PARIS, Feb 13, 2008 (AFP) - As oxygen bars begin to pop up across France, health authorities are beginning to question the merits or otherwise of sniffing O2.
Supposed to improve health and well-being, oxygen bars date back to the late 1990s, spreading from Canada to California and to Britain and Japan, in nightclubs, health clubs, airports or even trade fairs.
But Paris' first oxygen bar opened only last week.
Flagged as "a revolutionary anti-fatigue, anti-stress and anti-depression concept", the city's maiden O2 bar is housed in an up-market beauty institute owned by no less than the wife of top French publicist and political "kingmaker" Jacques Seguela.
Seguela has been very much in the news recently for bringing together President Nicolas Sarkozy and his new wife Carla Bruni around a dinner table, a coup that comes almost three decades after helping propel leftwing leader Francois Mitterrand to the country's highest public office.

O2 bars set French officials sniffing

PARIS - AS oxygen bars begin to pop up across France, health authorities are beginning to question the merits or otherwise of sniffing O2.

Supposed to improve health and well-being, oxygen bars date back to the late 1990s, spreading from Canada to California and to Britain and Japan, in nightclubs, health clubs, airports or even trade fairs.

But Paris' first oxygen bar opened only last week.

Flagged as 'a revolutionary anti-fatigue, anti-stress and anti-depression concept,' the city's maiden O2 bar is housed in an up-market beauty institute owned by no less than the wife of top French publicist and political 'kingmaker' Jacques Seguela.

Mr Seguela has been very much in the news recently for bringing together President Nicolas Sarkozy and his new wife Carla Bruni around a dinner table, a coup that comes almost three decades after helping propel leftwing leader Francois Mitterrand to the country's highest public office.

Bacteria crawling on fountains and workout mats at city's gyms

Dangerous germs lurking around city gyms may be making you sick, the Daily News has found.

"I believe it," said Alex Marquez, 34, from Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, who ended up taking antibiotics in a hospital after his foot swelled from an infection doctors said was caught at the gym.

Oxygen bars pop up across France

PARIS: As oxygen bars begin to pop up across France, health authorities are beginning to question the merits or otherwise of sniffing O2.

Supposed to improve health and well-being, oxygen bars date back to the late

1990s, spreading from Canada to California and to Britain and Japan, in nightclubs, health clubs, airports or even trade fairs.

But Paris' first oxygen bar opened only last week. Flagged as "a revolutionary anti-fatigue, anti-stress and anti-depression concept", the city's maiden O2 bar is housed in an up-market beauty institute owned by no less than the wife of top French publicist and political "kingmaker" Jacques Seguela.

Seguela has been very much in the news recently for bringing together President Nicolas Sarkozy and his new wife Carla Bruni around a dinner table, a coup that comes almost three decades after helping propel leftwing leader Francois Mitterrand to the country's highest public office.

Feminine exhibition

The Wichita Women's Fair offers three days of shopping, cooking demonstrations, beauty presentations, live music and more. This year's fair will offer 385 exhibits.

Dozens of exhibitors will showcase home decor ideas and products. From 1:30 to 3 p.m. Friday, the Women's Fair will sponsor a Professional Women's Workshop featuring five well-known businesswomen who will share their career insights.

Welcome to the town that will make you lose weight

10.4 per cent of Dutch men and 10.1 per cent of women aged 20-60 are obese. In England, 24.9 per cent of males and 25.2 per cent of women over 16 are obese

HEALTH

There's a move that noise kids make at noise shows: With their heads down, feet shoulder-width apart and unmoving, they uncross their arms and lunge both fists in the air. It's commonly referred to as "awesome arms" — and it will definitely occur as the Los Angeles quartet HEALTH performs its much-anticipated set at the Billiken Club. With either electro new-wave percussion or booming war drums at the core of its songs, HEALTH then layers sparse guitars and glitchy thrift-store keyboards alongside effects-laden vocals (courtesy of the "zoothorn," a microphone/guitar pedal hybrid). But it's all more than just a big racket: The band's attention to song form and tension/release puts it more in touch with Animal Collective or Liars than with your average knob-twisting noise group. .

'Move to AMITIZA' Advertising Campaign Underscores the Power of Not ...

DEERFIELD, Ill., Nov. 6 /PRNewswire/ -- Takeda Pharmaceuticals North America, Inc. and Sucampo Pharmaceuticals, Inc. today announced the launch of the first direct-to-consumer (DTC) advertising campaign for AMITIZA(R) (lubiprostone), the only commercially available prescription treatment for Chronic Idiopathic Constipation in adults. The "Move to AMITIZA" campaign illustrates that the predictable relief (defined as 57%-63% had a spontaneous bowel movement within 24 hours with AMITIZA vs. 32%-37% with placebo) provided by AMITIZA may allow people living with chronic idiopathic constipation to move throughout their day without letting their condition slow them down.

"This is welcome news for the millions of Americans who live with Chronic Idiopathic Constipation," said Charles Baum, M.D., medical director, Gastroenterology at Takeda.

The Global Young Film Scene Hot Spot with ARTS.21

At the Talent Campus, the world's biggest workshop for young filmmakers, DW-TV has become a household name with our "Making of" project. Bildunterschrift: Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift: With the support of the Talent Campus organisers and its sponsors our own DW-TV video crew was again on location during the entire week of the Campus (11.-16.02.06) capturing the highlights and observing the young hopefuls learning from some of the most famous professionals in the trade. Our team, which includes over twenty reporters, young media trainees and their coaches, produced a daily video report documenting the work in progress. The screenings of these "Dailies" in the big auditorium are always eagerly awaited by the over 500 Campus participants from 100 countries.