TopNews

France's Health Minister has said she is in support of plans that would criminalize the use of advertising with anorexic models in France. According to the health ministry, it is believed that about 40,000 people have anorexia in France and 90% of them are women.

According to Socialist lawmaker Olivier Veran, who is also a doctor, the aim is to include language to an upcoming health bill in order to make it unlawful to employ models deemed to have an eating disorder. According to experts, the measure would put France among countries such as Israel and Spain that are cracking down on the glorification of dangerously thin models.

A newly conducted study revealed that people over the age of 65 who drink diet soda daily tend to expand their waistlines by much more than people who opt for other beverages. The results of the study were published online on March 17 in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.

Earlier conducted researches in the same age group have directly associated the drinking soda containing artificial sweeteners instead of sugar with increased risk of diabetes, metabolic syndrome and preterm birth.

Lead author Dr. Sharon P.G. Fowler of the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio said the latest study only observed people over time. It didn’t test whether drinking diet soda actually resulted in gaining abdominal fat.

Billionaire philanthropists Michael Bloomberg and Bill Gates, on Wednesday, have launched a $4 million joint fund in Abu Dhabi to help the developing countries get tobacco-control laws passed in their legal battle with industry giants.

The announcement came on the second day of the 16th World Conference on Tobacco or Health. Bloomberg has granted the governments and NGOs in Brazil, Nepal, Philippines, Russia, Ukraine and Uruguay his Philanthropies Awards for Global Tobacco Control for the important strides that they have made in executing tobacco control policies.

Out of these, Uruguay was the first country in Latin America that banned smoking in public spaces, a measure enacted in 2006.

According to a new study, folic acid could help prevent strokes, especially in those people, who have high blood pressure. The study has been published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. It was conducted on 20,000 Chinese adults, who were suffering from high blood pressure.

It was found by the researchers in a 4.5-year period that the patients, who were given folic acid supplements together with the anti-hypertension drug enalapril had less chances of having a stroke compared to those who took the medication alone.

Additionally, the cardiovascular benefits of folic acid were also recorded. Pills could be taken to get more folates, but citrus fruits, green leafy vegetables and beans; grain-based foods like rice, pasta and cornmeal are also good sources of folates.

After multivitamins, vitamin D supplements are the second most prescribed vitamin in the country. A JAMA Internal Medicine published study has indicated that vitamin D is not effective in lowering blood pressure.

In the study, the researchers collected blood pressure data from 46 different clinical trials having more than 4,541 participants that used vitamin D supplements for at least a month. The researchers did not find any effect from vitamin D in the systolic and diastolic blood pressure.

The researchers said there is a link between low levels of vitamin D and heart diseases. As per the National Institutes of Health (NIH), there is no sufficient proof to find out that how levels of vitamin D could increase risk or protect against cancer.

Researchers at the University of Michigan Health System, after conducting a study recommended that parents must limit the public exposure of their kid’s photos and stories on social media.

According to Headlines and Global News, researchers of the study said that ‘Sharenting’ can cause more harm than good.

The study researchers said that most kids already have a presence in social media created by their parents by the time they grow old enough to use social media themselves.

Nowadays it has become a norm to share every detail of one’s life and children on the social media either to gain support in challenging times or for sharing joyous moments.

Researchers said that they are trying to study the issue in details to know and better understand its pros and cons.