Post-menopausal women with kidney or bladder stones are not prone to osteoporosis, but they do have about a 15 percent increased risk of another painful stone, shows research.

Studying the data of approximately 150,000 post-menopausal women, the study found that despite the two conditions being clearly associated in men, the same did not hold true for women.

"We found that, unlike what has been reported in men, a woman having a kidney stone is not a risk factor for osteoporosis. However, having one urinary tract stone does put women at increased risk for a second stone," said Laura D. Carbone, chief of rheumatology section at the Medical College of Georgia at Georgia Regents University.

Carbone said in the study that appeared in the Journal of Bone and Mineral Research. However, women with a stone likely should work with their physician to reduce their increased risk of a subsequent stone.

Having a stone also was known to put people at risk for subsequent stones, but the new study helps clarify the risk. The incidence of urinary tract stones is on the rise generally, particularly in women, with a 70 percent increase in the last 15 years.

One link between the seemingly disparate conditions of stones and weak bones is an excess of calcium in the urine, which tends to be more common in men.

When sodium levels are high, from eating too much processed or fast food, more calcium is eliminated in the urine. Over activity of the parathyroid glands, which regulate levels of calcium in the blood, is associated with both urinary tract stones and fractures of the vertebra in the spine.

Observing higher prevalence of certain physical illnesses among people suffering from panic disorder, US researchers has proposed the existence of a spectrum syndrome comprising a core anxiety disorder and four related domains.

The study published in the Journal of Neuropsychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences points to a link between mental and physical health.

When mental and physical illnesses co-occur, patients' accounts of physical illness are sometimes arbitrarily discredited or dismissed by physicians. The naming of the new disorder may help many patients receive proper diagnosis.

"Patients who have certain somatic disorders - illnesses for which there is no detectable medical cause and which physicians may consider to be imagined by the patient - may instead have a genetic propensity to develop a series of real, related illnesses," said one of the researchers Jeremy Coplan, professor of psychiatry at SUNY Downstate Medical Centre in the US.

"Panic disorder itself may be a predictor for a number of physical conditions previously considered unrelated to mental conditions, and for which there may be no or few biological markers," Coplan said.

The researchers found correlation between panic disorder, bipolar disorder, and physical illness, with significantly higher prevalence of certain physical illnesses among patients with panic disorder when compared to the general population.

To describe the new spectrum disorder, the researchers have coined the term ALPIM, where "A" stands for anxiety disorder (mostly panic disorder); "L" for ligamentous laxity (joint hypermobility syndrome, scoliosis, double-jointedness, mitral valve prolapse, easy bruising); "Pa for pain (fibromyalgia, migraine and chronic daily headache, irritable bowel syndrome, prostatitis/cystitis); "I" for immune disorders (hypothyroidism, asthma, nasal allergies, chronic fatigue syndrome); and "M" for mood disorders.

Two thirds of patients in the study with mood disorder had diagnosable bipolar disorder and most of those patients had lost response to antidepressants.

"Our argument is that delineations in medicine can be arbitrary and that some disorders that are viewed as multiple disparate and independent conditions may best be viewed as a single spectrum disorder with a common genetic etiology."

If you are looking for a size zero figure, then following a vegan diet that includes no animal products could offer better results than other weight-loss plans, says a study.

"Vegetarian diets are more effective than non-vegetarian diets for weight loss," said researcher Ru-Yi Huang of E-Da Hospital in Taiwan.

The study reviewed the results of twelve diet trials, involving 1,151 dieters who followed a specific eating regime for between nine and 74 weeks.

Overall, individuals assigned to the vegetarian diet groups lost significantly more weight (around 2.02 kg) than dieters who ate meat and other animal products.

Vegetarians who followed a vegan diet lost even more weight. Comparatively, they lost around 2.52 kg more than non-vegetarian dieters. Vegetarians who consumed dairy products and eggs lost around 1.48 kg more than those on a non-vegetarian diet.

According to Huang, the abundant intake of whole grains, fruits and vegetables might play a role in the favourable results seen in vegetarian diets.

Whole-grain products and vegetables generally have low glycaemic index values and do not cause blood sugar levels to spike. Fruits are rich in fiber, anti-oxidants, minerals and protective chemicals that naturally occur in plants.

Whole-grain products contain soluble fiber. Such so-called good fiber helps to delay the speed by which food leaves the stomach and ensures good digestion.

The researchers found that people following vegetarian diets that prescribe a lower than normal intake of calories (so-called energy restriction) also shed more kilograms than those without any such limitations being placed on their eating habits.

The findings appeared in the Journal of General Internal Medicine.

A new study has linked tree nuts to lower body weight and risk of obesity.

Researchers compared risk factors for heart disease and metabolic syndrome of tree nut consumers versus those who did not consume tree nuts. Tree nut (almonds, Brazil nuts, cashews, hazelnuts, macadamias, pecans, pine nuts, pistachios and walnuts) consumption was associated with lower body mass index, systolic blood pressure, insulin resistance and higher levels of high-density lipoprotein-cholesterol (good cholesterol).

In addition, tree nut consumers were 25 percent less likely to be obese and 21 percent less likely to have an elevated waist circumference than those who did not consume tree nuts.

Research has shown that nuts can help reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease and metabolic syndrome (MetS). The latter is a cluster of risk factors for cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes and includes elevated blood lipids, blood pressure, blood sugar, insulin resistance and abdominal obesity.

Maureen Ternus, Executive Director of the International Tree Nut Council Nutrition Research & Education Foundation (INC NREF), said that just 1.5 ounces of nuts per day (about 1/3 cup) can give you many of the important vitamins, minerals and energy you need throughout the day.

The study is published in Nutrition Journal.