Medicine & TechnologyWant to give something sweet this Christmas as an added treat? Well, you may want to reconsider. While cookies and cakes may be safe, one Autumn treat may carry along with it a bad tiding, and a serious infection as well. Though caramel apples are often an Autumn/Winter treat, health officials with the US Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) are saying that they may be the link between a multi-state Listeria outbreak that has to date led to more than four deaths, and dozens of hospitalizations. Spanning the states of Texas, Arizona and Minnesota, the CDC confirms that the bacterial infections came after ingestion of pre-packaged caramel apples, and now the patients are facing life-threatening complications.
However, a recent study found that regular dosage of aspirin could actually do more harm than good, especially amongst middle-aged women. The study investigated 30,000 women over the age of 45 years old, and participants were randomly assigned to take either 100 mg of aspirin or placebos every other day, to determine whether it lowered their risk of heart disease, stroke, and cancer. The result showed that those taking aspirin were at a significantly higher risk of suffering from stomach bleeding, while the protective effect of aspirin was found to be marginal.