A good news health Blog by Donie

Being near & walking beside the seaside is good for your health 

A study reveals

  

Researchers discovered people of all age groups found the seaside more refreshing than the country and Exercise in the open air is good for you, but if you want to reap the full benefits you should head for the coast or the countryside rather than an urban park. 

The study of 2,750 people presented to the British Psychological Society examined the effects of different types of outdoor environments on people.

Researchers found the embracing seaside air had a more positive effect than the countryside or an urban park.

Researcher Mathew White said it could reflect an "innate preference" for the sights and sounds of water.

The study examined how different types of outdoor environments could generate different reactions from people in terms of encouraging a sense of relaxation and calm.

Seaside rocks

This found that being beside the coast was significantly more likely to create a feeling of well-being.

The research, from the European Centre for Environment and Human Health, is being presented to the annual conference of the British Psychological Society.

The centre is part of the Peninsula College of Medicine and Dentistry, set up by the Universities of Exeter and Plymouth.

The study, by Katherine Ashbullby and Mathew White, looked at responses from 2,750 people in England over two years, comparing their experiences of the seaside, countryside and urban parks.

While all of these could be refreshing, the greatest sense of pleasure came from exercising beside the sea - regardless of factors such as age, where they lived and who they were with when they were visiting.

The study found that in six different age groups the seaside was always identified as being a more positive experience than other inland parks or country walks.

This preference for the coast was found both in the general population and among walkers.

Those who were travelling alone were particularly likely to get more enjoyment from the coast.

There are no clear conclusions about why being beside the seaside should be more refreshing than other types of settings.

But the researchers are considering a range of possible associations.

This includes testing the idea that people respond positively to the way light plays on the water, or the sounds of the sea.

There could also be social or cultural expectations about the benefits of the seaside, suggest the researchers.

Or else there could be individual associations, such as happy childhood memories.

The researchers say that there has been a growing awareness of the importance of relaxation in preventing ill health - but there is not enough known about how this is experienced.

"There is a lot of work on the beneficial effects of visiting natural environments, but our findings suggest it is time to move beyond a simple urban versus rural debate and start looking at the effect that different natural environments have on people's health and well-being," said Dr White.

 Scientists able to restore the sight of blind mice

  
Scientists have taken a crucial step towards restoring the sight  of people suffering from degenerative eye diseases like retinitis pigmentosa and age-related macular degeneration. 

Writing in the journal Nature the team, based at UCL's Institute of Opthalmology, show that transplanting light-sensitive photoreceptors into the eyes of visually impaired mice can restore their vision.

"This is a landmark study" says Professor Robin Ali who led the research. "We've shown for the first time that transplanted photoreceptors can integrate successfully with the retinal circuitry, making synaptic connections, and truly improving vision".

The research involved transplanting immature, or progenitor, rod photoreceptors into the lining of the retina in blind adult mice. Rod cells are especially important for seeing in the dark as they are extremely sensitive to low levels of light. After about four to six weeks the transplanted cells appeared to have integrated well, and formed the connections needed to transmit visual information to the brain.

So well in fact that the mice with newly transplanted rod cells were able to use visual cues to find a hidden platform in a dimly-lit maze almost as quickly as healthy controls.

The loss of light-sensitive photoreceptors is the cause of blindness in many human eye diseases, but there's a long way to go before the technique could be applied in a clinical setting.

"It's a proof of concept" says professor Ali. "What's exciting is that it demonstrates the feasibility of this approach. But it's important to stress we're still a long way from a clinical application in humans".

One problem that remains to be overcome will be sourcing progenitor photoreceptors for transplant in humans. The cells used in this experiment were taken from neo-natal mice - not something that would ever be countenanced in humans. The UCL team are already looking at how they might get round the problem by stimulating embryonic stem cells to differentiate into photoreceptors.

Once they've cracked that all that remains is to repeat the whole process for cone cells - the other type of light sensitive photoreceptor cell lining the retina.

A new Breakthrough on breast cancer treatment  ‘Researchers have discovered’

Landmark change for treatment of breast cancer

       

Groundbreaking new research has revealed that breast cancer is in fact 10 different diseases. This discovery could revolutionise treatment for the condition and lead to more accurate diagnoses of the cancer.

It could also help doctors to tailor-make treatment plans and predict patients’ chances of survival more accurately.

Although the research will not affect those who have already been diagnosed with breast cancer, it could lead to the development of more effective medicines for each cancer type in the future.

In the largest ever genetic study of breast cancer tissue, scientists examined 2,000 tumours that were taken from women, diagnosed between five and 10 years ago.

The researchers – from Cancer Research UK and British Columbia Cancer Agency – used the tumours to genetically map breast cancer. The large scale of the study allowed scientists to identify new patterns in the data.

The discovered genes that were previously unknown to be linked to breast cancer and made it clear that breast cancer is an ‘umbrella’ term for what really is a number of unique diseases.

Up to now, breast cancer has been classified into just four subgroups.

The 10 new breast cancer categories range from very treatable to extremely aggressive. They should assist scientists to create fresh ways of treating some of the cancers and prevent women from being subjected to the risks and pain of unnecessarily toxic treatments.

“This is a landmark study that really changes the way we think about breast cancer – no longer as one disease but actually as 10 quite distinct diseases, dependent on which genes are switched on and which ones aren’t for an individual woman, Dr Harpal Kumar, chief executive of Cancer Research UK.

“What this research will help us to do is make a much more accurate, much more precise, diagnosis for every patient with breast cancer in the future.

“That will enable us to make sure that we really target the right treatment to the right woman based on those who are going to benefit, or if they’re not going to benefit, not exposing them to the side-effects associated with those treatments.

“That will enable us to make much more progress in breast cancer in coming years.”

Breast cancer is the most common cancer among women worldwide, accounting for 16% of all female cancer cases, according to the World Health Organization.

The study, which is a culmination of over a decade of work by researchers, was published in science journal Nature.