Can’t smell the roses? Maybe you’re depressed. Smell too much like a rose yourself? Maybe you’ve got the same problem. Scientists from Tel Aviv University recently linked depression to a biological mechanism that affects the olfactory glands. It might explain why some women, without realizing it, wear too much perfume.Scientific research that supports this theory was published this year in the journal Arthritis and Rheumatism.

If you live in Southern California, your risk of developing cancer as a result of air pollution is 15% lower today than it was about 10 years ago, according to a two year study carried out by the South Coast Air Quality Management District. Barry Wallerstein, Executive Officer, South Coast Air Quality Management District (South Coast AQMD), said that while there have been some improvements; the remaining risk level is way too high.

A test that can detect and identify 12 respiratory viruses at the same time - the xTAG Respiratory Viral Panel - has been approved for marketing by the FDA (Food and Drug Administration), USA. It is the first test that can detect and differentiate influenza A subtypes H1 and H3. Influenza A has been the main cause of several major epidemics, it is also the most severe form of human influenza.

With more menopausal women seeking natural therapies to ease symptoms, a new study has found that simply adding a brisk walking routine can reduce a variety of psychological symptoms such as anxiety, stress and depression. The research is published in the January issue of Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise.”With the aging population, physical activity represents one way for women to stay mentally healthy.

Bright light therapy can ease bipolar depression in some patients, according to a study published in the journal Bipolar Disorders. Researchers from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine’s Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic studied nine women with bipolar disorder to examine the effects of light therapy in the morning or at midday on mood symptoms.”There are limited effective treatments for the depressive phase of bipolar disorder,” said Dorothy Sit, M.D.

In its first year of operations, the U.S. Agency for International Development-funded Neglected Tropical Disease (NTD) Control Program has coordinated and monitored the distribution of medicines to more than 14 million people in four African nations.

Rib-X Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (”Rib-X” or the “Company”), a biopharmaceutical company focused on the development of novel antibiotics for the treatment of antibiotic-resistant infections, announced the enrolment of the first patients in two separate Phase 2 clinical trials.

They say that a picture can be worth a thousand words. This especially is true for describing the structures of molecules that function to promote cancer. Researchers at Johns Hopkins have built a three-dimensional picture of an enzyme often mutated in many types of cancers. The results, published Dec. 14 in Science, suggest how the most common mutations in this enzyme might lead to cancer progression.

Researchers at Johns Hopkins and Ohio State University have found that the number of copies of a particular gene can affect the severity of colon cancer in a mouse model. Publishing in the Jan. 3 issue of Nature, the research team describes how trisomy 21, or Down syndrome in humans, can repress tumor growth. “We took a new approach to a 50-year-old debate about whether people with Down syndrome develop cancer less often than other people,” says Roger H. Reeves, Ph.

CryoCor, Inc. (Nasdaq: CRYO), a medical device company focused on the treatment of cardiac arrhythmias, announced the publication of a European study of atrial fibrillation patients treated with CryoCor’s Cardiac Cryoablation System. The purpose of the study was to evaluate the role of atrial flutter in the recurrence of atrial fibrillation and the effectiveness of an ablation strategy focused on isolating the pulmonary veins to treat the atrial fibrillation.