Health News Mini-Roundup

■ Looks like Galinda was right: it's good to be popular. But she may have been wrong, as well; some folks may just be born that way:

"Researchers at Harvard and the University of California, San Diego report that popularity seems to have an inherited component."

Here at IB, we've looked at the Alzheimer's gene, the breast cancer gene, even the Down Syndrome gene. But one that could predispose someone to be more popular? Who knew?

Researchers from Harvard and the University of California (San Diego) studied over a thousand teen-aged twins, and found that identical twins seemed to share the same social position than fraternal ones, which the researchers believe suggests a genetic component to social status (aka popularity).

■ Prince Charming may be wearing a wedding ring:

"(A) 34-year-old from the U.K. suffered a heart attack nearly two weeks after giving birth to her son and failed to regain consciousness.

Her husband, Andrew, spent two weeks by her bedside waiting for her to wake up from a coma – but her condition did not improve until he leaned over and asked her for a kiss..."

The comatose woman turned her head toward her husband, pursing her lips and kissing him.

This apparently happened two years ago; she's had a rough time, including some short term memory loss, additional brain surgery, and therapy. But she's coming along well, and seems to be on the road to recovery.

■ MVNHS©: Where's the Beef?

In yet another whimsical, and yet silly, move, Britain's health service has decided to limit its patients' carbon footprint (feetprint? footprints?). First up, taking a page from Domino's, the Service recommends that Brits call it in rather that dropping by:

"Patients should phone their GP rather than drive in for a visit...Ministers want family doctors to hold more 'phone-in' surgeries to help the environment by cutting carbon emissions from cars."

[ed: Don't be alarmed; "surgeries" in this case means doc visits, not procedures]

Actually, that may not be such a bad idea: there's certainly a justification for using the phone or email for simple, non-emergency consultations.

It's not exactly clear how this will help reduce so-called Global Warming:

"They also want hospitals to achieve their green targets by reducing the amount of meat they serve to patients in wards."

After all, it's well-established that bovine emissions increase greenhouse gases; wouldn't it make more sense to encourage eating beef?

This observation certainly rings true:

"(T)he NHS is responsible for a quarter of all the carbon dioxide emissions produced by the public sector."

That's a lot of gas.