Juice dents dementia
Drinking fruit or vegetable juice every other day may help ward off Alzheimer's disease, according to preliminary results of a 10-year study of more than 1,800 elderly Japanese-Americans. Those who drank juice more than three times a week were more than 75 per cent less likely to develop the dementia, and those who drank juice once a week were 16 per cent less likely. The results are far from conclusive, and the researchers aren't sure what type of juice may be best or why, healthday.com reports. Team leader Qi Dai of Vanderbilt University, Tennessee, says the apparent link may be due to strong antioxidants in the peel or skin called polyphenols.
Obesity weighs on natural order
This is the first generation in history where many children may die before their parents, because of what's being described as a global obesity pandemic, with one billion people estimated to be overweight - more than the number of undernourished. The claims were made in opening statements to an international conference in Sydney that ended on Friday. The potential ramifications of obesity were compared to bird flu and global warming. A speaker said evolution may be partly responsible - as diets based on low-quality, processed food can produce symptoms of malnutrition, triggering the body to store fat.
Bionic visionaries
Australian researchers working on a bionic eye that they hope will put guide dogs out of business have successfully stimulated limited vision in people with a rare genetic blindness, AFP reports. The technique, similar to that used for cochlear implants to restore hearing, uses a tiny video camera attached to a pair of glasses and electrodes on the surface of the eye that send a current to the retina, which signals the brain. It won't restore sight, but Minas Coroneo from Sydney's Prince of Wales Hospital says the bionic eye may eventually enable blind people to navigate a room without bumping into things. 'The aim is getting seeing-eye dogs back to being just pets,' he says.
Needles to say