The timing of treatment may be a key factor in whether hormone replacement therapy (HRT) can slow heart vessel disease, report researchers from Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center and Tufts-New England Medical Center in the winter issue of Menopausal Medicine.

“Mounting evidence points to the conclusion that HRT can help prevent heart vessel disease – if the therapy begins around the time that the body stops making its own estrogen,” said Thomas B. Clarkson, D.V.M., of Wake Forest.

Adding composted biosolids rich with iron, manganese and organic matter to a lead-contaminated home garden in Baltimore appears to have bound the lead so it is less likely to be absorbed by the bodies of children who dirty their hands playing outside or are tempted to taste those delicious mud pies they “baked” in the backyard.

The garden soil in the study is similar to potentially hundreds of thousands of yards contaminated with lead in Baltimore and other inner cities, according to Sally

Infants accustomed to sleeping on their backs who are then placed to sleep on their stomachs or sides are at an increased risk for SIDS-greater than the increased SIDS risk of infants always placed on their stomachs or sides. The study, conducted by Kaiser Permanente in Northern and Southern California and supported by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) and the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communications Disorders (NIDCD), appears in the current issue of

In order for the body to grow, reproduce and remain cancer free, the cells of the body must have a mechanism for both detecting DNA damage and a feedback mechanism for telling the rest of the cell’s machinery to stop what it’s doing until the damage may be fixed. This feedback mechanism relies on checkpoints during different stages of the cell’s division cycle. Eric Brown and David Baltimore at the California Institute of Technology (Pasadena, CA) have now further defined how the ATR k

Northern Australia has been invaded by one of the world’s worst species of ant, which could affect human health and damage the environment, agriculture, and the economy.

“This little Yellow Crazy ant will destroy our culture, our land, our life,” says Balupalu Yunupingu, Dhimurru senior ranger, north-east Arnhem Land.

The Yellow Crazy ant is recognised by the Global Invasive Species Programme as one of the world’s worst invaders, and represents a major environmental and ec

Dartmouth researchers report in the March 1 issue of Cancer Research they have discovered an effective combination therapy to treat tumors. In the journal, which is a publication of the American Association for Cancer Research, the researchers report that administering light-activated, or photodynamic, therapy (PDT) immediately before radiation therapy appears to kill tumors more effectively than just the sum of the two treatments.

“Our study shows that the close combination of the two trea