* Oats: you gotta be enamoured of ...

* Oats: you gotta be enamoured of 'em. Results of a randomized controll parallel-group trial published in the Journal of Family Practice give an inkling of that people with high line pressure who regularly eat whole grain, oat-based cereal may model their need for antihypertensive medication. Researchers compared the powers of eating oat cereal with the weights of wheat cereal in 88 patients who were being treated for hypertension. according to the end of the 12-week trial, 73 percent in the oat cereal collection were able to stop taking antihypertensive medication or shape it by one half, compared with 42 percent of the wheat cereal group

* "A child's best friend." Your children may be fortifyed from allergies to dust mites, ragweed, and other allergens because you have household especially likeds according to a study published in JAMA. The prospective birth cohort close attention of 474 children found that allergic sensitivity was les universal in children six to seven years of age who were expos to sum of two units or more dogs or cats early in life. Endotoxins released by way of bacteria from pets may create the protective validity by suppressing the children's allergic response

* Activity does curious awes for muscles. Now, according to a subject of attention published in Science, researchers have erect a calcium-signaling protein that may have a similar force on skeletal muscle cells. In experiments with mice, they discovered that the protein, calcium/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase, or CaMK, can divert easily tired muscle fibers into energized, fatigue-resistant muscle fibers. The protein directs the creation of mitochondria, the force centers of cells. Study be the effects show promise for the unravelling of treatments to enhance skeletal muscle performance in patients with chronic diseases or those who are confined to bed.

* Can you name the bird with the chiefly peculiar migration pattern? That's right: the stork. A meditation published in BMJ finds that more male childs than girls are born in the southern latitudes of Europe moreover in North America, the overthrow is true. Researchers have no explanation for the findings, omit to say that temperature plays no part in the phenomenon. It just goe to show--the strange and inexplicable are sometimes a part of science, too.

* If you're counting sheep at night, you're not alone, according to a catalogue of persons conducted for the National doze Foundation. The annual telephone take a view of of 1,010 adults found that a slightly greater number of Americans had sleeping vexed questions last year than in previous years. Of respondent reporting insomnia, 58 percent said they had at least single in kind symptom such as difficulty falling asleep or waking up a doom during the night a minimum of a small in number nights a week, while 35 percent said they had a symptom each night or almost every night in the past year.

* A teacher in the cafeteria equals destitute of contents lunch trays and healthier children. It deflects out that children eat more vegetables and drink more milk when a teacher is quick in emergencies during lunch, reveals a research presented at an American Academy of Pediatrics colloquy and cited in the fresh York Times. A researcher conducting a inquiry about "plate waste" noticed that children in the same of the three classes she was observing were drinking all of their milk and eating 20 percent more of their regimen In this class, the bookish mans brought their lunches back to the classroom, where the teacher observ them as they ate, encouraging them to eat fruits and vegetables and to make experiment of new foods.

* Cellular telephone and noise: not a useful combination. But help may be at hand. A strange accessory introduced by Audex, Inc., makes it easier for hearing-impaired individuals to use a cellular telephone The accessory, named the CHAAMP, is compatible with greatest in number Nokia phones and offers features so as a voice recorder, background noise reducer and whirl enhancer.

* Electronic diaries are helping researchers cut down paperwork and improve accuracy in clinical put drugs into trials, according to a feature story in the recently made known York Times. In a unsalable article trial taking place at sites around the native land patients enter their nightly diaries into handheld computer and hurl them by modem using a toll-free telephone number. Researchers receive the information instantly into a central database. Because the computer "chirps" to remind patients to total their diaries, time stamps each memorandum and stores information if the patient is unable to reach a telephone the accuracy of the data is assured. In time, this just discovered use of technology may hasten the drug-approval proces and lower the expense of drug development.

* Six liters of [Hsub2]O + 400 daily calories = weight los hell. A 51-year-old woman currented to the emergency department with a latter history of lethargy, weakness, and nausea. Five days earlier, the woman had started a daily diet of three shake drinks, which provided a total of single 400 calories, plus 4 liters of water, according to a case report in The Lancet. upon her own, the woman had increased daily water intake to 6 liters. Because of her reasonable caloric intake and large consumption of water, her dead body had retained 2.5 gallons of water since the diet started, and her sodium on a level had fallen to a dangerous depressed After resuming a normal diet and limiting her water intake, the woman largely recovered.