MEDICINE

(Reuters) - A diet rich in olive oil, nuts, fish, poultry and certain fruits and vegetables may have a powerful effect at staving off Alzheimer's disease, researchers reported on Monday.

According to the long-standing policy that restricts blood donation from the gay community, a man who has had homosexual sex within the past 12 months is not eligible to donate blood. The policy is now being reviewed by Red Cross Blood service of Australia.

The first Australia's HIV antibody testing was introduced mid-April of 1985 and nearly 900,000 of the tests are still conducted, yearly across the country.

Recent study shows that although shock, anxiety and depression are experienced by carers, there are also beneficial consequences from their labour of love.

(Reuters) - Deaths of women in and around childbirth have gone down by an average of 35 percent globally, according to a study using new methods, but are surprisingly high in the United States, Canada and Norway.

(Reuters) - The World Health Organization conceded shortcomings on Monday in its handling of the H1N1 swine flu pandemic, including a failure to communicate uncertainties about the new virus as it swept around the globe.

The livestock industry and the federal government are allocating $5 million for the research on foot and mouth disease overseas, rather than importing the live virus.

Scientists at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute have found that breast stem cells are extremely sensitive to the female hormones oestrogen and progesterone, a finding that opens the way for the development of new preventions and treatments for breast cancer.

Through the development of a 'virtual slidebox', an Australian Learning and Teaching Council (ALTC)-funded project has made the study of microscopy exciting once again for a digitally engaged body of tertiary students.

Scientists in China have demonstrated how arsenic -- a favorite murder weapon in the Middle Ages -- destroys deadly blood cancer by targeting and killing specific proteins that keep the cancer alive.

An emotive TV advertisement targeting women who smoke will hit television screens in Victoria from Sunday.

An emotive advertisement which targets women who smoke will be shown on television in Victoria starting this Sunday.

Australian researchers found out in a study that the hormone oxytocin can help treat problems involving autism to children.

(Reuters) - The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said on Thursday it was reviewing the safety of triclosan, a widely used antibacterial agent found in soap, toothpaste and a range of other consumer products.

A reevaluation has been called on mass vaccinations against influenza by a leading health expert.

A new study has discovered obesity has overtaken smoking as the leading cause of preventable diseases in Western Australia.

Australian health officers said an anesthetist at a Melbourne clinic might have deliberately infected at least 12 women who had abortions there with Hepatitis C.

Near-death experiences like seeing a bright light at the end of a tunnel, feelings of peace and joy may occur because of high carbon dioxide levels in the blood, according to researchers writing BioMed Central's open access journal Critical Care.

A man whose parents both had breast cancer and who developed the same worrisome symptoms as his dad was denied a mammogram at a local health clinic - because he's a man.

(Reuters) - Large amounts of vitamins C and E do not prevent preeclampsia, blood pressure problems in pregnant women, researchers reported on Wednesday.

(Reuters) - Researchers have identified a group of genes that are especially active in lung cancer patients -- even in healthy tissue -- and said they may be used to predict which smokers will eventually develop lung cancer.