- MONDAY, July 7 (HealthDay News) — In a further concession to the
impact of the childhood obesity epidemic in the United States, a leading
group of pediatricians is recommending that kids as young as 8 years old
be given cholesterol-lowering drugs in hopes of preventing heart problems
later in life.

The American Academy of Pediatrics also recommends that [...]

- MONDAY, July 7 (HealthDay News) — A molecule that uses a cellular
recycling process called autophagy to kill cancer cells has been
identified by Stanford University researchers.

Autophagy is normally used by cells to conserve resources during times
of stress.

“Increasing evidence implicates a role for autophagy in cancer, but it
is not well understood how cellular and [...]

- MONDAY, July 7 (HealthDay News) — Science may have confirmed what most
moms already know: When a woman sees her baby smile, certain areas of her
brain activate, stimulating happy feelings.

“There's a definite biological origin to these feelings that mothers
have,” said study author Dr. Lane Strathearn, an assistant professor in
the department of pediatrics at Baylor [...]

- MONDAY, July 7 (HealthDay News) — If 156 million adults in the
United States took better care of themselves, the average American would
live 1.3 years longer, and the number of heart attacks would fall by 63
percent.

That's the conclusion of a joint study released Monday that combined
the resources of the American Heart Association, the American [...]

- MONDAY, July 7 (HealthDay News) — Violence between partners,
friends and acquaintances is common before and during college, a new study
shows.

Researchers surveyed 910 undergraduates aged 17 to 22 (57.1 percent
female) at three urban college campuses to detect this trend.

Among the findings:

407 (44.7 percent) of respondents said they experienced violence
either before or during college, including [...]

- MONDAY, July 7 (HealthDay News) — The widely prescribed class of
antidepressants known as SSRIs may be associated with bleeding in the
upper gastrointestinal tract, especially when taken with painkillers
called nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, a new study says.

Although reports of this effect from the selective serotonin reuptake
inhibitors family of antidepressants — which includes Prozac, Paxil and
Zoloft [...]

- MONDAY, July 7 (HealthDay News) — Pregnancy alone isn't
associated with an increased risk of mental health disorders, a new study
says.

It's been suggested that pregnant women and those who've recently given
birth are at high risk for psychiatric disorders, which can harm the
health of their children, according to background information in the
study.

To determine whether this [...]

- MONDAY, July 7 (HealthDay News) — High intake of the omega-3
fatty acids in oily fish and vegetable cooking oils appear to help prevent
heart attacks, while the omega-6 fatty acids in vegetables and nuts help
keep blood pressure low, two international research teams report.

A study in Costa Rica found that high intake of omega-3 fatty [...]

- MONDAY, July 7 (HealthDay News) — Infants cared for by
caregivers other than their parents tend to gain more weight than children
cared for by their parents, a new study says.

And children receiving regular care from people other than their
parents are also less likely to be breast-fed and more likely to be
introduced to solid [...]

Volunteer parish nurse Joanie Friend of the Bradley Hills Presbyterian Church takes the blood pressure of elderly patient Hazel Sears at Sears’ home in Bethesda, Maryland, September 21, 2007. (Jim Bourg/Reuters)

CHICAGO (Reuters) -
Treating high blood pressure in the
very elderly may help reduce their risk of developing dementia,
researchers said on Monday.

Blood pressure treatment in the [...]