In anticipation of the new school year, Mental Health America and its 320 affiliates nationwide have provided resources to college students on campuses across the nation to help them manage stress levels and address common mental health problems. The August edition of the Mental Health America podcast, Chiming In, explores campus mental health issues and provides tips and resources to help students improve mental health. [click link for full article]

Heavy rain and flooding continues to plague the Midwest and South Central US submerging thousands of residences and businesses and leaving 22 people dead. The American Red Cross was among the first on the ground and continues to respond to the torrential storm systems throughout Minnesota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Texas and Wisconsin by providing food, shelter, counseling and other assistance made possible by funds from the American Red Cross Disaster Relief Fund. [click link for full article]

As we approach peak hurricane season on the heels of a national survey that revealed only seven percent of Americans have taken the recommended actions to prepare for disasters, the American Red Cross joins a nationwide effort to help communities get prepared during National Preparedness Month. [click link for full article]

Instead of the usual Monday to Friday rat race why not join a weekend one in aid of Cancerbackup, the charity supporting thousands of people affected by cancer every year. The Rat Race Urban Adventure takes place in London on Saturday 29 and Sunday 30 September. [click link for full article]

At first it was founded to stem the scientific ‘brain drain’ from Israel, but the Israel Cancer Research Fund (ICRF) now says it is looking to Israeli scientists for a prescription to stop cancer deaths. They recently moved a step closer. A team of researchers from the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, led by ICRF-supported scientist Professor Yosef Yarden, has identified a specific protein that enables breast cancer cells to metastasize and spread to other organs. [click link for full article]

The widespread use of tests to determine the sex of a fetus in India are fueling an increase in sex-selective abortion, government officials and advocates said Tuesday at a meeting examining the issue, Reuters reports (Bhalla, Reuters, 8/21). According to a UNICEF [click link for full article]

Jennie Ching-I Tsao, associate professor of pediatrics in the Pediatric Pain Program at Mattel Children’s Hospital UCLA, has been selected as one of six winners of the 2007-08 Mayday Pain & Society Fellowship.Established in 2003, the fellowship provides leaders in the pain-management field with the tools and skills to advocate for better treatment for pain. Fellows learn how to better communicate with media and policymakers and to raise the visibility of their issues. [click link for full article]

Not only can human embryonic stem cells restore damaged hearts, they can also improve heart function and significantly hold back the progression of heart failure, say scientists from the Center for Cardiovascular Biology and Regenerative Medicine at the University of Washington, in Seattle, who carried out experiments on rats. You can read about this in the journal Nature Biotechnology. [click link for full article]

Obese individuals who undergo bariatric surgery are less likely to die from heart disease, diabetes and cancer seven to 10 years after the procedure compared with obese people who do not undergo surgery, according to two studies published Thursday in the New England Journal of Medicine, USA Today reports (Hellmich, USA Today, 8/25). [click link for full article]

A new report from a team of researchers at the University of Washington, Seattle, and the University of Alabama at Birmingham indicates that one of the main complications of liver transplantation can be treated very simply by allowing the transplant recipients to inhale nitric oxide (NO) during the operation in which they received their new liver. [click link for full article]