Free Republic

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - First lady Michelle Obama embraced her family’s African roots in a speech on Wednesday, telling a group of young Africans that the “blood of Africa” runs through her veins as she urged changing traditional beliefs on the worth of educating women. Her husband had shied away from discussing his African heritage in his own remarks to the 500 Africans finishing a six-week Washington leadership fellowship on Monday, referencing his Kenyan father only once and in the question-and-answer session. But Michelle Obama said as an African American woman, her discussion with the African youth was “deeply personal.” “The...

With many of us chained to a desk for hours a day before heading home to slump in front of the telly, we're spending much of our time on our bottoms. And it's having an impact on our health, a growing body of evidence suggests. Last month, for instance, it emerged that spending an extra hour sitting a day (for 13, rather than 12, hours) is linked to a 50 per cent greater risk of being disabled. And this was regardless of whether the participants - all over 60 - also did moderate exercise, according to the U.S. study published...

Elena Ravalli was a seemingly healthy 37-year-old when she began to experience strange attacks of vertigo, numbness, temporary vision loss and crushing fatigue. They were classic signs of multiple sclerosis, a potentially debilitating neurological disease. It was 1995 and her husband, Paolo Zamboni, a professor of medicine at the University of Ferrara in Italy, set out to help. He was determined to solve the mystery of MS – an illness that strikes people in the prime of their lives but whose causes are unknown and whose effective treatments are few. What he learned in his medical detective work, scouring dusty...

A group of doctors in Italy is investigating a fascinating new treatment for multiple sclerosis, based on a theory that, if proven true, could radically alter the lives of patients.... Patients seen in the documentary relate how, after the simple procedure, their MS symptoms suddenly stopped and, in some cases, they were able to resume normal lives....

Dressed up to the nines and wearing plenty of make-up, Madonna still manages to look pretty sensational for a woman rapidly approaching her half century. But bare-faced and in short sleeves, she reveals some of the gruelling health and beauty regime behind the glamour. Madonna, seen holding hands with her daughter Lourdes as they left a Kabbalah centre in New York, wore a T-shirt which exposed the veins standing out on arms subjected to endless workouts. -snip-