BizNews Health covers cutting-edge research, advances, opinions and debates in medicine, health and wellbeing from orthodox, complementary and alternative perspectives. We have a special focus on nutrition, fitness, longevity medicine, and prevention of non-communicable diseases â such as obesity, cancer, type 2 diabetes, heart disease and stroke, increasingly mood disorders such as depression, and dementias. We include lifestyle and travel to healthy destinations, since mind and body are integrally connected, and optimum health is not just the absence of disease, but a state of complete physical, mental, and even spiritual wellbeing.
Looking to lose weight? Think a happy thought before you eat. A new study shows food and mood don’t just rhyme. “People use food either to maintain or regain a good mood; if youâre already in a good mood, you tend to eat more healthfully than in a bad mood, ” says Dr  Brian Wansink, … Read more
German health regulators, the toughest in Europe, have granted Northwest Biotherapeutics special permission to sell its experimental brain cancer drug, DCVax-L in the country, even though the small USÂ biotechnology company has not completed late-stage trial of the immunotherapy. The special “hospital exemption” would allow Northwest to sell DCVax-L for five years, and seek renewed … Read more
A genetic strategy to modify cells from people infected with HIV could become a way to control the virus that causes Aids without antiviral drugs. Thatâs according to results from an early-stage small study of the Sangamo BioSciences therapy,  issued in the New England Journal of Medicine. The findings  represent first publication of data from … Read more
You may have only had one glass of wine with dinner, or a beer at the braai, but if youâre 55 or older, that single serving may hit you hard enough to make you a dangerous, drunk driver. So, baby boomers, US scientists say what you may have suspected is true: you canât party like … Read more
It is regularly called âwhite poisonâ, toxic, deadly, addictive, a killer, and the driver behind obesity, type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and even cancer â just about the worst PR anyone could ever imagine. But does sugar really deserve such a bad rep? Yes and no, depending on who you speak to. Some nutrition specialists … Read more
University of Cape Town sports scientist Prof Tim Noakes proves many things, including that thereâs no use having a mind if you canât change it. Change it he did in spectacular fashion a few  years ago, over the role of cholesterol and saturated fat in heart disease. He  says they are not the heart-health demons … Read more
Thereâs something about statins that makes even the most intelligent doctor say silly things â such as that everyone over 40 should take them, even that children should be given them. Statins  have a reputation as  âwonder drugsâ for prevention of deaths from cardiovascular disease. The real wonder is how these drugs have become the … Read more
A blog on BizNews about Australian Olympic swimmer Ian Thorpe going into rehab for depression recently,  raised the question: can depression ever be beaten? Human brand specialist, brand wellness consultant, educator and author Robert Opie argues that just like Everest, depression can never be truly âbeatenâ. The mentally healthy trick, he says,  is to work with … Read more
Your heart rate can change in seconds, depending on what you are doing and feeling, whether you are standing up, sitting down,  exercising vigorously, or having a romantic Valentine’s Day tryst. The aim is to get your heart rate up often enough, so that  settles down into a slow rate at rest. That will help … Read more
Imagine for a moment what life would be like if you started going blind. American athlete Michael Stone had to face that from a  young age. Now âlegally blindâ, he chooses to set his sights above vision-imposed limitations. He races in gruelling triathlons to raise money in support of research into cures for genetic eye … Read more