It is “too soon to celebrate” reports that Medicaid spending declined by 1.4% in the first nine months of 2006 — the first-ever decrease in spending for the program since it began in 1965 — but “it’s encouraging that there are new ideas for controlling medical costs without reverting to pre-1965 privations,” a [click link for full article]

Many people with fibromyalgia - a debilitating pain syndrome that affects 2 to 4 percent of the population - have faced the question of whether the condition is real.Fibromyalgia often has been misdiagnosed as arthritis or even a psychological issue. [click link for full article]

A higher body mass index (BMI), especially in early adulthood, may be associated with a reduced risk of breast cancer before menopause, according to an article in the November 27 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals. This association does not appear to be related to ovulation problems that overweight women may develop. [click link for full article]

A magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) study of healthy marathon runners over age 50 showed that cardiovascular disease occurs among seemingly healthy endurance athletes and may be difficult to distinguish from the effects of training the heart muscle. The findings were presented at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA).”Radiologists can use MRI to identify cardiovascular disease that is not yet causing symptoms,” said Torleif A. Sandner, M.D. [click link for full article]

“Changing the Medicare prescription drug benefit based on inaccurate and misleading information will only hurt beneficiaries,” Ken Johnson, senior vice president of PhRMA writes in a Chicago Sun-Times letter to the editor. Johnson’s letter is in response to a Nov. [click link for full article]

With flu-shot season in full swing and widespread anticipation of the HPV vaccine to prevent cervical cancer, a new University of Rochester study suggests that using common painkillers around the time of vaccination might not be a good idea.Researchers showed that certain nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), also known as cyclooxygenase inhibitors, react with the immune system in such a way that might reduce the effectiveness of vaccines. [click link for full article]

Drugs used to treat many cancers, chemotherapy drugs, such as cisplatin, carmustine and cytarabine, may damage and destroy brain cells, say scientists from the University of Rochester, USA. A term has been around for a long time - ‘chemo brain’ - which refers to reduced cognitive functions, seizures and brain loss experienced by some patients after receiving chemotherapy. [click link for full article]

Some women’s rights advocates and doctors’ groups in Nicaragua have said that changes to the country’s abortion ban approved earlier this month caused the death of a pregnant woman, the Washington Post reports (Aizenman, Washington Post, 11/28). [click link for full article]

* Alcohol can help people initially fall asleep, but leads to poor-quality sleep later in the night. * Escalated consumption of alcohol to aid sleep can lead to alcoholism. * Inaccurate sleep perceptions among alcoholics in early recovery may predict relapse to drinking. Alcohol can initially have sleep-inducing effects among non-alcoholics, but once drinking becomes chronic, alcohol’s effects on sleep become much more negative in nature. [click link for full article]

Central Texas hospitals have implemented strategies to reduce the time between cardiac patients checking into an emergency department and checking out, an effort prompted by recent studies that indicate faster care improves survival rates, the Austin American-Statesman reports. [click link for full article]