Flu

Feed a Fever

Feed a Fever, Starve a Cold ?

A new study finds there is truth in the folk advice to "feed a fever and starve a cold".  Researchers at  Yale University looked at the effects of providing nutrients during infection. They found opposing effects depending on whether the infections were bacterial or viral. Mice with bacterial infections that were fed died, while those with viral infections who were fed lived.

We were surprised at how profound the effects of feeding were, both positive and negative," says senior author Ruslan Medzhitov, Professor of Immunobiology and at Yale School of Medicine. "Anorexia -- not eating -- is common behavior during sickness that is seen in people and all kinds of animals.

Why some people are prone to the winter blues

Brain scans show cause of seasonal affective disorder
Scientists say they have identified the underlying reason why some people are prone to the winter blues, or seasonal affective disorder (SAD). People with Sad have an unhelpful way of controlling the "happy" brain signalling compound serotonin during winter months, brain scans reveal. As the nights draw in, production of a transporter protein ramps up in Sad, lowering available serotonin. The work will be presented this week at a neuropsychopharmacology conference. The University of Copenhagen researchers who carried out the trial say their findings confirm what others have suspected - although they only studied 11 people with Sad and 23 healthy volunteers for comparison. Using positron emission tomography (PET)Memory

The Flu Shot: Does it actually do any good?

Dr. Thomas Jefferson, coordinator for the Cochrane Vaccine Field, has stated on the record that in 2009 he conducted a thorough review of 217 published studies on flu vaccines and found only 5% reliable. Dr. Jefferson told Reuters, Immunization of very young children is not lent support by our findings. We recorded no convincing evidence that vaccines can reduce mortality, [hospital] admissions, serious complications and community transmission of influenza. In young children below the age of 2, we could find no evidence that the vaccine was different from placebo.

Dr. Anthony Morris, a distinguished virologist and a former Chief Vaccine Office at the FDA, found: There is no evidence that any influenza vaccine thus far developed is ef