Disco music from the 1970s is rather looked down upon today, however the BBC reports that it could help to save lives. Specifically the 1977 Bee Gees' song Stayin' Alive could significantly improve the chances of a heart attack victim doing just that.

Unfortunately the music of the brothers Gibb doesn't have any magical powers in itself, but it could help anyone performing cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) on the patient. The song has 103 beats per minute (BPM) - very close to the recommended BPM of 100 for CPR. Researchers from the by the University of Illinois College of Medicine found that students practising CPR whilst listening to Stayin' Alive averaged a CPR rate of 109 BPM. Five weeks later they practised without music but mentally listening to the song. This time the result was 113 BPM - but apparently too fast is better than too slow.

That's what you call a pumping beat.

People have believed for centuries that the power of the human mind can have an effect on physical well-being. Now new - and controversial - research seems to back this up in the case of cancer.

The new research, published in BioMed Central, studied "the relationship between life events, psychological distress and Breast Cancer (BC) among young women." The researchers found that young women who suffered traumatic negative emotional events were more at risk of developing breast cancer later in life than those who maintained a happy, optimistic attitude.

This conclusion does, however, come with a major health warning of its own: the women were questioned about their early emotional state after their diagnosis. It's possible that being diagnosed as having cancer may have affected their view of their past emotional state, something that's hard to measure objectively at the best of times.

So this research is inconclusive, however it's yet more evidence that the possible link between mind and body is at least interesting enough to deserve further study.