Replacing red meat with plant protein reduces heart disease risk   By Chiara Townley Fact checked by Isabel Godfrey A meta-analysis of trials comparing the health effects of red meat consumption with those of other diets found that substituting healthful plant protein for red meat helps lower the risk of cardiovascular disease. Eating plant proteins, such as tofu, may benefit cardiovascular health. Many studies throughout the years have linked the consumption of red meat to cardiovascular disease and cancer, but the results have been inconsistent. A 2015 study comparing the effects of plant protein and animal protein on the risk of cardiovascular disease found that the evidence was inconclusive. Recent studies further investigated the link between red meat consumption and heart disease and found that red meat does not significantly increase the risk of cardiovascular disease when a person sticks to the recommended intake. Most of these studies focused on the potentia...

The Federal Government has activated emergency response centres for Lassa fever cases in the country following the official declaration of the disease as an outbreak. Director-General of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), Dr Chikwe Ihekweazu, announced this in a statement personally signed by him on Tuesday. He disclosed that there has been an increase in the number of Lassa fever cases reported from several states across the country since the beginning of the year. The NCDC boss added that recent epidemiological data shows that the trend usually occurs during the dry season – between January and April. “As at 13 January 2019, a total of 60 confirmed cases have been reported in eight states,” he revealed. “Given this increase in reported cases of Lassa fever, the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) has declared this an outbreak and activated an Emergency Operations Centre (EOC) to coordinate the response.” The national EOC, according to Dr Ihekweazu, ...

Reason people with dementia don't all behave the same by Medical Xpress People with dementia experience a range of psychological symptoms and behaviour changes. Credit: shutterstock.com Dementia is the is the leading cause of death among Australian women and the third most common cause of death among men. While dementia is not a normal part of ageing, the biggest risk factor for dementia is advancing age. Given ours is an ageing population, estimates suggest dementia cases are set to almost triple by 2050. Many people associate dementia with memory loss, so it may come as a surprise that dementia is a killer. So, what does it do to the body to make this happen? The brain is our control centre Everything we do is controlled by the brain. It generates the instructions that tell our body parts what to do, as well as facilitating our complex behaviours, such as personality and cognition (our ability to think, understand and do things). When a person has dementia, neuron...

How to tell if you have an STD by Business Insider Plenty of illnesses announce their arrival with annoying or even alarming symptoms. But sexually transmitted diseases (better known as STDs) often don't. "In general, we say that most STDs are mostly asymptomatic," Dr. Charlotte Gaydos, a professor in the division of infectious diseases Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, told INSIDER. That means you might have an STD for a long time — potentially spreading it to sexual partners and leaving yourself at risk for health complications — but have no idea you're infected. This lack of symptoms is particularly prominent for certain STDs. For example, most people with chlamydia have no symptoms, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). This is especially true for women: Up to 80% of women with the infection don't have them, Gaydos said. About half of women also don't show gonorrhea symptoms, Gaydos added (but men us...