Be happy for better health, more money

Mental well-being - happiness, in other words - leads to better health and more success at the workplace, according to researchers at the Max Planck Institute of Economics in Jena, Germany, who examined data from a 15-year British survey.

Respondents in the survey regularly reported their mental well-being, marital status, health, job success and income as well as levels of stress, depression or anxiety.

The Max Planck researchers, who analyzed the various factors' impact on each other using a regression model, found increases in well-being to be associated with subsequent improvements in health, job success and income.

They also found that increases in income tended to be followed by decreases in mental well-being. This, they said, suggested "adaptation dynamics" - in other words, how individuals adapt to changes in their life circumstances.

Dogs can sniff out cancers, says study

Tests conducted by researchers at the university of Kyushu in southern Japan indicate dogs can detect early stage colorectal cancer.

The findings show that cancer cells that circulate around the body emit odors that are detectable by dogs. The researchers say this could lead to the development of tests that can detect intestinal cancer at a very early stage before it has a chance to spread.

Previous evidence suggests dogs are capable of identifying breast and lung cancer too. The researchers' findings have been published in the online edition of the British journal Gut.

In the study, a specially trained Labrador spent several months conducting 74 sniff tests. Each test was made up by five breath or stool samples, only one of which was known to contain cancer cells.

The samples came from 48 persons diagnosed with intestinal cancer as well as 258 volunteers who were cancer-free or who had had cancer in the past.

The dog was able to identify the cancer samples with a success rate of over 95 percent. The highest score rate was for samples from people with early-stage cancer, according to the findings. Samples from smokers or individuals with other intestinal illnesses did not pose a problem for the dog.

More HK teens turn to plastic surgery

School and college leavers in Hong Kong are turning to plastic surgery to improve their chances in an increasingly competitive job market, says a news report.

Graduates are spending thousands of dollars on eyelid surgery, rhinoplasty - or nose jobs - and other appearance-enhancing operations.

One specialist says the number of young people seeking plastic surgery has jumped 20 percent in recent years and patients as young as 14 were having operations paid for by parents.

"Some young people go for the treatment before looking for jobs," plastic surgeon Dr Daniel Lee Tin-chak was quoted as saying, adding that men as well as women were having surgery.

"They will grab the school holidays to do it, or have one right after graduation before going for job interviews."

Bone drug may prevent cancer

Women taking certain bone drugs after menopause appear less likely to develop colon cancer, Israeli and American researchers say.

The finding has them excited about the prospect of using the drugs - called bisphosphonates - to help prevent cancer in healthy people, but other experts are less enthusiastic.

"The lower risk of colorectal cancer risk seen among bisphosphonate users in this study is intriguing," says Eric Jacobs of the American Cancer Society, who wasn't involved in the study.

"However, these results should be interpreted with caution and require confirmation by additional studies."

Earlier studies have found that women taking bisphosphonates have a lower risk of breast cancer. But it was unclear if that effect could be chalked up to the drugs, because the condition they are meant to treat - bone thinning, or osteoporosis - is tied to low estrogen levels, which also cuts breast cancer risk.

Colon cancer, on the other hand, has not been linked to estrogen, says Dr Gad Rennert of the Carmel Medical Center in Haifa, whose findings are published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.

His team found that women who had been taking bisphosphonates for at least a year had a considerably lower risk of developing colon cancer later on.

AP-DPA