Free Republic

CHICAGO (AP) — Frequent sauna baths may help you live longer, a study of Finnish men suggests. It would be welcome news if proven true — in Finland where hot, dry saunas are commonplace, and for Americans shivering in a snowy Nordic-like winter. Previous research suggested that saunas might improve blood vessel function and exercise capacity, and lower blood pressure in patients with hypertension. The new study links long, hot sauna baths with even more benefits, including fewer deaths from heart attacks, strokes, various heart-related conditions and other causes.

OSLO (Reuters) - The baseline for "normal" weather used by everyone from farmers to governments to plan ahead needs to be updated more frequently to account for the big shifts caused by global warming, the U.N.'s World Meteorological Organization said on Wednesday. The WMO's Commission for Climatology believes rising temperatures and more heatwaves and heavy rains mean the existing baseline, based on the climate averages of 1961-90, is out of date as a guide, the WMO said in a statement. "For water resources, agriculture and energy, the old averages no longer reflect the current realities," Omar Baddour, head of the...

WASHINGTON, May 22, 2007 – Ten airlines are stepping up to the plate for families of injured servicemembers and encouraging their passengers to do the same. “The president of CNN challenged his staff to do something over Memorial Day weekend,” Jim Weiskopf, vice president of communications for the Fisher House Foundation, said. “They looked around at a couple options and they decided that they would like to do a drive to get us more ‘Hero Miles.’” The Fisher House Foundation is a member of America Supports You, a Defense Department program connecting citizens and corporations with military personnel and...

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Sexual activity does not cause prostate cancer, and men who ejaculate frequently may even be protecting themselves against the disease, U.S. researchers reported on Tuesday. The study, which involved more than 29,000 healthy men and covered sex of all kinds including masturbation and nocturnal emissions, confirms a smaller Australian study from last July that reached similar conclusions, the authors said. Most of the previous research into the question was on whether sexual frequency caused prostate cancer, on the theory that increased production of the male hormone testosterone could prompt prostate cell growth, the study's chief author, Michael...