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ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- Patients with head and neck cancer who used antacid medicines to control acid reflux had better overall survival, according to a new study from the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center.

Reflux can be a common side effect of chemotherapy or radiation treatment for head and neck cancer. Doctors at the University of Michigan frequently prescribe two types of antacids - proton pump inhibitors or histamine 2 blockers - to help treat this side effect.

Sons whose fathers have criminal records tend to have lower cognitive abilities than sons whose fathers have no criminal history, data from over 1 million Swedish men show. The research, conducted by scientists in Sweden and Finland, indicates that the link is not directly caused by fathers' behavior but is instead explained by genetic factors that are shared by father and son.

The study is published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science.

EVANSTON, Ill. --- Birth weight makes a difference to a child's future academic performance, according to new Northwestern University research that found heavier newborns do better in elementary and middle school than infants with lower birth weights.

Led by a multidisciplinary team of Northwestern researchers, the study raises an intriguing question: Does a fetus benefit from a longer stay in the mother's womb?

1. Better glucose control in midlife may protect against cognitive decline later in life

While policymakers and health care professionals have identified health information exchanges -- organizations that facilitate the sharing of patient medical information electronically between different organizations -- as a promising solution to fragmented health care delivery in the United States, a RAND Corporation review found that few of the more than 100 such organizations have been evaluated.

Over 75 million adults in the US are obese. These individuals are predisposed to health complications, including diabetes, heart disease, and cancer. Gastric bypass surgery results in dramatic weight loss and can improve diabetes symptoms in obese patients. A new study in the Journal of Clinical Investigation reveals that exercise following bypass surgery provides additional benefit for obese patients. Bret Goodpaster and colleagues at the University of Pittsburgh conducted a study on individuals that had recently undergone gastric bypass surgery.

Premature ovarian failure (POF) is estimated to affect 1-4% of the female population. Women with POF can present with a variety of symptoms and many genes have been linked to this condition. A new study in the Journal of Clinical Investigation identifies a specific mutation in a family that results in POF. Aleksandar Rajkovic and colleagues at the University of Pittsburgh studied 3 sisters with POF-associated symptoms and identified and mutation in MCM8, a gene involved in chromosome maintenance. Siblings without the MCM8 mutation did not have any signs of POF.

ORLANDO, Fla., December 1, 2014 - A new study by researchers at the Florida Hospital - Sanford-Burnham Translational Research Institute for Metabolism and Diabetes (TRI-MD) shows that patients who moderately exercise after bariatric surgery (weight-loss surgery) gain additional health improvements in glucose metabolism and cardiorespiratory fitness compared to patients who lead a sedentary lifestyle after surgery. The findings confirm the physiological and potential clinical benefits of adding an exercise regime following weight-loss surgery.

(NEW YORK - December 1, 2014) Kidneys donated by people born with a small variation in the code of a key gene may be more likely, once in the transplant recipient, to accumulate scar tissue that contributes to kidney failure, according to a study led by researchers at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and published today in the Journal of Clinical Investigation.

Treatment with the anticholesterol medicine rosuvastatin calcium did not reduce the risk of fracture among men and women who had elevated levels of an inflammatory biomarker, according to a report published online by JAMA Internal Medicine.

Parents of children who fell at home were more likely not to use safety gates and not to have taught their children rules about climbing on things in the kitchen, according to a study published online by JAMA Pediatrics.

In a remarkable collaborative effort between human and veterinary clinicians, a 29-year-old bottlenose dolphin recently underwent therapeutic bronchoscopy to treat airway narrowing, or stenosis, that was interfering with her breathing. The dolphin, a therapy animal for mentally and physically challenged children at Island Dolphin Care in Key Largo, Florida, is doing well one year after the procedure.

LA JOLLA, CA - December 1, 2014 - Researchers can now explore viruses, bacteria and components of the human body in more detail than ever before with software developed at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI).

In a study published December 1 in the journal Nature Methods, the researchers demonstrated how the software, called cellPACK, can be used to model viruses such as HIV.

"We hope to ultimately increase scientists' ability to target any disease," said Art Olson, professor and Anderson Research Chair at TSRI who is senior author of the new study.

Existing age estimates of American mastodon fossils indicate that these extinct relatives of elephants lived in the Arctic and Subarctic when the area was covered by ice caps--a chronology that is at odds with what scientists know about the massive animals' preferred habitat: forests and wetlands abundant with leafy food.

The rapid evolution of HIV, which has allowed the virus to develop resistance to patients' natural immunity, is at the same time slowing the virus's ability to cause AIDS, according to new research funded by the Wellcome Trust.

The study also indicates that people infected by HIV are likely to progress to AIDS more slowly - in other words the virus becomes less 'virulent' - because of widespread access to antiretroviral therapy (ART).