Month: April 2014

By Kathryn Doyle NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Teenage girls who eat more colorful fruits and vegetables are less likely to develop benign breast disease as young adults, according to a new study. Benign breast disease, or a group of lumps that can develop during adolescence or young adulthood, is not in itself dangerous. But benign breast disease does increase the risk of breast cancer later in life, the authors of the new study write. Seeing the same association between certain antioxidants and benign breast disease among teen girls as has been seen for breast cancer among adults is exciting, Caroline E. Boeke said.

By Jonathan Allen NEW YORK (Reuters) – The driver of a train that derailed in December in New York City, killing four passengers, had an undiagnosed sleep disorder at the time of the accident, the National Transportation Safety Board said on Monday. William Rockefeller, the engineer at the controls of the Metro-North commuter train that derailed in the Bronx on December 1, suffered from severe sleep apnea, which can cause drowsiness, according to documents published by the safety board on Monday. The documents also included a transcript of Rockefeller's interview with investigators two days after the crash, which provides the fullest account yet of the "hypnotic" state he said overcame him before he realized his train was derailing. "I was dazed, you know, looking straight ahead, almost like mesmerized," Rockefeller told investigators.

Foods such as chickpeas, lentils or peas found to reduce bad cholesterol.

The fundraiser was cancelled after critics called the charity “anti-vaccine.”

A U.N. envoy on Monday urged Myanmar to allow the return of aid groups forced to flee attacks in Rakhine state, warning their departure threatened "severe consequences" for Muslims sheltering in camps from violence by majority Buddhists. Tomas Ojea Quintana, the U.N.'s Special Rapporteur on the human rights situation in Myanmar, said water shortages could reach critical levels within a week in some displacement camps, where 140,000 people live as a result of communal conflict since 2012. "These workers were in Rakhine State providing essential life-saving support, including health services, water and food to internally displaced persons, isolated villages, and other affected communities," Quintana said. Recent developments in Rakhine State were the latest in a long history of discrimination against the Muslim Rohingya community, which he said "could amount to crimes against humanity".

Specialty pharmaceuticals company Mallinckrodt Plc will buy drugmaker Questcor Pharmaceuticals Inc for about $5.6 billion to gain access to its multiple sclerosis drug, Acthar Gel, which is set to hit sales of $1 billion this year. The acquisition is Dublin-based Mallinckrodt’s second in less than two months as it pushes into the lucrative specialty drugs market, which focuses on complex and chronic diseases. Mallinckrodt’s shareholders took a dim view of the deal, however, pushing the company’s shares down as much as 10 percent. Questcor has been facing federal probes into its marketing practices related to Acthar and multiple accusations from short-seller Citron Research.