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a useful blog and a great article showing googles commitment to improving health

The health battles of millions, recorded digitally, open a world of virtual research. The antidepressant Paxil was approved for sale in 1992, the cholesterol-lowering drug Pravachol in 1996. Company studies proved that each drug, on its own, works and is safe. But what about when they are taken together? By mining tens of thousands of electronic patient records, researchers at Stanford University quickly discovered an unexpected answer: people who take both drugs have higher blood glucose levels. The effect was even greater in diabetics, for whom excess blood sugar is a health danger. 

Uses 3d imaging and text to speech automation for visualising treatments for health conditions

"The brain appears to be wired more like the checkerboard streets of New York City than the curvy lanes of Columbia, Md., suggests a new brain imaging study. The most detailed images, to date, reveal a pervasive 3D grid structure with no diagonals, say scientists funded by the National Institutes of Health."

"Despite the best of intentions, many people may feel that there are simply too many hurdles to overcome before they find themselves exercising at a gym. You need a gym membership (often steep), you need appropriate clothing and shoes, you need to get yourself across town, you need to plan your workout for the day, and so on. What's important to remember is that (as far as your health is concerned) physical activity is good for you regardless of where it is done and how fashionable your LuLu Lemon gear might be."

Eat right and exercise is about as basic as medical advice gets. Follow it, and you'll benefit from better overall fitness, improved quality of life, and a reduced risk for chronic conditions, such as heart disease and diabetes. The American Cancer Society now says the evidence has piled up that diet and exercise can help cancer survivors manage, beat, and stay free of their disease, too. "There's just been an explosion of research in this area that gives us the confidence that these things matter," Colleen Doyle, director of nutrition and physical activity for ACS, tells Shots.

It turns out your brain is organized even if you're not. At least that's the conclusion of a study in Science that looked at the network of fibers that carry signals from one part of the brain to another. Researchers used cutting-edge imaging technology to look at places where these fibers intersect. And they found a remarkably organized three-dimensional grid, says Van Wedeen of Harvard Medical School, the study's lead author. The grid is a bit like Manhattan, Wedeen says, "with streets running in two dimensions and then the elevators in the buildings in the third dimension."

The last time your doctor asked how much you exercise, did you tell the truth? Do you even really know the truth-not just how many visits to the gym you've made this month, but how many hours you sit or how many calories you burn in a day? What if your doctor had already received the information from a tiny device built into your cell phone, wallet, or undershirt? Sonny Vu believes a device like this could fundamentally change health care. "You can't just lie to your doctor-it's all there, recorded," he says. "You cut right to the chase rather than having to tease out all that information."

Sleep, or lack of it, can determine level of cognitive performance which is linked with accidents as well as increased risk of serious health problems. Links between cell energy levels, gene transcription and sleep rhythms may uncover answers to sleep disorders and the ill-effects of sleep deprivation.

The goal of NCHA research is to identify biological factors that determine good health at old age. NCHA integrates scientific disciplines, technological innovations and biomedical research in the largest collection of world-renowned human cohort studies. Rooted in the EU, NCHA has become a global player by large collaborative efforts with excellent scientific output. Activities in NCHA involve genetic en genomic discoveries all the way down to human intervention studies.

Keeping you mind really is about use it or lose it.  Langer had already shown that memory loss-a problem often blamed on aging-could be reversed by giving elderly people more reasons to remember facts; when success was rewarded with small gifts, or when researchers made efforts to create personal relationships with their subjects, elderly memory performance improved. she and Yale colleague Judith Rodin found that simply giving nursing-home residents plants to take care of, as well as control over certain decisions-where they would meet guests, what activities to do-not only improved their subjects' psychological and physical health, but also their longevity: a year and a half later, fewer of those residents had died. What she found, however, surprised even her own team of researchers.

Our bodies need about two litres of fluids per day, not two litres of water specifically. In an Editorial in the June issue of Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health, Spero Tsindos from La Trobe University, examined why we consume so much water.

" Brain cells talk to each other in a variety of tones. Sometimes they speak loudly but other times struggle to be heard. For many years scientists have asked why and how brain cells change tones so frequently. Today National Institutes of Health researchers showed that brief bursts of chemical energy coming from rapidly moving power plants, called mitochondria, may tune brain cell communication."

The first online 3-D interactive search tool of the human body was released today.  It allows a user to view and navigate the human anatomy, male or female, down to the finest detail-from the muscles and deep muscles to the nerves, arteries, vessels, and bones. This new tool, called BodyMaps, was developed by Healthline Networks, a company that provides medical information to consumers online, and GE Healthyimagination, a Web-based platform that shares and promotes projects that focus on consumer health, such as apps or healthy how-to videos.

A gadget to monitor your lifestyle. currently (june '11) In private beta. sounds really good. Uses extra sensors for biofeedback. Waiting until they run on android using open hardware and the hardware api.

An online virtual world focused on fitness and health

"Harvest is an app that uses augmented reality to display custom information for people with allergies and special diets. This concept and prototype design aims to help millions with dietary restrictions due to health, ethical, or religious reasons."

-The World Bank opened its vast storehouse of data to the public a year ago. Since then, people have come in droves--at the rate of about 100,000 a week--for thousands of free, curated and searchable datasets on education, poverty, health, water access and numerous other indicators.

Your body is beautiful and complex. So is mine. Sometimes our bodies donʼt work so well. Sometimes we donʼt know what to do about it. Imagine if your body and my body are malfunctioning in the same way. Now, what if we found a thousand other people in the same boat... Could we help each other feel better? Could sharing our health data with each other help us figure out which treatments to try? If we got enough people together, could we even do our own medical research studies?