According to a new study, infants respond to the rhythm and tempo of music, and find it to be more engaging than speech. The findings are based on a study of infants aged between five months and two years old, and suggest that babies may be born with a predisposition to move rhythmically in response to music.

The study was conducted by Dr. Marcel Zentner of the University of York's Department of Psychology and Dr. Tuomas Eerola from the Finnish Centre of Excellence in Interdisciplinary Music Research at the University of Jyvaskyla. In the study, infants listened to a variety of audio stimuli which included classical music, rhythmic beats and speech.

The infants' spontaneous movements were recorded by video and #D motion-capture technology, which were then compared across the different stimuli. Researchers also enlisted the help of professional ballet dances to analyze the extent to which babies matched their movement to the music.

Speaking of the study, Dr. Zentner said:

"We also found that the better the children were able to synchronize their movements with the music the more they smiled.

After going through pregnancy, a new mother is caught in a dilemma-- like--how to lose the extra weight she gained during pregnancy, and how long it will take to get back into shape.

One of the first few things that you will learn is that you will still look several months pregnant for sometime even after delivery. Naturally, you may be in a hurry to shed the kilos you have gained. But being a new mom will let you into a new set of problems that will inhibit your plans of losing weight. So it is best to take it slow and easy while you try to lose your weight.

It takes around 6 months for your body to get back to normal. If you are breast feeding, do not be in a hurry to cut calories. The physical exertion of giving birth as well as taking care of your new baby will leave you drained and tired. It will take extra energy, especially in coping with new needs like night-feeds etc. Instead of focusing on weight loss, try and get the required calories and energy for the new demands on your time and effort.

One of the most important things that today's kids need to learn is how to care for the environment. With our natural resources being rapidly used and even animals becoming extinct, teaching a child to respect, nourish and replenish the planet is critical for our world.

It's important to start small. Teaching a young child how environmental changes impact globally might be too overwhelming for them to grasp, however, starting with your local surroundings will not only show your child but will also help the environment in a real, tangible way.

A great way to teach children about the environment is to help them create a kid-friendly garden. Choosing to grow a vegetable or flower garden, or even a lawn shows the child the value and pride and trains them to be ecologically conscious.

Creating a kid-friendly garden is simple. Picking flower, vegetable or lawn grass seeds from packets is an inexpensive and easy way to start. A kid-friendly garden doesn't mean large. Start out with a small plot of land or even planter boxes so your children don't get bored. The seeds should be easy to grow so your child can take pride in his or her accomplishments.

Here are four tips to help your child learn to be an eco-friendly gardener.

Public service announcements designed to shame college students out of binge drinking may instead only further encourage the behavior. A new study found that PSAs that associate binge drinking with guilt and shame foster resistance to the ad's intended message.

The study was conducted Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management, and surveyed 1,200 undergraduate students. In the study, students were shown anti-alcohol ads relying heavily on the self-disgust associated with binge drinking to get across their point. One of the ads showed a young woman hugging a toilet bowl and the slogan "Best night of my life."

According to Kellogg professor Nidhi Agrawal, "defensive processing" may cause anyone who is already feeling shame or guilt to react against the PSAs that attempt to pile on even more guilt and shame, rejecting the message and resorting to the behavior the ad is trying to discourage.

But even if one isn't already feeling especially guilty about drinking for a PSA to send them out on a drinking binge. The study also shows that other shaming PSAs will drive students to drink. For example, Agrawal says:

"If you're talking to a student about cheating on an exam, and one of those ads comes up, you can bet they are headed straight to the bar."

According to the results of a new study conducted by researchers in the United States and Switzerland, popular anti-anxiety drugs such as Valium and Xanax have powerful "reward pathways" that can lead users to addiction.

Well-known medications in the benzodiazepine class of drugs, Valium and Xanax boost the action of a neurotransmitter in the brain, which then activates the gratification hormone known as dopamine. This is the same "reward pathway" that illegal drugs such as heroine activate.

Researchers believe that these findings, which were recently published in the journal "Nature", may help scientists develop a new generation of anti-anxiety drugs that would not be addictive. They hope to come up with similar drugs that bind to a different part of the brain while still offering the calming benefit of Valium without the addictive side effects.

Drug companies have tried to develop benzodiazepines that are not addictive, but to date their efforts have not been successful.

According to a new analysis to be published in the International Journal of Epidemiology in April, there is a possible link between boredom and an early death. Researchers at the University College London concluded that boredom could be a symptom of other risky behavior.

Researchers Annie Britton and Martin Shipley examined surveys completed between 1985 and 1988 of 7,500 London civil servants aged 35 to 55. What they found was that those who were bored at work during the previous month were two and a half times more likely to die of a heart problem than those who were actually interested in their jobs.

Britton and Shipley concluded that while boredom itself won't kill you, it could lead to other unhealthy habits such as drinking, smoking and drug use, and their findings apply only to the chronically bored. They said:

"The state of boredom is almost certainly a proxy for other risk factors. It is likely that those who were bored were also in poor health."

A new study published Wednesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association showed that babies who died from sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) have lower levels of the brain chemical serotonin. The study, which was funded by the National Institutes of Health, showed that serotonin levels, which regulate a baby's sleep, heart rate and breathing, were 26 percent lower in the brainstems of babies who died from SIDS than in those of babies who died from other causes.

Researchers now believe that low serotonin levels may be the "fundamental abnormality" in babies who die from SIDS. Serotonin acts as a sort of alarm system in the brainstem, waking a sleeping baby when breathing is disrupted. Without it, babies can be unware that they are not breathing in enough oxygen, which thus causes them to die in their sleep, claims the study.

In addition, the study also found that babies with low serotonin also had low levels of the enzyme tryptophan hydroxylase, which is required to make serotonin. These levels were found to be 22 percent lower in the SIDS babies.

On Tuesday, the medical journal The Lancet formally retracted a controversial paper published in 1998 that had linked the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine to autism. It had formed the basis for the argument that vaccines cause an increase risk of autism. The study was later discredited, and last week the lead author -- Dr. Andrew Wakefield -- was found to have acted unethically in his research.

Britain's General Medical Council, which oversees doctors in England, said that "there was a biased selection of patients in The Lancet paper" and added that his "conduct in this regard was dishonest and irresponsible." In addition, they found that Dr. Wakefield had subjected some children to various invasive procedures such as colonscopies and MRI scans, and paid children at his son's birthday party to have their blood drawn for research purposes.

Following the Council's findings last week, The Lancet retracted the study and issued a statement, which reads:

Mirroring the actions of the Cleveland Clinic, Parma Community General Hospital has announced that it will cease hiring smokers beginning March 1, 2010. Those employees who were hired prior this date will not be affected.

Anyone under consideration for a position at Parma will need to first take a nicotine test as a part of a physical examination. If the potential hire tests positive for nicotine, they will be offered smoking cessation resources and could be reconsidered for a position 90 days later if they re-test and come up with a negative result.

In 2006, the Parma, Ohio hospital banned smoking on its campus. Since then it has also launched a number of programs aimed at improving the health of its employees, including smoking cessation tools and weight loss challenges.

Cleveland Clinic is lifting visitation restrictions at all hospitals Monday, Jan. 25, which were implemented to prevent the spread of seasonal and H1N1 flu and allowing children 18 and younger to visit patients at its hospitals.

“The restrictions are being lifted because the H1N1 vaccine is now widely available and many people have taken advantage of free vaccination clinics at Cleveland Clinic and throughout Northeast Ohio,” said Thomas Tallman, M.D., Chairman, Emergency Preparedness and Disaster Medicine, Cleveland Clinic. “Even though the restrictions are being lifted, it is still advisable to refrain from visiting patients if you are sick. If there is another wave of flu or H1N1 outbreaks, we may need to reinstate the visitation restrictions.”

Dr. Tallman said hospital officials have seen a decrease in flu and H1N1-related illness and a decline in the volume of employee absences related to the flu. “This is the trend throughout the U.S. and elsewhere,” he said.

The visitation restriction is being lifted at the following Cleveland Clinic facilities:

* Ashtabula County Medical Center
* Cleveland Clinic (Main Campus)
* Cleveland Clinic Children’s Hospital
* Cleveland Clinic Children’s Hospital for Rehabilitation
* Euclid Hospital
* Fairview Hospital
* Hillcrest Hospital
* Huron Hospital
* Lakewood Hospital
* Lutheran Hospital
* Marymount Hospital
* Medina Hospital
* South Pointe Hospital