Ex-smokers achieved non-smokers’ level of arterial stiffness after a decade of smoking cessation, in a cross-sectional study reported in Hypertension: Journal of the American Heart Association.”Smoking is a major risk factor, not only for lung disease and cancer, but also for heart attack, stroke and heart failure,” said lead author Noor Ahmed Jatoi, M.B.B.S., D.C.N., D.M.M.D. [click link for full article]

A survey of Medicare patients who had major elective surgery found that although most participated in the decision regarding the hospital at which they would undergo their procedures, physicians served as the main decision-makers one-third of the time, according to an article in the March issue of Archives of Surgery, one of the JAMA/Archives journals. [click link for full article]

One “reason SCHIP is in trouble is because it has allowed states to provide taxpayer-subsidized health care for adults and middle-income families, even when poor children go without coverage,” Grace-Marie Turner, president of the Galen Institute, writes in a Wall Street Journal opinion piece. [click link for full article]

The Los Angeles Times on Sunday examined the “new generation of hyper-expensive cancer drugs” that tend to extend lives by only a few months. [click link for full article]

A Swedish study has found that elevated blood sugar in women is linked with increased risk of developing cancer.The study is published in the March issue of Diabetes Care and was sponsored by the World Cancer Research Fund.Researchers led by Dr. [click link for full article]

“Exaggerated fears that illegal immigrants are fraudulently receiving Medicaid health benefits have led to a crackdown that is preventing tens of thousands of American citizens from obtaining legitimate coverage,” a “travesty” for which Congress is responsible and “needs to fix,” according to a New York Times editorial. [click link for full article]

While the life expectancy of whites continues to be longer than it is for blacks, the gap has narrowed in the past 10 years in part because of declining death rates from AIDS-related complications, homicide, accidental injury and other factors, according to a report in the March 21 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association, [click link for full article]

“Eat your vegetables” has been heard at the dinner tables of America for a long time. Has the message gotten through? Since 1990 the Dietary Guidelines for Americans has recommended consuming at least two servings of fruits and three servings of vegetables daily. However, two studies published in the April issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine clearly show that Americans are not meeting the mark. [click link for full article]

New non-toxic and targeted therapies for metastatic breast and ovarian cancers may now be possible, thanks to a discovery by a team of researchers at the University of British Columbia. [click link for full article]

The New York Times on Monday examined how two competing mental health parity bills — one sponsored by Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) and the other by his son, Rep. Patrick Kennedy (D-R.I.) — “reflect different views about what is possible and what is politically feasible” in expanding coverage for mental illnesses. [click link for full article]