Even as HSC Board examinations are commencing today, our in-house nutrition expert Dr Sujata Udeshi lists the dos and donts while preparing your children

Dear Doctor,

My son will soon be giving his board exams. He sits at home these days for studying. However, he wants to eat every hour. He eats anything from biscuits to noodles. I need to know the types of foods that I should be giving during his study period. Which are the foods that are good for brain activity?

—Kalpana Roshan, Vashi

Washington, Feb 26 : Women who are fertile for more than 39 years and have natural menopause are at a lower risk of contracting Parkinson's disease, says a new study.

The study, which will be presented at the American Academy of Neurology's 61st Annual Meeting in Seattle, April 25 to May 2, 2009, provides evidence that longer exposure to the body's own hormones may protect women from the disease.

New York  - The global fight against malaria was threatened by the emergence of drug-resistant strains on the Thai-Cambodia border, the World Health Organization said Wednesday.

WHO said artemisinin-resistant parasites could infect workers clearing forests along that border and create a form of drug- resistant malaria. Such a development could set back recent successes in controlling the disease.

Artemisinin is an extract of a Chinese herb that is used in the treatment of several diseases, including malaria.

London, Feb 25 : Long working hours can raise the risk of dementia, a new study has warned.

What’s more, extreme tiredness and tension could be as harmful for the brain as smoking, the study published in the American Journal of Epidemiology found.

The study found that middle-aged workers clocking up more than 55 hours a week have poorer mental skills, including short-term memory and ability to recall words, than those working fewer than 41 hours.

To reach the conclusion, researchers led by Dr Marianna Virtanen from the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health monitored 2,214 British civil servants from the 1980s, reports The Telegraph.

The Muktangan De-addiction Centre at Mohanwadi has started an exclusive de-addiction centre for women to help them kick the habit.

The new centre, named Nishigandh, is on Muktangan's premises at Yerawada and is a 15 bedded centre.

Deputy director of Muktangan De-addiction Centre Mukta Puntambekar told newspersons that drug abuse and substance users among women are on rise since the last couple of years.

Hepatitis-B killed three more people in Modasa on Monday, a day on which the Gujarat government vaccinated 50,000 residents of the taluka in 10 hours, in what could be one of India’s largest medical mop-ups. The toll from the outbreak has now touched 56, although officials assert that the figure is 45. Two of Monday’s casualties are women, identified Kapila Patel (30) and Harshida Rathod (21).

The mass-vaccination drive is being carried out in the Modasa taluka and surrounding villages of the Sabarkantha district by 225 teams of health officials and NGO volunteers.