Skin color can tell a lot about our health! Researchers from the universities of Bristol and St. Andrews in the UK have found that the color of a person's skin affects how healthy and therefore attractive they appear, and have found that diet may be crucial to achieving the most desirable complexion. The work will be published in the December issue of Springer's International Journal of Primatology.

Using specialist computer software, a total of 54 Caucasian participants of both sexes were asked to manipulate the skin color of male and female Caucasian faces to make them look as healthy as possible. They chose to increase the rosiness, yellowness and brightness of the skin.

"Most previous work on faces has focused on the shape of the face or the texture of the skin, but one of the most variable characteristics of the face isskin color," said Dr. Ian Stephen who is now at the University of Bristol.

"We knew from our previous work that people who have more blood and more oxygen color in their skins looked healthy, and so we decided to see what other colors affect health perceptions. This has given us some clues as to what other skin pigments may relate to a healthy appearance."

Skin that is slightly flushed with blood and full of oxygen suggests a strong heart and lungs, supporting the study's findings that rosier skin appeared healthy. Smokers and people with diabetes or heart disease have fewer blood vessels in their skin, and so skin would appear less rosy.

The preference for more golden or 'yellow-toned' skin as healthier might be explained by the 'carotenoid pigments' that we get from the fruit and vegetables in our diet.These plant pigments are powerful antioxidants that soak up dangerous compounds produced when the body combats disease. They are also important for our immune and reproductive systems and may help prevent cancer.

They are the same dietary pigments that brightly colored birds and fish use to show off their healthiness and attract mates, and the researchers think that similar biological mechanisms may be at work in humans.

"In the West we often think that sun tanning is the best way to improve the color of your skin," said Ian Stephen, "but our research suggests that living a healthy lifestyle with a good diet might actually be better."

Melanin, the pigment that causes the tan color when skin is exposed to the sun makes the skin darker and more yellow, but participants in the study chose to make skin lighter and more yellow to make it look healthier.

"This discovery is very exciting and has given us a promising lead into cues to health," said Professor David Perrett, head of the Perception Lab at the University of St. Andrews, where the research took place.

"What we eat and not just how much we eat appears to be important for a healthy appearance. The only natural way in which we can make our skin lighter and more yellow is to eat a more healthy diet high infruit and vegetables."

The largest national stem cell study for heart disease showed that transplant subjects also experienced fewer deaths than those who didn't receive stem cells.

In the 12-month Phase II, double-blind trial, subjects' own purified stem cells, called CD34+ cells, were injected into their hearts in an effort to spur the growth of small blood vessels that make up the microcirculation of the heart muscle.

According to researchers, the loss of these blood vessels contributes to the pain of chronic, severe angina. "This is the first study to show significant benefit in pain reduction and improved exercise capacity in this population with very advanced heart disease," said principal investigator Dr. Douglas Losordo at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.

He also said that this study provides the first evidence that a person's own stem cells can be used as a treatment for their heart disease. However, he cautioned that the findings of the 25-site trial with 167 subjects, require verification in a larger, Phase III study.

The stem cell transplant is the first therapy to produce an improvement in severe angina subjects' ability to walk on a treadmill. Twelve months after the procedure, the transplant subjects were able to double their improvement on a treadmill compared to the placebo group.

It also took twice as long until they experienced angina pain on a treadmill compared to the placebo group, and, when they felt pain, it went away faster with rest. In addition, they had fewer overall episodes of chest pain in their daily lives.

In the trial, the CD34+ cells were injected into 10 locations in the heart muscle.
A sophisticated electromechanical mapping technology identified where the heart muscle is alive but not functioning, because it is not receiving enough blood supply.

Want to shed flab? Well, you can now gorge on a special chocolate to lose weight, provided you don't mind its green tinge.

Sounds strange, but scientists have produced a new kind of chocolate, called Lola, which contains chemicals that trick one's brain into believing that one is not hungry and stops one from over -eating, the 'Daily Mail' reported.

However, the scientists from Spanish manufacturer Cocoa Bio claim that though the chocolate tastes just like regular bars, they have a slight green tinge because of the unusual extra ingredients.

"People should eat one or two chocolates around one hour before a meal. They'll feel pleasantly full and less like eating to excess. The chocolate has an intense flavour and extremely high antioxidant properties," lead scientist Armando Yanez, was quoted as saying.

He said the green tinge is because the chocolate contains the dietary supplement spirulina, a microscopic algae with a high level of nutrients such as vitamin A and B12, which also have weight loss benefits.

The scientists also claim that amino acids in the recipe stimulate the production of a hormone in the brain which suppresses the appetite.

The chocolates, priced about 5 pounds for a box of five will initially be sold only in Spain, but may come to Britain if there is enough interest.

It is not the first time that the potential health benefits from regularly eating chocolate, especially dark chocolate, have been identified.

enetic defects leading to a leaky gut are a key cause of the inflammatory disorder ulcerative colitis, UK research suggests.

The disorder causes ulceration of the rectum and the colon, but its exact cause has yet to be pinned down.

The latest study links the condition to four genes which all play a role in keeping the intestine lining healthy.

The Nature Genetics study is based on an analysis of the genes of 12,700 people.

It is twice as large as any previous study - giving the results far greater robustness.

Ulcerative colitis is a life-long, incurable condition, which can cause diarrhoea, fever, abdominal pain and swelling and weight loss. It affects approximately one in 1,000 people.

The researchers, from the UK IBD Genetics Consortium and the Wellcome Trust Case Control Consortium, compared the genomes of 4,700 people with the condition, with those of 8,000 healthy people.

Their work highlighted variants in three regions of the genome which appeared to increase the risk of the condition.

In particular, they zeroed in on four genes - LAMB1, CDH1, CDH3 and HNF4A - which keep the epithelium - the lining of the intestine - working.

The genes affect the seals at the junctions between the cells of the epithelium.

The gut contains a huge number of bacteria which play a key role in the digestive process, and in keeping the gut healthy.

However, defects in the epithelium can allow these bacteria to leak into the wall of the intestine, where they can trigger an immune reaction, leading to prolonged inflammation.

Many experts believe this is one of the causes of ulcerative colitis - and the latest research provides hard evidence of a genetic basis to the theory.

Robust evidence

Researcher Dr Miles Parkes, Consultant Gastroenterologist at Addenbrooke's Hospital, Cambridge, said: "We have long suspected that genetic defects in the epithelial barrier are important in ulcerative colitis.

"This large scale genetic study provides the first robust genetic evidence that this is the case."

Professor Chris Mathew, from King's College London, who also worked on the study, said: "This is very significant as most treatments to date are based on damping down immune response.

"In fact, our data suggests there may be mileage in trying to tighten up the mucosal barrier as well."

One of the genes highlighted by the research, CDH1, has also been implicated in the spread of colon cancer, suggesting their may be a genetic link between the two conditions.

Sir Mark Walport, director of the Wellcome Trust, said the study strongly suggested genetic inheritance was to blame for some people's vulnerability to ulcerative colitis.

"Although it is a long way from this discovery to developing new treatments for inflammatory bowel disease, new approaches to the treatment and prevention of chronic diseases require new insights into their causes."

Richard Driscoll, Director of the National Association for Colitis and Crohn's Disease, welcomed the research.

He said: "Every increase in knowledge moves us closer to the time when identifying a person's genes may enable them and their doctor to make decisions on treatment with a more certain understanding of how their disease is likely to develop over time."

India has slipped behind all of Africa and Asia in combating measles, delaying action to bolster immunisation against the infection that kills an estimated 160,000 children in the country each year, medical experts have said.

India was among 47 African and Asian countries identified by the World Health Organisation (WHO) more than two years ago as "worst-affected" by measles, accounting for 98 per cent of global deaths from the infection.

All the countries were advised to introduce a second dose of the measles vaccine through their immunisation programmes that would help protect nearly all children.

Among the countries that have taken the action to reduce measles mortality are Angola, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, Ethiopia, Kenya, Nigeria, Somalia, Vietnam, Yemen and Pakistan, public health experts have said.

India remains the only country in the world that has not systematically introduced the second dose of the measles vaccine, two experts said in a commentary in Indian Pediatrics, a journal of the Indian Academy of Pediatrics.

"This is certainly a shame," Panna Choudhury, a co-author and president of the academy, told Newspapers. "India has the resources, the infrastructure and the measles vaccine is widely and easily available."

A single dose of the measles vaccine given to children at about nine months of age protects only 85 per cent of immunised children. The second dose between 15 and 18 months is dubbed as a "second opportunity" expected to protect 99 per cent children.

The early public health advisories for a second dose emerged in 2004 and were reiterated by the WHO's strategic advisory group of experts on immunisation in November 2008.

But the health ministry still has not introduced the second dose in the public immunisation programme, although it is routinely provided by doctors in the private sector.

"We expect this (a second dose) will start sometime in 2010," said T. Jacob John, co-chair of the National Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation, which has asked the health ministry to introduce the second dose through two strategies.

States where routine immunisation coverage is higher than 80 per cent have been asked to deliver the second measles dose when a child comes to get a booster dose of the diphtheria-pertussis-tetanus vaccine at 18 months. The other states may need to introduce the second dose through mass immunisation campaigns of the type used to deliver the oral polio vaccine, John said.

Public health experts believe poor routine immunisation, lack of diagnosis and access to proper treatment and poor awareness among people are among the factors that have frustrated efforts to reduce measles mortality in the country. "A dose of vitamin A can reduce the risk of complications and mortality in measles infection but many children do not get this vitamin A as part of routine therapy," a public health expert said.

"The immunisation programme also appears understaffed," John said. The advisory group on immunisation has asked a panel of experts to examine the human resource requirements to improve immunisation coverage.

"Measles can cause life-threatening pneumonia in children but many parents still appear unaware of this," Choudhury said. "Action against measles could significantly reduce mortality in children below five years of age," he said.