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It turns out that drinking multiple diet drinks daily may not be a very good idea for post menopausal women. A new study finds that it is associated with an increased risk of having a stroke caused by a blocked artery. The study was published in Stroke, a journal of the American Heart Association. The study is one of the first to look at the association between drinking artificially sweetened beverage and the risk of specific types of stroke in a large, racially diverse group of post-menopausal women. Compared with women who consumed diet drinks less than once a week or not at all, women who consumed two or more artificially sweetened beverages per day were: 23 per cent more likely to have a stroke; 31 per cent more likely to have a clot-caused (ischemic) stroke; 29 er cent more likely to develop heart disease (fatal or non-fatal heart attack); and 16 per cent more likely to die from any cause. Furthermore, researchers found risks were higher for certain wo...

Couples who play board games or take a painting class together produce more oxytocin or ' love hormone ', which is associated with bonding and family cohesiveness, a study has found. The study, published in the Journal of Marriage and Family, found that men wielding paintbrushes released twice as much or more oxytocin as the level of women painters and couples playing games. CoupleGoals "We were expecting the opposite -- that couples playing the board games would interact more because they were communicating about the games and strategies, or because they were competing, and with more interaction, they would release more oxytocin," said Karen Melton, an assistant professor at the Baylor University in the US. Researchers also expected that painting couples would be more attentive to the instructor and to the canvas than to their partners -- but instead, couples in the art class reported more partner-touching than those playing board games. "Typicall...

Trying to figure out a trick to keep mental stress in check? It turns out just thinking about your romantic partner during a stressful situation may help keep your blood pressure under control just as effectively as actually having your significant other in the room with you. As part of a recent study, 102 participants were asked to complete a stressful task which included submerging one foot into 3 inches of cold water ranging from 38 to 40 degrees Fahrenheit. The participants, all of whom were in committed romantic relationships, were randomly assigned to one of three conditions when completing the task. * They either had their significant other sitting quietly in the room with them during the task. * They were instructed to think about their romantic partner as a source of support during the task * Or they were instructed to think about their day during the task. Those who had their partner physically present in the room or who thought about their partner had...

Business Standard : According to a new research, inhibiting a protein within blood vessels can stimulate their growth, resulting in healthier fat tissue and lower blood sugar levels. A research conducted at the York University gave insights on improving blood vessel growth and showed how to mitigate serious health problems that arise with obesity, such as diabetes. The findings of the study are published in the journal ELife . The researchers investigated a process of the vascular system called angiogenesis and whether inhibiting FoxO1 protein would stimulate adipose angiogenesis. Angiogenesis is the formation of tiny blood vessels called capillaries. It helps to maintain normal healthy functions in tissue, particularly when that tissue enlarges. However, when the tissue expands as it stores excess fat, angiogenesis is repressed and new capillaries fail to grow. This results in unhealthy adipose tissue , which increases the risk of developing diabetes and cardiovasc...

Diabetics are at an increased risk of cancer , warns a study. It also suggests that diabetes is linked with poorer survival following a cancer diagnosis. For the most common cancers, individuals with diabetes face a 20 percent greater risk of developing colorectal cancer and a five percent higher risk of breast cancer compared with their diabetes-free counterparts. People with diabetes already diagnosed with cancer also fare worse, with a 25 percent and 29 percent higher chance of dying following a breast and prostate cancer diagnosis (respectively) than their peers without diabetes. Hulda Hrund Bjornsdottir, from the Swedish National Diabetes Register (NDR), Sweden, and colleagues found that diabetes was associated with 11 out of the 12 specific types of cancer investigated in the study. Diabetes was clearly linked with higher risk of cancers of the liver (people with diabetes were 231 percent more likely to be diagnosed with liver cancer than those without a history of di...