A joint Australian-Vietnamese study investigating the links between diet and the bone health of humans has found that vegetarians have slightly weaker bones than their meat-eating counterparts. As a part of the study, the studied the diet and bones of more than 2,700 people.

Lead researcher Tuan Nguyen said that vegetarians had 5% less dense bones than meat-eaters. Vegans, who refrain from eating all animal products were found to have 6% weaker bones.

However, researchers found "rapctically no differnece" between the bone density of meat-eaters and ovolactovegarians - people who don't eat meat or seafood but include eggs and dairy in their diets.

The scientists have not yet determined whether the lower bone density, howver, is linked to an increased risk of fracture.

"Given the rising number of vegetarians, roughly 5% (of people) in Western countries, and the widespread incidence of osteoporosis, the issue is worth resolving." Nguyen said.

According to the results of new research by the National Institutes of Health, people who consume a high-fat diet are more likely to develop pancreatic cancer, particularly if their dietary fat comes from animal foods including meat and dairy products.

The Diet and Health study, which was done in conjuction with the AARP, compiled data on more than half a million people who filled in a food questionairre in 1995 and 1996. 308,736 men and 216,737 women participated, and at the time none of them had pancreatic cancer. Participants were then followed for six years on average. During that time, 865 of the men and 472 of the women were diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.

Compared to people with the lowest total fat intake, those with the highest fat intake were 23 percent more likely to be diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. Saturated fat from animal food sources, especially red meats and dairy products, were found to have the strongest risk factors for cancer, increasing the risk of pancreatic tumors 36 percent.

While health experts have long been warning of the dangers of obesity, a new Japanese study warns that being very skinny is far more dangerous and shows that slightly chubby people actually live longer.

A long-term study of middle-aged and elderly people by the Tohoku University's Graduate School of Medicine showed that people who are a little overweight at age 40 life six to seven years longer than very thing people, whose average life expectancy was a good five years shorter than that of obese people.

Shinichi Kuriyama, an associate professor who worked on the study, said:

"We found skinny people run the highest risk. We had expected thin people would show the shortest life expectancy but didn't expect the difference to be this large."

He continued:

"There had been an argument that thin people's lives are short because many of them are sick or smoke. But the difference was almost unchanged even when we eliminated these factors."

The primary reasons skinny people were believed to have shorter lifespans include heightened vulnerability to diseases such as pneumonia and the fragility of their blood vessels.

Kuriyama was quick to warn, however, that he was not recommending people eat as much as they want:

The U.S. Food & Drug Administration has issued a warning to consumers that use Hydroxycut, a dietary supplement used to aid in weight loss, which has been linked to severe liver damage and has led to at least one death. Health Sciences Inc., the company that makes Hydroxycut, has already begun recalling the product.

According to Linda Katz of the FDA:

"The FDA urges consumers to discontinue use of Hydroxycut products in order to avoid any undue risk. Adverse events are rare, but exist."

Already the Hydroxycut website has been changed to redirect to "Hydroxycut Information", which shows information regarding the recall.

If by chance you wish to continue using the product (which we do not recommend), despite FDA warnings, now's the time to stock up. It looks like this weight loss pill is on its way to a full-out ban, like its predecessor Fen-Phen.

A new study out of Australian has found that a small portion of mushrooms every day may slash the risk of breast cancer by two-thirds. Researchers found that women who at about 1/3 of an ounce of fresh mushrooms daily were 64 percent less likely to develop a fatal tumor.

Dried mushrooms were found to have a slightly less protective effect, and reduced risk by around half.

Researchers at the University of Western Australia in Perth came to these conclusions after analyzing the eating habits of more than 2,000 women in China. Half of them suffered from breast cancer. They concluded that “Higher intake of mushrooms decreased cancer risk in both pre- and post-menopausal Chinese women.”

Some evidence suggests that mushrooms behave in a similar way to breast cancer drugs which are called aromatase inhibitors and block the body's production of oestogen, a cancer-feeding hormone.

Another recent study also showed that mushrooms may help significantly with weight loss. Researchers found that trading meat for fungus in four meals a week as a part of a balanced diet saw people shed an average of 12.7lbs. in just five weeks.

Hospital Is Using Popular Video Service to Promote Health and Wellness

The Cleveland Clinic has announced that they will be offering free weekly health tips via YouTube. The first video released is on walking for good health. The press release stated:

"Cleveland Clinic is committed to offering patients the most up-to-date information available, and the advent of video sharing sites makes this even more possible," said C. Martin Harris, M.D., Chief Information Officer, Cleveland Clinic. "Internet users can view videos 24 hours a day, and they have the opportunity to share these videos with their friends and family."

You can subscribe to world famous health care provider's videos at the following link http://www.youtube.com/clevelandclinic/.

Here is the an example of one of their free videos that they offering:

The Cleveland Clinic has been working diligently to shift the national focus from providing sick care to promoting wellness, and as a part of this commitment the Cleveland Clinic has now launched Lifestyle 180. Lifestyle 180 is a new program which is designed to help reverse and decrease the effects of several common chronic diseases that are currently plaguing the healthcare system as well as costing participants their quality of life.

The Lifestyle 180 program is six-weeks in length, and includes 50 hours of hands-on guidance from a team of wellness experts, ranging from exercise physiologists to yoga instructors, stress management, and registered dietitians. The program offers disease specific therapies for each participant, who are advised through regular one-on-one sessions.

Each Lifestyle 180 group consists of 12 to 16 participants that meant for four hour classes twice a week at the Cleveland Clinic's new Wellness campus in Lyndhurst, Ohio. The program is currently open to participants with metabolic disorders such as diabetes, obesity, high cholesterol and hypertension, and participants with multiple sclerosis. In the spring, the program will expand to include more conditions.

According to a recent study, children who eat bacon more than once per week are at a dramatically higher risk of developing leukemia. Scientists found that children who have been struck down by the disease consumed greater amounts of processed meats, including bacon, hot dogs, and ham.

The research also shows that regularly consuming cured meats, such as bacon, can raise a youngster's leukemia risk by 74 percent, compared to those who rarely or never eat them. Scientists are now concerned that preservative chemicals known as nitrites may be to blame by triggering a chain reaction that promotes the growth of cancer.

Results of the study, which was conducted by the Harvard School of Public Health, suggests diet is a major factor in the development of the disease. Researchers studied 145 children and teens in southern Taiwan who had acute leukemia, and compared them with other children who did not have leukemia.

Part 1 of Fitness Series

Next time you are at the mall, in the grocery store or at work, take a look around. Most people I see are heavier than they should be. Many people know they are out of shape and genuinely want to change. One major problem is that our American consumer mentality approves of it. Even young children are fat. There are many reasons that obesity is on the rise and seems to getting worse. I would imagine that adults would give reasons such as: I am too busy to cook healthy meals and the drive-through is a more time convenient way to feed my family. I don't have time to exercise. My spouse and I both work and are too tired to exercise when the work day is over. I do not know where to start with a fitness regimen. I cannot afford a gym membership in today's economy. The excuses could go on and on, and some of them are almost valid. Hopefully, after reading this column, readers will realize that most of the rational are completely bogus. If you have time to sit here and read this article, you have the 15 or 20 minutes it would take to start living a more weight conscious lifestyle. As with any other exercise program, please get a physical from your physician and tell them about your intentions of starting a workout routine.

We've all heard the saying at one point or another - that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Most scientific and nutritional research has backed that up, but now a new study suggests that not only will skipping breakfast making adolescents and young adults less attentive in school, but it might also have different affects in boys and girls.

In the report published in the medical journal "Pediatrics", Dr. Katharina Widenhorn-Mueller and her colleagues at Ulm University reported males being in a worse mood when missing breakfast, and that their visuospatial memory was also negatively affected. However, the same effects were not found in girls.

Researchers examined the effects of eating breakfast by looking at 104 boarding school students between the ages of 13 and 20. Half consumed a standardized breakfast on the first day of the study, and half did not. After this they completed a questionnaire designed to gauge their mood, and several tests of cognitive function. A week later the two groups swapped places - the breakfast group fasted, while the non-breakfast eaters got to eat.