplantation frontier, UCLA has established a first-of-its-kind program to restore functionality and enhance quality of life for people who have suffered severe trauma or other disfiguring injuries to the upper extremities, face or abdomen. Read more >>