Mediterranean diet 'lengthens life by up to FIFTEEN years', researchers claim

Those who follow a Mediterranean diet combined with exercise, not smoking and keeping to a healthy weight could live up to 15 years longer, researchers say.
The ten-year study by the University of Maastricht followed 120,000 men and women who were aged 55 to 69 in 1986.
A Mediterranean diet is high in vegetables, olive oil, fruit, nuts, fish and whole grains, and low in meat and alcohol.

Having a long life is 'all down to inheriting the right genes'

Smoking, drinking and eating fast food will not stop you living to a ripe old age – if you have the right genes.
A study of hundreds of centenarians revealed they were just as likely to have vices as other people – and in some cases they indulged in them more.
Some of them had smoked for 85 years, others got through more than two packets of cigarettes a day. They also exercised less than their shorter-lived counterparts but were less likely to become obese.

Rise of the killer bug: Super-salmonella that cannot be treated is spreading across Europe

A super-salmonella bug that cannot be treated by any drug is on the rise in Britain, scientists warn.
They think the strain originated in Egypt and is now being spread across Europe by contaminated fruit, vegetables and spices.
So far at least 200 Britons have been infected with the bug know as Salmonella Kentucky since 2000.

Super bug: Scientists think the new strain of Salmonella originated in Egypt and is now being spread across Europe by contaminated fruit, vegetables and spices

Who are you? Butcher repeatedly forgets his wife and daughters after suffering five amnesia attacks out of the blue

When father-of-two Bob Watt set off for work at the local butcher's shop five months ago, he had no idea he would end up 12 miles away... with no memory of how he got there. The 44-year-old had suffered a sudden inexplicable amnesia attack and ended up walking for hours before ending up in a restaurant. Bob Watt has had to relearn how to work every day home appliances as well as his mobile phone Mr Watt, from Aberdeen, said: 'The last thing I remember is leaving the house and the next thing my mobile phone was ringing.'

Superbugs may be here to stay

Multidrug-resistant bacteria may be here to stay. The common wisdom that superbugs with antibiotic resistance are outcompeted by their non-super neighbours in the absence of antibiotics has been turned on its head.

Bacterial antibiotic resistance is a major concern because it can lead to the appearance of dangerous and difficult-to-treat infections in humans. Resistance generally occurs in one of two ways: either through mutations in the bacterial DNA or, more commonly, through the acquisition of resistant genes from other organisms through horizontal gene transfer.

Stroke Rates Among Pregnant Women and New Moms on the Rise

Although strokes rarely occur among women during pregnancy and just after birth, the rates of incidence have made an alarming jump over the past decade. According to a study from the Heart Disease and Stroke Prevention Division of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the number of stroke-related hospitalizations for new moms and mothers-to-be has increased by a disturbing 54 percent in the last twelve years. Details on the study were recently published in Stroke: Journal of the American Heart Association.

Three out of four mums wouldn't know what to do if their child suffers a severe allergic reaction to a wasp sting

Three out of four mums don't know what to do if their child suffers a severe allergic reaction to a wasp sting, new research warns.
Findings reveal that three quarters (76 per cent) of mums wouldn't know how to treat anaphylactic shock if their child experienced it, while over two thirds (66 per cent) worry about the threat posed by wasps during the warm summer months.