Astrology proves bad for health

RESEARCHERS in the US have found that people with serious diseases die sooner the more strongly they believe in Chinese astrological predictions writes Celia Hall.

A study of 28,169 Chinese- Americans and 412,632 white American controls found that those whose elemental birth sign, (earth, fire, metal, water, wood) was unpropitious in relation to the type of disease they had, died sooner.

For instance, earth is associated with lumps and they found that Chinese Americans born in earth years and who held to Chinese traditions died 1.6 years earlier from lung cancer than would have been expected.

The tests, by a team at the University of California, San Diego, covered 15 common diseases and the results held for nearly all of them.

The research, published in the Lancet tomorrow, reopens the debate on the power of the mind over incurable diseases. Inconclusive studies of cancer patients have argued that psychological factors can delay death.