Calcium pills ‘raise’ heart risk

Pregnant women take folic acid to prevent neural tube defects
Scientists have begun a study to determine if an everyday vitamin supplement could help prevent one of Britain’s most common birth defects.
Every year about 100 children in the UK are born with spina bifida and other neural tube defects.
Prospective mothers are advised [...]

Morning sickness is a common problem in pregnancy
More needs to be done to establish which are safe and effective ways to relieve morning sickness, experts say.
There is reluctance to use pharmaceutical products in pregnancy due to Thalidomide, the 1960s anti-nausea drug which led to birth defects.
But there is little evidence to suggest that [...]

Rheumatoid arthritis can be extremely debilitating
Taking statins may reduce the risk of rheumatoid arthritis, a study suggests.
Israeli researchers looked at 1.8m patients and found fewer incidents of the joint condition among those who took the cholesterol-busting drugs.
It was thought statins could ease symptoms in those already diagnosed by stopping the over-production of tissue [...]

Surgery should be a last resort, says the government
Millions of pounds is lost in England by the failure of the NHS to provide more obesity operations, a study says.
About 1m people meet the criteria for bariatric surgery, but last year there were just 3,600 operations carried out.
The Office of Health Economics suggests £1.3bn [...]

SPACE.com Image of the Day

A U.S. interceptor rocket launches to destroy a failing satellite.