Saliva may reveal your health condition

LONDON (Reuters) - Bacteria found in people's spit does not vary much around the world, a surprising finding that could provide insights into how diet and cultural factors affect human health, researchers said on Thursday.
Because the human body harbors 10 times more bacterial cells than human cells, scientists are trying to understand more about the bacteria we carry.
The human mouth is a major gateway for bacteria into the body and it contains a diverse array of microbial species. Yet scientists know little about this diversity and how it relates to diet, environment, health and disease, they added.
The saliva microbiome does not vary substantially around the world," Stoneking said in a statement. "Which seems surprising given the large diversity in diet and other cultural factors that could influence the human salivary microbiome."
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15 minutes Sprint is good to prevent diabetes

A few minutes of intense exercise a week is just as good as a half-hour of moderate physical activity a day for reducing a person's risk of developing type 2 diabetes -- and may actually be even more effective, new research hints.
"It is possible to gain significant health benefits from only 7.5 minutes of exercise each week -- if that is all that you find the time to do," Dr. James A. Timmons of Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, one of the researchers on the study, told Reuters Health.
Timmons and his team found that young sedentary men who did just 15 minutes of all-out sprinting on an exercise bike spread out over two weeks substantially improved their ability to metabolize glucose (sugar). Traditional aerobic exercise programs can boost sensitivity to the key blood-sugar-regulating hormone insulin. The high-intensity program did this too, but it also directly reduced the men's blood sugar levels -- something that standard exercise programs have not been shown to do.
Based on the findings, Timmons told Reuters Health, people should try for four to six 30-second bouts of intense exercise, such as cycling or running up stairs, twice a week. While this is appropriate for people 20 to 40 years old who are in good health but not fit, he added, people with diabetes or heart disease should gradually increase their activity under a doctor's supervision.
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Gambler? Blame it To the Genes!

Reuters reports that genes important for mood and risk-taking likely played a clear role, U.S. researchers reported on Tuesday.
They found surprisingly clear-cut links between two genes and the willingness of people to gamble with money.
The study, published in the Public Library of Science journal PLoS ONE, supports others that point to brain chemicals and their roles in financial risk-taking.
The genes involve dopamine, a brain chemical known as a neurotransmitter linked with movement and risk-taking, and serotonin, a neurotransmitter important in controlling mood.
People with the "high-risk" version of the dopamine gene tended to invest in risky but potentially lucrative propositions, while those with the "high anxiety" version of serotonin managed their money more carefully, Camelia Kuhnen and Joan Chiao of Northwestern University in Chicago reported.

Aspirin may avoid colon cancer

Taking aspirin daily may cut one's chances of developing the polyps that can lead to colorectal cancer, giving people at high risk for the disease a useful preventive tool, researchers said on Tuesday.
Colon and rectal cancer kills about 630,000 people a year worldwide, and researchers are eager to find ways for people to lower their risk -- particularly those with a history of precancerous polyps, also called adenomas.
Bernard Cole of the University of Vermont and colleagues combined data from four studies involving 2,698 people from the United States, Canada, Britain, Denmark and France to see if daily aspirin prevented recurrence of these polyps.
The people who took aspirin were 28 percent less likely to develop advanced adenomas than those taking a placebo and 17 percent less likely to develop any adenoma.
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Drink coffee is related to dementia

By Amy Norton
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - In more good news for coffee lovers, a new study suggests that middle-aged adults who regularly drink a cup of java may have a lower risk of developing dementia later in life.
Whether coffee itself deserves the credit is not yet clear, but researchers say the findings at least suggest that coffee drinkers can enjoy that morning cup "in good conscience."
The study found that among 1,400 Finnish adults followed for 20 years, those who drank three to five cups of coffee per day in middle-age were two-thirds less likely than non-drinkers to develop dementia, including Alzheimer's disease.
The findings, reported in the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease, add to a string of studies finding that coffee drinkers have lower risks of several diseases, including Parkinson's disease, certain cancers and diabetes.