For women, combining work and family may be healthier than staying home, recent research in Britain suggests.
The researchers studied 1,171 women born in 1946, interviewing them in each decade from their 20s on to collect information about their health, work, marriage and children. They then had the women report their state of health at 54.
The study found that women who had taken on multiple roles as mothers, wives and employees over those years were significantly healthier than those who had not.
Taking on extra roles was itself associated with good health, and initial good health was not a predictor of taking on extra roles. The study is in the June Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.
Placebo works on cough
Codeine is considered the most effective treatment for cough, but new research involving 19 British patients suggests that it works no better than a placebo on a certain type of cough.
The patients, all with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, took either a placebo or an identical-looking tablet with codeine phosphate. Then, equipped with a recording device, each recorded all coughs during 20 hours. The results appeared in the April issue of The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology.
The group averaged 8.27 seconds of coughing per hour without medicine, and 6.41 seconds per hour after taking codeine. But the placebo reduced coughs to 7.22 seconds per hour, a statistically insignificant difference in effectiveness compared to the codeine.
Alcohol's benefit differs
Moderate drinking reduces the risk of heart disease, but the beneficial effects of alcohol work differently in men and women, Danish researchers said.
They found that for men, drinking daily seems to have the biggest positive effect on health, while in women the amount of alcohol consumed may have more of an impact. The report was in the British Medical Journal.
Researchers studied the effects of alcohol on more than 50,000 men and women over more than five years. Men who drank one day a week had a 7 percent reduced risk of heart disease compared to non-drinkers, but daily moderate drinkers were 41 percent less likely to suffer from heart disease.
The women consumed an average of 5.5 alcoholic drinks a week. But in women, the percentages of reduced risk were similar, regardless of whether they drank one day or seven days a week.
– NEWS SERVICE REPORTS
