Researchers at the Group Health Research Institute found that massage treatments as well as simple relaxation were as effective in reducing anxiety as psychotherapy, medication or both.

The study, which is published in the journal Depression and Anxiety, followed 68 individuals with generalized anxiety disorder for more than three months. Each participant received 10 one-hour sessions of massage, relaxation therapy or thermotherapy. They all also received information on practicing deep breathing daily at home. All three treatments were conducted in a softly lighted room with relaxing music playing and were presided over by licensed massage therapists.

All three of the groups reported that their symptoms of anxiety had decreased by about 40 percent by the end of the 12-week treatments and by about 50 percent three months later. In addition to the decline in anxiety, the patients also reported fewer symptoms of depression and less worry and disability.

"Treatment in a relaxing room is much less expensive than the other treatments (massage or thermotherapy), so it might be the most cost-effective option for people with generalized anxiety disorder who want to try a relaxation-oriented complementary medicine therapy," said the study’s lead author, Dr. Karen Sherman.

According to HealthDay, the survey of more than 1,000 adults across the country found that people sleep almost two hours less than they did 40 years ago.

More than three-quarters of respondents said they know that a lack of sleep can cause health problems.

"Sleep duration is a very important variable in health, especially cardiovascular health," the study’s Dr. Jose Loredo said. "There is a strong association of sleeping less and hypertension, sleeping less and heart attacks, sleeping less and obesity."

Among the other findings, 24 percent said they have missed work or social engagements because they were too tired and as many as 26 percent of married people or couples who live together said that they were too tired to have frequent sex.

The National Sleep Foundation says natural ways to help individuals sleep better include going to sleep and waking up at the same time, adapting a relaxing bedtime ritual or routine, avoiding television too close to bedtime, exercising regularly as well as reducing caffeine, nicotine and alcohol.

Nutritional supplements containing calcium, magnesium, vitamin B, chromium and melatonin may also be beneficial for sleep.

In the experiment, laboratory mice consumed low-fat diets that were identical except that they contained either soluble or insoluble fiber. After six weeks on the diet, the animals had distinctly different responses when the scientists induced illness by introducing a substance (lipopolysaccharide) that causes the body to mimic a bacterial infection.

"Two hours after lipopolysaccharide injection, the mice fed soluble fiber were only half as sick as the other group, and they recovered 50 percent sooner. And the differences between the groups continued to be pronounced all the way out to 24 hours," said researcher Christina Sherry.

The recommended daily dietary recommendation is 28 to 35 grams of total fiber.

Dietary sources of soluble fiber include oat bran, barley, nuts, seeds, lentils, citrus fruits, apples, strawberries and carrots. Nutritional supplements such as psyllium, methylcellulose and polycarbophil all provide soluble fiber as well.

Researchers say insoluble fiber, found in whole wheat and whole-grain products, wheat bran, and green, leafy vegetables, is valuable for providing bulk and helping food move through the digestive system, but it doesn’t provide the boost to the immune system that soluble fiber provides.

Researchers studied the effects of a process known as deliquescence, in which humidity causes a water-soluble solid to dissolve, on several different vitamins and health supplements.

If you get some moisture present or ingredients dissolve, they’ll decrease the quality and shelf life of the product and decrease the nutrient delivery," said the study’s lead author, Lisa Mauer. "You can get complete loss of the ingredients. It depends on the conditions. It depends on the formulations. Within a very short time – in a week – you can get complete loss of vitamin C in some products that have deliquesced."

Storing products in dry conditions, below their deliquescence relative humidities, can avoid unwanted ingredient loss, according to researchers.

Liquid or condensation in vitamin containers as well as brown spotting may be signs of nutrient degradation. Researchers suggest discarding any dietary supplement that is showing signs of moisture uptake or browning.

The study included overweight men and women with measured characteristics of MetS.

All were given a diet and aerobic exercise plan that included supervised exercise five days a week, for four to six months. After losing weight, participants underwent programmed weight regain and were separated into two groups, one that exercised and one that didn’t.

Researchers found that the non-exercise group experienced rapid deterioration in weight loss-induced benefits to metabolic health. The exercise group, on the other hand, maintained improvements in almost all measures, including LDL and HDL cholesterol, oxygen consumption, blood pressure and glucose.

"It’s clear that the message to lose weight isn’t working because so many people regain weight. A new message is to keep exercising and maintain your weight to reduce disease risk and improve overall health," said the study’s lead author, Tom Thomas. "Don’t worry so much about losing weight, but focus on exercising and maintaining your current weight."

Researchers in Montreal say practicing Zen meditation can reinforce a central brain region (anterior cingulate) that regulates pain.

They studied 17 meditators and 18 non-meditators who had never practiced yoga, experienced chronic pain, neurological or psychological illness. The research team measured participants’ thermal pain sensitivity by applying a heated plate to their calves. Subjects then had their brains scanned using structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). According to the MRI results, central brain regions that regulate emotion and pain were significantly thicker in meditators compared to non-meditators.

"We found a relationship between cortical thickness and pain sensitivity," said the study’s lead author, Joshua Grant. "The often painful posture associated with Zen meditation may lead to thicker cortex and lower pain sensitivity."

He added that meditative practices may be helpful in general for pain management, for preventing normal age-related grey matter reductions in the brain or potentially for any condition where the brain’s structure is compromised, such as stroke.

Researchers at the University of California at Berkeley conducted a sleep study of 39 healthy young adults. Half of the participants were allowed to nap and half were kept awake throughout the day.

They found that early in the afternoon, both groups performed at comparable levels on a rigorous learning task. However, individuals who took a 90-minute rest in the middle of the day performed better on a new round of learning exercises later in the day while those who did not nap actually became worse at learning.

Researchers say the findings reinforce their hypothesis that sleep is needed to clear the brain’s short-term memory storage and make room for new information.

"It’s as though the email inbox in your hippocampus is full and, until you sleep and clear out those fact emails, you’re not going to receive any more mail. It’s just going to bounce until you sleep and move it into another folder," said the study’s lead author, Matthew Walker.

Researchers analyzed the results from 12 previous studies on healthy children under the age of 5 who took zinc supplements in low- or middle-income countries.

They found the results to show a slight decrease in risk of ear infections when kids were given zinc supplements.

"These studies should be viewed with caution. While there is some evidence that zinc supplementation is beneficial, further research using rigorous randomized trial designs would be worthwhile," said lead researcher Katherine Abba.

Zinc, found in many foods, is an important infection fighter, but individuals must consume it regularly for it to be effective. In developing countries where poor diets and diarrhea are common, over 60 percent of kids under 5 have zinc deficiency.

Some doctors say that ear infections are caused by poor Eustachian tube function in the ear, not by vitamin deficiencies.

"I doubt that any quantity of zinc would change Eustachian tube function in a clinically meaningful way. The positive effect in severely malnourished children likely relates to an impact on immune system function, not the Eustachian tube," said Long Island College Hospital’s Dr. Richard Rosenfeld.

According to Reuters, researchers in South Korea reviewed data from 27 previous studies that involved nearly 3,000 women.

"There is convincing evidence on the effectiveness of using acupuncture to treat pain as it stimulates the production of endorphins and serotonin in the central nervous system," the study’s authors wrote in a statement. "Compared with pharmacological treatment or herbal medicine, acupuncture was associated with a significant reduction in pain."

Menstrual cramps are believed to affect as many as half of young women. In addition to pain, they can be accompanied by bloating, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, dizziness and headache.

Common treatments include exercise, painkillers and applying heat to the lower abdomen. Natural remedies include taking nutritional supplements containing omega-3 fatty acids, magnesium, calcium as well as vitamins B1 and E.

Acupuncture is an ancient Chinese technique that uses small needles placed at specific points on the body to help the flow of energy. It is recognized by the World Health Organization as an effective treatment for many conditions including migraines, depression, lower back pain and rheumatoid arthritis.

A study on the effect of wine in limiting the effects of fatty deposits in the liver found that one of its components, resveratrol, limited the number of potentially dangerous cells in animal models, even when the diet was high in carbohydrates.

Lead author Elizabeth Hijona says that while dietary choices may also help in protecting the liver, the equivalent of two glasses of wine may be beneficial in providing natural antioxidants that could limit serious liver problems.

Men can also benefit from two or so glasses of wine a day, according to Seattle researchers.

They found that for those between the ages of 40 and 64, moderate consumption cut the risk for developing prostate cancer by as much as 52 percent compared to those who didn’t imbibe, and for every glass added the risk was reduced by about 6 percent.