On Monday, a committee of MPs said in a report published that Britons should avoid drinking alcohol for at least two days a week to protect their health.

Present guidelines emphasize on maximum units of alcohol that may be safely consumed but people sometimes struggle to understand how many units there are in their glass of wine or pint of beer.

“We suggest that, if daily guidelines are retained, the Government consider simplifying the guidelines so that, as is the case in Scotland, all individuals are advised to take at least two alcohol-free days a week,” the report said.

“This would enforce the message that drinking every day should be avoided, and would helpfully quantify what “regular” drinking means to the public,” it added.

According to a British study, middle-aged adults whose memories have grown hazy can’t blame occasional pot smoking or other light illicit drug use for their forgetfulness.

“Overall, at the population level, the results seem to suggest that past or even current illicit drug use is not necessarily associated with impaired cognitive functioning in early middle age,” said lead researcher Alex Dregan, of King’s College London. There was no evidence that current or past drug users had poorer mental performance, according to the study.

“In a Western population of occasional drug users, this is what you’d expect to see,” said John Halpern, a psychiatrist at Harvard Medical School and McLean Hospital in Belmont, Massachusetts.

The study appeared in the American Journal of Epidemiology.

A new study has suggested that obese older adults may be more likely than their thinner peers to suffer a potentially disabling fall. The study, however, suggested that the most severely obese may be somewhat protected from injury.

“People who are obese may have a harder time with balance,” said Christine L. Himes, of Syracuse University in New York and one of the researchers on the new study. “It’s just harder for obese people to recover from injury,” Himes said. “They’re going to be in poorer physical shape to begin with.” “This is just another reason that obesity needs to considered an important public health problem,” Himes noted.

The decision to color your hair could surely be quite exciting, no matter whether you do it yourself, or get it done by a hair stylist. However, choosing the right hair color would be the difference between beautiful hair and boring hair. It is worth noting here that there are certain things that need to be considered before you opt for a hair color. After all, you surely do not want to risk dying hair and ending up with something that you didn’t wanted.

If your natural eye color is black-brown, dark brown, dark blue, gray, or hazel and skin tone is very dark brown, olive, medium, golden or pale, you could opt for hair colors such as dark brown, blue black, dirty blonde, brown, or platinum blonde.

Golden brown, red, strawberry blonde or golden blonde hair colors could be suitable for you if your natural eye color is golden brown, green, or green-blue and skin tone is peachy, pale, or freckled.

In addition to these hair dying tips, it is suggested that you stay away from black and dark brown colors if you have pale-to-freckly skin and adore golden honey blonde or light auburn color. A warming color like mahogany with golden highlights could be a good choice for you if you have medium or olive skin tone. Use caramel and cinnamon highlights if you have a dark skin tone.

Last but not the least, it is important for you not to wash hair for at least 24 hours after dying hair and emphasize only on good-quality shampoos, conditioners, leave-in conditioners, hair sprays, and thermal

If you are experiencing more lows than highs while being the part of a serious relationship, it is time for you to make a few efforts to bring back the lost love.

1. Take the onus for your faults and avoid bringing your ego with your partner.
2. Resolve your fights as and when they happen and do not carry the pain as it could lead to further disagreements and emotional breakdowns.
3. Avoid bringing in third parties in your personal spats as this would only worsen the issues.
4. Talking to your partner always helps no matter how busy you are. It is always healthy to talk; so speak up!

Follow these healthy relationship tips and see the difference by yourself.

Believe it or not, pollution can do a lot of damage to your hair. It can make your hair feel undernourished, dry, dull, and limp besides taking away its shine. In this article on hair beauty, we will be accessing some easy-to-follow hair care tips that will help get shiny, healthy, and beautiful hair.

Before we read any further, it is important for us to note that regular shampooing and conditioning are not good enough for fighting pollution.

While going out, it is good to wear a cap or scarf that can easily prevent loss of hair texture besides avoiding damage done by the sun on the outer cuticles of the hair. It is also important for you to apply hair oil only when at home and never leave home with oil on your hair as oily hair is prone to more dust particles sticking to hair. It is always a good thing to tie hair so that they do not appear messy and tangled. Moreover, this healthy hair care habit is also beneficial for protecting the tips of hair from damage. Furthermore, it is always good to apply a leave-in conditioner that provides sun protection.

In addition to these hair care tips, it is always recommended that you choose hair products that suit your hair type and you should always prefer natural products from reputed companies. It is also important for you to enjoy peaceful and uninterrupted sleep of 8-9 hours at the night so that your body and hair can always be at their very best.

The reports of a massive increase in tobacco sales due to the lure of the country’s cheap cigarettes and tobacco for discount-seeking smokers from Britain and France were recently denied by Belgium.

A cover story by the daily Le Soir and radio reports that said cigarette sales leapt 19 percent in the first nine months of the year were denied by the Finance ministry.

From news.yahoo.com:

Citing exclusive data from the finance ministry, Le Soir said sales of roll-your-own tobacco increased 25 percent.

It also reported booming business in filling stations near the Franco-Belgian border, where some owners were quoted saying tobacco sales were outpacing sales of petrol.

But Claude Monseu, an advisor to Finance Minister Didier Reynders, later told the Belga news agency that sales were expected to show a 12-month fall and that the discrepancy between the paper’s report and the ministry’s data resulted from a change in the way tobacco products were taxed and the timing.

Health experts had complained in the daily that Belgium’s cheap tobacco goods fanned cancer.

Monseu said Belgium was the fifth most expensive tobacco nation in Europe.

According to the FDA, Merck’s cholesterol drug Vytorin is helpful in reducing heart attack, stroke, and related problems in patients with kidney disease, a potential new use for the blockbuster drug.

Online review of the agency also found no new safety concerns with Vytorin that came under scrutiny for potential cancer risks in 2008.

From news.yahoo.com:

Merck has asked the FDA to approve the drug for a new use in reducing heart-related problems chronic kidney disease patients. The combination pill is already cleared to reduce bad cholesterol.

FDA says that Vytorin lowered kidney disease patients’ heart-related problems by 16 percent compared with placebo. However results varied depending on whether patients were receiving dialysis, standard treatment for patients with late-stage kidney disease who can no longer remove waste from their blood. Patients on dialysis only saw a six percent drop in heart problems, compared with a 22 percent reduction for healthier patients not on dialysis.

“We believe these data should help lay to rest investor concerns about Vytorin and Zetia’s safety,” Leerink Swann analyst Seamus Fernandez wrote in a research note.

In a breathtaking revelation, researchers have disclosed how a common hospital pathogen turns into a deadly superbug, killing more and more patients worldwide.

Dena Lyras and Glen Carter from the Monash University School of Biomedical Sciences, who led the study, said a mutation in the Clostridium difficile causes potentially dangerous diarrhea among indoor patients undergoing antibiotic therapy.

From in.news.yahoo.com:

C. difficile is able to colonise the colon when antibiotics have wiped out protective gut bugs, causing a range of bowel disease symptoms, from mild diarrhoea to more chronic forms, said Lyras.

‘Not only are these strains extremely virulent, they are resistant to broad spectrum antibiotics, making them difficult to treat,’ Lyras was quoted as saying by the journal Public Library of Science Pathogens.

These findings suggest that all C. difficile strains carrying a similar mutation have the inherent potential to increase toxin production and become hypervirulent, according to a Monash statement.

‘This study gives us a better understanding of these strains — how they develop, how they cause disease and why they are so harmful – so we can design new strategies to prevent, control and treat the rising rates of infection,’ added Carter.

As many as 16 people have died from possible listeria illnesses traced to the deadliest food outbreak in more than a decade, Colorado cantaloupes.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Tuesday that 72 illnesses, including 13 deaths, are linked to the tainted fruit.

From news.yahoo.com:

The death toll released by the CDC Tuesday — including newly confirmed deaths in Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska and Texas — surpassed the number of deaths linked to an outbreak of salmonella in peanuts almost three years ago. Nine people died in that outbreak.

The CDC said Tuesday that they have confirmed two deaths in Texas and one death each in Kansas, Missouri and Nebraska. Last week the CDC reported two deaths in Colorado, four deaths in New Mexico, one in Oklahoma and one in Maryland.

New Mexico officials said Tuesday they are investigating a fifth death, while health authorities in Kansas and Wyoming said they too are investigating additional deaths possibly linked to the tainted fruit.

“That long incubation period is a real problem,” Dr. Robert Tauxe of the CDC said. “People who ate a contaminated food two weeks ago or even a week ago could still be falling sick weeks later.”