Washington, Apr 2 : In a breakthrough study, researchers have developed a new stem cell therapy that may help in treating hearing impairment.

Deafness typically involves the loss of sensory receptors, called hair cells, for their "tufts" of hair-like protrusions, and their associated neurons.

London, April 2 : Health experts are worried that middle-aged people are continuing to ignore sex disease risks.

The Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain has revealed that about one-fifth of the 2,258 adults polled, aged 45 to 54, confessed to having had unprotected sex with someone other than a long-term partner in the past five years.

The society's said that people were found to have a misconception that their risk of catching a sexually transmitted infection (STI) was "next to nothing".

Washington, Apr 2: Scientists have now discovered how probiotics successfully work in fighting against a number of animal diseases, paving way for their use in preventing and even treating human diseases.

Scientists from University College Cork, Ireland, used three animal models of disease that have human counterparts – bovine mastitis, porcine salmonellosis (a gastrointestinal disease) and listeriosis in mice (an often fatal form of food poisoning) – to demonstrate the protective effects of probiotics.

"Rather than use commercially available probiotics, we made our own probiotic preparations containing safe bacteria such as Lactobacillus species newly isolated from human volunteers," said Dr. Colin Hill, the lead researcher of the study.

Sydney  - The Coca-Cola Co was ordered Thursday by Australian regulators to tell consumers an advertising campaign that said soft drinks didn't make people fat was misleading.

The US food and beverage giant had run a campaign stating it was a myth that Coke made people fat, rotted their teeth and contained lots of caffeine.

The Australian Dental Association and other health lobbying groups complained to Australia's consumer watchdog, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, which ruled Coca-Cola had breached the Trade Practices Act.

Washington, Apr 2 : In a breakthrough towards overcoming addiction, scientists have found that if a hormone related to hunger regulation is blocked in the brain's "pleasure centre", it can suppress craving for drugs like cocaine.

The study, led by Shinjae Chung and Olivier Civelli, discovered how the melanin-concentrating hormone works with dopamine in the brain's "pleasure centre" to create an addictive response to cocaine use.

The researchers have also found that blocking MCH in these brain cells limits cocaine cravings.

Washington, Apr 2 : A new study from the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center has found that head and neck cancer patients who smoke, drink, don't exercise or don't eat enough fruit have worse survival outcomes than those with better health habits.

"While there has been a recent emphasis on biomarkers and genes that might be linked to cancer survival, the health habits a person has at diagnosis play a major role in his or her survival," said study author Sonia Duffy, Ph. D., R. N., associate professor of nursing at the U-M School of Nursing, research assistant professor of otolaryngology at the U-M Medical School, and research scientist at the VA Ann Arbor Healthcare System.