IT'S no secret that flying is a headache for most, but according to researchers the "aeroplane headache" is the real deal.

The unusual, specific head pain that flares up during landing is more than just a figure of speech, Italian researchers have discovered, and argue it should now be considered a new sub-type of headache, Reuters reported.

"Aeroplane headache" was first reported in medical literature back in 2004, with dozens more cases documented in the following years.

"The 'headache attributed to aeroplane travel', also named 'aeroplane headache', is a recently described headache disorder that appears exclusively in relation to aeroplane flights, in particular during the landing phase," lead researcher Federico Mainardi, of Giovanni e Paolo Hospital in Venice, wrote.

In a recent article in the Cephalalgia journal, Mainardi's team reports on another 75 people with symptoms suggestive of aeroplane headache.

Those individuals contacted doctors after reading a case report by Mainardi published in 2007.

Overall, they fit the features of past cases of aeroplane headache - severe pain on one side of the head that's usually limited to the time the plane was landing.

The headache was almost always short lived, less than 30 minutes for 96 per cent of the people. Only a minority consistently had headaches during landings, and for most it happened on some flights but not on others.

While it's not clear what might trigger the headaches, one theory is that the pain may be related to pressure changes in the sinus cavities, based on the idea that passengers with colds or sinus infections can get severe headaches during take-off or landing.

"Is (aeroplane headache) a unique disorder? I think it is. But others might disagree," R. Allan Purdy, a neurologist and professor at Dalhousie Medical School in Halifax, Canada, who wrote an editorial on the report, said.

"Nobody knows what causes it. Nobody knows how many people have it. Nobody knows what treatments work," he said, but noted that classifying it as a distinct disorder would allow it to be studied more directly.

The good news is that aeroplane headache seems harmless.

"It doesn't appear to be a serious or life-threatening disorder," Purdy said.

Multiple CT scans in childhood can triple the risk of developing brain cancer or leukaemia, a study suggests.

The Newcastle University-led team examined the NHS medical records of almost 180,000 young patients.

But writing in The Lancet the authors emphasised that the benefits of the scans usually outweighed the risks.

They said the study underlined the fact the scans should only be used when necessary and that ways of cutting their radiation should be pursued.

During a CT (computerised tomography) scan, an X-ray tube rotates around the patient's body to produce detailed images of internal organs and other parts of the body.

In the first long-term study of its kind, the researchers looked at the records of patients aged under 21 who had CT scans at a range of British hospitals between 1985 and 2002.

Because radiation-related cancer takes time to develop, they examined data on cancer cases and mortality up until 2009.

Brain cancer and leukaemia are rare diseases.
'Significant increases'

The study estimated that the increased risk translated into one extra case of leukaemia and one extra brain tumour among 10,000 CT head scans of children aged under ten.

Dr Mark Pearce, an epidemiologist from Newcastle University who led the study, said: "We found significant increases in the risk of leukaemia and brain tumours, following CT in childhood and young adulthood.

"The immediate benefits of CT outweigh the risks in many settings.

"Doses have come down dramatically over time - but we need to do more to reduce them. This should be a priority for the clinical community and manufacturers."

CT scans are useful for children because anaesthesia and sedation are not required.

This type of check is often ordered after serious accidents, to look for internal injuries, and for finding out more about possible lung disease.

Regulations on their use in the UK mean CT scans should only be done when clinically justified - and the researchers said their study underlined that point.

Professor Sir Alan Craft, a co-author and leading expert in child health, said: "The important thing is that parents can be reassured that if a doctor in the UK suggests a child should have a CT scan, the radiation and cancer risks will have been taken into account.

"There's a much greater risk of not doing a CT scan when it's suggested.

"This study will push us to be even more circumspect about using it. We have much stricter rules here about using CT than in the United States, for example."

Dr Hilary Cass, the president of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, said: "We have to take very seriously the link between repeated CT scans and increased risk of these cancers amongst children and young people.

"But with both tumours rare, the absolute risk remains low."

A Department of Health spokesman said: "The UK uses lower levels of radiation in CT scans than other countries.

"We also have clear regulations to ensure a CT scan is only carried out when clinically justified."

Scientists claim to have unlocked the secrets of the zebra fish's remarkable ability to heal its spinal cord after injury, in a study which they say could lead to new effective therapies for paralysis patients.

Researchers at the Monash University in Australia found a protein, called fibroblast growth factor (fgf), plays a major role in the fish's amazing self-healing ability.

The findings, published in The Journal of Neuroscience, could eventually lead to new ways to stimulate spinal cord regeneration in humans, the researchers said.
Professor Peter Currie, who led the research, said when the spinal cord is severed in humans and other mammals, the immune system kicks in, activating specialised cells called glia to prevent bleeding into it.

"Glia are the workmen of nervous system. The glia proliferate, forming bigger cells that span the wound site in order to prevent bleeding into it. They come in and try to sort out problems. A glial scar forms," Prof Currie said in a statement.

However, the scar prevents axons, threadlike structures of nerve cells that carry impulses to the brain, of neighbouring nerve cells from penetrating the wound. The result is paralysis.

"The axons upstream and downstream of the lesion sites are never able to penetrate the glial scar to reform. This is a major barrier in mammalian spinal cord regeneration," Prof Currie said.

In contrast, the zebra fish glia form a bridge that spans the injury site but allow the penetration of axons into it.

The fish can fully regenerate its spinal cord within two months of injury. "You can't tell there's been any wound at all," Prof Currie said.

The scientists found that fgf controlled the shape of the glia, and accounted for the difference in the response to spinal cord injury between humans and zebra fish.

The study shows the protein could be manipulated in the zebra fish to speed up tissue repair even more, they said.

"The hope is that fgf could eventually be used to promote better results in spinal cord repair in people," Prof Currie added.

Around 19 children have died and 16 others were undergoing treatment in hospitals due to outbreak of a mysterious fever in Bihar's Gaya and Muzaffarpur districts in the past fortnight, official sources said on Monday.

Eight children have died in the ANMCH hospital in Gaya and six others were hospitalised, ANMCH Superintendent Dr Sitaram Prasad said.

In Muzaffurpur district, 10 children have died due to mysterious fever and eight others were undergoing treatment at Kejriwal Hospital since the past fortnight, its director B B Giri said. One child died in the SKMCH in Muzaffarpur, while two others were admitted with symptoms of the fever at the hospital, the sources said.

The two districts had witnessed outbreak of the mysterious fever last year too in which over 100 children had died.

Women who choose plain water over sweet fizzy drinks or fruit juice, have a lower risk of developing diabetes.

Replacing sweet drinks with water could help stave off the metabolic disorder, according to researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health.

But adding water to the sugary beverages a person consumes throughout the day won't make a difference, they said.

The results are based on the drinking habits of 83,000 women followed for more than a decade.

Lead researcher Dr Frank Hu said it is well established that sugary beverages are bad for diabetes risk.

People have recommended drinking plain water instead of sugar-sweetened beverages, he said, 'and the question is whether this kind of substitution has any impact on diabetes'.

Dr Hu and his team collected data from the massive Nurses Health Study, which tracked the health and lifestyle of tens of thousands of women across the U.S.

The study included 82,902 women who answered questions about their diet and health over a 12-year span.

Over time, about 2,700 of them developed diabetes.

The amount of water women drank did not seem to influence their diabetes risk - those who drank more than six cups a day had the same risk as women who drank less than one cup a day.

However, sugar-sweetened drinks and fruit juice were tied to a higher risk of diabetes - about 10 per cent higher for each cup consumed each day.

The research team estimated that if women replaced one cup of fizzy drink or fruit juice with one cup of plain water, their diabetes risk would fall by 7 or 8 per cent.

While it is not a huge reduction in the risk, 'because diabetes is so prevalent in our society, even 7 or 8 per cent reduction in diabetes risk is quite substantial in terms of the population,' Dr Hu said.

About 10 per cent of women, or 12.6million, have diabetes in the U.S.

A 7 per cent reduction would mean that instead of ten out of every 100 women having diabetes, the number would be closer to nine out of every 100.

Dr Hu's study, published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, also found that unsweetened coffee or tea might be a good alternative to sugary beverages.

The researchers estimated that replacing one cup of a carbonated drink or fruit juice with one cup of coffee or tea could reduce the risk of developing diabetes by 12 to 17 per cent.

Dr Hu said the study is important in pointing out that fruit juice is not an optimal substitute for soda or other sugar-sweetened drinks.

He said: 'The reality is those juices contain the same amount of calories and sugar as soft drinks.'

The bottom line, he said, is that plain water is one of the best calorie-free choices for drinks, and 'if the water is too plain, you can add a squeeze of lemon or lime'.

Dr Barry Popkin, a professor at the University of North Carolina School of Public Health who was not involved in the study, said: 'It is essentially not that water helps, except with hydration, but that the others hurt.'