HEALTH & MEDICINE

A healthcare crisis looms over Australia in the next 10 years since a new survey released on Tuesday warned that half of nurses in the country plan to quit their jobs in that period.

There is apparent wisdom in the practice among many western parents to kick out of their homes their children once the kids turn 18. A study released Friday confirmed that it is stressful for parents to share their home with their adult children.

ACT health officials said on Thursday that influenza cases in the capital have reached the same level as last year, confirming at the same time that swine flu or H1N1 is still very much around in Canberra.

The global fight against dengue is poised to gain more traction over the next three years as French pharmaceutical Sanofi revealed this week the arrival of a vaccine that could potentially save millions from the mosquito-borne disease.

When a person gets a sudden headache after indulging in cold desserts, such as ice cream, everyone would say it is only “brain freeze” and it will soon pass. Now Harvard scientists have looked deeper and found an explanation, Daily Mail reported.

Men are more inclined than women to spend 30 minutes in exercise daily, MyHealthNewsDaily reports. Women spent an average of 18 minutes a day for moderate-to-vigorous exercise, while men spent 30 minutes a day for moderate-to-vigorous exercise, a new U.S. study shows.

While Australian spending on cosmetic surgeries is going up, the average age of Aussies who go for such medical procedures is going down from their early- to mid-30s.

A new study says drinking soft drinks or “fizzy drinks” increases the chance of heart disease and high blood pressure among children later in their life.

A study by weight loss company Jenny Craig found that waiters take 23,000 steps a day, more than double the recommended 10,000 steps a day to keep fit.

Four former executives at Pfizer Inc., the world's largest drug company. -- Henry McKinnell, John LaMattina, Karen Katen, Joseph Feczko -- as well as Gail Cawkwell, Pfizer's current Vice President of Medical Affairs, will all face trial for allegedly concealing the unfavorable results of drug trials involving Celebrex and Bextra.

Low oxygen (hypoxia) predicts prostate cancer recurrence after radiotherapy. -Measuring prostate cancer hypoxia could help identify the best treatment for patients. -New treatments that target prostate cancer hypoxia could improve patient outcome.

The number of lonely people in Melbourne is going up. A report by the Grattan's Institute said the proportion of people with fewer friends and good neighbours is on the decline compared to two decades ago.

Forget eating an apple a day. Apparently eating the crunchy snack is enough to keep the doctor away as popcorn has more antioxidants than fruit and vegetables.

The Cancer Society is against the planned increase of New Zealand export of tobacco products to Australia. While the hiked production of cigarettes would lead to the creation of 50 new jobs in the next 24 months, it would also cause the loss of 20,000 lives yearly in Australia, Cancer Society Health Promotion Manager Jan Pearson said.

Scientists gave mice a high fat diet, after which, the mice showed growth of new brain cells and less weight gain. "We really don't understand the function of these neurons in the normal brain," study researcher Seth Blackshaw, an associate professor at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, told LiveScience.

The overuse of antibiotics could lead to a time when it would be so ineffective that a normal infection could kill, according to the World Health Organization.

Junk food, lack of exercise and now even the air you breathe could contribute to you gaining weight. Danish researchers have proposed a theory that steadily rising levels of carbon dioxide in the air maybe increasing appetite and could explain the rising obesity rate.

Health campaign groups in Australia launched on Friday the independent Alcohol Advertising Review Board. The main task of the new board would be to name and shame alcohol firms with advertising campaigns that violate international alcohol advertising regulations.

While the most advanced computers today can perform the most complicated tasks and calculations than average humans but computers still fall short in learning ability. However scientists are looking to remedy this by learning from "the greatest learning machines in the universe": human babies.

A new study released on Wednesday warned of the growing menace of diabetes among young Australians. The report by Diabetes Australia said one in three of young Aussies will likely acquire the chronic ailment, which has no known cure.

Out of the $60 billion annual cost of workplace injuries across Australia, about half are due to overwork and stress.

Hospitals face a perennial lack of organ donors that many patients die waiting for kidneys, hearts and livers but an international group of researchers may have found a way to solve this by proposing that doctors could grow fully-functioning organs for their patients.Growing New Organs Could Solve Donor Shortage, Doctors Says

Despite advances in robotics that produced such realistic robo-pets like Paro, the robo-seal, many robo-pets are still hindered because they don't look or act like real pets. However a team from the University of British Columbia is set to make robo-pets more realistic with a smart fur that can allow robo-pets to sense their owners' emotional state.

Does weight lifting have negative psychological effect? In a new study, more than 10 per cent of the participants showed symptoms of a psychological disorder that led them to think that their body is “too small” or “insufficiently muscular”.

Medical professionals have always warned people about the negative effects of marijuana on memory but haven't been able to explain why until now. An international team of scientists believe they are closer to finding out why taking cannabis impairs short-term memory.

Researchers from the University of Zurich have found a cellular brake that protects cancer cells from chemotherapy - and they demonstrate which medication can be used to render it inoperative.

Teens exposed to alcohol use in films are at risk for binge drinking and other risky behaviors, Cancer Center study shows.

Upon fertilisation, a single cell is formed when egg and sperm fuse.

A 42-year-old obese woman, Marie Eaton, in Britain managed to lose 196 kg to prepare for her wedding day.With her size and weight, she cannot go up the stairs and sleep in the bedroom.