Harvard Researchers: Chocolate Protects Against Alzheimer's

This image was selected as a picture of the week on the Czech Wikipedia for th week, 2007. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Here's some sweet health news for chocolate lovers: A daily dose of the sugary treat may help prevent Alzheimer's disease. That's the conclusion of new research at Harvard Medical School that found people who drank two cups of hot cocoa a day had improved memory and blood flow to the brain.

 

But the benefits only come from certain types of chocolate, which contain high levels of beneficial antioxidants, notes one of the nation's top Alzheimer's experts, Dr. Gary Small, professor of psychiatry and aging. It's also important to know that you can get too much of a good thing.
 

Special: Chocolate's 700 Year History of Healing

 

"I think it is healthy in moderation, that's the key because if you drink too much cocoa or eat too many chocolate bars you’re going to gain a lot of calories and that is not good for the brain," Dr. Small tells Newsmax Health. "In fact it's the dark chocolates that are particularly potent; milk chocolates have very little and white chocolate has almost none. So if you want the antioxidant boost, go for the dark chocolate."
 

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Read Latest Breaking News from Newsmax.com http://www.newsmaxhealth.com/Health-News/chocolate-alzheimer-dementia-cocoa/2013/10/22/id/532369#ixzz2iXtQj1bK
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Doctors Keep Quiet About Cancer Screening Dangers: Study

Doctors seldom tell patients about the possible harms of getting screened for cancer, a new study shows.
 

During any screening test, there is a chance of so-called overdiagnosis - finding something that looks like cancer but isn't, or a cancer that's so small and slow-growing it would never cause a problem.

In those cases, patients may get biopsies, surgeries, radiation and drugs that won't bring them any benefit, but could come with side effects, known as overtreatment.

Read Latest Breaking News from Newsmax.com http://www.newsmaxhealth.com/Health-News/cancer-screening-risks-doctors/2013/10/21/id/532248#ixzz2iU9sJeaC
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Pills made from poop cure serious gut infections

Scanning electron micrograph of Clostridium difficile bacteria from a stool sample. Obtained from the CDC Public Health Image Library. Image credit: CDC/ Lois S. Wiggs (PHIL #6260), 2004. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

By MARILYNN MARCHIONE

Hold your nose and don't spit out your coffee: Doctors have found a way to put healthy people's poop into pills that can cure serious gut infections — a less yucky way to do "fecal transplants." Canadian researchers tried this on 27 patients and cured them all after strong antibiotics failed to help.

It's a gross topic but a serious problem. Half a million Americans get Clostridium difficile, or C-diff, infections each year, and about 14,000 die. The germ causes nausea, cramping and diarrhea so bad it is often disabling. A very potent and pricey antibiotic can kill C-diff but also destroys good bacteria that live in the gut, leaving it more susceptible to future infections.

Read more: http://www.myfoxny.com/Story/23600644/pills-made-from-poop-cure-serious-gut-infections#ixzz2iU91CJjG