According to the Daily Mail, people with high levels of Vitamin D have a significantly lesser risk of developing diabetes.

Scientists in Finland monitored several thousand people, aged 40 to 74, for 22 years, during which time 412 developed the disease. Especially men, with the highest blood level of the vitamin were 72 per cent less likely to develop type 2 diabetes. The effect was reduced in women, but still there.

It is thought that low levels of vitamin D affect the body's ability to produce insulin. The development of diabetes type 2 is a growing problem, along with obesity.

Risk increases with age  -  less than one per cent of people under 34 have diagnosed diabetes compared with 10 per cent aged 75 and over.

Good sources of vitamin D include milk, whole eggs and oily fish.

According to an article by Serena Gordon on Health Day News, a study found high amounts of toxic metals including lead, mercury and arsenic in 'Ayurvedic' Medicines purchased on the internet.

The U.S. National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine informs that Ayurvedic medicine is an ancient Indian practice that combines the use of numerous modalities, such as herbal medicine, massage and special diets, to promote wellness and prevent illness.

About one in five ayurvedic medicine products purchased on the Internet contain significant levels of lead, mercury or arsenic, according to a study published in the Aug. 27 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association, lead by Dr. Robert B. Saper, an assistant professor of family medicine at Boston University School of Medicine, and director of integrative medicine at Boston Medical Center.

According to Saper, "We randomly purchased 193 traditional Indian (ayurvedic) medicine products from the Internet. About 60 percent were from U.S. companies and 40 percent from Indian companies. Twenty-one percent had significant levels of lead, mercury and arsenic.”

All of these metals can be toxic at high levels.

Seventy-five percent of the 193 products randomly selected and purchased over the Internet claimed to be manufactured under Good Manufacturing Practices. The researchers found that 20.7 percent contained metals. The rate in U.S. manufactured products was 21.7 percent, and in Indian products, it was 19.5 percent.

However the study found that products made by members of the American Herbal Products Association (AHPA) were less likely to contain metals.

Michael McGuffin, president of the AHPA, said, "It's not an accident that AHPA members performed better. We've called our members attention to the presence of heavy metals in plant materials. Lead is ubiquitous. It's in the soil and in the plants. I don't think you can get these levels to zero, but it is the manufacturers' responsibility to know the amount and to limit it."

He advises that if you question the company’s representatives about the levels of toxicity in their product and they don’t know, to take it as a warning sign.

Saper says that the FDA doesn’t currently have a maximum level allowable for lead, mercury and arsenic in dietary supplements, but believes that they should.

Vitamin A is important not only because of the oft-stated benefit of helping you see in the dark, but because it can help the immune system function properly and speed recovery form diseases, accelerates the creation and movement of white blood cells and help keep tissues and organs healthy, helps remodel bones, strengthens hair, skin, gums and teeth, maintains the health of the cells that make up the interior surfaces of the body, and regulates cell growth and division, much like zinc.  And like insufficient zinc, an insufficient amount of vitamin A has been campaigned as a cause of cancer.

Vitamin A comes in two forms- preformed vitamin A, called retinol, (found only in foods from animals) retinaldehyde, and retinoic acid, so if you have a great memory, good luck stamping those into your mind, the rest of us will need to write those down, and pro-vitamin A, known as beta caroene (provided by foods from plants and animals) and it’s measured in IU (International Units) USP (United States Pharmacopeia), and RE (Retinol Equivalents). Beta-carotene is the preferred choice of vitamin A because the body better controls it, there is less need to monitor its consumption therefore less concern with the toxic levels that are associated with vitamin A.

Although America is often touted as a land of opportunity for the young, it seems that older Americans are actually the happiest.

Since 1972, the General Social Survey has asked people whether they are very happy, pretty happy or not too happy.

"One important finding was people who were biologically older are happier than younger adults," said Tom W. Smith of the University of Chicago, who is the director of the General Social Survey.

Researcher Yang Yang at the University of Chicago, who conducted the survey made sure that it is time that has created contentment and not just a generational teaching that taught older Americans to be content with their lot.

The finding that older Americans are happier seemed counterintuitive to the researchers expectations who thought that because older people would have experienced more health problems and deaths of family and friends, they wouldn’t be as happy. But although they did report more health issues, they still came out happy.

Younger people, although they reported health, also reported more hardships including: problems with relationships, losing a beloved family member and becoming the victim of a crime.

Job satisfaction was also reported higher in adults who worked past 65, countering the stereotype that those who work past traditional retirement age do so because they can’t afford not to.

Another piece of the happiness puzzle is that although the elderly experience depression more than young people, they deal with it differently.

Catherine Ross, a sociologist at the University of Texas at Austin says:

"The reason we think the elderly have higher levels of depression is not because they have higher levels of negative emotions but that they have higher levels of passivity.

"Young people -- the very people we think from the stereotype are best off -- in fact have high levels of anger and anxiety and also high levels of depression, compared to middle-aged adults."

Overall, the elderly have fewer stressors from relationships, jobs and their professionals, which greatly contribute to younger people’s unhappiness.

Seems like the study gives people something to look forward to in our old age, besides retirement.

The Daily Mail has reported that Google plans to photograph millions of British homes to be published on Google’s StreetView website.

Cars prominently marked with Google will drive around neighborhoods, taken photographs of homes and buildings, with and without people in the shots.

The website allows 360 views of the entire street after typing in a street address or postal code. Critics of the plan say that the site will leave homes more easily open to the potential of burglary. Many also consider the photographs to be an invasion of privacy.

The photographs will blur faces seen on the street, but not clothing or hair color or other identifying characteristics. In America, where the pictures have already been taken, complaints have risen about privacy concerns when people were photographed in compromising positions.

Google says that privacy concerns are taken seriously and that they take measures to ensure that privacy is not invaded. However, lawsuits are still a possibility.

In the meantime, the Daily Mail reports a spokesperson for Google saying, “We will not launch in UK until we are comfortable StreetView complies with local law, including law relating to the display of images of individuals. We will use technology, like face-blurring, and operational controls, such as image removal tools, so StreetView remains useful and in keeping with local norms wherever it is available.”

The issue has raised a lot of controversy, with people siding with technology and others raising concern about safety and invasion of privacy issues.

It seems like it’s a good idea in theory, giving people the opportunity to visit the entire world without leaving their desktop computer, but it does seem like it could be taken advantage of by people who are in the business of taking advantage.