There are plenty of wacky 'fad diets' out there. The grapefruit and lemonade diets come to mind. But while fad diets are often bizarre, they're generally regarded as safe, right? Wrong -- fad diets can be downright dangerous, as this story proves.

A British woman, Dawn Page, was recently awarded £800,000 (about $1,600,000 USD) after a detox diet left her epileptic and brain damaged. 'The Amazing Hydration Diet' has participants drinking copious amounts of water and reducing their salt intake in order to cleanse their system and reduce water retention. But within days of starting the diet, Page started vomiting uncontrollably and was rushed to hospital.

Source

The recent murder-suicide of pro wrestler Chris Benoit was quite a shocker to the entertainment world. Why did someone who had everything in the world to live for kill his family and then himself? A doctor says he may have the answer.

A physician who recently examined Benoit's brain said that the wrestler suffered extensive brain damage from his years throwing and being thrown inside a wrestling ring, and that fact may have contributed to the wrestler's deadly rampage.

Did multiple concussions make Benoit go over the edge? As the doctor indicated, the human brain was not meant to be constantly knocked around and the skull was not meant for breakage multiple times. In Benoit's case, that odd fame from entertainment-style wrestling may have done him -- and his family -- in long before their time.

Source

Pro soccer players might be making lots of money but the price is their brain health, a new study shows. College-age soccer players have exhibited a degree of brain shrinkage throughout their playing years, particularly in their grey matter, which it's thought controls thinking and memory. The damage is particularly exaggerated in the anterior temporal cortex, which not surprisingly is where players hit the ball with their head. Soccer also carried a risk of multiple concussions, and multiple concussions can lead to potentially serious brain damage over time.

I doubt there's much we can do to convince pro soccer players to give up their lucrative salaries, but there are things we can do to protect ourselves, such as not hitting the head with your ball and

Source

I've read studies before regarding how men and women metabolize alcohol differently, and that a woman will feel the effects of a drink sooner than a man of the same weight. But now there's new research that takes that principle one step farther: women don't just feel the immediate/short-term effects sooner, but the long-term ones also. In a study of female and male alcoholics the women suffered negative health effects, specifically brain damage, much faster than the men did.

Of course alcoholism is widely understood as damaging and unhealthy, but it is also widely underdiagnosed. Understanding the risks and not shoving the issue to the background is an important part of prevention.

Source