An MP is to launch a bid to get doctors to offer parents the option of storing their baby's umbilical cord blood.

A UK fertility centre starts offering cut-price IVF treatment for women who donate their eggs to research.

Cervical screening should be reinstated in England for women in their early 20s, researchers say.

Regardless of how fat or poor you are, four key changes could add 14 years to your life, a major study finds.

One of the positive effects of the rise in numbers of people who have asthma is that tons of research money is being poured into finding answers and treatment solutions....

Having too little vitamin D has been linked to an increased risk of heart disease, a US study has concluded.

According to the january issue of the Mayo Clinic Women's HealthSource, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease is increasingly becoming a problem for women. The most important risk factor for COPD is long term cigarette smoking. Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease is a broad term that describes any of a group of illnesses that block airflow through the lungs.

Free campaign packs are now available for health and other professionals for fpa's Contraceptive Awareness Week, 11th - 17th February, themed The New Man. Packs contain a range of exciting material including posters, banners, a professional briefing and leaflets from fpa's comprehensive range. Campaign packs can be ordered by emailing caw@fpa.org.uk. More details of the campaign can be found on fpa's website at http://www.fpa.

Japanese lawmakers pass a bill compensating people infected with hepatitis C by tainted blood products.

With the academic year at the half-way mark, millions of high school students are preparing to take their mid-term exams. Unfortunately, research is increasingly showing that more and more teens are not getting enough sleep, which can have a negative impact on their grades. Teens are no longer adhering to "lights out".

Premature babies are subject to a host of threats that can result in fetal/neonatal disease. In a study published in the January 2008 issue of the American Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology, researchers from the University of Alabama-Birmingham Medical School and the Drexel University College of Medicine found that genital mycoplasmas are a frequent cause of congenital fetal infection.

MUSCLES ARE AFFECTED BY CIGARETTE SMOKINGA new study has revealed the effects of smoking on skeletal muscles. Researchers from Venezuela studied the vastus lateralis muscle in 14 smokers and 20 nonsmoking control subjects. Elements such as muscle structure, enzyme activity, constitutive and inducible nitric oxide synthases, and the presence of macrophages were analyzed.

Reacting to Prime Minister Gordon Brown's speech on public health screening delivered today, Paul Cann, director of policy & external relations at Help the Aged comments: 'The Prime Minister's emphasis on prevention through measures such as screening for conditions like stroke or heart disease during mid-life is welcome. However, Help the Aged believes that far more should be done for the current older age group.

Journal of Urology Supplement Focuses on Focal Therapy as a ...

A ninety minute daytime nap helps speed up the process of long term memory consolidation, a recent study conducted by Prof. Avi Karni and Dr. Maria Korman of the Center for Brain and Behavior Research at the University of Haifa found. The research was published in the scientific journal Nature Neuroscience.

A Dundee cancer specialist is calling for the age at which people can buy cigarettes to be raised to 21. Dr Jayant Vaidya, from Ninewells Hospital and the University of Dundee, believes that after that age far fewer people want to start smoking. In October, selling tobacco to under 18s was made illegal, but Dr Vaidya believes the law should be tougher. He also wants a ban on selling cigarettes from vending machines and an increased tax on packets.

Doctors know that an impaired sense of smell is an early indicator of Parkinson's Disease.Now they want to know if a smell test can help determine if people with no symptoms eventually develop the disease."The analogy would be like diagnosing coronary artery disease before the heart attack," says Dr. Kapil Sethi, director of the Movement Disorders Program at the Medical College of Georgia and a lead investigator the Parkinson's Associated Risk Syndrome Study.

Malawian civil servants with HIV will be given a pay rise to help them buy more food, a government minister says.

I am not referring to a "break" from work or school, but rather all of the broken bones that I see the week or so after the holidays. Starting on December 26th, children started limping into my office, or came in favoring their arms - thanks to those new scooters, skateboards, and bicycles. Parents have been good about making kids wear helmets, but it is very difficult to protect those arms and legs from injury; especially when "ramps" are involved.