Causes of flu

Flu is a viral infection. It's passed on when people breathe in liquid droplets containing the influenza virus that have been sneezed or coughed into the air, or when people touch objects contaminated with the virus. The virus can cause infections all year round, but in the UK it's most common in the winter. There are many strains, some of which are worse than others, such as swine flu (H1N1 strain) which tends to have a more rapid onset, high fevers and gastrointestinal upset and has caused many fatalities, often in previously fit adults.

Trying to figure out the best time to broach a touchy topic, ask your guy a favor or convince him to do something you know he'll dread? It's easier than you think — if you learn how to tune in to his body clock, says Gabrielle Lichterman, founder of the Hormonology blog and coauthor of 28 Days. While we all know that women usually experience hormone-induced mood swings on a monthly basis, Lichterman attests that men, too, are affected by hormonal highs and lows — only their levels fluctuate daily. Want to get his hormones working for you? Follow this timing guide:

"Don't worry, everything will be fine," says the brain Continue reading the main story

One reason optimists retain a positive outlook even in the face of evidence to the contrary has been discovered, say researchers.

A study, published in Nature Neuroscience, suggests the brain is very good at processing good news about the future.

However, in some people, anything negative is practically ignored - with them retaining a positive world view.

A teenager died after an asthma attack so severe that she could not call out and had to text her father for help – even though he was just downstairs.

Siobhan Ullah, 18, sent the message 'I can't breathe'. It was only half an hour after she had updated her status on Facebook to 'feels like death'.

Her father Yousuf ran upstairs and tried to calm her down to help her breathe. He also called an ambulance.

Tragic death: Siobhan Ullah died after a severe asthma attack triggered a heart attack

The final text: Siobahn sent her father this message because the attack meant she was unable to cry out for help.

The stereotype suggests that it's the husband who simply cannot bear their mother-in-law.

But wives feel exactly the same, according to the latest research.

One in four despises their mother-in-law and believes she is 'controlling, interfering and bitchy'.

Parental control: Carolyn Bourne behaved like a classic interfering mother-in-law when she sent her prospective daughter-in-law an abusive email

In a poll, women accused mothers-in-law of routinely 'knowing best' when it comes to parenting, judging their parenting skills and undermining them in front of their partner and children.

Almost a third said they were made to feel they were not good enough for their partner.

Many move house to escape the mother-in-law's clutches and for some the stress is so extreme it has led to marital breakdown.

The findings come from a poll of some 2,000 mothers by the website Netmums.

Almost a quarter, 24 per cent, described their relationship with their mother-in-law as bad or terrible.

Male menopause sufferers can experience fatigue, depression, weight gain, clouded thought, loss of libido and memory and sleep disturbance caused by plunging levels of testosterone

It has long been dismissed as an excuse for men behaving badly in middle age.

But the male menopause is very real, affects more than two million British men and can be cured, doctors said last night.

An international conference heard yesterday (CORR) that the decades-long fear that upping testosterone levels raises the odds of prostate cancer is a myth.

A wet, warm autumn means a bumper crop of nuts and berries, packed with nutrients. ANNABEL VENNING speaks to Sarah Wilson, specialist dietician at London's Princess Grace Hospital, about their health benefits.

It may come as a surprise to father's continually woken by their offspring in the early hours of the morning, but having children could mean they have healthier hearts.

A decade-long study of 135,000 men found that those who remained child-free had a higher risk of dying from heart disease than those who 'sowed their oats.'

U.S researchers said it raised the possibility that infertility may be a potential early warning sign of future heart trouble.

Infertility is one of those common yet deeply personal issues that many women still don't feel comfortable talking about -- which may explain why some of us seem a bit confused about how getting older affects our ability to achieve a healthy pregnancy.

A recent article in The New York Times discusses the phenomenon of 40-something women who think they're fertile, simply because they look youthful and healthy.

Mankind comes across many afflictions and trials, sometimes in overwhelming sequences.  Removing the darkness of these worries, distresses, depression and grief is a very important matter to which Islaam gives serious attention…

Indeed the greatest darkness to envelope mankind and surely his greatest affliction is disbelief in Allah and to associate partners with Him in any form (kufr and shirk).

The study of German scientists provided evidence showing that the brain of urban and rural residents perceives stressful situations differently. Urban dwellers respond to them much more painfully than inhabitants of villages and small towns. Moreover, their neurophysiological response to stress is so intense that it can lead to destructive changes in the brain.

Children in rural Nepal whose mothers were given iron and folic acid supplements during pregnancy were smarter, more organized and had better fine motor skills than children whose mothers did not get them, US researchers said on Tuesday. 

Teenagers are more likely to be depressed if they spend a lot of time listening to music, while teens who read a lot are less depressed, according to new research.

So does that mean that My Chemical Romance is bad for your health? Or that multiple replays of "The Catalyst" by Linkin Park will push an adolescent from moodiness to mental illness?

A new study published in the Journal of Nutrition adds more evidence to the fact that breastfed babies end up healthier and more vibrant than babies that are not breastfed. Enrique Garcia Artero and his colleagues from the University of Granada determined that breastfeeding leads to increased muscle muscle mass, greater athletic performance, and overall improved health as children grow into adolescence.

In April 2005, a paper published in the Archives of Internal Medicine, published by the American Medical Association, revealed startling new findings about the nature of heart disease. Even though this information was written with an American audience in mind we as an international audience can learn from it.

In support of the long-time claims of many natural health advocates, a recent study strongly suggests that cancer is a man-made disease. The study was conducted at Manchester's KNH Centre for Biomedical Egyptology, and it investigated remains and literature from ancient Egypt and Greece.

This article traces the concept of prevention, wiqayat, in the Qur’an. It explains that efforts at preventing disease do not contradict pre-determination, qadar, but are actually part of qadar. It then uses Islamic teachings on appetite control as an example of disease prevention. Appetite control is by having a strong iman. Sawm Ramadhan provides practical annual training in appetite control.

In 1978, a few weeks after Christmas, my father had a radical mastectomy. The last words he said to me before the surgery were, “they can take my nipple but I’ll be damned if I’m going to let them take my ovaries.” So like my father to lighten the mood with a joke but, of course, cancer is no laughing matter.

A month before, my father had found a small pea size lump just below his left nipple. He was lucky to have doctors who immediately recognized the lump for what it was: breast cancer. Then, as now, breast cancer was rare in men. Only 2% of newly diagnosed cases each year are men. However, because so few people recognize that men can be afflicted with this disease, diagnosis often comes at a very late stage when treatment is difficult and, sadly, often too late.

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If the findings of existing clinical trials hold up in future research, the potential consequences of this deficiency are likely to go far beyond inadequate bone development and excessive bone loss that can result in falls and fractures. Every tissue in the body, including the brain, heart, muscles and immune system, has receptors for vitamin D, meaning that this nutrient is needed at proper levels for these tissues to function well.