Quick & Healthy: A 1,000-Year-Old Medical Marvel

“Quick & Healthy” offers some highlights from the world of health and wellness which you may have missed this week:

• It’s another win for java-junkies: The World Cancer Research Fund found in a recent study that each cup of coffee consumed is correlated with a 14 percent decreased risk for liver cancer.
• Eating well can halve your risk for Alzheimer’s Disease. That’s the conclusion of a new study that tracked participants’ adherence to one of three diets; those who stuck with healthy eating regimens were less likely to develop Alzheimer’s later in life.
• An apple a day does not diminish one’s need to seek medical attention, according to a report in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine. That matter settled, researchers are currently refocusing their efforts on understanding whether or not a pot of water being surveilled can, in fact, be brought to boil.
• A concoction of garlic, wine, and bile, taken from a 10th-century apothecary’s textbook, was found to be effective at stopping an antibiotic-resistant pathogen. These so-called “superbugs” are expected to be one of the major health hazards of the next century; the potion, derived centuries before the development of germ theory, shows promise for combating them.

Photo: Paul Morriss via Flickr