FRIDAY, October 3, (News Locale) - Office workers may be able to gauge their risk of developing fatal illness by checking up on the frequency of their sick leave. A study by University College London researchers has said people who avail frequent sick leave for psychiatric reasons are highly prone to die from cancer.

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Chennai, Oct.2 (ANI): A novel facial procedure known as crystal massage, believed to nullify negative energies in the body, has gained popularity in Chennai with several women and even men preferring it.

One can find various beauty conscious girls and boys making a beeline to Anushka Saloon and Spa, the pioneer of this crystal-based body and beauty care concept.

According to Shibani of Anushka, the origin of this lotus crystal massage can be traced to the Far East, the Bali region in particular.She says the rock crystals are used as a medium to draw out negative energies from the body and rejuvenate the psycho-physical system of an individual.

Shibani, who is a qualified beauty expert, explained that the beauty pack consists of pure natural ingredients like rice, Vetiver (aromatic spongy grass roots known as Khaskhas in Hindi and Ushira in Sanskrit) and turmeric.

It is left on the body part for 20 minutes after which the most important elements grace the skin. These gleaming transparent conically shaped crystals, which get energised either by the early morning sunrays or in the moonlit night, are dealt with much care.

She said that massaging them on body parts like chest, face, neck and hips in a particular pattern detoxifies the lymphatic nodes in one's system.

"In the entire concept, you have the Chakras as in Ayurveda which balance the entire body. It is a total body treatment. You can use it not only for the face but also for the entire body where the crystals are used to bring about a balance and also to eliminate unwanted toxins. We use these crystals as the medium of massage for any kind of mental imbalance, say for people who are very agitated and want to be calm or for people who want to be energised," said Shibani of , beauty expert Anushka Saloon and Spa.

The properties in crystals streamline the energies in the body as well as tone and relax the muscles.

On this score, Shibani referred the crystals to be holistic in nature. A crystal facial may take about 45 minutes in which light aroma oils and Aloe Vera gels are used alongside cold and hot water to create vibrations.

Massaging is clockwise as well as anti-clockwise. Those who have availed this crystal massage admit that it has been a wonderful experience.

"I have undergone aroma therapy, spa and chocolate massage but this crystal massage done on face, shoulders and hand is very soothing and makes me feel happy," said Priya, a client.

The lotus crystal massage costs around rupees 3,000. By Jaikumar (ANI)

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London, Oct 3 (ANI): Studies that suggested sodas such as Coke and Pepsi kill sperms and exotic lap dancers make more money when they are at peak fertility have been awarded the 2008 Ig Nobel prize.

In 1980s, when researcher Deborah Anderson of Harvard Medical School's birth- control laboratory discovered that "Coca Cola douches" were being used as a type of contraception at the all-girl Catholic boarding school she had attended in Puerto Rico, she decided to test it.

For the study, Anderson, medical student Sharee Umpierre and gynaecologist, Joe Hill mixed four different types of Coke with sperm in test tubes.

A minute later, they found that all sperm were dead in the Diet Coke, however, 41pct were still swimming in the just-introduced New Coke.

"Coca-Cola douches had become a part of contraceptive folklore during the 1950s and 1960s, when other birth-control methods were hard to come by," New Scientist quoted Anderson, as saying.

"It was believed that the carbonic acid in Coke killed sperm, and the method came with its own 'shake and shoot applicator'" - the classic Coke bottle," she added.

Another study, led by University of New Mexico psychologists proposing that lap dancers earn more money when they are at peak fertility also won the award.

During the research, psychologists Geoffrey Miller, Joshua Tybur and Brent Jordan asked women working as lap dancers to report their nightly tips, and whether they were on hormonal contraceptives or menstruating naturally.

The two groups of women received similar tips when they were in non-fertile parts of their cycle, but when the naturally menstruating women reached their fertile days, the researchers found, they earned significantly more.

A Brazilian study led by Astolfo Araujo of the University of Sao Paulo and Jose Marcelino of Sao Paolo's Department of Historical Heritage on armadillos, the burrowing animals, which showed that the pesky creatures can move the artifacts in archaeological dig sites up, down and even laterally by several meters as they dig also won the prestigious alternative prize.

Another experiment with huge implications for health policy won the Ig Nobel medicine prize for Dan Ariely of Duke University in North Carolina.

He gave two groups of volunteers identical placebos masquerading as painkillers, telling one group the pills cost 2.50 dollars each and the other that the pills had been discounted to 10 cents each.

The volunteers didn't pay for the pills, but those who took the "more costly" fake medicine felt less pain from electric shocks than those who took the cheap fakes

This showed that price affects people's expectations and thus their response to medicine, Ariely says - the more expensive the pill, the more relief they expect.

These awards, presented at Harvard University, are organised by the humorous scientific journal the Annals of Improbable Research for research achievements "that make people laugh - then think". (ANI)

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Washington, Oct 3 (ANI): Scientists and clinicians at Children's National Medical Center in collaboration with University of Iowa researchers have developed a new anti-tumour vaccine for neuroblastoma and melanoma.

While conducting a study on mice, researchers found that the vaccine uses the tumour's own protein to induce an immune system response, allowing for a personalized approach to treatment.

Developed in the laboratory of Children's National Chief of General and Thoracic Surgery Anthony Sandler, MD, the vaccine and delivery system involves the creation of synthetic microparticles known as "immune stimulatory antigen loaded particles" (ISAPs), that consist of tumour antigens (proteins) from the specific tumour to be targeted, as well as immune stimulatory agents.

The ISAPs are detected and engulfed by specialized immune cells and sensed to be immune-stimulating "foreign bodies."

The study shows that ISAPs are effective at blocking the growth of tumours in mice by inducing activation of immune cells that then stimulate the immune system to specifically target the tumour whose antigens match those that are loaded in the particles - known as tumour specific immunity.

However, the researchers also found that the impact of ISAPs on tumour growth was partially mitigated by an increased presence of regulatory t-cells (T-reg) when ISAPs are introduced into the body.

The researchers believe that T-regs play a key role in how the vaccine impacts tumour growth by suppressing the development of the specific immune cells needed to combat the tumour.

By adding a T-reg suppressor such as cyclosphosphamide or anti-CD25 antibody, the scientists were able to have a greater impact on preventing tumour growth using the ISAP approach.

"For tumours like neuroblastoma, reduction to minimal residual disease with standard therapies like chemotherapy and/or surgical resection and subsequent treatment with this vaccine could quite possibly cure the patient of the disease in the not too distant future," said Sandler, lead author of the study.

"Creation of ISAPs allows us to target our treatments to the specific tumour of interest, a capability that will more effectively combat a wide range of these tumours in a personalized fashion," he added.

The study is published in the October edition of the research journal Cancer Immunology, Immunotherapy. (ANI)

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