Month: June 2013

WASHINGTON (AP) — If worry about skin cancer doesn't make you slather on sunscreen, maybe vanity will: New research provides some of the strongest evidence to date that near-daily sunscreen use can slow the aging of your skin.

By Genevra Pittman NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Using sunscreen every day may help protect against aging skin, according to a new study from Australia. Although the benefits of sunscreen are well know when it comes to preventing sunburns and lowering skin cancer risks, researchers said rigorous studies were lacking on how sunscreen use affects the signs of skin aging, or photoaging. Still, one dermatologist who wasn’t involved in the new study said the findings just reinforce what skin doctors already know and tell their patients. …

By Andrew M. Seaman NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – People who limit how much meat they eat and stick to mostly fruits and vegetables are less likely to die over any particular period of time, according to a new study. "I think this adds to the evidence showing the possible beneficial effect of vegetarian diets in the prevention of chronic diseases and the improvement of longevity," said Dr. Michael Orlich, the study's lead author from Loma Linda University in California. In 2012, a Gallup poll found about 5 percent of Americans reported to be vegetarians. …

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama said Monday that he wants to end the stigma of mental illness and enrolled the star power of actors Bradley Cooper and Glenn Close at a White House conference organized in response to the December shootings at a Connecticut elementary school.

By Genevra Pittman NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Despite some evidence it might be beneficial for adults, eating flaxseed every day didn’t help children with high cholesterol get their numbers down, in a small new study. Researchers asked kids to eat muffins and bread with extra flaxseed and found there was no change in their LDL, or “bad” cholesterol, compared to those who ate baked goods made without flaxseed. And their HDL, or “good” cholesterol, went down on the flaxseed diet. …

By Roberta Rampton WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama said on Monday that Americans need to become more open about mental health issues so that people struggling with problems are not ashamed to seek help. More than 60 percent of Americans with mental illness do not receive treatment, many of them because they are embarrassed or afraid of being ostracized, Obama said, speaking at a White House conference on mental health. "We wouldn't accept it if only 40 percent of Americans with cancers got treatment," Obama said. …

Meeting Your Spouse Online May Lead to A Better Marriage

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Lou Reed says he is "bigger and stronger than ever" after a life-saving liver transplant and is looking forward to getting back to performing on stage. "I am a triumph of modern medicine, physics and chemistry," the 71-year-old rocker said on his website after his wife revealed news of the transplant at the weekend. "I am bigger and stronger than ever. My Chen Taiji and health regime has served me well all of these years," Reed said, referring to a traditional martial arts workout regime aimed at promoting health and relaxation. …

By David Morgan WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Fourteen Republican-led states that oppose expanding Medicaid under President Barack Obama's health reform will leave 3.6 million of their poorest adult residents uninsured, at a cost of $9.4 billion per year by 2017, researchers said on Monday. The findings, published in the journal Health Affairs, could point to a larger-than-expected impact from the bitter political feud engulfing a major provision of the healthcare reform law due to take full effect next year. …

By Sharon Begley NEW YORK (Reuters) – Despite the more than $50 billion that U.S. pharmaceutical companies have spent every year since the mid-2000s to discover new medications, drugmakers have barely improved on old standbys developed decades ago. Research published on Monday showed that the effectiveness of new drugs, as measured by comparing the response of patients on those treatments to those taking a placebo, has plummeted since the 1970s. …

CHICAGO (AP) — New research suggests that bad genes may be responsible for more breast cancer cases in black women than has been previously known. About 1 in 5 African-American women with the disease have an inherited mutation that drastically raises their risk for breast and ovarian cancer, according to a study released Monday.

By Daniel Lovering BOSTON (Reuters) – The last person hospitalized with injuries from the April 15 Boston Marathon bombings was discharged on Monday, still facing a long recovery from the loss of her left leg and severe injuries to her right leg. Three people were killed and 264 injured, many losing legs, when two homemade pressure-cooker bombs exploded near the finish line of the race. Erika Brannock, 29, a preschool teacher from Baltimore, had traveled to the city with her sister and brother-in-law to support her mother, who was running her first marathon. …