Month: February 2014

By Allison Bond NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Drab olive cigarette packs bearing a prominent quit-smoking helpline number, introduced more than a year ago in Australia, had a sizeable and sustained effect on interest in quitting, researchers say. "The results suggest the legislation does have a positive early impact (on smokers) and so other countries could feel more confident in introducing similar legislation," said Jane Young, a cancer epidemiologist at the Sydney School of Public Health, who led the study. In March 2006, cigarette packaging with graphic health warnings including photos of cancer-riddled lungs and gangrenous limbs was introduced in Australia. "(The labels) inform consumers about what might happen to them when they use the product," said Joanna Cohen, director of the Institute for Global Tobacco Control at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore, Maryland.

In honor of American Heart Month, here are five heart-healthy foods you can … a small serving to your meals can improve satiety and assist with weight loss. … processing of the cocoa was involved, which means less flavonoids lost.

By Emily Le Coz JACKSON, Mississippi (Reuters) – Mississippi lawmakers took steps to become the latest U.S. state to ban abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy by passing a measure on Thursday that seeks to further restrict access to the procedure. Legislation approved by the state’s House of Representatives in a 89-22 vote asserts that a fetus can feel pain by 20 weeks of gestation, halfway through a full-term pregnancy, and that the state has a duty to protect the unborn child. Republican Governor Phil Bryant is expected to sign the bill into law. This is “another strong step for life in Mississippi,” Bryant said on his Facebook page after the vote on Thursday.

Lawmakers have passed a bill allowing assisted suicide for terminally ill kids.        

Can your smartphone save you a trip to the doctor?        

Women have a higher risk of blood clots that can cause strokes, heart attacks and other problems for 12 weeks after childbirth — twice as long as doctors have thought, new research finds.

BRUSSELS (AP) — The Belgian House of Representatives has approved extending the country's euthanasia law to very sick children under 18, with some added restrictions. Legal experts and physicians explained to The Associated Press how it would work, step by step:

By Robert-Jan Bartunek BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Belgium was due to become the first country to allow euthanasia for terminally ill children of any age on Thursday when its lower house of parliament votes on new "right-to-die" legislation. The draft law, which has already cleared the Belgian Senate, goes beyond pioneering Dutch legislation that set a minimum age of 12 for children judged mature enough to decide to end their lives. The bill has popular support in Belgium, where adult euthanasia became legal in 2002. The Christian Democrats, although members of Prime Minister Elio Di Rupo's coalition, oppose the bill.