The Balkan Chronicle

After four years of war and all the turmoil of the war and aftermath of the genocide, afer great poverty and reconstruction of the country we meet more often than not with great health challenges among young people of our brothers and sisters in Bosnia. This is my appeal to you that you will take part in making a contribution to our humanitarian-charity activities in collecting funds for one of our sisters, Elma Karaman-Kopic, who is 26 years old, mother of two, boy 3 y/o, and a girl 5 y/o, a loving wife and daughter and above all a great citizen of her community alwas willing to help to those who are in need.

For toddler Freyah Rose Lyons things really are black and white - because she has a rare condition that means she cannot see any colours.

Doctors believe her colour blindness could have been caused by her mother Cassie contracting a cold or flu virus while she was pregnant.

Cassie, 20, said: 'She is a really bright baby and what she lacks with her vision she makes up for with her other senses.

Alison Cowan felt hiding her depression was the best way to deal with it

He's one of the country's best-loved comedians, leaving audiences in stitches with his fizzing sense of humour.

Yet last month David Walliams admitted he's suffered with depression for much of his life.

'I go through periods of intense self-loathing,' he said.

People who take cocaine or are former users are 45 per cent more likely to develop a common form of blindness, a large study has found.

Researchers also found they developed glaucoma 20 years earlier on average than patients without a history of drug use.

A study of 5.3million people by the Veterans Health Administration, in Indianapolis, found glaucoma patients with a history of cocaine use were on average only 54-years-old. This compared to patients with no history of class A drug abuse who were around 73-years-old.

Suffering stress for long periods of time can shrink the brain and even cause dementia, researchers have claimed.

Chemicals released by the body during prolonged stress are toxic to brain tissue, they found.

Smokers were given yet another good reason to quit today – they are around three times more likely to suffer a stroke than those who eschew cigarettes.

And they can expect to do so a decade earlier than non-smokers, according to new research.

Scientists examined more than 950 stroke patients and found that around 700 of them were smokers, compared to just 250 non-smokers.

The average age of stroke patients was also analysed - among smokers it was just 58, compared to a much older average of 67 among non-smokers.

And the bad news for smokers doesn't end there - researchers found they run double the risk of strokes caused by a dislodged blood clot, and quadruple the risk of a stroke caused by a ruptured blood vessel.

It's your time to shine with these easy blackhead facial recipes. Cleanse your pores from dirt and dead skin cells using green along with skin-friendly ingredients. Pamper your complexion with a soothing skin spa session and make sure you embed these beneficial rituals into your weekly skin care.

As we get older, we get shorter. But what many people won't realise is that height is just one thing that shrinks with age: our hearts, facial bones and sex organs all shrink, too.

Such changes often go hand in hand with health problems.

Last week, a U.S. study found the more height you lose, the greater your risk of suffering a fractured hip — and one in three people who suffer a hip fracture die within a year.

Here, LOUISE ATKINSON investigates age-related shrinkages — and how you can protect your body.

For some people with troublesome, unexplained body odor, an uncommon genetic disorder once known as “fish-odor syndrome” may be to blame, according to a study.

The condition, known clinically as trimethylaminuria, is caused by emitting excessive amounts of the compound trimethylamine (TMA).

TMA is produced when people digest foods rich in a substance called choline — including saltwater fish, eggs, liver and certain legumes, such as soy and kidney beans.

With only about a third of cases receiving the therapy or medication needed, mental illnesses cause a huge economic and social burden -- measured in the hundreds of billions of euros -- as sufferers become too unwell to work and personal relationships break down.

If the question was misunderstood by the waiter in a Bucharest restaurant, the irony wasn't lost on the customer who cringed after asking, "Do you have a smoke-free area?"

"Don't worry, madam, you can smoke everywhere," he happily replied.

Welcome to Romania where, as in many Balkan peninsula states, bars, restaurants and clubs are filled with cigarette smoke -- a nightmare for nonsmokers.

But things are changing in a region known for its unreconstructed nicotine habit and some of Europe's highest smoking rates after Russia and the Ukraine.