ANXIETY AWARENESS:Anxiety in everyday life is a new free information leaflet which helps people understand better the emotional and physical symptoms of anxiety disorders.
Published as part of a public awareness campaign on such conditions as post traumatic stress disorder, panic attacks and obsessive compulsive disorder, it encourages people with ongoing symptoms to contact their GP or a member of the Irish Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy for help. Tel: 01-2300061 for copies of the leaflet or for more information.
YOGA BREAKS:Yoga enthusiasts have a choice of yoga holidays from which to choose. A yoga holiday on the Inishowen peninsula in Co Donegal, August 19th-24th (€600), offers extended yoga and meditation sessions. Tel: 01-6244354 or see www.yogatherapyireland.com for details.
Meanwhile, the East Clare Yoga Centre has places on a residential iyengar weekend, May 4th-7th, (€390). See www.eastclareyoga.com and www.bksiyengar.com for more details or tel: 061-640923.
LEGAL CLAIMS:Up to 10 per cent of Ireland's healthcare budget is being spent on legal claims, according to a medical and legal expert.
Mr John Scurr, consultant vascular surgeon and founder of Medico-Legal Chambers Ireland, says that raised patients' expectations and rising levels of MRSA in hospitals have contributed to the number of medical negligence cases arising in our courts.
Research shows that when patients are better informed, they are less likely to complain and pursue a medical negligence claim.
EXCESSIVE SALT RISKS:Up to 1,000 people are dying from excessive salt intake in Northern Ireland every year, a charity has said.
Northern Ireland Chest Heart and Stroke (NICHS) is blaming over-indulgence for a quarter of stroke and a fifth of heart deaths.
The intervention followed a British Medical Journal study underpinning the link between salt and high blood pressure.
NICHS chief executive Andrew Dougal said: "Food manufacturers must make a commitment to their customers that they will consistently, over a period of time, slash the salt in products."
He added that heart disease was the largest killer in the North with 4,000 deaths each year.