American Institute for Cancer Research

Sleep Said To Help Motor Skills WASHINGTON (AP) -- Get a good night's sleep after piano practice: It may prove crucial to learning new skills such as tickling the ivories.

Seasonal Depression Can Accompany Summer Sun (The New York Times News Service) -- No one looks forward to spring more than people with seasonal affective disorder, who grow depressed in the waning light of winter. A smaller group of people, however, suffer on the opposite side of the calendar.

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States Push Meningitis Vaccination WASHINGTON (AP) -- Bacterial meningitis, while rare, can sicken and kill with terrifying swiftness. And college freshmen who live in dormitories are one of the prime targets. Now some states have begun mandating that most students who live on campus get vaccinated against meningococcal meningitis - and a group of mothers is making public their children's battles with the infection in hopes that even more students will get the often ignored shot that costs to .

Study: Emergency Care Improving SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (AP) -- Improvements in emergency care over the past 40 years have helped to dramatically lower the death rate among assault victims by nearly 70 percent and, in the process, decrease the nation's murder rate, according to a new study.

CDC Chief: West Nile Virus An Epidemic That Could Spread To Pacific Coast NEW ORLEANS (AP) -- West Nile virus is an "emerging, infectious disease epidemic" that could be spread all the way to the Pacific Coast by birds and mosquitoes, the director of the Centers for Disease Control said Sunday.

Study: Asian Pollution May Be Fatal LONDON (AP) -- The "Asian Brown Cloud," a 2-mile-thick blanket of pollution over South Asia, may be causing the premature deaths of a half-million people in India each year, deadly flooding in some areas and drought in others, according to the biggest-ever scientific study of the phenomenon.

Study: Stem Cell Implants Could Create New Blood Vessels, Save Limbs LONDON (AP) -- Injecting patients' own stem cells into their leg muscles could create new blood vessels, eliminating pain from bad circulation and helping to prevent gangrene or the amputation of feet or legs, new research indicates.

CDC: West Nile Victims Are Younger ATLANTA (AP) -- For reasons health officials cannot explain, this year's victims of the mosquito-borne West Nile virus are younger than usual.

AP Corrects Obesity Hormone Story (The Associated Press) -- Correction to the August 7 story "Scientists Discover Hormone That Helps Curb People's Appetites."

NIH Funds 30 Million Dollar Study To Settle Controversy Over Chelation Therapy For Heart Disease WASHINGTON (AP) -- The government is beginning a million study to determine once ands any benefit for sufferers of heart disease.

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Child Traffic Deaths At Record Low WASHINGTON (AP) -- The number of children who died in highway accidents last year was the lowest since the government started keeping records in 1975.

Aspirin May Ward Off Pancreas Cancer WASHINGTON (AP) -- Aspirin, already widely used by people hoping to ward off a heart attack, may also be helpful in preventing pancreatic cancer.

Good Cancer Care Helps Blacks, Whites WASHINGTON (AP) -- While blacks facing serious illnesses often do not fare as well as whites due to differences in their medical care, a study shows that when both groups get the same treatment the outcomes are similar.

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Suburbs See Rise In Low Birthweights WASHINGTON (AP) -- More and more low-birthweight babies are being born across the country, and the rate is growing even faster in the suburbs than in the cities.

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Scientists Discover Hormone That Helps Curb People's Appetites (The Associated Press) -- To help rescue us from our super-sized appetites, scientists say they have isolated the hormone that makes people feel full.

For Battered Women, Long-Lasting Protective Orders Work Dramatically CHICAGO (AP) -- A new study challenges the notion that battered women who obtain court orders of protection merely enrage their abusive husbands or boyfriends and subject themselves to more violence.

FDA Advisers Plug Hepatitis B Drug WASHINGTON (AP) -- A failed HIV therapy should be sold instead to treat the liver-destroying hepatitis B virus, advisers to the Food and Drug Administration ruled Tuesday.

Hormone Studies: What Went Wrong? By GINA KOLATA

BBC NEWS | UK | Scotland | Malaria treatment 'breakthrough'

Likely Ban on Abortion Technique Leaves Doctors Uneasy

Bruised Feelings in Health Care

Recipe for Car Power: Heat Vegetable Oil, Flip Switch and Go.`By CHRIS DIXON With the faint smell of French fries, a simple vegetable oil can be used to power an S.U.V. Agencies Agree to Bolster Organic Farming 2:23 a.m. ET

BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Stunning creativity of DNA pioneers

BBC NEWS | Europe | Secret Chernobyl archives released

SARS Guidance Issued to Further Safeguard the Blood Supply FDA has issued guidance to the nation's blood establishments on measures to further safeguard the blood supply against Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS). FDA is taking this interim measure while more is learned about the disease.

FDA Science Forum to Be Held April 24-25 "Protecting the Public Health" is the theme for the 2003 FDA Science Forum to be held April 24-25 at the new Washington Convention Center in Washington, D.C.

FDA Announces Labeling Changes on Heart Benefit of Zocor FDA has announced labeling changes for Zocor (simvastatin), based on the results of the Heart Protection Study. The new labeling reflects research showing that Zocor reduces risks of strokes and fatal and non-fatal heart attacks, and the need for bypass surgery and angioplasty.

FDA Grants Use of Brain Implant for Movement Disorder FDA has approved a brain implant to help control some symptoms of primary dystonia, a rare, debilitating movement disorder. The implant, a deep brain stimulator, was previously approved for treating Parkinson's disease and essential tremor.

White Wave Vanilla Silk Soymilk (contaminant)

King Richard Walnut Pound Cake (undeclared milk protein)

Perry Food Market Blueberry Strudel Bites (undeclared milk protein)

Marutama Company Ready-to-Eat Fish Cakes (undeclared eggs)

BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Stunning creativity of DNA pioneers

BBC NEWS | Americas | Biotoxin scare rattles US mail office

BBC NEWS | Health | Sars virus 'mutating rapidly'

BBC NEWS | Health | Bile 'limits stroke damage'

Guardian Unlimited Apr 22 2003 1:07PM GMT Sars virus 'mutating rapidly' BBC Apr 22 2003 11:47AM GMT

Search Narrows for SARS Treatment 7:31 p.m. ET

Sugar Lobby Says WHO Report Is Overstated 7:17 p.m. ET

Baghdad Doctors Report Suspected Diseases 5:59 p.m. ET Journal Criticizes Halting Drug Study 4:49 p.m. ET

Custody an Issue for Mentally Ill Kids 1:50 p.m. ET

For a media advisory, and for more Earth Day tips and activities in your state, visit

Breast scan pain fears 'unfounded' BBC, UK - Apr 19, 2003 Women should not let fear of pain deter them from being screened for breast cancer, researchers say. Experts say some are put off ...

Researchers probe gene possibly linked to breast cancer USA Today - 3 hours ago WASHINGTON (AP) — Researchers investigating a gene that they suspect helps spur breast cancer found an unusual racial disparity: The gene appears active more ...

Stem cell hope for heart patients BBC - 55 minutes ago Doctors in the United States say they have successfully used stem cells to treat patients with heart failure - a condition where the heart is unable to pump enough blood around the body.

Request Filed for Over-the-Counter Emergency Contraception Feminist Majority Foundation

Study: Tea Boosts Immune System CBS News - 1 hour ago Immune system blood cells from tea drinkers responded five times faster to germs than did the blood cells of coffee drinkers. (AP ...

CONVERSATION WITH New Test for Hearts at Risk: What It Can and Can't Do By LAURIE TARKAN Dr. Thomas A. Pearson of the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry helps clarify the recommendations for a new indicator of heart disease.

Hormone Studies: What Went Wrong? The New York Times By GINA KOLATA How could two large high-quality studies come to diametrically different conclusions about menopause, hormone therapy and heart disease?

Searching For The Ideal Diet In Stew Of Conflicting Food Advice WASHINGTON (AP) -- Eat less, exercise more. Most everyone knows it's the surest way to lose weight and keep it off.

Study: 1 In 4 Harlem Children Has Asthma NEW YORK (AP) -- One in four children in the city's Harlem section has asthma -- double the rate researchers expected and one of the highest neighborhood rates in the nation, a study found.

Hong Kong: SARS Quarantine Working HONG KONG (AP) -- Efforts to contain the spread of SARS by quarantining households of victims and tracking down potential contacts are paying off, and Hong Kong's government leader said Monday he is growing more confident about beating the disease.

An Aetna InteliHealth/Harvard Medical School Look At The News -- Eating Fish While You're Pregnant (Society for Women's Health Research) -- Pregnant women need to pay close attention to their consumption of fish, according to a new study published in the April 2nd Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). Approximately 8 percent of the women in the study had levels of mercury in their bloodstreams high enough to cause damage to developing fetuses. Read the story and comments from a Harvard physician.

Federal Study Shows No Link Between Pollution And Breast Cancer NEW YORK (AP) -- A study on possible links between pollution and the high rates of breast cancer on Long Island failed to show a connection, results showed Tuesday.

Doctors Treat Diabetes Personally WASHINGTON (AP) -- Some 17 million Americans have diabetes, and experts estimate a third don't even know it. But at least half of those who are diagnosed don't control their blood sugar well enough to slow diabetes' constant erosion of their bodies. The most sophisticated measurement of diabetes control - the A1C test - shows the nation has made little progress in a decade.

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Hormones' Effect On Sleep Gets A New Look In Study (The New York Times News Service) -- The debate on hormone replacement therapy has centered on its effects on heart disease and cancer, but at a recent medical conference in Seattle, researchers presented a hormone study that focused on a different question entirely. They were talking about sleep.

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Sunlight, A Cancer Protector In The Guise Of A Villain? (The New York Times News Service) -- In contrast to the often repeated warnings about tanning and skin cancer, some scientists have been exploring an almost heretical notion: Sunlight may actually protect against other cancers.

Asthma May Have Leveled Off In Kids, Government Data Shows CHICAGO (AP) -- Asthma rates may have leveled off in U.S. children after increasing in the 1980s and early 1990s, government research shows.

Reports Probe Safety Of Water Births CHICAGO (AP) -- Delivering babies underwater in so-called water births could result in occasional near-drownings and deaths, reports suggest in the August issue of Pediatrics.

Scientists Map Mouse Genome LOS ANGELES (AP) -- An international team has completed the most comprehensive map ever of the genetic code of the mouse, an accomplishment that will make the laboratory animal more useful to scientists studying human health and disease.

Researchers Create West Nile Model ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) -- More than half a dozen states worried about West Nile virus are using climate-based computer models to predict the course of the mosquito-borne disease before a fatal outbreak occurs.

Researchers Remove Mice Ovaries, Culture Eggs To Maturity SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- Japanese researchers have removed ovaries from fetal mice and matured the eggs in a test tube, a technique that someday could save the fertility of girls being treated for cancer.

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Researcher Hoping For Big Changes From Study Tying Second-Hand Smoke To Feline Lymphoma BOSTON (AP) -- Dr. Antony Moore knows smokers often won't quit to protect themselves or their children. But he hopes his new study tying second-hand smoke exposure to the most common kind of feline cancer will persuade some people to kick the habit.

Huntington's Study Looks Promising WASHINGTON (AP) -- A bile acid the body produces in small amounts is able in laboratory studies to slow the progress of Huntington's disease, a fatal, inherited brain disorder that destroys the mind and has affected about 30,000 Americans.

West Nile Virus Spreading Faster Than Expected WASHINGTON (AP) -- West Nile virus is sickening people far earlier this summer than usual, and is spreading so quickly - it's hit 34 states, as far west as South Dakota - that health officials believe it will reach California this year or next.

Some Student Vaccine Rules Relaxed INDIANAPOLIS (AP) -- At least four states are relaxing student immunization standards at the start of the school year because of lingering shortages in vaccines for many common childhood diseases.

Stem Cells Grow Eye Blood Vessels WASHINGTON (AP) -- Stem cells taken from bone marrow can grow new blood vessels in the eyes of mice, a development researchers say raises the possibility of treating some diseases that often lead to blindness in humans.

In Families On Welfare, A Rise In Children In Homes With Neither Parent (The New York Times News Service) -- When studies last year showed that the share of the nation's children living in single- parent households had declined in the late 1990s, many welcomed the results as signs that the 1996 welfare overhaul was working.

Comfort Care Urged For Dying Kids WASHINGTON (AP) -- Caring for a dying child can drain a family emotionally long before the end, yet few doctors or hospital staff are taught ways to help ease the burden.

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Panel: Pregnant Women Avoid Tuna BELTSVILLE, Md. (AP) -- Pregnant women who eat too much tuna risk exposing their unborn babies' developing brains to possibly harmful mercury levels, but there is no need for the women to cut the highly nutritious fish out of their diets altogether, a government advisory panel said.

Anthrax Screening System Is Created (The Associated Press) -- In a development that could boost anthrax research, scientists have created a way to rapidly screen thousands of drugs to ferret out those capable of disarming one of the bacteria's deadly toxins.

Government Warns On Ear Implants (The Associated Press) -- At least 13 people with cochlear implants to restore their hearing have come down with meningitis, including two preschoolers who died, the government said Thursday -- warning that the implants might allow an infection to fester deep in the ear.

Group: Air Pollution Adds To Illness WASHINGTON (AP) -- Adding insult to injury, breathing polluted air when you have a cold makes you feel twice as bad.

FDA Looks Into Pregnant Women, Fish BELTSVILLE, Md. (AP) -- Critics charge the Food and Drug Administration needs to tell pregnant women just how many types of fish are contaminated with enough mercury to hurt their unborn baby's developing brain.

Study: Women Have Better Memories WASHINGTON (AP) -- The reason wives are better at remembering emotional issues than husbands may be because women's brains are wired to both feel and recall emotions more keenly than those of men, a new study found.

FDA Mulls Nonsurgical Sterilization WASHINGTON (AP) -- A tiny, spring-like device threaded into the fallopian tubes seems to offer women permanent birth control without surgery and should be approved for sale, advisers to the Food and Drug Administration voted Monday.

Doctors Study Why Elderly So Prone To Suicide, How To Help WASHINGTON (AP) -- Senior citizens commit suicide at higher rates than any other age group, and with graying Baby Boomers - already more prone to suicide than other generations - entering the riskiest years, psychiatrists fear that could soon worsen.

Study: Education Helps Patient Health WASHINGTON (AP) -- When dealing with diseases requiring complex treatments, well-educated patients do better than those with less schooling, according to a RAND study.

Inflammation: A new link to disease

Silicon granulomas and dermatomyositis-like changes associated with chronic eyelid edema after silicone breast implant.

Inflammatory responses to biomaterials.

Silicone-induced erosive arthritis: radiologic features in seven cases.

Elevated C-Reactive Protein Levels in Overweight and Obese Adults

Inflammatory Biomarkers, Hormone Replacement Therapy, and Incident Coronary Heart Disease

Study: Tea Boosts The Body's Defenses WASHINGTON (AP) -- An ordinary cup of tea may be a powerful infection fighter, a study suggests. Researchers report in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that they have found in tea a chemical that boosts the body's defense fivefold against disease.

Hong Kong Believes It's Beating SARS HONG KONG (AP) -- Quarantine measures appear to be paying off in Hong Kong's fight against SARS and its leader voiced growing confidence about beating the disease, but experts said Tuesday it's unclear when the crisis can end.

An Aetna InteliHealth/Harvard Medical School Look At The News -- Genetics And Race WASHINGTON (AP) -- Researchers investigating a gene that they suspect helps spur breast cancer found an unusual racial disparity: The gene appears active more often in the tumors of black women than white women. Read the story and comments from a Harvard physician.

China's Reported SARS Cases Top 2,000 BEIJING (AP) -- China said Tuesday that 11 more people had died of SARS, raising the total on the mainland to 97, as city officials in Beijing were ordered to step up their efforts to fight the disease.