A toast to your lungs
Drinking is good for you, and drinking is bad for you. Today, it's good. Though excess drinking was detrimental, people who drank some alcohol daily, but fewer than two drinks, had a 20 percent reduction in risk of lung disease, including asthma and emphysema, according to a study at Permanente Hospital in Oakland. This included smokers.
Vegetables for the skin
Scientists have discovered that a derivative of broccoli-sprout extract protects the skin against the sun's harmful ultraviolet rays. The compound is called sulforaphane, according to the researchers at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. The highest doses of UV-induced redness and inflammation were reduced by an average of 37 percent. The practical application needs more work.
Body resists time change
Calling it one of the "human arrogances," a researcher at the University of Munich has found that the body never really accepts the change to Daylight Saving Time, instead abiding by its more natural inclination to be guided by the sun. The good news is that people adjusted easily to the change back to standard time. Next weekend, enjoy.
Lung cancer survival rate
Despite considerable expense, overall survival from lung cancer increased only a month between 1983 and 1997, according to a study by the National Bureau of Economic Research. The five-year survival rate remains the same as it was in the late 1970s, about 16 percent. The team found that with metastic lung cancer, each year of life after diagnosis cost more than $1 million for treatment.
