Body

SEATTLE – Although previous research has linked alcohol consumption to an increased risk of developing breast cancer, a new study has found that drinking before and after diagnosis does not impact survival from the disease. In fact, a modest survival benefit was found in women who were moderate drinkers before and after diagnosis due to a reduced risk of dying from cardiovascular disease, a major cause of mortality among breast cancer survivors.

Health systems worldwide are increasingly negotiating secret price rebates from pharmaceutical companies and Canadians risk losing out on the deal.

"The pricing of medicines is now a game of negotiation, similar to buying a car at a dealership," says Steve Morgan, an expert in health policy at the University of British Columbia. "There's a list price equivalent to a manufacturer's suggested retail price; and then there's secret deals that everyone negotiates from there."

A study suggests that states with stricter school meal nutrition standards were associated with better weight status among students who received free or reduced-price lunches compared with students who did not eat school lunches, according to a report published Online First by JAMA Pediatrics, a JAMA Network publication.

In this News Digest:

(CHICAGO) – Older adults who are subject to elder abuse, neglect and exploitation face a greater risk of being hospitalized than other seniors, according to the results of a study published in the April 8 issue of JAMA Internal Medicine.

The shape of an individual's spinal column may predict his or her risk for nursing home admission or need of home assistance in old age, according to a new article published online in the Journals of Gerontology Series A: Biological Sciences and Medical Sciences.

COLUMBIA, Mo. — Studies show 97 percent of American adults get less than 30 minutes of exercise a day, which is the minimum recommended amount based on federal guidelines. New research from the University of Missouri suggests certain genetic traits may predispose people to being more or less motivated to exercise and remain active. Frank Booth, a professor in the MU College of Veterinary Medicine, along with his post-doctoral fellow Michael Roberts, were able to selectively breed rats that exhibited traits of either extreme activity or extreme laziness.

Monday, April 8, 2013, Cleveland: Patients who have open heart surgery for heart disease caused by radiation cancer treatment are nearly twice as likely to die in the years following their surgery compared to similar patients who did not undergo radiation treatment, according to new research from Cleveland Clinic published today in the American Heart Association journal Circulation.

CAMBRIDGE, MA -- Nearly half of the world's population is at risk of infection by the dengue virus, yet there is no specific treatment for the disease. Now a therapy to protect people from the virus could finally be a step closer, thanks to a team at MIT.

In a paper published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the researchers, from MIT's Koch Institute of Integrative Cancer Research, present a novel approach to developing a dengue therapy using mutated antibodies.

As any stepdad can tell you, it's one thing to win a mom's heart and another to win over her children.

Although one-third of American children live in a stepfamily during part of their childhood, little is known about the development of the relationship between stepfathers and stepchildren.

New research from Brigham Young University fills that gap with a study that identified three factors that significantly contribute to closeness in stepfamilies:

Monarch butterflies have long been admired for their sense of direction, as they migrate from Canada and the United States to Mexico. According to new findings from a team of scientists, including researchers from the University of Guelph, the winged insects fly without a map, and use basic orientation and landmarks to find their way to their wintering sites, thousands of miles away.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Tumor suppression, the family business of the sibling genes p53, p63 and p73, is undermined from within by the split personalities of p63 and p73, which each produce protein forms that not only block the work of the other two genes but also shut down its own cancer-stifling fraternal twin.

When small particles flow through thin capillaries, they display an unusual orientation behaviour. This has recently been discovered by a research team led by Prof. Stephan Förster and Prof. Walter Zimmermann (University of Bayreuth, Germany) at the X-ray sources DORIS III and PETRA III of the research centre DESY in Hamburg, Germany. The discovery is of major importance for spinning processes designed for the production of synthetic fibres, and for the understanding of vascular stenosis.

Scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have shown they can coax cells to move toward a beam of light. The feat is a first step toward manipulating cells to control insulin secretion or heart rate using light.

Their research is published April 8 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Online Early Edition.

Tampa, FL (April 8, 2013) -- A new discovery about the malaria-related parasite Toxoplasma gondii -- which can threaten babies, AIDS patients, the elderly and others with weakened immune function -- may help solve the mystery of how this single-celled parasite establishes life-long infections in people.

The study, led by a University of South Florida research team, places the blame squarely on a family of proteins, known as AP2 factors, which evolved from the regulators of flowering in plants.