The cool cabinet is fast becoming one of the most popular places to purchase food, as consumers consider such ready-to-eat salads, ready-to-use vegetables, freshly squeezed fruit juices or light snacks to be more natural, healthier and more carefully prepared than fully processed foods. Also, the percentage of people eating outside the home, particularly at lunchtime, has increased by 7 per cent (from 32 per cent in 1994 to 39 per cent in 1998). At breakfast, the percentage of those eating out increased from 13 per cent to 20 per cent. And the share of those who do not eat anything at all in the morning rose from five to eight per cent. (Reuters)
Parkinson's disease, a chronic neurological illness associated with a deficiency of the brain chemical messenger, dopamine, affects about 6,000 people in Ireland. Treatment involves a combination of drugs including 1-dopa which imitates the function of the naturally-occurring dopamine. Irish patients recently prescribed Comtess, a new drug containing entacapone, have found improvement in control of movement including speech. Commenting at the European Federation of Neurological Societies meeting in Portugal recently, Dr Raymond Murphy, consultant neurologist at Tallaght Hospital, said: "Since Comtess was launched on the Irish market, my experience in prescribing it has been that it is well-tolerated, side-effects are minimal and usually resolved by reducing the dose of levodopa."
Midwives would greatly prefer to give birth naturally, according to a survey at Manchester's Hope and Wythenshawe hospitals. Ninety-six per cent of female midwives said they would opt for a vaginal delivery if they were pregnant for the first time with a single child and there were no complications with the pregnancy. This result sets them at odds with their female obstetrician colleagues, one third of whom would choose to have a Caesarean section. Reporting their finding in the British Medical Journal, the researchers said the fact that obstetricians dealt mainly with complicated deliveries might colour their preferences. Midwives were involved with both traumatic and uncomplicated births. Midwives were also aware of the difficulties women had nursing new-born children following a Caesarean.
First-time mothers rely on the accepted wisdom of their mothers, sisters and other relatives when it comes to feeding young babies, according to the National Dairy Council. Pointing out that 31 per cent of babies under two months are fed solid foods, the NDC repeats the expert recommendation that babies should not be fed anything other than milk (breast or formula), baby juices and water before the age of four months. The NDC has just launched Dairy Den, a very helpful guide to nutrition for infants from six months and another for one to five-year-olds. NDC nutritionists will answer queries on children's diet on 016619599.
