Soy not much help in health of hearts: "Veggie burgers and tofu might not be so great at warding off heart disease after all. An American Heart Association committee reviewed a decade of studies on soy's benefits and came up with results that are casting doubt on the health claim that soy-based foods and supplements significantly lower cholesterol. The findings could lead the Food and Drug Administration to re-evaluate rules that allow companies to tout a cholesterol-lowering benefit on the labels of soy-based food. The panel also found that neither soy nor the soy component isoflavone reduced symptoms of menopause, such as 'hot flashes,' and that isoflavones don't help prevent breast, uterine or prostate cancer. Results were mixed on whether soy prevented postmenopausal bone loss."


Sex makes you a more confident speaker: "People who are nervous about public speaking should first have penetrative sex to ease the stress, although masturbation is unlikely to have the same effect, according to an unusual study. Stuart Brody, a psychologist at Britain's University of Paisley, compared the impact of different sexual activities on blood pressure when a person later undergoes a stressful experience. Mr Brody asked 24 women and 22 men to keep a diary of their sexual activities for two weeks. The volunteers then underwent a stressful ordeal that involved making a speech in public and doing mental arithmetic out loud. The study, to be published in next Saturday's New Scientist, revealed volunteers who had had penetrative sex during the previous week or so had the least stress, and their blood pressure returned to normal fastest after their test. Penetrative sex was far more effective in this regard than masturbation or oral sex. Those who had abstained completely from any sexual activity had the highest stress levels and blood pressure of all".