Better management of blood sugar levels and improved tools for managing heart disease have led to a sharp drop in the death rate for diabetics, researchers from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Tuesday. Between 1997 and 2006, deaths of diabetics from all causes declined 23% while deaths from heart disease fell 40%, the team reported in the journal Diabetes Care. The finding represents a two-edged sword, however: While improved survival is good for individual patients, it puts an increasing burden on the U.S. healthcare system because of the growing number of people...

Giving stroke victims cholesterol-lowering statins while they are still in the hospital increases the likelihood that they will survive the stroke and be able to go home, researchers reported Tuesday. It has been known that giving the drugs to a stroke victim lowers the odds of having a second stroke, said Dr. Alexander C. Flint, a neurologist at Kaiser Permanente in Redwood City, Calif. But it has not been clear how soon to begin the drugs after the initial stroke. The new report in the journal Neurology suggests that the drugs should be given immediately.

Flint and his colleagues examined the...

American adolescents already carry a heavy burden of future heart disease risk, and while obesity has contributed mightily to their poorer health prospects, normal-weight kids are by no means off the hook, a study produced by the Centers for Disease Control says.

In a study published Monday in the journal Pediatrics (read the full text here), CDC researchers say that overweight and obesity among American adolescents -- those between 12 and 19 years old -- has pushed the  prevalence of pre-diabetes and Type-2 diabetes from 9% in 1999 to 23% in 2008.

Diabetes is a major risk factor for heart...

The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force has released new guidelines for prostate cancer screening — urging doctors not to use the popular PSA test to detect the disease.

The new recommendations, which were published in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine on Monday, hardly mark the first time public health officials have called the value of the blood test into question. The first concern is that the test doesn't actually save lives. The second is that it might cause harm because it ferrets out slow-growing cases of prostate cancer as well as aggressive ones -- leading many men with...

For postmenopausal women who are obese, breast cancer is more likely. That's because fat tissue seems to behave essentially as an organ of the endocrine system, pumping out the hormone estrogen. And estrogen is a driver of many common breast cancers. But losing as little as 5% of one's body weight — 10 pounds for a 200-pound woman — drives down levels of estrogen and other hormones that raise breast cancer risk, a new study finds.

In combination with weight loss, exercise drove down hormone levels even more, an effect that is likely to reduce a woman's risk of developing breast...

Warning: Music may be hazardous to your health.

It’s not just your hearing that’s at risk, according to a study out Monday in the June issue of the journal Pediatrics. Teens and young adults who listen to digital music players with ear buds are almost twice as likely as non-listeners to smoke pot, the study says. And those who attend concerts or frequent dance clubs are nearly six times as likely as homebodies to go on a binge-drinking bender.

These findings are based on survey results collected from 944 low-income students at two vocational schools in the Netherlands. The students...

An inexpensive arthritis drug called auranofin has been shown in lab and animal tests to kill the parasites that cause amoebic dysentery and giardiasis, and human trials are expected to start soon. The gold-containing drug, marketed under the trade name Ridaura, has already been demonstrated to be safe in humans, is much more powerful than existing treatments, and could be provided in developing countries for as little as $2.50 per dose, researchers said. If the results hold up in clinical trials, the drug could provide a new way to reduce suffering in both children and adults.

Amoebic...

A new genetic study suggests that high-density lipoprotein, the so-called good cholesterol commonly known as HDL, may not actually be as good for us as physicians previously thought. A study of more than 100,000 people found that those with genes that promote production of higher-than-normal levels of HDL do not have a lower risk of having a heart attack, a finding that has surprised researchers immensely. The results could have major implications for pharmaceutical manufacturers, who have been attempting to develop drugs that will raise HDL in the hopes of preventing heart attacks in people...

Rats fed fructose-laced drinking water for six weeks performed more slowly in a maze-navigating task, UCLA researchers have found. (Read this L.A. Times opinion article.) They think the effect is due to changes in the way the brain responds to insulin as a result of exposure to fructose.

Disco legend Donna Summer, 63, died Wednesday night, reportedly of lung cancer. As of press time, her family hadn’t released details about her illness, so it was unknown what type of lung cancer she had, and how long she may have been ailing.

According to the American Cancer Society, lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death in both women and men, killing more than 150,000 people per year -- more than colon, breast, ovarian and prostate cancers combined. In 2012, the group estimates, there will be about 226,000 new cases of lung cancer in the U.S.

Survival rates of people with lung...