HEALTH NOTES: How a new brain zapping machine could help ex-smokers stay away from tobacco

Discharging the brain with a gentle electrical current can help ex-smokers stay on tobacco for months after quitting.

One in five people who quit smoking eventually relapse and start smoking again.

But a study conducted at the University Hospital in Dijon, France, found that ex-smokers who regularly receive external brain stimulation using a wearable device that sends a gentle current to their temples through electrodes are twice as likely to be non-smokers. months after quitting versus quitters.

The technique is thought to work by activating brain cells that reduce nicotine cravings.

The machines, known as cranial electrotherapy stimulation devices, are available online for around £150.

Just fly bugs on airplanes

Sitting directly in front of someone coughing on an airplane increases the likelihood that someone else on the plane will get the disease.

Researchers from the University of Hong Kong tested the spread of droplets from coughing on airplanes. The results, published in the journal Travel Medicine And Infectious Disease, showed that the highest concentration was directly above the front seat.

The study also found that if the person in front turns on the ventilation, the chance of infection is immediately reduced.

Sitting directly in front of someone coughing on an airplane is more likely to catch the illness of someone else on the plane

According to a survey of 2000 adults, one in five Britons with symptoms of bowel cancer are too afraid to seek medical attention.

Commissioned by the Bowel Research UK charity, the survey was designed to measure the disease-related success of the 2021 public NHS campaign.

Bowel cancer affects 42,000 Britons each year and is the second most common cause of cancer death in the UK. However, most of the respondents were able to recognize signs of the disease, including blood in the stool, abdominal pain, loss of appetite and weight loss.

“If detected early, colon cancer is completely curable and can be much easier to treat,” said Lynn Dunne of Bowel Research UK.

Laughing is not only good for your mental health, it can also help you lose weight.

Researchers from Fukushima Medical University in Japan divided 230 men and women into two groups. They held regular sessions with a comedian who told jokes, and gave breathing exercises and yoga classes. The rest was just about their daily life.

According to the results, published in the journal BMC Geriatrics, the laughter group had lost weight after three months, felt less stressed and mentally stronger than the others.