Flower power
It's the Irish Cancer Society's 16th annual Daffodil Day on Friday, when the organisation raises funds for cancer-nurse education, home care, day and night nurses, psychological support nurses and a cancer helpline. The society hopes to collect even more than last year, when it gathered €2.7 million. You can support Daffodil Day by buying a flower, real or plastic, from a street collector, donating daffodils or having a coffee morning. You could even sign up to sell daffodils in your area or at work. You can get further information from the Daffodil Day office, at 1850-606060. Calls are charged at the local rate.
Arms race
One of the common effects of having a stroke is paralysis. Now a virtual-reality system linked to the Internet is helping stroke patients to overcome partial loss of arm and hand control. Designed by scientists at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, it is geared towards stroke patients who need to do repetitive exercises to regain some arm mobility. Wearing lightweight goggles, patients wrap motion-sensor cuffs around their upper and lower arms and on the backs of their hands. They can then move a virtual arm on the screen when they move their arms. Patients also copy the movements - which are chosen by a doctor - of a turning arm on the screen.
Ulcer freedom fighters
Anybody suffering from a duodenal ulcer should considered Helicobacter pylori eradication therapy, or HPET. The treatment eliminates the Helicobacter pylori bacterium, which is the primary cause of duodenal ulcer. According to a recent report in the Irish Medical Journal, however, only a small proportion of patients on long-term anti-ulcer medication receive HPET. The Irish College of
General Practitioners is advising GPs to consider HPET as an option for their patients. Successful treatment with
HPET would also considerably reduce the use of anti-ulcer drugs.
More tea?
It's obvious enough that if you drink a lot of tea you'll be going to the toilet all day. But it turns out that women tea drinkers put themselves at a slight extra risk of urinary incontinence compared with women who don't drink tea. Smoking more than 20 cigarettes a day puts women at even greater risk of becoming incontinent. Quitters are out of luck, too, as having kicked a packet-a-day habit doesn't
reduce the chances of developing the condition. The Norwegian researchers who conducted the study also found that
urinary incontinence increased with age and weight - and that the more low-intensity physical activity women did, the less likely they were to suffer incontinence.
Green cuisine
Juicing, blending and kitchen gardening are the healthy-lifestyle buzzwords in New York. US author Steve Meyerowitz - aka the Sproutman - will explain how he turned his New York apartment into an indoor garden in a series of lectures on "the agriculture of tomorrow", in Belfast, Galway, Cork and Dublin from April 7th to 11th. You can find out more by visiting www.naturopathy-uk.com or calling 00-44- 1342-410505.
In good spirits
Today is your last chance to get along to the annual Mind Body Spirit Festival. The fair, which started at the RDS in Dublin on Saturday, focuses on complementary and alternative therapies. It includes lectures, workshops, performances and demonstrations of everything from t'ai chi to vegetarian cooking. It's open from 11 a.m. until 7 p.m. and admission is €7.
• Lifelines is compiled by Dr Muiris Houston and Sylvia Thompson
• lifelines@irish-times.ie