Insomnia, Poor Sleep Quality Common for Men and Women During Pregnancy

During pregnancy, women and their male partners sometimes report insomnia or insufficient sleep, which may be tied to depression, according to a new study. Almost half of women reported that they slept more than usual during pregnancy, but did not have better quality sleep, said senior author Tiina Paunio of Helsinki University Hospital in Finland. Overall, 12 percent of women and 15 percent of men had either insomnia or too little sleep, researchers found. “The results are well in line with those obtained from previous studies for pregnant women: symptoms…

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Bird Flu Hits Europe, France Raises Checks to Counter Virus

Several European countries have reported outbreaks of a severe strain of bird flu, the World Organisation for Animal Health said on Thursday, while France raised safety checks to counter the virus which can have a major impact on farmers. The World Health Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) said Germany, Austria, Croatia and Switzerland had all officially reported the outbreaks, which concerned a particularly virulent strain affecting wild birds. France’s Agriculture Ministry added in a statement that the highly pathogenic H5N8 virus had been found in wild birds in Hungary, Poland,…

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Blood Pressure Spike Around Doctors Might Point to Heart Problem

Some older people who get what’s known as white coat hypertension – a spike in blood pressure at the doctors’ office – may have an increased risk of heart disease and stroke, a study suggests. White coat hypertension is pretty common – lots of people get stressed out around doctors and it’s not unusual for this to result in high blood pressure readings for patients who have normal blood pressure outside the exam room, researchers note in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology. When researchers examined data on…

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Smog Lifts, But Companies’ View of Polluted Delhi Skies is Dim

As New Delhi grappled with its worst smog in 17 years, the head of India’s largest mobile payment firm got on a plane and left, one of thousands of professionals escaping pollution that could cost the capital and the broader economy dear. Vijay Shekhar Sharma, founder of PayTM payment start-up, left last Sunday for a temporary stay in Mumbai, worried about the impact of hazardous clouds of dust, smoke and fumes that hang over Delhi during the winter months. “It became very visibly clear that it is going to be…

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Still Fighting: Vietnam Vets Seek Help for Rare Cancer

Mike Baughman considered himself one of the lucky ones, returning from Vietnam without any major injuries or psychological scars. But after falling ill nearly a half-century later, he found out he did not escape the war after all. The 64-year-old is among hundreds of veterans who have been diagnosed with a rare bile duct cancer that may be linked to their time in the service and an unexpected source: parasites in raw or poorly cooked river fish. The worms infect an estimated 25 million people, mostly in Asia, but are…

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Climate Change Affects Nearly All Life on Earth

Most life on Earth is already being changed by the warming climate, even though the rise in global temperature since pre-industrial times has been rather slight, researchers warned on Thursday. The study in the journal Science found that 82 percent of key ecological processes — including genetic diversity and migration patterns — are being altered by global warming. These effects extend to land, oceans and freshwater environments, even though temperatures have risen just about 1.87 degrees Fahrenheit (1 degree Celsius) over pre-industrial times due to fossil fuel burning. “We now…

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