Red meat tied to higher death risk
Eating more red meat is associated with an increased risk of dying from eight common diseases including cancer, diabetes and heart disease, as well as "all other causes" of death, according to a recent US study.
Researchers examined data on almost 537,000 adults aged 50 to 71 and found the people who consumed the most red meat had 26 per cent higher odds than those who ate the least of dying from a variety of causes.
But people who ate the most white meat, including poultry and fish, were 25 per cent less likely to die of all causes during the study period than people who consumed the least, researchers report in The BMJ.
- REUTERS
Post-surgery delirium reduced
A daily 30-minute regimen designed to help elderly surgery patients stay oriented can cut the rate of post-operative delirium in half and help them return home sooner, according to a test among 377 volunteers in Taipei.
After they were moved out of the intensive care unit, 15.1 per cent given conventional treatment experienced delirium.
But when hospital workers got patients moving faster, helped them brush their teeth and talked to them to help them understand what was happening to them, the delirium rate was just 6.6 per cent.
- REUTERS
Chocolate link to heart rhythm
Eating a small amount of chocolate every week or so may decrease the risk of a common and serious type of irregular heart rhythm, according to a new study in Denmark.
People who ate chocolate one to three times per month were about 10 per cent less likely to be diagnosed with atrial fibrillation than those who ate the sweet treat less than once a month, researchers found.
The study could not say for certain that it was the chocolate that prevented atrial fibrillation, however.
- REUTERS
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