Overweight and obese women who take oral contraceptives are 60 percent to 70 percent more likely to get pregnant while on the birth-control pill, respectively, than women of lower weight, according to new findings from Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center that will be published in the January issue of Obstetrics & Gynecology.

The study, led by epidemiologist Victoria Holt, Ph.D., M.P.H., a member of Fred Hutchinson’s Public Health Sciences Division, is the largest case

A dietary staple of India, where Alzheimer’s disease rates are reportedly among the world’s lowest, holds potential as a weapon in the fight against the disease.

The new UCLA-Veterans Affairs study involving genetically altered mice suggests that curcumin, the yellow pigment in curry spice, inhibits the accumulation of destructive beta amyloids in the brains of Alzheimer’s patients and also breaks up existing plaques.

Reporting in the Dec. 7, 2004, online

As a result of a worldwide cooperative movement, the absolute driving ban for people with epilepsy (PWE) has been lifted in Japan. Since 1960, people who have epilepsy have been banned from driving in Japan. A December article in the journal Epilepsia outlines the efforts and procedures taken to reinstate driving rights to people with epilepsy, a restriction affecting many epilepsy patients throughout the world.

According to experts at Johns Hopkins University, 86 drivers per year died

Birds that migrate early in the season may have a distinct advantage when it comes to attracting the opposite sex, say researchers from Queen’s University and the Smithsonian Institution.

And it’s all about the feathers.

Researchers were surprised to discover that the timing of a male songbird’s reproduction cycle affects the colour of his feathers and may have important implications for his success in attracting mates. When migratory songbirds raise their

Despite critics who say patients’ bills of rights laws are actually designed to protect health care providers, new research published in the current issue of the American Journal of Medicine found just the opposite.

“There is little evidence these laws have much impact on providers’ economic concerns,” said Mark Hall, J.D., professor of law and public health at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center.

Hall reviewed managed care patient protection laws in

A new study says cancer surgery performed at a medical center designated by the National Cancer Institute (NCI) as a “center of excellence” is associated with less risk of death soon after surgery than if performed at a high-volume surgery center, but finds no difference in five-year survival rates. The full study will be published in the February 1, 2005 issue of CANCER, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society. This study was supported by grants from the NCI and the Agency for

Report details the first approach in the U.S.

The U.S. government does not approve or control the “599 list” of non-tobacco chemical ingredients used to manufacture cigarettes. These additives, such as acetic acid (vinegar), chocolate, vanilla, and menthol are found in everyday foods. Scientists, supported by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), generally regard these substances as safe in foods, but the risks for smokers are not known after combustion in cigarettes a

A new report marking the 25th anniversary of the “Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women” warns that the biggest future challenges for discrimination against women will be in countries that have failed to sign up to a key part of the Convention that actually allows women to complain about their country’s stance on discrimination against women.

Ann Stewart, Reader in Law at the University of Warwick, and Shradda Chigateri compiled the rep

With the time for New Year’s resolutions uncomfortably close, latest data from a huge nationwide study shows that obesity is up, as is drinking by women. We are also getting more depressed and anxious and taking more drugs, and the poorer we are, the more likely it is we will smoke and not exercise or eat healthily.

The research involved thousands of Britons who have been tracked in three major studies since they were born in 1946, 1958 or 1970. A fourth project, funded by

A careful analysis of the timing of over a million deaths reveals no evidence that cancer patients can intentionally postpone their demise in order to live long enough to reach an emotionally significant or meaningful event, say scientists in the Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center.

The findings, appearing in the December 22 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association, run counter to the widely held belief that some people are able to “cheat deat

Ballet dancers’ brains reveal the art of imitation

Scientists have discovered that a system in our brain which responds to actions we are watching, such as a dancer’s delicate pirouette or a masterful martial arts move, reacts differently if we are also skilled at doing the move. The University College London (UCL) study, published in the latest online edition of Cerebral Cortex, may help in the rehabilitation of people whose motor skills are damaged by stroke, and suggests that at

The advice to ’sleep on it’ for a while isn’t a bad idea, according to a new study done in part by University of Alberta researchers. Findings published in the December Journal of Sleep Research show that there may be an advantage to dreams that occur for up to a week after a memorable emotional event.

A study conducted by the University of Alberta and the University of Montreal of 470 psychology students revealed that not only do remembered events influence dreams

University of Nevada study finds plants assimilate mercury from air

Mercury gets around. A naturally occurring contaminant, mercury is found in water and soil but scientists are not exactly sure how mercury makes its way through the environment. Concerns over increasing levels of mercury contamination have sparked fish consumption advisories in certain areas.

Knowing how mercury ends up in these locations, however, is an area of concern for environmental scientists

Agents designed to attack blood vessels that feed a growing tumor are effective against tumor growth in laboratory experiments. However, results of early clinical trials with these inhibitors have not yet exhibited the same success observed in animal models. Now, a new study published in the December issue of Cancer Cell demonstrates that a unique time period exists during which combined radiation and antiangiogenic therapy can exert a remarkable synergistic effect that significantly slows tumor

The costs of caring for elderly Florida patients hospitalized for colon surgery are not reduced by Medicare HMOs, report University of South Florida researchers in the December issue of the Archives of Surgery.

Despite significantly shorter hospital stays, Medicare HMO beneficiaries who underwent colon resections — surgery to remove a diseased section of the large intestines — incurred the same overall hospital charges as patients covered by traditional fee-for-service Medica

Emergency department patients with unmet substance abuse treatment need generate much higher hospital and emergency department charges than patients without such need, according to a new study to be published today as an advance online publication of Annals of Emergency Medicine (Unmet Substance Abuse Treatment Need, Health Services Utilization, and Cost: A Population-Based Emergency Department Study).

Researchers led by Ian Rockett, PhD, from West Virginia University’s D