Pop star Pink was named UNICEF ambassador for a new initiative that seeks to promote physical activity in young American children, while raising money for vitamin-rich and healthy peanut paste that would be sent to children suffering from malnutrition.

“I got to watch mommas learning how to feed it to their kids,” said Pink, whose birth name is Alecia Moore. “And within a week, you can see the difference in these children. It brings them back to life. It’s amazing.”

Pink is also the national spokeswoman for another UNICEF initiative – the Kid Power Band – which is a fitness band for children that promotes exercise by means of an interactive app. With the fitness band, children can garner points by doing healthy things like taking 12,000 steps a day or achieving a pre-set goal. UNICEF’s partner firms, such as Disney and Target, will send funds required to deliver the peanut paste packets to Haiti and other nations affected heavily by child malnutrition as the kids keep earning points.

According to Pink, her recent trip to Port-au-Prince, Haiti was an eye-opening experience, one that had made her more passionate about UNICEF’s endeavors. And it was there where she saw previously malnourished children become healthier through the food packets.

“When you get to see it with your own eyes and you see that something works, then it’s a lot easier to get behind and advocate for it and try to make other people aware of it,” she said. “(UNICEF) found a brilliant way, and a fun way, to get kids here involved and empowered and motivated. And they are also turning them into global citizens and they get to be hands-on.”

In the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease, sufferers typically aren’t aware that they are ill, and neither are their loved ones. This is generally a symptom-free stage of the disease, but new research claims that our brain’s synapses, or the connections that help us form memories and learn things, are slowly dying at that point.

A study from the University of New South Wales in Australia explains that synapse loss, or the loss of the connections between brain neurons, is a key feature of Alzheimer’s disease. According to lead author Dr. Vladimir Sytnyk from the UNSW School of Biotechnology and Biomolecular Sciences, synapse loss is one of Alzheimer’s first changes, happening very early into the disease and long before the death of our nerve cells.

Syntyk and his colleagues examined a brain protein called NCAM2, or neural cell adhesion molecule 2 – this is just one protein in a larger group that connects synapse membranes, thus maintaining connections between neurons. Based on the team’s analysis of brain tissue from deceased people who had Alzheimer’s and those who didn’t, it was shown that synaptic levels of NCAM2 in the hippocampus were at low levels in those who had the disease. Through a separate study of mice, Sytnyk’s team found that NCAM2 was broken down by beta-amyloid proteins, or the unusual buildup in the brains of Alzheimer’s patients.

“We have identified a new molecular mechanism, which directly contributes to this synapse loss,” said Sytnyk, “a discovery we hope could eventually lead to earlier diagnosis of the disease and new treatments.”

Additionally, Sytnyk stressed that this discovery could be very important, as it could “open up a new avenue for research on possible treatments that can prevent the destruction of NCAM2 in the brain.”

Mosquitoes may be common household pests, not to mention the cause of many a disease, particularly tropical diseases like dengue fever and malaria. And while the latter disease does have a conventional form of treatment in some parts of Africa, these medicines are often in short supply, if at all available. But what’s making things worse is the fact that the mosquitoes that bring malaria are becoming tougher and tougher, becoming more resistant to medication.

A group of researchers from the University of California in Irvine have come up with a way to genetically modify mosquitoes so that they wouldn’t be able to spread the malaria parasite. But these modified insects do more than that – they also pass on the trait of not being able to spread malaria to almost all of their offspring.

Lead researcher Anthony James and his team used the controversial CRISPR gene editing technique to insert two genes into the mosquito’s genome, making them malaria-resistant. And since there’s also a high rate of inheritability involved here, James says that the technique allows the resistance to spread fast through a mosquito population after it’s introduced.

James’ team introduced modified mouse immune genes, which stick to the malaria parasites and make it impossible for the parasites to recognize their host and for them to move around properly. “You can think of it as (being) blinded,” he said. As a result, the parasite cannot get into the animal’s salivary gland and, therefore, doesn’t make it into humans when the mosquitoes bite.

There are, however, some issues with James’ use of CRISPR. As the technique has been used to edit human embryos, drawing great controversy earlier this year, the researchers are trying their best not to ruffle any feathers, given the moral objections to gene editing. James also admitted that more research needs to be done to make sure that the technique is indeed a viable way of fighting malaria. Still, he remains confident that the technique’s benefits outweigh the risks, making it a very promising potential solution against a disease that is estimated to strike over 200 million people this year alone.

The controversy over the Chipotle E. coli bacteria outbreak has yet to die down fully, but another leading American company is now in trouble with government health officials.

Retail giant Costco is now being investigated by the U.S. Centers for Disease and Control Prevention, as its chicken salad is being blamed for 19 people in at least seven states falling ill to E. coli. Five people have been hospitalized so far, while two have developed severe kidney failure, a distinctive complication for this specific strain of the E. coli virus. No fatalities have been reported following this new outbreak.

The CDC’s initial investigations show that a rotisserie chicken salad made and sold in Costco Wholesale branches in multiple states may be to blame for the outbreak. Officials have yet to determine a specific ingredient in the salad that is to blame for the people falling ill. 14 out of 16 people had either purchased or ate the chicken salad from Costco about one week before they became sick. The retailer’s rotisserie chicken salad has a suggested shelf life of three days.

Most of the cases have been reported in Western states, with the most cases coming from Colorado, Montana, and Utah. Other states affected by the outbreak include California, Missouri, Virginia, and Washington.

In a statement made to health officials, Costco said last Friday that it has removed all of the remaining chicken salad from its stores, and it will stop producing any more until further notice. Meanwhile, the CDC is also advising consumers to throw away any rotisserie chicken salad sold by its stores on or before November 20.

Although most couples will agree that it’s important to have an active and healthy sex life, a new Canadian study suggests that those who keep their urges down six out of seven days in a week are the happiest.

According to a team of researchers from the University of Toronto Mississauga, there’s nothing wrong with partners having sex more frequently. Still, couples who make love only once a week are happiest, the study said, while having sex daily may take away from the oomph of lovemaking.

“Our research suggests that couples do not need to aim to engage in sex as frequently as possible but instead aim to maintain a connection with their partner,” said University of Toronto Mississauga postdoctoral fellow and lead author Amy Muise in a statement.

Muise’s team had based their findings on three studies involving a combined 30,000-plus people, and all of the studies agreed on one thing – sex is good, and couples generally feel that having regular sexual activity is more important than having lots of money. But none of those studies had directly set a threshold where more sex stops resulting in a progressively happier relationship between partners.

To answer this question, the researchers looked at a survey involving over 25,000 American adults aged 18 to 89, with the survey being conducted every other year between 1989 and 2012. Respondents were asked about the frequency of sexual activity (from none at all to four times or more per week) and the state of their well-being, meaning how happy they see themselves being. A second study involving only 335 people was also looked into, same with a third one polling married heterosexual couples for a 14-year period.

Analyzing the results, the researchers determined that there is a limit to a couple’s happiness in relation to sexual frequency. It was found that their well-being would level off after frequency would reach approximately once per week. “It wasn’t bad to engage in sex more frequently than once a week,” said Muise. “It just wasn’t associated with greater well-being on average.”

There was no variance spotted based on the respondents’ age, gender, or length of their current relationship, though interestingly, single people who weren’t in committed relationships didn’t feel happier with more frequent sex. Muise and her co-researchers believe that if there is a link between sex and happiness for single people, it all depends on how comfortable they are having sex outside of a relationship, or on the context of the relationship.

One thing the Toronto study didn’t determine was whether the frequency of sex has a direct effect on happiness, as the study wasn’t meant to have a cause-and-effect nature to it. But it was noted that couples tend to make love once a week on average anyway.

“Perhaps this is the average since it seems to maximize the benefits for well-being,” observed Muise. “It is likely that weekly sex is enough for the average couple to maintain their intimate connection and to feel like they have an active sex life, and this is why we see this as the leveling-off point.”

Monash University (Australia) professor Russell Smyth, who was not involved in the study, told CBS News that sexual frequency is just one of the many factors that affect a person’s happiness. Based on his own studies on sexuality, he had found that quality is more important than frequency. He had also observed that men enjoy the physical aspects of lovemaking, while women tend to be happier based on sex’s emotional aspects – a very common observation indeed.

Smyth also told CBS News that he acknowledged more sex isn’t necessarily better, making an analogy to eating ice cream. “You enjoy your first ice cream,” he explained. “You also enjoy your second ice cream, but by not as much. You might also get some enjoyment from your third one, but even less because you are fuller, concerned about calories and so on.”

Traditionally, hair loss has been considered an issue that mostly affected men over a certain age. It was believed that if women experienced this problem, the condition was infrequent and it was caused by specific medical problems. In fact, according to an article on the Internet site WebMD, hair loss will affect a staggering 50% of women throughout their lifetime. While this number is due to a complex set of factors which can be genetic, environmental and health-related in nature, there is an indication that the genetic factor is foremost among them. Though some attribute female hair loss to such causes as excessive dyeing, or other chemical alterations to hair, there are currently 30 million women in the U.S. who are suffering from hereditary hair loss.

One important difference between the dynamic of hair loss in women as opposed to that in men is that, for most women who suffer from it, hair loss seems to make itself apparent later in life. It most often becomes an issue for women in their 50s and 60s. And because hair loss can be affected by additional physical and psychological factors, detecting the source of the condition can be difficult. Furthermore, the hereditary condition often does not result in hair falling out directly, but in a progressive thinning out of the individual hairs.

A further difference in the experience of hair loss by men and women arises from the different psychological and social impact of the condition on the two genders. While hair loss can be a deeply dissatisfying transition for anyone, men may benefit from increased acceptance, especially since fashion seems to favor the cleanly shaved look.

While available, solutions for advanced female hair loss can be a much more resource-intensive affair, requiring investment in wigs, weaves or hair pieces that cost both money and time. (Here is a candid instance of a female sufferer of hair loss reaching out over the Internet to women in a similar plight.)

But hair loss itself is not final, nor is it intrinsically a bad thing. Less advanced hair loss can be reversed, and, besides, losing hair at a rate of 50 to 100 hairs per day is considered healthy. A moderate amount of shedding is simply part of the hair’s natural cycles of change. This figure normally doubles on days when hair is washed. However, when hair is consistently lost in numbers exceeding this range, that may be a sign of an underlying condition which requires the expertise of a physician. Short of actually counting the number of hairs lost each day, the patient can monitor the amount of hair caught in her comb or brush, or on her pillow in the morning. Moreover, thinning and missing hair will become more visible on the top of the scalp, so if you notice changes in that area, it may be time to schedule a consultation.

Hair growth is a complex process, which can be affected by many contributing factors. Besides the genetic preconditions, physical trauma, illness, and stress can also affect the health of your hair follicles, leading to hair loss months after the event itself. The various styling procedures that women apply to their hair — brushing, dying, chemical treatments, driers — do not affect the follicles, and generally only damage the hair fibers themselves. While most often natural hair regrowth can reverse these changes, persistent hair loss may require medical assistance. In such cases, women may need the help of a dermatologist to determine the underlying causes of dramatic hair loss.

Conventional thinking may suggest that people try as much as possible not to drink on days when they exercise or engage in other forms of physical activity, but a new study may suggest the opposite.

According to a study from the Center for Behavior and Health at Chicago’s Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, people do tend to drink more when physically active.  “Monday through Wednesday people batten down the hatches and they cut back on alcohol consumption,” observed study author David Conroy. “But once that ‘social weekend’ kicks off on Thursdays, physical activity increases and so does alcohol consumption.”

Overall, a total of 195 individuals aged 18 to 89 were surveyed by the study group, with physical activity levels and alcohol consumption monitored accordingly.  The subjects were observed for 21 days at a time, and for three separate times over a span of one year.  As revealed by the study, the subjects were most active from Thursdays through Sundays, as compared to the Monday-Wednesday period, and also tended to drink more.  There was no direct correlation revealed, however, between physical activity and increased alcohol consumption.

With that in mind, the researchers expressed that more research may be needed on the topic before they could draw a more definite conclusion.  “It’s that on days when people are more active they tend to drink more than on days they are less active,” added Conroy. “This finding was uniform across study participants of all levels of physical activity and ages.”  He also noted that the subjects may have used alcohol as a reward for working out, but it may also be possible that being physically active may lead to more social opportunities to consume alcohol.