HEALTH AND WELLNESS

                               [1] EARLY NICOTINE ADDICTION     The first puff of cigarette could be enough to hook a young teenager into addiction. The extraordinary findings upend the prevailing view about nicotine addiction being a slowly acquired process that occurs only after several years of heavy smoking.      In a study of 1,200 teenagers over approximately six years, researchers found that physical addiction is a much stronger force than peer pressure, even among those who smoked only rarely, the paper said.      According to the study, nicotine dependence symptoms appear in many young tobacco users between the first exposure to nicotine and the onset of daily smoking. The researchers say that antismoking campaigns should be adapted not only to help youths resist the pressure to smoke but also to help those who have smoked to overcome nicotine dependence.                                     [2] RAGE IS BAD FOR YOU         According to Valentina D’ Urs

                                                [1] BRITAIN’S RELIGIOUS CONVERSIONS             Britons are swapping religions at a faster rate than ever, with about 1,000 converting every week, reports The Sunday Telegraph. Anglicans are becoming Roman Catholics, and vice versa, Jews are becoming Buddhists, Muslims are becoming Anglicans and Roman Catholics Jews.” Islam, Buddhism, New Age Movements, and paganism are gaining the most converts. Dr. Ahmed Andrews of England’s Derby University, himself a convert, says: “There are between 5,000 and 10,000 white Muslim converts in this country, and most of the ones I know are former Catholics.” Jews make up 10 to 30 percent of converts to Buddhism. Anglican conversions to Catholicism peaked after the Church of England decided to ordain women. According to Rabbi Jonathan Romain, “people feel a spiritual vacuum so they look outside their own religious backgrounds.”                                                 [2] LIFE-STYLE AND

Scientists and economists recently collaborated in a study of five natural habitats converted for human use and commercial profit. A tropical forest in Malaysia was razed for intensive logging , a tropical forest in Cameroun was converted to oil palm and rubber plantations, a mangrove swamp in Thailand was turned over to shrimp farming, a freshwater marsh in Canada was drained for agriculture, and a coral reef in the Philippines was dynamited for fishing.          The researchers came up with some surprising results. Had those five natural habitats been left in their wild state, their long-term economic value to the community would have been from 14 to 75 percent more than after conversion. In fact, an ecosystem loses, on average, half its value as a result of human interference, and each year, environmental conversion costs $250 billion . By contrast, preserving natural systems would cost $45 billion . The researchers say that goods and services –in the form of food, water,a

       Many amazing and mysterious things happen around us undetected, many of which are considered surprising and worth being mentioned and discussed. Among the most common amazing things that happen around us are;                                            [1]         MALE DEPRESSION          One of the oldest things about depression is the lingering myth that it is mostly a female disorder from which real men are genetically protected. Specialists say depression remains hidden in men because men visit health professionals less often than women, with less opportunity to talk about their problems and they are less able to articulate emotional distress. So doctors are more familiar with symptoms that are common in female victims of depression. In women depression has a notably different constellation of symptoms than in men. What are some of the symptoms common in male depression? Anger, fatigue, irritability, aggression, a drop in work performance, and a tendency for the s