Feast or famine: The diet that won't just help you lose weight, you'll live longer and be brainier!

As all dieters will know, there is nothing more tedious than counting calories or weighing foods for a meal plan. Especially if you then don't lose weight.

But there's now an effective weight-loss regimen that is not only simple, it promises significant health benefits - from easing asthma symptoms and reducing blood sugar levels, to fending off heart disease and breast cancer and protecting brain cells. Apparently, you'll also live longer.

The diet goes under various names - The Alternate-Day Diet, Intermittent Fasting or The Longevity Diet - but the principle is the same: eat very little one day (50 per cent of your normal intake) and as much as you like the next.

This appears to trigger a 'skinny' gene that encourages the body to burn fat.

The Alternate-Day diet triggers a skinny gene that encourages the body to burn fat

Researchers first discovered the benefits of low-calorie eating in the Thirties. They found that putting a rat - or a worm, or a fruit fly or just about any animal, as it turned out - on a permanent very low calorie diet helped the animal live about 30 per cent longer than normal.

The animal had clearer arteries, lower levels of inflammation, better blood sugar control and its brain cells were less likely to get damaged. Meanwhile, rates of diseases linked to ageing all dropped.

But while scientists have known for years that animals on a low-calorie diet were healthier, no human - except a few iron-willed fanatics - could permanently stick to this regime.

The big breakthrough came in 2003 when Dr Mark Mattson, an American neuroscientist, discovered rats still enjoyed all those health benefits even when their calories were cut only on alternate days.

In other words, you don't have to starve yourself all the time.

This was a crucial discovery, because the diet suddenly became a realistic option. In particular, it is far more palatable for the obese. The standard diet for them involves a daily intake of between 20 per cent and 40 per cent of what they would normally have.

'These are very hard diets to follow,' says Krista Varady, assistant professor of kinesiology and nutrition at the University of Illinois, Chicago.

You are constantly hungry. The eat-every-other-day-diet seems to offer an easier and more effective option.'

She's just published the results of a ten-week trial of 16 patients, all weighing more than 14st.

They ate 20 per cent of their normal intake one day and a regular, healthy diet the next. Each lost between 10lb and 30lb; much more than the 5lb or 6lb expected.

'It takes about two weeks to adjust to the diet and, after that, people don't feel hungry on the fast days,' says Varady.

Weight watching: Dieters should only consume around 500 calories on fasting days

Dr James Johnson, author of The Alternate-Day Diet, and a lecturer in plastic surgery, has now been doing the diet for five years.

'I've always been a bit overweight. When I first started, I lost 35lb in 11 weeks.

'Now I use the diet to keep my weight stable. If it starts going up, I'll just go back on it for a few weeks. The evidence says this is about the most healthy thing you can do for yourself.'

One specific health benefit is relieving the symptoms of asthma - and that's not just because the patients have lost weight.

A small study of ten obese asthmatics found that after eight weeks they'd lost eight per cent of their body weight; their symptoms of the disease had also greatly improved.

The study, conducted by Dr Johnson with scientists from the National Institute on Ageing ( including Dr Mattson) and Stamford University, showed patients had less inflammation in their lungs, making it easier for them to breathe.

They also had lower levels of damaging free radicals - the substances we produce simply by eating and breathing - which have been linked with heart disease and cancer.

'The level of inflammation was down by 70 per cent and the level of free radicals by 90 per cent,' says Dr Johnson. 'No other dietary approach to asthma has recorded anything like that benefit.'

About two weeks after coming off the diet the patients' symptoms began to return.

Meanwhile, British researchers are now looking at the benefits of the diet in preventing breast cancer in highrisk patients.

'We've found a very low 800 calories-a- day diet dramatically lowers the enzymes that metabolise fat and glucose in breast tissue,' says Dr Michelle Harvie, of the Genesis Breast Cancer Prevention Centre in Manchester. 'These enzymes are always raised in breast cancer patients.'

When Dr Matteson made his discovery, it wasn't clear exactly why very low calorie diets had such an effect on health and lifespan.

But in the past couple of years it's emerged that a specific gene - SIRT1 - might explain the diet's success; it seems the sudden, sharp stress of a big drop in food intake triggers this 'skinny' gene. 'This then blocks another gene involved in storing fat,' explains Dr Johnson.

'The body starts using up more of the fat stores. As a result you lose more weight than you would from just eating fewer calories.'

The SIRT1 gene also seems to be responsible for all the benefits of semi-starvation found in animals - the drop in inflammation, lower blood sugar levels - as Dr Mattson and others reported this year in the journal Brain Research Reviews.

Perhaps not surprisingly, drug companies are working hard to develop medicines that imitate some of the diet's effects by targeting the SIRT1 gene.

The weight-loss benefit could also be due to the way the diet tricks your body's metabolism.

The problem with most diets is that after 48-to-72 hours this slows to compensate for the drop in food.

When you stop the diet and eat normally, the weight goes back on faster, as you're eating more than your body thinks it needs to function.

The alternate day diet seems to get round that because it allows normal eating as well.

'We've run trials that haven't found any reduction in metabolic rate when people are on the alternate day diet,' says Dr Johnson.

Enjoy: You can eat as much as you want on alternate days

How it works doesn't matter to many people - the internet is already buzzing with those who claim dieting on alternate days has made weight loss easier.

One woman writing on a U.S-based website found that very little of the weight she'd lost went back on.

'At the end of 2008 I lost 15lb and then I stopped the diet. Nine months later, in October, I'd only put on 2lb.

'By the end of that month I'd lost what I'd gained and another 7.5lb. It is gone forever! Woohoo.'

Another described how the not eating days - described as 'down' days - are actually the easiest ones to manage.

'It's strangely true, but down days are a lot easier to stick to than the up days. I haven't cheated on them once.

'It really does work knowing you can "have it" tomorrow. It's the eating days you have to be careful with as it would be quite easy to go over the top.'

Yet some British experts are concerned about the approach. 'We advise anyone trying to lose weight should follow a healthy balanced diet,' said a spokesperson for the Food Standards Agency.

'It may not be possible to achieve this with very low calorie diets.'

However, Catherine Collins, spokesperson for the British Dietetic Association, was more enthusiastic about the weightloss benefits.

'It sounds absolutely fine,' she says 'It would certainly make it easier to stick to a weight-loss programme, although I'd want to be sure people got enough fibre and protein and that they didn't starve and binge in a fanatical way.'

However, she is sceptical about the health benefits being triggered by the SIRT1 gene.

'We know weight loss has all sorts of metabolic benefits,' she says.

'That is probably what is going on rather than one gene being responsible.'

The big question now is to find the best schedule of eating and fasting that will bring the benefits and be the easiest to stick to. Alternate-day dieting has made the breakthrough, but it is only one option.

'At the moment we are studying the benefits of having just two fasting days a week when you have very few calories, then eating normally for the rest of the week,' says Dr Harvie.

'Some form of fasting regime is definitely the way to go to get big health benefits. It just needs more research.'

• For more, visit: www.johnson updaydowndaydiet.com/index.html

THE SIMPLE RULES YOU NEED TO FOLLOW

• For the first fortnight Dr Johnson suggests you stick to just 500 calories on the fasting days to make sure you trigger the skinny gene (to make certain of your intake, try pre-packaged shakes or meal replacements).
  

• After that, you can eat regular food on the fasting days. How much depends on your goal. Up to 35 per cent of your recommended daily intake will help you lose weight. Eating 50 or 60 per cent should allow you to maintain your weight.

• You can eat as much as you want on the alternate days, but don't binge. Make sure you have fruit and vegetables. It's important to enjoy these days to avoid getting fed up with being on a diet.
  

• Drink plenty of water and exercise regularly, especially on the eating days. Weigh yourself only once a week, on the morning after a fasting day, so you won't become frustrated by normal weight variations.

British doctor 'travelled to Alaska for child sex after arranging to meet boy, 6, in internet chatroom'

A British research doctor working for a pharmaceutical company has been arrested in Alaska in an internet sex sting.

John Felton, 45, allegedly thought he was going to meet a perverted father and his two young children.

But when he arrived at Anchorage International Airport, he was met by an undercover immigration officer posing as the father, according to documents filed in federal court.

Sex sting: John Felton flew from Boston to Anchorage International Airport in Alaska allegedly to meet a father and his two children whom he could abuse

Felton, who lives in a £600,000 apartment in Boston’s exclusive Back Bay, told the officer he had bought a superman costume for the six-year-old boy he planned to abuse and Hannah Montana gifts for his seven-year-old sister, according to court documents.

He was arrested as part of the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency’s Operation Predator and was due to appear in court yesterday on charges of attempted aggravated sexual abuse.

Felton, a member of the Royal College of Physicians in London and a former medical director of pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline, allegedly exchanged dozens of emails with a man called Bob.

In one exchange Bob - in reality an undercover agent - asked what he was into. Felton allegedly replied: 'Just really into kids,' according to the agent's affidavit.

Offering his own children to Felton, Bob reportedly told him he could do anything to the boy as long as it 'didn’t cause a trip to the hospital'.

Felton is the vice-president of clinical operations and medical affairs at Acambic Inc, a Massachusetts vaccine development company based near Harvard University.

Ellyn Schindler, spokeswoman for human vaccine company Sanofi Pasteur, said Felton also worked at the firm, but left five months ago.

He lived in a rented flat in West London until 2000 before he moved to the US.

He worked as a research fellow, lecturing at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine studying the effects of sexually transmitted infections.

Felton faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 30 years in prison and a maximum of life if convicted.

Pain drug morphine may cause cancer to spread

Morphine used to relieve the pain of cancer may actually cause the disease to spread, scientists claimed today.

Laboratory tests suggest the opium-based drug promotes the growth of new blood vessels which deliver oxygen and nutrients to tumours.

Dr Patrick Singleton told an American Association for Cancer Research summit that morphine also appeared to make it easier for cancers to invade other tissues.

Risk: Morphine given to cancer patients may help tumours grow (file image)

But he said this could be overcome by a drug - methylnaltrexone or MNTX - developed in the 1980s to prevent morphine-related constipation.

The drug, which was only recently approved in the U.S. appears to work without interfering with the pain-relieving properties of the opiate.

In mice with lung cancer, MNTX inhibited the apparent tumour-promoting effects of opiates, and reduced the spread of cancer in the mice by 90 per cent.

‘If confirmed clinically, this could change how we do surgical anaesthesia for our cancer patients,’ said Dr Singleton, of the University of Chicago Medical Centre, told the meeting of fellow experts in Boston.

‘It also suggests potential new applications for this novel class of drugs which should be explored.’

The tests were started after his colleague, anaesthetist Jonathan Moss, noted that several patients receiving this kind of opiate blocker survived longer than might be expected after surgery.

Dr Laura Bell of Cancer Research UK said the drugs had a long history of providing effective pain relief.

‘Research in this area is in the early stages, so it’s too early to tell whether opiate-based painkillers have an effect on cancer growth.

‘Much more research would be needed to justify changing the way opiates are used to treat people with cancer.’

Speaking at a meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research in Boston, they also claim to have found a drug which counters this effect.

Cancer Research UK said more tests were needed before any changes in treatment.

A cure for coughing could be in the offing

Agony: Chronic coughing could be cured thanks to new research

Experts have come a step closer to finding a cure for coughing.

For the first time the process that leads to the reflex has been identified, according to researchers.

Often a cough in response to breathing in smoke, for example, carries out a useful purpose in swiftly clearing the airways with a sudden expulsion of air from the lungs.

But if the coughing is persistent, and without obvious cause, it can be very stressful.

Repeated coughing is said to be the most common cause of visits to the doctor - but until now has largely remained a mystery to science.

According to the study, involving guinea pigs and human volunteers, the problem lies with receptors on nerve endings in the lungs which react to irritants.

For victims of persistent coughing in which no useful purpose is being served, the receptors on these nerve endings are repeatedly prompting the cough reflex.

If those receptors are blocked, coughing could be stopped, claim scientists from Britain's National Heart and Lung Institute, Imperial College London and Hull University.

The study was launched because of claims that over-the-counter remedies are ineffective, and may be inadvisable for children.

In the research, published in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, the scientists show that irritants in the air - including cigarette smoke and air pollution - switch on receptor proteins in lung nerve endings called TRPA1. This in turn causes the cough reflex.

When the TRPA1 receptors were blocked in guinea pigs, using drugs, their coughing response to stimulants including a key compound in cigarette smoke was reduced.

Nerves taken from mice, pigs and humans were also used to back up the research, as were reactions by human volunteers.

While it would be unwise to permanently prevent coughing - because that would inhibit the ability to clear airways - it seems it may now be possible to work towards preventing unnecessary coughs.

Professor Maria Belvisi, of the National Heart and Lung Institute and Imperial College, said: 'For some people, chronic coughing can be annoying and uncomfortable, but for others it can be distressing and can have a severe impact on their quality of life.

'Many people say that certain things in the air can make them cough and we are very excited that we have shown, for the first time, exactly what is probably happening inside the lungs.

'Now that we think we have cracked the mechanism, we can start investigating whether we can stop people from coughing excessively by blocking the receptor protein that triggers it.'

Most coughs clear up within days, but some have been known to last for months or years.

Some have specific causes such as asthma, the common cold, pneumonia or a respiratory infection but experts say around 15 per cent are unexplained.

'Myth' of Mr Useless: Why women breadwinners exaggerate partner's faults

Working women have long complained that their man doesn't pull his weight on household chores.

But his lack of effort on the domestic front could actually be a myth created by his partner, researchers have found.

According to a major study, female breadwinners exaggerate their partner's uselessness around the home because they feel guilty about devoting too much time to their career, and not enough to their role of wife and mother.

Not so useless: Female breadwinners nag their partners because they feel guilty about not spending enough time at home, the study found

By nagging their man over his alleged shortcomings, women feel more feminine because they can control the traditionally female role of maintaining the home and family, experts say.

'Working women who provide the majority of the household's income continue to articulate themselves as the ones who "see" household messes and needs as a way to retain claim to an element of traditional female identity,' said Dr Rebecca Meisenbach, professor of communication at Missouri University.

Dr Meisenbach questioned 15,000 American female breadwinners for the study, to be published in the journal Sex Roles this week.

Only women without children under 18 said they did not feel a strong sense of responsibility for the home.

Little research has been carried out into the role of the female breadwinner. The only British study, in 2007, found that 14 per cent of homes had one, although recent estimates say around four in ten women in the UK now earn more than their partner.

Dr Meisenbach told the Observer that most of the women she interviewed did not resent the fact that their husband was neither a breadwinner nor a home maker.

'Over 60 per cent said they enjoyed the control they experienced.

By highlighting stories of how men have to be told or asked to do specific chores in he home, these female breadwinners are making sure they still fit gender boundaries of a wife as someone who manages the home and children.

'By directing the housework done by their husbands, they maintain a sense of control over the traditionally feminine sphere of the home.'

Myth? Women make their partners do more housework because it reduces their guilt about having a career, a new study has shown

Although expectations of family roles are more fluid than they have ever been in Britain, the traditional perceptions of men as breadwinners and women as home makers still prevail.

A poll last year found 32 per cent of young people agreed that it was the role of women in society to be good wives and mothers.

And women who earn considerably more than their husbands often note that their relationships suffer as a consequence.

Professor Janet Reibstein, a psychologist and author, said: 'Our respect for our partner rests on whether they are fulfilling their gender expectations.

'Higher-earning women struggle to respect their low-paid men because social prejudice says that a man should keep his woman.'

Smoking when pregnant is linked to hyperactive children

Danger: Smoking when pregnant could cause ADHD in children

Mothers who smoke during pregnancy more than double the chances of their children suffering from hyperactivity, claim researchers.

The risk goes up 2.4 times, according to a new US study.

It estimates one-fifth of ADHD - attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder - cases could be eliminated if pregnant women stopped smoking.

The reduction could reach 35 per cent if children were not exposed to lead in contaminated paint, soil and old water pipes, says the study in Pediatrics journal (must credit).

Dr Tanya Froelich, of the Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, said 'Tobacco and lead exposure ech have their own important adverse effect.

'But if children are exposed to both lead and pre-natal tobacco, the combined effect is synergistic.'

Around three to seven per cent of children are believed to have ADHD, about 400,000, in total with many continuing to experience problems as adults.

ADHD is the name given to a collection of behavioural problems linked to poor attention span.

The symptoms include impulsiveness, restlessness and hyperactivity.

The latest study looked at data on 4,000 children aged 8 to 15 gathered between 2001 and 2004 from a national database in the US.

The rate of smoking during pregnancy was measured by reports from mothers, while lead exposure was assessed using blood tests.

Altogether 8.7 per cent of children were rated as having ADHD.

The researchers found children exposed before birth to tobacco smoke in the womb were 2.4 times more likely to have the disorder, while the risk was 2.3 times higher for children with the highest blood lead levels.

The risk was eightfold for children exposed to both tobacco and lead compared to unexposed children.

Figures for England show as many as one in three women is a smoker at the time of conception.

Almost 15 per cent of mothers were smoking around the time they gave birth during 2007/08.

Dr Froehlich said the findings were strong and backed up by animal research.

She said 'We know from experimental research that exposure to tobacco smoke before birth interferes with chemical messengers in the brain, the dopamine system, linked to motivation and attention.

'These alterations are long-lasting' she added.

'It's an important message to get out there because women need to know how important it is to stop smoking in pregnancy.

'Also, we can reduce children's lead exposure by helping them avoid old peeling paint, which contains lead, and getting them to wash their hands thoroughly after exposure to contaminated soil' she said.

There is growing evidence of increased rates of behavioural problems among offspring exposed to maternal cigarette smoking in the womb and after birth.

Previous animal research shows nicotine is a behavioural toxin, harming the development of the brains of babies in the womb.

The chemicals from cigarettes damage unborn babies in a number of ways, by causing low birthweight, birth defects, wheeziness and increasing the risk of cot death or Sudden Infant Death Syndrome.

Longer term health damage results in more respiratory illnesses and glue ear, which causes hearing problems, during the childhood years.