Life, Health and Enjoyment

If mainstream media has made one thing clear, it’s that we the people crave the bizarre. And sometimes, the bizarre is beyond what anyone could have imagined. Such is the case with certain rare and crazy diseases — disorders that seem to defy reality. Unfortunately for the many sufferers out there, some d iseases, however crazy they may be, are very real — and equally as frightening. Here are just a few crazy diseases to whet your appetite for the bizarre:

Menthol cigarettes may be harder to quit, particularly for some teens and African-Americans, who have the highest menthol cigarette use, according to a study by a team of researchers. Recent studies have consistently found that racial/ethnic minority smokers of menthol cigarettes have a lower quit rate than comparable smokers of regular cigarettes, particularly among younger smokers. One possible reason suggested in the report is that the menthol effect is influenced by economic factors -- less affluent smokers are more affected by price increases, forcing them to consume fewer cigarettes per day.

1. Layer makeup A light-reflecting primer such as Laura Geller Spackle Tinted Under Make-Up Primer ($25; laurageller.com) camouflages fine lines. Follow with sheer liquid foundation. Bonus: Primer keeps makeup from settling into—and emphasizing—furrows.

After eight years Mara Candedario can finally see again. Doctors in Tampa were able to perform a complicated surgery on the legally blind woman to restore her sight. Watch the latest video at <a href="http://video.foxnews.com">video.foxnews.com</a>

Preventing cancer and your diet go hand-in-hand. Antioxidants, vitamins and polyphenols are paramount in staving off this devastating disease. Not only do they spice up your favorite dishes, but they have a chemical called capsaicin in them, which can help keep certain cancer-causing elements called nitrosamines at bay.             Rich in the antioxidant glutathione, which attacks free radicals in the body, avocados are an excellent source of potassium and beta-carotene. They’re good for your eyesight, but also good for nixing cancer. Beta-carotene can help reduce many cancers including lung, throat, stomach, intestine, prostate and breast cancers. Be aware that some research has suggested that taking beta-carotene supplements has actually been linked to higher rates of lung cancer in high-risk groups like smokers. Chock full of healthy ingredients like antioxidants, which can block cancerous changes in the body, flax seeds are also high in ...

Vinegar may keep people from accumulating too much belly fat—it can also defend you from jellyfish and slugs, and keep your hair from turning green. A new study out of Japan has found that rats given vinegar, whether made from rice, grapes, barley, or even bananas, were less prone to accumulate body fat. The jury’s still out on whether or not scientists will see similar effects in humans. In the meantime, pour some vinegar-based dressing on your salads and check out some other uses for this 10,000-year-old dietary staple. Aside from the standard uses in household cleaning—a mix of 1 part vinegar and 9 parts water will kill germs and clean just about any surface—here are eight other ways to use that bottle you’ve got stashed in your cabinet:  1. Deodorant replacement. Dabbing apple cider vinegar under your arms after you shower may inhibit odor-causing bacteria on your skin, according to the book Natural Healing with Cider Vinegar (Sterling Publishing, 1998). 2. ...

Artichokes At only 60 calories each, they're a calorie bargain. Artichokes are also super-high on the ORAC scale—7,900 points— and they contain phytochemicals that may lower cholesterol levels.

An affair won't screw up your marriage. "If you're tempted to have an affair, your marriage is already in trouble," says relationship expert Steven Stosny, Ph.D., the author of Love without Hurt. The good news: People don't become cheaters overnight. If you're in it till death do you part—that's what you told the minister, right?—watch for these five signs that your union may be unraveling. 30 Secrets every woman keeps from her man. 1. Busy Mornings Don't walk out the door without a see-you-later kiss. "Skin-on-skin contact releases oxytocin, which lowers stress and makes you feel connected," says Patricia Love, Ed.D., coauthor of How to Improve Your Marriage without Talking about It. "When a man is touch-deprived, this need becomes sexualized, making his wife think he just wants sex, and creating more tension." Live Happily Ever After: Set aside 1 minute a day. "It takes only a few seconds of skin-on-skin contact a few ti...

To test or not to test? Or more specifically, when to test? That's the crucial query. Last November, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) recommended that women swap their after-40 annual mammograms for biannual ones starting at 50, and quit breast self-exams altogether. It cited evidence that less frequent mammos could be equally effective at catching cancer. (Fewer tests would also save money, though the group insists it didn't consider cost.) Plus, the USPSTF argued, self-exams haven't been proven to reduce deaths but can lead instead to lots of unwarranted doctors' visits. Keep yourself healthy with these free downloadable guides exclusively from Women's Health. The screening revisions ignited a firestorm of controversy (after all,some 40,000 women die of breast cancer each year), thanks to conflicting data on mammogram efficacy. Current research hasn't yielded any hard conclusions, leaving patients confused and aggravated. "One disturb...

Any parent knows the television conundrum: Children's shows can be entertaining and educational, but the benefits can quickly drop off as kids spend more and more time staring at the screen. A new study expands on the effects of TV on children, revealing that kids who get too much screen time in front of the TV or computer seem to become more susceptible to psychological problems. Are you raising your child's risk for ADHD? The details: More than 1,000 children ages 10 to 11 years old took part in a study with University of Bristol researchers on the effects of screen time. The kids self-reported their TV and computer habits, answered questionnaires, and also wore accelerometers to help researchers measure the amount of time they spent being sedentary or physically active. Researchers found that psychological difficulties such as hyperactivity, difficulty paying attention, social problems, and conduct issues were highest in the children who had two or more hours of screen...

If you take aspirin, you've got a pain reliever, heart attack preventer and possible cancer preventer rolled into one tablet. You might think that whoever invented aspirin is a genius, but the truth is humans have been using its natural equivalent for thousands of years. "Aspirin is one of those things that, long before there were ever clinical trials or any kind of scientific knowledge, people figured out, 'Hey, I feel better when I take this substance,' " said Dr. Karol Watson, assistant professor of cardiology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles. The drug has been making headlines because a study in the Lancet recently found that a daily aspirin appeared to lower the risk of cancer by at least 20% during a 20-year period. That's based on data from more than 25,000 patients and builds on earlier findings that aspirin may lower the risk of colorectal cancer. The research has limitations and is not defin...

New research suggests that one out of every 200 patients being treated with gastric acid-suppressive drugs for heartburn and other conditions may develop pneumonia. Researchers led by Chun-Sick Eom, MD, MPH, from Seoul National University Hospital in South Korea, conducted a review of studies published between 1985 and 2009, looking at the use of gastric acid-suppressive drugs and the risk of developing pneumonia. Acid Suppressives Strongly Linked to Pneumonia The researchers found a significant association between the use of one class of gastric acid suppressive, called proton pump inhibitors, and pneumonia. Eom and his colleagues also found a dose-response relationship between proton pump inhibitors and risk of pneumonia, meaning the more acid suppressive a patient took, the higher the risk of developing pneumonia. Examples of proton pump inhibitors include Aciphex, Nexium, Prevacid, Prilosec, Protonix, and Zegerid. The researchers also found a strong association between the u...

Once the almost exclusive domain of bodybuilders, tanning beds can be found in almost every town in America and are frequently used by men and women of all ages. In fact, their use is on the rise among the younger population, where tans are equated with a healthy, athletic lifestyle. Unfortunately the nearly 30 million people who go to tanning salons are taking risks with their health. Those risks are numerous and can be life threatening; everything from infections and burns to skin cancer. The latest study, which appears in the June issue of the journal Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention, details the increased risk associated with melanoma. This new study is one of the largest to assess the skin cancer risk that tanning beds pose. It included 1,167 melanoma patients, as well as a control group consisting of age- and gender-matched people. Researchers found an increased risk among users of tanning beds, whether they were high-speed machines (which emit some UVB rays)...

It may feel pretty lonely out there when everyone you know is trying to shed pounds and you are trying to put some on. However, your goals are exactly the same as those trying to lose some weight: To eat a healthy diet, and reach a normal body weight. It’s just as much of a challenge for the overweight person to lose pounds, as it is for you to gain them. The good news is that it’s possible for all of you to sit at the same table, with the same menu, enjoy each other’s company, and reach your goals. You will be choosing a few things that they may be avoiding, but generally, eating healthy to gain weight involves eating the same variety of foods as your friends. Whether you are underweight because of a recent illness, an eating disorder, or simply because your sense of taste declined as you grew older, the way to increase your weight is to increase the calories in your diet. To do this in a healthy way, you will not want to just add more junk foods to your diet. Junk foods don’t o...

THE UK Government is to combat the early sexualization of children by blocking internet pornography unless parents request it, it was revealed today.  The move is intended to ensure that children are not exposed to sex as a routine by-product of the internet. It follows warnings about the hidden damage being done to children by sex sites. The biggest broadband providers, including BT, Virgin Media and TalkTalk, are being called to a meeting next month by Ed Vaizey, the communications minister, and will be asked to change how pornography gets into homes. Instead of using parental controls to stop access to pornography - so-called "opting out" - the tap will be turned off at source. Adults will then have to "opt in." The new initiative is in advance of the imminent convergence of the internet and television on one large screen in the living room. It follows the success of an operation by most British internet service providers (ISPs) to preven...

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Few devices know more personal details about people than the smartphones in their pockets: phone numbers, current location, often the owner's real name—even a unique ID number that can never be changed or turned off. These phones don't keep secrets. They are sharing this personal data widely and regularly, a Wall Street Journal investigation has found. An examination of 101 popular smartphone "apps"—games and other software applications for iPhone and Android phones—showed that 56 transmitted the phone's unique device ID to other companies without users' awareness or consent. Forty-seven apps transmitted the phone's location in some way. Five sent age, gender and other personal details to outsiders. The findings reveal the intrusive effort by online-tracking companies to gather personal data about people in order to flesh out detailed dossiers on them. Among the apps tested, the iPhone apps transmitted more data than the apps on phones usi...

Skygazers hoping to catch the last lunar eclipse of 2010 on Tuesday morning best be ready to stay up late (or wake up very early) to watch the full moon as it goes through a range of dramatic color changes. The December 21 lunar eclipse is expected to last about three-and-a-half hours from its start as a partial eclipse at 1:33 a.m. ET to its finish at 5:01 a.m. ET, according to NASA. The previous lunar eclipse occurred June 26 . During a lunar eclipse, the moon, the Earth, and the sun align so that the sun's rays are shielded from the moon. An eclipse of the moon can only take place if the moon is full, and only if the moon passes through some portion of Earth's shadow, which is composed of two cone-shaped parts, one nested inside the other. The start of the total eclipse is expected around 2:41 a.m, when the entire moon passes through the Earth's umbra, or inner shadow, which blocks all direct sunlight from reaching the moon. The moon will tak...

People who stay single, or become single again by divorce, may be somewhat more physically fit than those in wedded bliss, a new study suggests.  The research, which followed nearly 8,900 adults over several years, found that both men and women who got married during that time tended to experience a dip in cardiovascular fitness, as measured by treadmill tests. In contrast, men who got divorced during the study saw a modest increase in their fitness levels. The findings, reported in the American Journal of Epidemiology, do not prove that a change in marital status directly causes the change in fitness — for better or worse. Still, researchers say the results support the notion that once people are married and, presumably, off the dating market, they tend to let themselves go a bit. But if they remain single or get divorced, they have more incentive to get in shape. That's not to say that there's a huge fitness chasm between singles and married couples...

Men who are diagnosed with breast cancer are more likely than female patients to die in the next 15 years, researchers report. "This may be due to a difference in tumor characteristics and treatment," says study leader Hui Miao, a PhD candidate at the National University of Singapore. Male breast cancer is rare, accounting for less than 1% of all breast cancers in the U.S. Given its scarcity, few studies have assessed its prognosis "and we know of no recent studies looking at trends in survival," Miao tells WebMD. So Miao and colleagues studied 459,846 women and 2,664 men diagnosed with breast cancer in Denmark, Finland, Switzerland, Norway, Singapore, and Sweden between 1970 and 2007. Among the findings, presented at the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium: Men were diagnosed at an older age: 69 vs. 61 for women. Twice as many men had later stage III or IV disease: 18% vs. 9% of women. Only 25% of men were alive 15 years after diagnosis, compared with 44...