A review by public health chiefs also calls for charges for cities across the UK to cut air pollution.

It seems like every day a new diet pops up trying to convince us that its special formula is the ultimate weight loss and detox champion.

These juice cleanses and metabolism boosters all promise to flush out and completely cleanse the liver, guaranteeing quick results with minimum effort.

However, these false promises have caught the eye of the scientific community and they’re calling out the dishonesty. 

We expose some of the common liver cleanse myths out there.

1. Regularly flushing out your liver is necessary

The liver is one of the main organs in our body responsible for flushing out toxins. This detoxifying organ comes into contact with all kinds of harmful substances on a regular basis. The myth states that due to this constant exposure to toxins, the liver becomes diseased and thus unable to efficiently perform its functions. One therefore needs to undertake regular liver detoxes to flush out these damaging toxins.

Science has found that detox diets and cleanses are in fact all a hoax. Complementary medicine professor Edzard Ernst, speaking to The Guardian, states that detox is a “word being hijacked by entrepreneurs, quacks and charlatans to sell a bogus treatment that allegedly detoxifies your body of toxins you’re supposed to have accumulated.” He adds, “The healthy body has kidneys, a liver, skin, even lungs that are detoxifying as we speak. There is no known way – certainly not through detox treatments – to make something that works perfectly well in a healthy body work better.”

2. A liver detox is the best way to lose weight

The myth stands that if you flush and cleanse your system after a bout of bad eating and drinking, this will lead to significant weight loss. These detox diets usually last between two weeks to a month.

Numerous studies have, however, found that the weight-loss claims of these diets are false. Scientists assert that the “weight loss” one sees is in fact water loss. This weight returns as quickly as it was lost as soon as you return to your normal eating patterns. Also, restricting certain foods from your diet for an extended period of time may actually cause more damage than anything else.

3. Juice cleanses are harmless

These diets tend to be high in fructose and sugar due to the raw fruits and vegetables found in juice cleanses. Consuming only these juices for more than a short period of time can drastically increase your blood sugar level.

Juice cleanses are also low in fibre and protein. Protein is vital for the body’s immune system as well as assisting with the building and regeneration of muscle. In an interview with Live Science, sport nutritionist Liz Applegate mentions that the lack of protein in these diets can be detrimental for your health. “Don’t be surprised that someone may well get sick because these plans are ghastly low in protein.”

4. Detox diets can repair liver damage

There are various products and natural remedies that are known to reduce the symptoms of liver damage. Milk thistle, with its anti-inflammatory properties, is often used to treat liver inflammation. Turmeric is also a great protector against liver damage.

However, research has found that detox diets have no effect on liver damage. In fact, restricting certain foods, like those high in protein, from your diet can have a negative impact on the liver’s enzymes and detoxing process.

5. Detox diets can speed up your metabolism

Many people go on detox diets in an attempt to speed up their metabolism. Being on a detox for a prolonged period of time may actually have the opposite effect. Drastically reducing your kilojoule intake tricks your body into thinking that you’re starving. Your metabolism therefore slows down in order to preserve energy.

Speaking to NBC News, professor of human nutrition, Marc Hellerstein, states, “Your body thinks you’re starving and panics. The metabolism slows way down to preserve your muscle and basic bodily functions.”

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Lauren Mitchell

A lot of people struggle to maintain their ideal weight, but repeatedly losing and regaining pounds – known as yo-yo dieting – probably won’t do your heart any favours.

A new study found that women who lost at least 10 pounds, but then put that weight back on within a year, were more likely to have risk factors for heart disease. The more times someone went on a yo-yo diet, the worse their heart health.

Slightly overweight

Yo-yo dieting also wasn’t helping women keep their weight in a healthy range. The study found that yo-yo dieters were 82% less likely to be at an optimal weight.

“Weight cycling is extremely common – the range was zero to 20 cycles – and a history of one or more episodes of weight cycling was associated with a poorer health score,” said study author Brooke Aggarwal. She’s an assistant professor of medical sciences at Columbia University Medical Center in New York City.

The study included almost 500 women in the New York City area. Their average age was 37. Nearly two-thirds were from racial or ethnic minorities.

The average body mass index (BMI) of women in the study was 26 – slightly overweight. BMI is a rough estimate of a person’s body fat based on height and weight measurements. A normal BMI is between 18.5 and 24.9, according to the US National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. Overweight is between 25 and 29.9, and over 30 is considered obese.

Almost three-quarters of the women reported yo-yo dieting at least once.

Yo-yo roller coaster

The researchers checked the women’s heart health using the American Heart Association’s “Life Simple 7” recommendations. These seven factors are thought to be a measure of how well people control their heart disease risk factors. The seven measures include eating healthily, exercising regularly, losing weight, quitting smoking, and managing blood pressure, cholesterol and blood sugar levels.

Women who had ever yo-yo dieted were 51% less likely to have a moderate total score on Life’s Simple 7. They were 65% less likely to have a score that rated optimal, the study found.

The more a woman had dieted and quickly regained the weight, the worse her Life’s Simple 7 score. Women who had never been pregnant seemed to be more impacted by the effects of yo-yo dieting.

“These women were likely younger, and the younger you start yo-yo dieting, the worse it may be for you. If you get on that yo-yo roller coaster early, your cardiovascular risk is increased,” Aggarwal said.

So how might yo-yo dieting be bad for your heart health?

Aggarwal said this study didn’t prove a cause-and-effect relationship. But she noted that when you lose weight, you tend to lose lean muscle, and when you regain it, it’s often fat. And, she said, it’s often fat that settles in the abdomen, which is linked to a higher risk of heart disease.

Keeping the body alive

Samantha Heller is a nutritionist with NYU Langone Health in New York City. She was not involved with the study, but commented on the findings.

“Our bodies don’t understand why we do or don’t have food. Our bodies just know when they get enough nutrients to survive,” she said. “If you’ve been on a restricted diet, and then you start eating again, your body may start saving what it can because it doesn’t know when food will come back. Your body is just trying to keep you alive, and over time, the body gets more efficient at this.”

Heller said your body will drive you to get food if it thinks you need it. “Doesn’t food taste much better when you’re really hungry? That’s the body driving you to eat and keep it alive.”

What that means, Heller said, is it’s best to “try to adopt a dietary pattern that we can keep forever”. She suggested a mostly plant-based diet, such as the Mediterranean diet.

Aggarwal said she recommends “making small changes that are sustainable. Small changes don’t cause a rebound effect.”

Aggarwal is to present the findings at an American Heart Association meeting, in Houston. Findings presented at meetings are typically viewed as preliminary until they’ve been published in a peer-reviewed journal.

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The human brain is the most complex part of our biological make-up. And the brain transplant has long been held as a final frontier in medical science. So, what if this incredibly complicated procedure was an everyday norm? 

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One mother says she considered a home birth for her son, but was “scared” by the idea.

A new study suggests acupuncture may be useful in reducing hot flushes and night sweats.

They’re often called “vampire” treatments, in which people undergo infusions of a young donor’s blood plasma to treat everything from aging to Alzheimer’s and multiple sclerosis.

But these expensive “fountain of youth” therapies are unproven and potentially unsafe, the US Food and Drug Administration warned recently.

Plasma carries risks

“Simply put, we’re concerned that some patients are being preyed upon by unscrupulous actors touting treatments of plasma from young donors as cures and remedies,” FDA Commissioner Dr Scott Gottlieb said in an agency news release. “Such treatments have no proven clinical benefits for the uses for which these clinics are advertising them and are potentially harmful.”

According to the FDA, the use of plasma infusion therapies is on the rise across the United States, often costing thousands of dollars per treatment. The service is being offered by businesses in many states to allegedly treat conditions ranging from normal ageing and memory loss to serious disorders such as dementia, Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer’s disease, heart disease and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Plasma – the liquid portion of blood – contains proteins that help clot blood and can be used to treat bleeding and clotting problems. Plasma can benefit patients with severe injuries and those whose blood can’t clot due to medications or certain illnesses.

But even under such approved uses, plasma carries risks that include allergic reactions, transfusion-associated circulatory overload, transfusion-related acute lung injury and infectious disease transmission, the FDA said.

“We have significant public health concerns about the promotion and use of plasma for these purposes,” Gottlieb said. “There is no proven clinical benefit of infusion of plasma from young donors to cure, mitigate, treat, or prevent these conditions, and there are risks associated with the use of any plasma product.

‘Buyer beware’

“Treatments using plasma from young donors have not gone through the rigorous testing that the FDA normally requires in order to confirm the therapeutic benefit of a product and to ensure its safety,” he explained. “As a result, the reported uses of these products should not be assumed to be safe or effective.”

In one example, HuffPost conducted its own investigation into Ambrosia, a startup company offering young plasma services it claims can ease a wide range of ailments.

Jesse Karmazin, Ambrosia’s 34-year-old founder, said he was charging customers in multiple states $12,000 (±R171 000) for treatments during which they received 2 litres of young plasma.

According to HuffPost, Karmazin said he didn’t feel FDA approval of his own study of the merits of young plasma therapy was necessary – and the results of the study have never been released.

Nevertheless, Karmazin told the UK newspaper The Times, “I’m not really in the camp of saying this will provide immortality, but I think it comes pretty close.”

But the FDA believes that as with many experimental procedures, it’s “buyer beware” when it comes to plasma infusions.

The agency’s advice: Anyone considering using plasma for these unapproved uses should talk with their doctor first.

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You know you’ve had an amazing sex dream when you wake up feeling ridiculously happy. If only you could make it happen every night, right?! In a perfect world, you would. But in the real world (sigh), you pretty much get the dream you get, including the one where you’re naked in your school cafeteria.

While you might never be able to fully control your dreams, it’s absolutely possible to train yourself to have more sex dreams, says Dr W. Christopher Winter, a board-certified sleep medicine researcher, neurologist of Charlottesville Neurology and Sleep Medicine, and author of The Sleep Solution.

Experts don’t know exactly what causes sex dreams, but it’s generally thought that dreams have something to do with what’s on your mind, either consciously or subconsciously. Sex dreams, then, could be a reflection of what you’ve been thinking about during the day or even repressed desires, says Dr Winter.

There are obvious perks to having sex dreams, like getting laid without needing to lift a finger (kinda), but sex dreams can also help you relax, lower your stress levels, and give you a sense of calm when you wake up, says Dr Jess O’Reilly, a sexologist and author of The New Sex Bible. They can also help give you greater insight into your sexual desires and inspire fantasies to act out with your partner later, she explains.

With all those potential benefits, it’s clear why you’d want to have as many sex dreams as humanly possible (as if you needed to be convinced). These tips might actually make it happen more often.

1. Think sexy thoughts

Because your dreams are usually some kind of reflection of your thoughts when you’re awake (whether you’re aware of them or not), thinking about sex during the day can translate into your dreams at night. “If you can constantly remind yourself of the topic, you’ll be better off,” says Dr Winter.

Read more: 4 common sex dreams – and exactly what they mean

2. Visualise your perfect dream

Think about your perfect sex dream and actually picture that fantasy playing out. “The more you can make it seem real, the more likely you are to have that dream at night,” says Dr Winter.

3. Act it out IRL

Dreams tend to reflect what’s going on in your life, so it doesn’t hurt to try to play out your fantasy (as best you can) while you’re awake, says Dr Winter. While you can do this all in your mind, it can also be helpful to set the stage – mood lighting, candles, sexy music, vibrator – and go to town. The hope is that your body will pick up on the physical cues you give it and render them again at night.

4. Slip into sexy lingerie

Besides acting your dream out IRL, you can trigger your brain into having sexy night-time thoughts by sleeping in silky lingerie – or nothing at all. “It’s important that when you go to bed, you have some kind of a routine for setting yourself up for the dream,” says Dr Winter.

Read more: Your dreams about cheating are no reason to panic

5. Set up the dream as you’re lying in bed

Play out the dream, step by step, as you’re lying in bed, says Dr Winter. Think about meeting someone at a hotel bar: what you’re wearing, what they’re wearing, and what you’re discussing. Then, segue into the naughty part, focusing on the details. At some point, you should drift off into (superhot) dreamland.

6. Practice, practice, practice

It’s unlikely that you’re automatically going to have the sex dream you want the first time you try (although if it does, awesome!). “You’ll want to rehearse the same thing every night,” says Dr Winter. Don’t be discouraged if it takes time.

7. Keep a journal by your bedside

As soon as you wake up, write down what you dreamt about. “Even people who say they don’t dream will write something down from the night before,” says Dr Winter. Your brain dumps information over time – even within minutes after you wake up from a dream – to make room for more important stuff, so you’ll want to act fast.

This is an important step in having more detailed dreams. If you journaled that you walked into a hotel bar, saw someone interesting, and then woke up, that can help you build on the narrative for next time.

Brb, gotta go catch some Zzzz…

^{This article was originally published on www.womenshealthmag.com} 

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Korin Miller

Ah, the keto diet. On the plus side, it’s helped tons of people lose weight. On the not-so plus side, it comes with a whole slew of pretty gnarly side effects like the keto flu, keto breath, and keto diarrhoea.

Now, people are talking about another not-so-pleasant side effect of the keto diet: keto crotch. Yep, some people online (shout-out to r/keto!) noticed that their vaginas started to emit an intense odour after going on the low-carb diet.

Is keto crotch a real thing?

To make one thing super-clear first, there’s no research confirming that keto crotch is, in fact, a thing. But that doesn’t mean people aren’t still experiencing some less-than-pleasant odours down there on the keto diet.

Keto crotch sounds similar to the keto breath phenomenon. When your body is in ketosis (a.k.a. breaking down fat for fuel instead of carbs), it produces ketones (chemicals like acetoacetate, beta-hydroxybutyrate, and acetone – yes, that last one is the same ingredient in nail polish remover). These are chemicals that are naturally produced by your body, but, because your body produces more of them on the keto diet, the excess can make your poop, pee, and breath a little more smelly (again, like nail polish remover).

But, tbh, that’s probably not what’s happening here, says Dr Jessica Shepherd, a minimally invasive gynaecologist in Dallas and founder of Her Viewpoint. Instead, it’s more likely that going on the keto diet changes your vaginal pH – and that changes your vaginal odour, she says. “Any diet can change your vaginal pH,” she says, which can then change the odour a bit.

Read more: Can the keto diet screw with your period?

What should I do about it?

If you notice you have a weird odour going on down there right after you go keto, you may want to give it a few days to see if it goes away, says Dr Shepherd. (Also, definitely, don’t douche. Douching can open you up to a whole host of other issues and increase your risk of infection.)

But if the smell persists or you start to notice other symptoms like itchiness, burning, and abnormal discharge, it’s time to see your doctor. You could have an infection that’s unrelated to your diet.

^{This article was originally published on www.womenshealthmag.com}

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Korin Miller

Romance novelist Barbara Cartland sent her alternative medicine, newly released files reveal.