Health News

Research by Baylor College of Medicine in Texas trawled through more than 400 scientific studies on 21 ingredients contained in supplements which claim to reduce erectile dysfunction. The products studied were, clockwise from top left, Korean Panax Ginseng (by NutraChamps), Leyzene with Royal Jelly (Natural Subsistence), Horny Goat Weed Extract (Zhou Nutrition), Extra Strength L Arginine (Havasu Nutrition), IncrediBULL (eSupplements) and Boost Elite (Zhou Nutrition). The researchers said customers should be wary of buying unproven supplements when there are readily available drugs which definitely work.

The tabby has been visiting Southmead Hospital in Bristol from his nearby home for the past year (see right), cheering up children waiting to be seen and welcoming staff such as paramedics and police officers. The tabby, who is three this August, has a particular penchant for napping in filing baskets, on chairs (see inset), underneath wet floor signs and on the reception desk countertop. His owner, Vikki Gillies, said she is always seeing posts online from locals who are concerned the hospital cat is homeless. One mother, Leanne Pitt, was grateful the cat kept her ten-year-old son, Leo, who has ADHD, occupied during a long wait to be seen (see left).

Scientists from the Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, injected volunteers with either E.coli or a placebo before asking others how sick they looked two hours later. The infected patients were judged to look 'significantly worse', with people noticing their drooping eyelids and mouths. They also showed more negative facial expressions, which may be brought on by inflammation as the immune system fights off the infection. Researchers believe humans may have evolved the ability to pick up on subtle cues that suggest someone is contagious to avoid getting ill.

Hannah Robertson, 26, was diagnosed with twin-twin transfusion syndrome after she endured crippling back pain at 26 weeks pregnant. This occurs when abnormal blood vessel connections form in the twins' shared placenta, which prevents blood from flowing evenly between the babies. The day after she was diagnosed, a scan confirmed baby Felix's heart had stopped beating, while his twin Bowie was fighting for his life. Miss Robertson went into labour five days later, with Felix being delivered stillborn on June 11 last year and Bowie arriving one minute later weighing 1lb 12oz. Bowie spent the next three months in intensive care (pictured right) where he battled kidney failure, pneumonia and sepsis before finally being strong enough to go home to Rosyth in Fife. Miss Robertson is pictured left with the newborn and her partner Kenny Moyes, 33. Inset shows the ultrasound scan that revealed she was expecting twins.

700,000 people in Britain have autism, which affects communication and social skills. There is no treatment as such — but could prebiotics help, say the Fisher family, from Hertfordshire. An intriguing study by the University of Reading published in the journal Microbiome last year, showed that taking a daily prebiotic for six weeks not only boosted the number of good bacteria in the guts of children with autism, it also improved their mood, behaviour and sleep.

Monsanto must pay $2 billion to a California couple who claim carcinogenic chemicals in the company's weedkiller, Roundup, gave them cancer, a jury ruled Monday. The company faces a slew of over 13,4000 lawsuits over the product, which uses glysophate, a pest-killing chemical that may raise cancer risks - a risk that three courts in a row have now ruled the company failed to warn consumers of. Both Alva and Alberta Pilliod (pictured) have battled non-Hodgkin's lymphoma after they used the weedkiller on their property for some 30 years. Despite this third consecutive loss, Bayer - which now owns Monsanto - continues to deny fault, claiming that many studies over the years have found the chemical safe and non-carcinogenic, as did a recent EPA ruling.

Grace Jackson-Matthew (pictured right), from Tunbridge Wells in Kent, has four serious conditions which have left her in so much pain she can no longer go to school and uses crutches to help her walk. Grace is often bed-bound (pictured left) and has to rely on easy-to-eat food such as yoghurts. Caring for her takes up most of her mother's time which has had a knock-on effect on Grace's sisters, Nina, 10, and Maria, 11 (pictured inset, L-R, Nina, Maria and Grace).

A leading dentist has answered some of his most commonly-asked questions - including how often you should change your toothbrush and whether you should try oil pulling. Dr Craig Wilson (top right), who works at Sydney Holistic Dental Centre with Dr Lewis Erlich (left and top right), has been practicing dentistry for over 25 years - and spoke in conversation with Dr Lewis about the main questions clients want to know the answers to (bottom right, stock image).

An Australian mum (stock image, left and right) has been slammed by other parents for feeding her children snacks past their best before date. The mum said she bought the snacks through a welfare support service as they were cheap and she didn't think there was anything wrong with them. She said other parents have 'judged' her and said its something they would never do (inset).

Shawntel Newton was stunned when her son Leo (pictured together right) was born with a dark purple mark across the left side of his face, as well as a smaller patch on his right cheek. Ms Newton, who made it to the final four of The Bachelor in 2010 (pictured inset in the show's promotional shot), has since learnt her now six-month-old (pictured left) has Sturge-Weber syndrome, which causes abnormal blood vessels to develop in the skin. The youngster, who is also at risk of seizures, had his first laser treatment at just five days old and requires medication to prevent fits that may lead to a stroke. The 33-year-old, of Granite Bay, California, reveals how people staring at her son's birthmark often leaves her weeping.

Marcela Iglesias, from Agoura Hills, California, was so embarrassed of her teeth that she would only smile with her mouth closed and covered it regularly while talking. She believes her 'tiny, shrimpy teeth' were a result of barely brushing them in childhood when she drank up to seven cans of soda a day (pictured left, her teeth before). She visited Dr Kambiz Kamanger at Agoura Advanced Dentistry who performed a month's worth of surgeries (pictured top inset, having her teeth filed down for crowns). Ms Iglesias was left with a smile that 'makes her look younger' (see right). Previously terrified of the dentist, Ms Iglesias got her initials engraved onto her fake teeth as a celebration of what she overcame (see inset).

Kirsty Collins, of Sheffield, wanted to get rid of the fillers in her lips so she could start again. She was more than familiar with plastic surgery, having spent £30,000 on it over the years. Ms Collins, known as Bambi Black by her fans, paid £300 to have hyaluronidase injected into her lips to help break down the old filler. Within minutes, her top lip swelled to four times its normal size. After being treated by doctors in hospital, Ms Collins said she regrets not having a patch test done which could have helped avoid the ordeal. (Pictured left, before, right and inset, her swollen lip.)

They are the words that everybody dreads. Yet when, in summer 2016, Emma Agnew was told she had an aggressive form of breast cancer, it was her husband Jonathan, the voice of BBC cricket, who burst into tears beside her. ‘I was convinced it was curtains. I couldn’t get the thought of a funeral out of my head,’ recalls the 59-year-old former England fast-bowler turned commentator, affectionately known as Aggers. Emma, meanwhile, took the diagnosis in her stride.

Hannah Geraghty (pictured inset top), a businesswoman in Sydney, Australia, has a condition called lipoedema which causes unusual amounts of fat to build up in her legs (pictured left and inset bottom) and she needs liposuction to remove it. After living with the embarrassment and pain caused by the condition, which usually only affects women, for 12 years, the 40-year-old is this year having surgery to remove the fat from her legs at last (pictured right in hospital). In the first session her surgeon sucked out three litres of fat.

Laura Summers, 38, from Bracknell, in Berkshire was fitted with the £120 PICO dressing following the birth of her third child Bodhi, right and recovered from her caesarean more quickly than with traditional bandages. Surgical infections affect more than 200,000 patients a year and cost the NHS about £700 million. They delay the healing of wounds, increase the use of antibiotics, and can result in more surgery to remove infected tissue.

Kevin Braddock, pictured, from Shropshire made a call for help on Facebook in August 2014 when he was actively considering ending his own life while sitting drunk on the pavement outside the office of a job that was gradually destroying him.

Sarah Bomzer, 42, was making her husband Adam, 43, (pictured together in the inset) a cup of tea last month when she suddenly had a seizure. The mother-of-two, of Southampton, fell to the ground, leaving her face and arms covered in bruises. She also cut her eye after hitting it on the kitchen counter, which she fears may have blinded her had it been a few millimetres higher. Mrs Bomzer (pictured right before the ordeal), who has endured seizures since 2016, spent the night in hospital on painkillers and hooked up to a drip. In a bid to raise awareness of epilepsy, she posted a picture (left) of her bruised face online, only to be inundated with concerned messages from strangers who accused her of covering up her husband's abuse.

Placentophagy, the practice of eating the placenta raw, cooked, or in a pill, has risen in popularity with claims it boosts iron levels, mood and milk supply. Hilary Duff (left), Kim Kardashian (centre) and Coleen Rooney (right), have all publically revealed they have tried the trend. But experts in Canada have reviewed the small evidence and strongly disagree. They said it could even be harmful with the transmission of bacteria and viruses.

Alexandria Whitaker, now 25, of Orlando, Florida, was diagnosed with stage 1 breast cancer in February 2018. At first, her doctor said it wasn't worth checking out because she was 24 with no family history of breast cancer. After she pushed her doctors to take her concerns over her lump seriously, a mammogram revealed cancer. Alexandria had her final chemo infusion in March, after a double mastectomy, grueling chemo, hormone therapy, and fertility preservation.

Amanda and Mitch Feltmann, of Minnesota, knew their first child was struggling in the womb, but didn't realize she would be stillborn. Now they are navigating an unexpected second pregnancy, and sharing their story of grief and reparation to help others facing the same agonizing, under-discussed traumas.

Darren Leith, 50, of Barrow, Cumbria, has been 'buried alive' ever since he suddenly suffered a brain-stem stroke on April 28 2017. The 50-year-old is able to think, see and feel but cannot eat, talk or move any muscles aside from his eyes. Since his stroke, Mr Leith has been cared for at a neuro-rehabilitation centre in Southport, 100 miles away from his family home in Barrow, Cumbria. The former painter and decorator has learnt to spell out words by pointing to letters on a board (inset) with his eyes. And during a recent visit from his children, he asked them to 'take me home'. He is pictured left in hospital and right in 2012 in London with his now 23-year-old daughter Shannon Leith.

Rachel Avon was forced to have her appendix removed while six months' pregnant after developing sharp pains in her side. While operating on what they thought was appendicitis, the surgeons discovered the now 34-year-old had pseudomyxoma peritonei, which typically starts in the appendix. The weight of her growing baby is thought to have caused the mother-of-two's cancer symptoms to flare-up. The surgeons managed to remove both her appendix and the tumour in the same procedure. The medics then made the controversial decision not to tell the primary school teacher or her husband Ross Avon, 35, she had battled cancer until after she gave birth to their daughter Cari. This is due to safety concerns over pregnant women having MRI scans, which detect whether cancer has spread. Now cancer-free five years on, Mrs Avon is pictured left with Cari as a baby. She is also pictured right with Cari, her other daughter Ffion, six, and her husband Ross Avon, 35. The ultrasound scan of Cari (inset) revealed no signs Mrs Avon was battling the rare cancer.

Men were more likely to report a bad experience than women, according to The University College London research published in PLOS ONE. Of the participants, one in four (25.6 per cent) indicated that they had previously encountered particularly unpleasant meditation-related (stock inset) experiences. The trendy practice, championed by Hollywood stars Emma Watson (left) and Angelina Jolie (right), has rocketed in popularity in recent years as scientists uncover its benefits.

An Australian nutritionist has addressed three of the most common questions she's asked by clients after noticing three key topics arising in a recent Instagram Live session. Jessica Sepel , one of Australia's leading holistic nutrition experts, is known for her hugely successful blog and JS Health Vitamin range and regularly answers client questions on social media. And three of the most persistent questions include how to eat healthy while out, how to manage premenstrual syndrome symptoms naturally and how to eat well while travelling overseas.

Drew Calver (left, with his wife), 44, a high school history teacher, suffered a heart attack in April 2017. The married father-of-tw0 was taken to St David's Medical Center, which was out of his insurance network, but the closest to his home in Austin, Texas. He received a bill a month later that said he owed a balance of $108,951.31 (inset). After the story received national attention, the bill was reduced to $332.29. Calver was a guest of President Donald Trump's on Thursday and called on Congress to end the practice of surprise medical bills (right, with his wife).

Sarah Bradley, 25, has Localized Provoked Vulvodynia (LPV), which makes inserting even a cotton swab or tampon unbearable. At age 19, Sarah started dating, but when things got intimate she was unable to proceed. Even the slightest penetration felt like agony - whether it's sex or an OBGYN exam. Until March of this year Sarah's condition went undiagnosed, and doctors dismissed it as 'anxiety'. Now she is receiving the correct medical care to help her achieve a normal sex life. She hopes a surgery will allow her to be able to endure penetration.

Last week, Burger King announced that a vegetarian version of its signature Whopper was going to be rolled out nationally by the end of the year. The Impossible Whopper - which uses a plant-based patty from Impossible Foods - is meant to target both vegetarians and meat-eating customers who want a more balanced diet. However, experts' reactions to and opinions of the new menu item have varied. Some say it's a good option for those who want to eat less red meat and that it will help tackle greenhouse gases that affect climate change. Others say that the burgers are high in fat and sodium and that, at the end of the day, it's no healthier as a classic beef burger.

Lydia Galbally (pictured right before the ordeal) was told she was suffering from asthma when she went to her GP complaining of having a chesty cough and wheezing 'for some time'. The 41-year-old was eventually rushed to hospital in September last year after she became short of breath and feverish. She was then transferred to the Royal Papworth Hospital in Cambridge after being diagnosed with sepsis as a result of an untreated TB infection. Mrs Galbally spent the next two months 'close to death' and 11 days in a coma while she battled multiple organ failure, a clot on her lungs and two emergency heart drains. Although she pulled through, Mrs Galbally, who is mother to a nine and 11-year-old, lost various parts of her body to gangrene. She is pictured with her children left, with gangrene visible on her nose, while they visited her during her seven-week stay in an isolation unit, which required the youngsters wear masks.

Niah Selway (pictured left and right, with boyfriend Mark) from Hastings, East Sussex, suffers from aquagenic pruritus, which causes her 'whole body to burn for hours on end' if her skin comes into contact with water. The 21-year-old said the burning lasts for hours and she often passes out from exhaustion following a reaction (inset top, her hand breaks out in a painful rash after a reaction). She said the condition, which has no known cause and is difficult to diagnose, has left her housebound and struggling to wash properly. When she cries, her tears bring out a painful rash, and long soaks in the bath are out of the question because they trigger burning inflammation. Pictured bottom: Painful blotches appear on her thigh after coming into contact with water.