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Liquorice and red wine diet for healthy bones – not so good for teeth

The health headlines on Wednesday 19 October 2011

Pregnant women were urged to get their annual flu jab yesterday as research showed they have five times greater risk of a stillbirth if they are admitted to hospital with swine flu, the Independent reports.

National Perinatal Epidemiology Unit researchers at the University of Oxford, recorded seven stillbirths and three deaths of babies shortly after birth among 256 mothers infected with swine flu between September 2009 and January 2010.

The Telegraph reports on a House of Lords committee's criticism of EU laws which allow European doctors to practice anywhere in the union regardless of their language skills

Patients face ‘unacceptable risks' because European doctors and nurses are allowed to work in the NHS with less training than staff from Boots the chemists, the peers found.

The same paper reports that Dr David Rosser, executive medical director at University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust, has calculated that as many as 16,000 lives a year could be saved in English hospitals if they tightened up their prescribing processes.

British medical researchers have condemned a Europe-wide ban on the patenting of stem cell inventions derived from human embryos – setting back possible new treatments for a range of disorders, from heart disease and diabetes to blindness and Parkinson's, the Independent reports.

The ruling by the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg, which is binding across all EU countries, means that existing patents involving the use of embryonic stem cells are no longer valid and that future patent applications will not be considered.

Research into the debatable benefits of various foodstuffs will be allowed to continue so we will continue to read stories like that in today's Telegraph that just one glass of wine a day can strengthen bones and reduce the risk of osteoporosis, according to scientists from the University of East Anglia and Kings College London. Daily digest has already had a glass of Lambrusco - way hey!

Another unlikely substance good for bone density is liquorice, the Mail says. A pill containing the sweet root also cuts the number of hot flushes menopausal women experience by up to 80%, as well as helping to keep bones strong, University of Southern California researchers say. Just proves you can get 'allsorts' in health news now-a-days *hangs head*