Independence Blue Cross last week announced that a program offering members no-cost generic prescription drugs has successfully encouraged people to switch to generic drugs and that the program will end, the Philadelphia Inquirer reports. [click link for full article]

A new study from researchers in the Netherlands has found a link between acrylamide, a carcinogenic compound found in cooked, and especially burned, carbohydrate rich foods, and increased risk of endometrial and ovarian cancer in postmenopausal women. [click link for full article]

New data on cancer rates among HIV-positive people “underline” the need for the development of antiretroviral drugs that “restore immune function more effectively” than currently available treatments, Mark Wainberg — director of McGill University’s AIDS Centre at the [click link for full article]

“In recent years, Medicaid has spent more money on antipsychotic drugs for Americans than on any other class of pharmaceuticals,” largely because nursing homes are “giving these drugs to elderly patients to quiet symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia” — conditions for which the drugs are not approved by FDA, the Wall Street Journal reports. According to [click link for full article]

Respiration deficiencies in mitochondria, the cell’s powerhouses, are associated with changed social behavior and spatial memory in laboratory mice, report scientists at the American Society for Cell Biology 47th Annual Meeting. [click link for full article]

Two University of Nottingham studies exploring the causes and treatment of asthma and Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) could lead to the development of drugs to battle these debilitating conditions.The Division of Respiratory Medicine at the University has been awarded a total of £1.24m in grants to study respiratory disease. [click link for full article]

In response to the growing body of research in the field of cancer prevention, the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) announces the launch of a major peer-reviewed scientific journal, Cancer Prevention Research, and invites submissions of papers. This important new journal is the first in the world dedicated exclusively to cancer prevention, from preclinical research to clinical trials. [click link for full article]

The age at which children are exposed to peanuts and have an allergic response has dropped significantly over the last decade, despite recommendations that at-risk families avoid exposing children to peanuts during the first three years of life, according to research led by a Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC allergist/immunologist. [click link for full article]

A new study elucidates the connection between an enzyme involved in blood pressure control and symptoms of the metabolic syndrome. The researchers report in the December issue of Cell Metabolism, a publication of Cell Press, that mice lacking the enzyme known as renin are lean and resistant to gaining weight on a high-fat diet, even though they continue to eat just as much and don’t exercise more. [click link for full article]

Experts have been warning for years that foods loaded with high-fructose corn syrup and other processed carbohydrates are making us fatter. Now, a University of Wisconsin-Madison study has uncovered the genetic basis for why this is so.Writing in the December issue of Cell Metabolism, a team led by biochemistry and nutritional sciences professor James Ntambi reports that a gene in the liver, called SCD-1, is what causes mice to gain weight on a diet laden with carbohydrates. [click link for full article]