Health

Eating too much fat can make you put on weight and lead to heart disease - especially if you eat too much of the wrong kind of fat, such as the omega-6 fats found in many processed foods. But now it seems sausages, pastries and cakes are even worse for men than they are for women.

In an article to be published in the PLOS (Public Library of Science) Magazine, modelling by the university's Centre for Public Health Policy concludes that taxing foods that are high in sugar, salt and saturated fats — as well as subsidising fruit and vegetables — would also save $3.4 billion in healthcare costs.

"The study suggests that taxes and subsidies on foods and beverages can potentially be combined to achieve substantial improvements in population health and cost savings to the health sector," the article reads.

New research by a team at University of Queensland (UQ), led by muscle physiologist Dr Bradely Launikonis, found it was part of a protective mechanism stopping people from damaging themselves in the days following exercise.

In the world-first study, Dr Launikonis's team have mapped muscle fibres from thigh biopsies at three points in the exercise cycle.

"This is the first time this type of imaging has been done in human muscles, everything before that been done in mice and rats," Dr Launikonis said.

Virtual Reality, or VR, has finally become commercially accessible — a full-immersion kit with motion controllers is less than $1,000 — putting hardware and software tools in the hands of gamers and independent game developers for the first time.

But it is the appeal of this technology across the broader population rather than just the gaming community that has people like Microsoft multimedia and interaction researcher Mar Gonzalez Franco excited.

"We [the general public] will buy VR devices in shopping malls the way we buy smartphones today," she said.

Cue the sniffling, sore throats, coughs and congestion -- classic signs of the common cold.

If you're feeling under the weather, food might be the last thing on your mind. "Some people may lose their appetite [when they're feeling sick] due to diminished sense of taste or smell or lack of energy," says Toby Smithson, MS, RDN, LDN, CDE, spokesperson for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, and Founder of DiabetesEveryDay.com.

Have you ever wondered how a person develops cancer?

To start with, we know that cancer is a disease caused by an uncontrolled division of abnormal cells in a part of the body.

But how does cancer form in a person?

To answer that question, one has to understand the genetics of cancer.

Firstly, it will make your read easier to know about human genes as explained by Cancer.Net:

"There is no reason why a child could not thrive on a Mediterranean dietary pattern," said Rachel Johnson, a professor of nutrition and pediatrics at the University of Vermont.

However, she added that there are caveats.

The easy-to-follow Mediterranean diet involves eating mostly vegetables, fruits, legumes, unrefined grains, olive oil and fish.

Some take to hiding morsels in more delicious parts of meals, while others adopt a stricter approach, refusing to let little ones leave the table until plates are clear.

One "alternative" idea touted recently is for parents to essentially bribe their children, depositing money into a child's bank account as a reward when they eat vegetables -- an idea actually backed up by research.

Andrew Hogan of Optometry Australia sees a lot of children in his practice in Hobart, often when parents or teachers notice one of those symptoms.

"Kids won't complain about blurry vision," he told Helen Shield on ABC Radio Hobart.

"Kids who aren't paying attention [in class], sometimes it's simply because they can't see and they don't realise that everyone else can see, because they've got nothing to compare it to."

They said there had been 63 confirmed cases of the mosquito-borne illness so far this year, up from seven in the whole of 2016.

Most of the cases have been in rural areas of Minas Gerais state, a Ministry of Health statement said.

The government has sent two million doses of yellow fever vaccines to the state.

The governor of Minas Gerais has declared a 180-day state of emergency.

What is yellow fever?

§  Caused by a virus that is transmitted to humans by mosquitoes