Lifelines

A British surgeon has developed a procedure which will allow doctors to carry out organ transplants without the use of harmful, immune-suppressing drugs. Currently, such drugs are required to prevent rejection of the new organ, but they take a heavy toll on the patient's body.

Prof Roy Calne at the Addenbrookes Hospital, Cambridge has already successfully carried out his procedure on 30 patients and claims the new technique could be used within a year. The procedure involves destroying the body's immune cells before the transplant by the injection of a new drug. Then, as the body recovers, the new organ is accepted. This may happen because the newly formed immune cells are fooled into thinking the new organ was there all along. (BBC Health News)

Skiers and snowboarders who use helmets lower their risk of head injury, according to a study in Denver, Colorado.

Most skiing and snowboarding injuries are caused by hitting a tree and this type of accident has the highest death rate and the highest rate of causing severe brain injury, according to Dr Stewart Levy, a neurosurgeon in private practice in Denver who carried out the survey. Issuing free helmets to those renting ski or snowboarding equipment is deemed to be the best approach to reduce such injuries. (Reuters health)

Prostate cancer, in men, kills almost five times as many people as cervical cancer, in women. High blood pressure affects one in five men and almost half of Irish men die from heart-disease or related conditions such as stroke. These are a few of the introductory remarks in Joe Armstrong's new book, Men's Health - the Commonsense Approach (Newleaf).

Originally based on Armstrong's Man Alive men's health column in The Irish Times, the book has been revised and updated. It includes sections on Men's Hearts, Men from the Inside Out (i.e. anger, fear, loss, depression), Sex and Relationships. Easy to read and thorough in its approach, it should become every Irish man's health handbook to refer to now - not on the way to a hospital in an ambulance.

Forty-five per cent of people believe people with bad breath are less likely to be promoted at work, according to a report from the British Dental Association. One in five said bad breath was the most unattractive feature a person can have. Only scruffy clothes and body odour received more votes.

The best way to beat bad breath is, of course, good oral hygiene. (BBC Healthnews)