Michael Douglas enjoys family dinner in New York as he awaits results of cancer treatment

By DAILY MAIL REPORTER

Smartly dressed: Michael looked fresher than in recent weeks and Catherine looked glamourous in a pair of black leather trousers and large black sunglasses


After being diagnosed with cancer four months ago, Michael Douglas has just seen the end of a difficult year.

But as the new year begins, the actor is now facing a tense wait to see if his treatment has been successful.

The Hollywood actor, 66, put his worries to one side to spend some quality time with wife Catherine Zeta Jones and their two children Dylan, 10, and seven year old Carys.


Waiting: Michael Douglas is awaiting news on his cancer treatment


The family enjoyed a meal out in New York together after arriving back in the city before the new year celebrations.

Michael was pictured outside the family home with his brood looking healthier than in recent weeks.

The actor was looking well-groomed with his hair brushed back, his face clean-shaven and colour flushed his cheeks.

While Catherine stepped out in a glamorous black outfit sporting large black shades.

On Friday the couple were seen at JFK Airport arriving back from a trip to San Francisco.

Michael was dressed causally in a zipped top, black trousers and a green cap.


Facing the music: Michael Douglas and wife Catherine Zeta Jones arrived back in New York on Friday


Meanwhile Catherine, 42, went make-up free and covered her face with her hat and sunglasses as she sat in the back seat of their car.

It emerged Douglas was battling throat cancer back in August and he has been undergoing gruelling chemo and radiotherapy over the past few months.

He recently revealed he will discover in January whether the treatment has been successful.


Homeward bound: The veteran star was looking healthier than he has done in recent months. He'll discover the results of his cancer treatment this month


Douglas recently revealed in an interview with the Hollywood Reporter - his first since undergoing treatment - that he will learn in January if the cancer has been eliminated. Doctors have told him this type of cancer has an 80 per cent cure rate.

‘It certainly has put a little perspective on mortality, obviously,’ he said.
But as I looked through the stats, I didn’t think of this as life and death, I just saw it as an illness to get over.

‘So I didn’t dig into the bottom of my soul to see what I could see.


Fighting chance: Doctors have given Douglas an 80 per cent chance of beating the illness


'The level of chemo, the amount they’re giving you, combined with radiation, was the max they could do in that period of time. It’s amazing that they almost have to try and kill you to bring you back.’

Douglas has been spending lost of quality time with his family over the past month.

The veteran actor celebrated Thanksgiving in Florida with Catherine and their children where they visited Disney World as well as enjoying a magical day out at The Wizarding World Of Harry Potter at Universal Orlando Resort.


source: dailymail

Home for Christmas: After months in intensive care, little fighters give their parents a perfect present

By ALISON SMITH SQUIRE and TAMARA COHEN

Finley Burton: Survived after his body was 'frozen' by surgeons to slow down his heart beat


After you’ve beaten the toughest odds simply to survive, every day is Christmas.

But tomorrow will be extra special for these babies, at home with their parents for the first time after months in intensive care.

Born prematurely or facing serious complications, nearly every day of their short lives has been a battle.

But as Christmas Day dawns, they will be snuggled up at home where they belong, for a day of celebration their parents hardly dared dream of.

FINLEY BURTON
Just a few months ago, Finley burton lay paralysed on a hospital bed, his life hanging in the balance.

At ten weeks, he suffered complications after an operation to repair a large hole in his heart.


Wired up: Finley in his hospital bed wired up to lots of machines


His body went into ectopic tachycardia, a rapid heart beat of up to 200 beats a minute that can be fatal.

Desperate to save him, doctors used a pioneering technique, ‘freezing’ him to slow down his out-of-control heart rate.

Yesterday, Finley, now ten months, was enjoying the snow with his parents Aaron, 32, and Donna, 28, at their home in Easington, Co. Durham.


‘We really thought we were going to lose him,’ said his mother. ‘It’s a miracle that he survived and we can now enjoy our first family Christmas.’

BURDEN TWINS
Dressed in matching red outfits, the six-month-old Burden twins have made it home in time for their first Christmas too.

Parents Lee Burden, 35, and Amanda Staplehurst, 31, feared the worst when Amelia-Hope was born at 23 weeks, weighing a mere 1lb 2oz.


Amelia-Hope Burden and her brother, Arthur, who weighed 1lb 2oz and 1lb 4oz respectively with their mother, Amanda


Tiny: When she was born, Amelia-Hope weighed just 1lb 2oz. Her twin brother came ten days later and weighed 1lb 4oz


Arthur followed ten days later, at 1lb 4oz, and their battle for life began.

Somehow, their fighting spirit won through and they became the youngest premature twins to survive in the UK.

They were allowed to leave hospital only last month.

‘Bringing them home is the best gift we could have asked for,’ said their mother at the family home in Bournemouth.

JENKINSON TRIPLETS


Three times the fun: Rebecca and Iain Jenkinson with Gabriella, Alexander and Zachary


Happiness is trebled in the Jenkinson household this Christmas. triplets gabriella, zachary and alex were born two months premature after being conceived naturally in a 750,000-to-one chance.

While the first two arrived safely, Alex had a serious heart condition that needed surgery and mother Rebecca had to have a life-saving blood transfusion.

After the drama of last December’s birth, Rebecca and husband Iain are relishing every moment together at their home in Warrington.

‘All three of them are happy and healthy,’ Mrs Jenkinson said. ‘They’re my Christmas miracle babies.’


Merry Christmas 2010 !



source: dailymail

The City star banned from fashion website after shocked readers complain about her stick-thin frame

By MAYSA RAWI

Weighty issue: Allie Crandell models a black leather dress by BCBG on the Revolve website, but has been banned after readers complained she was too thin


The City star Allie Crandell has been banned from a popular American fashion retailer after readers complained about her skinny frame.

Revolve clothing featured Crandell on their online boutique looking painfully thin as she models a collection by BCBG Max Azria.

One image in particular showing her tiny waist and arms sparked outrage among shoppers.


Painfully thin: Allie has attracted attention in the past over her weight while she was on American show The City


One shopper wrote: 'As a normal, healthy woman with a healthy body type. How can I possibly imagine what this dress would look like on me when it is shown on an emaciated frame?'

Revolve have promised not to feature Crandell on their site until she puts on weight.

The spokesperson said: 'We are working closely with both the model and her agent to get her to a healthier size.



Doll-sized: Revolve have said they are working with both the model and her agent to get her to a healthier size


'She won't be appearing in any of our new product batches or in any of our fashion editorial photos moving forward until the issue is adequately addressed.

'We have been attempting to respect the privacy of the model in question while dealing with the issue on our end.'

In 2008, Crandell became a part of the MTV reality show The City.

In one episode, fashion publicist Kelly Cutrone accused her of being too thin before the model goes on to defend herself by insisting she eats healthily.

Although she played a major role in the first season, she has only appeared twice in the second half.

She also starred in Shayne Ward's 2006 No Promises video.

Crandell confirmed via her personal Twitter account that she will no longer be appearing on the show, stating, 'I'm done with the City forever.'

source: dailymail

Looking fabulous at 50: Carol Vorderman shows why she refuses to fret about her body

By EMILY ANDREWS

Birthday girl: Carol Vorderman is fabulous at 50


In her younger days she sometimes counted her imperfections. Today, as she turns 50, Carol Vorderman prefers to count her blessings.

And as her elegant red gown shows, she is a woman who has been very blessed indeed.

‘When you’re in your 20s and 30s you often think “I don’t like this bit, I don’t like that bit, I wish I could shave a few inches off here”,’ she said.

‘But when you’re older you’re just blooming grateful for what you’ve got!

‘For instance, I’ve learned that women spend lots of time worrying about cellulite but men just don’t see it, particularly as they get older themselves and their eyesight goes too!

‘At this age you don’t beat yourself up any more - what’s the point?

‘I’m comfortable in my skin, I’m really happy and that’s all that counts.’

The mother of two, who co-hosted Channel Four’s Countdown for 26 years, has been busy concentrating on figures other than her own since she left the show.


She is chairman of a Conservative Party Task Force that will report in the new year on improving maths education.

And she is running an online maths school for children up to age 12, www.themathsfactor.com, which operates with a team of 12 from Bristol.

Then there is the delight of family life in Somerset with her daughter Katie, 18, son Cameron, 13, and mother Jean, 82.

Christmas, coinciding with her birthday, is always a favourite time.

‘I was called Carol because I was born on Christmas Eve... no surprises there...and I just love this time of year,’ she said.

The year ahead, it seems, will be Carol’s year of living dangerously. She wants to use her 51st year to do 50 things she’s always dreamed of, such as learning to ski, completing a scuba diving course and getting her pilot’s licence.

‘I’m actually a real daredevil and I love engines, as I read engineering at Cambridge, so I want to learn to fly and go wing-walking and do some aerobatics,’ she said.

‘This will be an aviation year - I want to go ballooning in Switzerland and to see the final space shuttle go up.

‘There are all these things I’ve always wanted to do, but in the past the kids have been too young or I’ve been working too hard.

‘Now we can do all these things together and I have a lot more time.

‘Katie’s on her gap year before university so hopefully she can come with me to the States to learn to fly and I’ve got lots more things planned.

‘I was the kid on free school meals from a single parent family in the 60s who managed to get to Cambridge and have made the most of everything I could by working hard since then.

‘And as this year ends, I could burst with excitement. I know that a new chapter is beginning.’

Hard work, she often says, has been the key to her success. And it seems that also applies to her fabulous fiftysomething figure. ‘I do have to watch what I eat,’ she admitted.


Carol & Katie Vorderman



Carol Vorderman - Daybreak 10Nov2010


source: dailymail

A GP told this beauty queen she was anorexic - in fact she had a twisted gut

By LOUISE ATKINSON

Pain-free: Beauty queen Camilla feared she could never be well after suffering from stomach cramps and being unable to keep food down


When 21-year-old Camilla Chia was crowned Miss Oxford last summer, it marked the end of a lifelong battle with her health.

None of those who voted for her knew that the vibrant, shapely ­student had battled stomach pain and sickness all her life, and had been repeatedly dismissed by the medical profession as neurotic.

But underneath her one-piece swimming costume, the Oxford-based student hid a two-inch scar through the middle of her belly ­button — the result of an operation that, two years ago, turned her life around.

Camilla’s childhood was punctuated pain. ‘I don’t remember when my tummy didn’t hurt,’ she says. ‘­Sometimes it would be right in the middle of my abdomen, then at other times high up under my rib cage. ’

She had been a sickly baby, and her mother assumed she was suffering from colic for many years. But things got much worse when she started senior school, at 11.
The episodes of pain — which struck at least twice a week — were so severe she’d be rolled up into a ball in agony for hours. Her only relief was a hot-water bottle.

Before long she had burn marks on her stomach from clutching it so tightly for such long periods of time.

Doctors were baffled. Camilla was tested for parasites (they’d been on a family holiday to Malaysia, so it was considered a possible cause), treated for irritable bowel syndrome and sent home once with a course of drugs to treat what was thought to be ‘stomach migraine’.

Nothing worked. And by the age of 14 the attacks were joined by ­frequent bouts of violent sickness.

‘The really debilitating thing was the fact that there was no pattern to the episodes,’ says Camilla. ‘So I never knew when the pain would come, or when I’d be extremely sick.’

She had to take a lot of time off school, and missed out on much of the fun, social side of her teenage years. ‘Each time I was sick the pain would ease for a few minutes, then it would build, and I’d be sick again. This would happen three or four times in a row, lasting half a day and right through the night.’

Unable to keep food down, Camilla lost a lot of weight. At her lowest, she dropped to five-and-a-half stone (she’s 5ft 7in tall) and her periods stopped.

Her GP became ­convinced she was anorexic. But her mother refused to accept the diagnosis and continued to research ­possible causes for Camilla’s pain, repeatedly begging the GP for help.

‘Each time we went I would be weaker and more exhausted than the last, so Mum would have to do all the talking, and they soon started to think she was neurotic, too.’


In full health: Camilla had an operation to untwist her gut meaning she could put on some weight on her skinny frame and prove she didn't have an eating disorder


At 16, Camilla hit rock-bottom when a protracted bout of pain and sickness lasted for three weeks. ‘I was so weak I couldn’t get out of bed,’ she says,
‘I remember feeling so bad that I turned off my mobile phone — something a teenager would never do — because I couldn’t stand the noise of it ringing and felt just too wretched to talk to anyone.’

Finally, she collapsed, and her mother called an ambulance. She spent two weeks at the John Radcliffe Hospital, much of the time on a drip, and ­underwent a battery of tests.

She was finally sent home with anti-nausea drugs (Motilium) which calmed her symptoms and the attacks dropped from two or three per week to about one a month.

Over the next year she was able to gain a little weight, and the barrage of tests continued. Gradually, the doctors started to think her symptoms might have a physical rather than a psychological cause and told Camilla they were considering the possibility that her gut might be twisting and then untwisting itself.

Then, just before her 18th birthday, she had a CT scan to check whether food was passing properly through her gut.

There was a buzz of excitement in the scanning room and Camilla was ushered in front of Professor Neil Mortensen, clinical director of surgery, to hear the words she never thought she’d hear: ‘We’ve found out what’s wrong with you.’

Prof Mortensen explained she had a ‘malrotation of the gut’ where the small intestine becomes twisted at the point it meets the large intestine.

‘Malrotation happens in the womb,’ he explains. ‘As the ­foetus is developing, the gut grows in length, flopping from side to side as it folds itself inside the abdomen. For some reason, part of Camilla’s gut flopped to the right instead of the left, twisting the bowel.’

In some people, twists like this cause no problems.

But for others, like Camilla, the bowel exists in a ‘subcritical’ state, working normally until you eat something fibrous, which creates a blockage at the point of the twist.

‘This can be extremely painful and potentially dangerous,’ says Prof Mortensen, ‘If the blood supply to the gut is reduced, that section can die, and if it’s not caught quickly, the condition can be fatal.’

Malrotation is rare. Prof Mortensen says he’d only expect to see one or two cases in his career, usually in very young children. And it is very ­difficult to diagnose.

‘We see many teenagers with tummy pains which can have all sorts of physical and psychological triggers,’ he says.

‘Symptoms like Camilla’s can very often be down to some kind of psychological problem — such as anorexia — growing pains or even Crohn’s disease (an inflammatory condition). Certainly in Camilla’s case, it took a while for the penny to drop.’

An operation was booked and Camilla was warned she would have a five to six-inch scar across her tummy.

‘Bizarrely, considering how much pain and discomfort I’d been through for so long, I found myself briefly worrying about the scar,’ she says.

‘But the thought of living life with no pain and no sickness was something I hadn’t ever allowed myself to even dream about, so I knew this procedure would change my life.’

During a one-and-a-half-hour operation, Prof Mortensen and his team made an incision below Camilla’s belly button and searched for the place where the bowel was twisted.

‘In Camilla’s case it was very obvious,’ he says. ‘Her gut had twisted 360 degrees into a kind of spiral, which was being held in place by spider’s web-like adhesions.’
The team were able to cut the threads holding her bowel in the wrong ­position, untwist it, and let it fall properly into place.

‘Sometimes you have to glue or suture [stitch] the bowel into the correct position in the ­stomach cavity but we were confident in Camilla’s case, that it would stay where it should,’ says Prof Mortensen.

Waking up from the operation, Camilla was thrilled to see the scar was only two inches long. And after a few days on fluids, Camilla recovered quickly and started to gain weight.

Now she is a slim, fit, eight-and-a-half stone.

She says that although her stomach muscles are really strong, her digestive system is still a little sensitive.

‘I get bad stomach aches if I eat lots of processed foods, and I can’t use the Power Plate at the gym because the strong vibrations seem to shake everything around,’ she says.

In 2009, a friend at her gym put her name forward for a beauty contest, and she was crowned Miss Oxford last summer.

‘I still get emotional when I think about my teenage years,’ she says. ‘It was desperately difficult ­living with the prospect of always being sick and no one ever knowing what was wrong with me.

‘I certainly never thought I would end up competing in a beauty contest!’


source: dailymail

Botox 'causes muscles to waste away in to FAT,' scientists warn

By SOPHIE BORLAND

Concerns: Botox has been found to cause muscle wastage in other areas of the body


Botox jabs may cause muscles to waste away into fat, scientists warn.

Researchers have discovered that the cosmetic treatment could cause harmful side effects - even areas of the body which have not been injected.

They warn that the jab - used by millions every year to banish wrinkles and plump-up lips - could cause harmful side effects when used over long periods of time.

For the first time experts have found that Botox causes muscle wastage in parts of the body not injected.

Canadian researchers studied the effects of the substance, known amongst in the medical profession as Botulinum toxin A, on a group of 18 rabbits over a period of up to six months.

Their study, published in the Journal of Biomechanics, found that limbs which had been injected with the substance experienced muscle wastage of up to 50 per cent.

But alarmingly they also discovered that muscle loss also occurred in limbs that hadn't been injected - suggesting the harmful effects of the jab could be spread to other parts of the body.

The researchers, from the University of Calgary, warn that their findings 'raise important questions' about the long-term use of the popular cosmetic treatment.

Experts are already aware of the potentially harmful side effects of Botox such as facial sagging and muscle weakness.

But until now they assumed this only affected areas which had been injected.

This research suggests that women having Botox injections in their forehead could potentially experience muscle weakness or muscles turning into fat in other parts of their body.

The cosmetic treatment - which costs up to £200 a time - has soared in popularity and around a million injections are carried out at private clinics every year.
It is by far the most popular non-surgical procedure and the UK market is worth £18 million.

Botox works by stopping the chemical reactions in muscles that make them naturally contract - effectively paralysing them.

It is injected into the muscles which when contracted, cause wrinkles in the overlying skin.


Celebrity fans: Kylie Minogue, left, and Amanda Holden have both admitted using Botox in the past


Once the muscle is paralysed the overlying wrinkle cannot form.

The effects last between three to five months after which the muscle is gradually able to contract again.

Lead author Rafael Fortuna said: 'What we have shown is some muscle tissue is being replaced by fat.

'Basically, we should be more cautious. We should be aware once we have Botox, there might be some side effects far removed from the injection site.'

'We were surprised by the degree of muscle loss and atrophy in the limb that was not injected with the Botulinum toxin.

'I think it's fair to say that the paper raises some important questions about the long-term therapeutic use of Botox, especially with children and adolescents.'

source: dailymail

Alert on overweight children as obese show signs of heart disease at 15

By JENNY HOPE

Unhealthy food is driving the rise in obesity


Fat children are showing signs of heart disease at the age of 15, researchers warn.
A study has revealed that being overweight throughout adolescence sows the seeds of ill-health for decades to come.

It is the first to investigate the link between body mass index (BMI), waist size and fat mass of pre-teen children and subsequent heart risk factors in late adolescence.

The findings show that children who have a high BMI at the age of nine and stay fat are more likely to have high blood pressure, cholesterol and blood insulin levels – all risk

factors for heart disease– by the time they reach 15.

However, children who achieve a healthy weight are able to lower their risk, says a report online in the British Medical Journal.

The study of 5,235 children, led by Professor Debbie Lawlor from the University of Bristol, is part of a bigger research project which has tracked the health of more than 14,000 children since birth.

The researchers assessed the BMI, waist circumference, and fat mass of children between the ages of nine and 12.

BMI is a score based on an individual’s weight and height, although for children, the age and sex has to be taken into account because boys have less natural fat than girls.


The study looked at how Body Mass Index in children affected future health. Here a child is measured by a doctor (file photo)


When the children reached the ages of 15 and 16 their blood pressure, cholesterol, glucose and insulin levels were tested.

The results showed that a high BMI between the ages of nine and 12 was associated with signs of heart disease at 15-16, even when the analysis was adjusted for a wide range of other factors.

Tam Fry, from the National Obesity Forum, said: ‘There are now alarming signs of hardening of the arteries among obese youngsters.

He said if a public health White Paper due to be published next week does not address the problem then it will be ‘found grossly wanting’.

Cathy Ross, of the British Heart Foundation, said: ‘It’s reassuring to see evidence that shows making changes to your lifestyle reduces your risk of heart disease, whatever your age.

‘Overweight children who successfully tackle their weight problem by the time they reach adolescence appear to be able to reduce their risk of heart disease, which is positive news.

‘However, we must work to prevent them becoming overweight in the first place as many obese children don’t achieve a healthy weight.

‘Helping youngsters to understand lifestyle messages can be very challenging but making sure they balance healthy eating with regular physical activity is vital.’


source : dailymail

The trick to keeping weight off for good? Eat as much as you like - and don't count the calories

By JENNY HOPE

You are what you eat: According to the new study, the quality of certain foods is just as significant as quantity when it comes to losing weight


Calorie counting is off the menu for slimmers who want to shed the pounds for good.

According to the world’s largest diet study, the best way to lose weight is to eat as much as you like... as long as you choose the correct foods, which include cold pasta, meat and nuts.

Overweight children also get slimmer when their parents stick to high-protein, low-carb cooking, researchers claim.

A £12million study concluded that the calorie-counting methods Britons have favoured for two decades are wrong, and the best way to stay slim is to eat unlimited amounts of the right foods.

They tested five diets and found that the most effective was a high-protein, low Glycaemic Index regime, which includes lean meat, poultry, fish, eggs, pulses and nuts.

It is based on carbohydrates with a low GI, such as wholegrain bread, porridge and brown rice. These break down slowly during digestion, making dieters feel fuller for longer and stabilising blood sugar levels.

Cooled and cold foods also take longer to digest so have a lower GI, while cold pasta contains more resistant starch that delays digestion.

Researcher Professor Arne Astrup, of the University of Copenhagen, claimed the findings could ‘finally solve the obesity riddle’. He said: ‘For many years we have been giving people in Europe the wrong advice about how to lose weight and avoid becoming obese.

'Calorie counting hasn’t worked and may have made the problem worse because it didn’t distinguish between different types of food.

‘The new diet composition is much more effective at helping people maintain a healthy weight. It contains a slightly higher protein content and low GI foods, and you can eat as much as you want.’

The six-month Danish study involved 772 European families, comprising 938 adults and 827 children, The New England Journal of Medicine reports.


The overweight and obese adults followed a traditional 800 calorie-a-day meal plan for eight weeks, losing an average of 24lb. They were then allocated to one of five diets to see which was most effective at keeping the weight off.

The options were a low-protein, high GI diet; a low-protein, low GI diet; a high-protein, low GI diet; a high-protein, high GI diet; and a control group with no special instructions about GI foods. In the low-protein diets, protein comprised 13 per cent of energy consumed, while in the high-protein diets, it represented 25 per cent.

High GI foods are those scoring 70 or more on the Glycaemic Index – a scale of zero to 100 representing how quickly glucose is released into the bloodstream after eating.

Low GI foods are those with a value of 55 or less.

The participants were given access to free foods suiting their diet plan from a university supermarket, with barcodes to ensure they were sticking to the appropriate meals.

Those on the high-protein, low GI diet gained the least weight, while those following the low-protein, high GI diet put on the most – an average of 3.5lb.

Children also benefited, even though they never specifically went on a diet. By the end of the study, the proportion who were overweight had fallen from almost half to 39 per cent.

Researcher Dr Susan Jebb, head of nutrition and health research at the Medical Research Council Human Nutrition Research Centre, said: ‘It’s essentially a low fat diet, with a modest increase in protein that seems to make people feel fuller longer.

‘The low GI foods give added value. If there is a single message to the public, it’s about eating quality carbohydrates – not all carbs are the same.’


source: dailymail

How hormone replacement therapy can make a woman's mind sharper

By JENNY HOPE

Ten years younger: HRT can combat menopausal symptoms such as hot flushes, mood changes and loss of sex drive


Hormone replacement therapy can rejuvenate the brain, say researchers.

Tests suggest the drugs make the brains of women in their 50s and 60s work more like those of younger women.

The study showed women taking HRT were better able to carry out tasks involving fine motor co-ordination, compared with those of a similar age who were not.


Around one million women in the UK take hormone replacement therapy, which replaces sex hormones such as oestrogen when natural supplies start to dwindle in the 50s.

It can combat menopausal symptoms such as hot flushes, mood changes and loss of sex drive.

The Durham University researchers hope their study will pave the way to testing whether sex hormones can make the brain more resistant to damage from strokes or other injuries.

Studies have shown that women tend to use both halves of their brain more equally compared to men, who tend to have a more dominant side.

The Durham researchers, whose findings were published in the academic journal, Hormones and Behavior, suggest this may be partly because of the level of sex hormones.

Sixty-two post-menopausal women were split into three groups – one taking hormone therapy with only oestrogen, one with a combination of oestrogen and synthetic progesterone, and one without HRT.

They were asked to tap buttons with their fingers in certain orders of varying difficulties.

The women had to complete any given sequence five times on each hand within ten seconds.

An example of a relatively complex sequence would be index finger, ring finger, middle finger, small finger.

Researcher Dr Ulrike Bayer said: ‘Right-handers usually perform better with their dominant right hand compared with the left hand.


Brain food: Tests suggest HRT drugs make the brains of women in their 50s and 60s work more like those of younger women


When both hands perform more equally, it is a sign that the two brain halves are interacting more and this was found to be more pronounced in women taking hormone therapy.’

Many women stopped taking HRT after research from the Women’s Health Initiative study in the U.S. in 2002 found a slight increase in breast cancer.

Guidance to doctors says women should take HRT for the shortest time possible, but that it is effective against symptoms of the menopause.

Dr John Stevenson, chairman of Women Health Concern charity, said many women found they had better cognitive function when they started taking HRT.

He said: ‘There is a genuine effect bringing about these improvements, it is not a placebo effect as this new study helps to demonstrate.

‘As well as obvious symptoms caused by oestrogen deficiency such as hot flushes and night sweats, there are subtle impairments to brain structure and brain function.

But it seems to be reversible if HRT is taken at an early stage in the menopause.’


source: dailymail