Drug addicts and their non-addicted siblings share certain features in the brain, suggesting a susceptibility to addiction is inherited but is also a flaw that can be overcome, scientists said on Thursday. Researchers who scanned the brains of 50 pairs of brothers and sisters of whom one was a cocaine addict found that both siblings had brain abnormalities that make it more difficult for them to exercise self-control. The findings increase understanding … full story

Hi-tech medical scanners could be used to probe causes of death, reducing the need for invasive autopsies that can upset bereaved families, a study published in The Lancet on Tuesday says. In Britain, post-mortems are ordered in about a fifth of deaths, notably where crime is suspected. The procedure has changed little over the past century, entailing evisceration and then dissection of the major organs. Keen to find whether a non-invasive alternative … full story

Cancer is a man-made disease triggered by the excesses of modern life, says a new study. Tumours were rare until recent times when pollution and poor diet became issues, the review of mummies, fossils and classical literature has found. Despite slivers of tissue from hundreds of Egyptian mummies being rehydrated, just one case of cancer has been confirmed, reports the journal Nature Reviews Cancer. And references to cancer-like problems in ancient … full story

Drinking, smoking and unhealthy diets have fuelled a doubling in mouth, throat and food pipe cancers in young people. Every year the diseases, known as upper aero-digestive tract (UADT) cancers, kill 10,000 people in Britain and more than 100,000 across Europe. Sufferers include Michael Douglas, 66, who is receiving gruelling treatment for throat cancer. But the cancers are also becoming increasingly common among younger people and researchers … full story

Adults referred to the commercial weight loss programme Weight Watchers shed twice as much weight as people who received standard care over a 12-month period, according to a study published Thursday. In clinical trials, researchers led by Susan Jebb of the UK Medical Research Council assessed 772 overweight and obese adults in Australia, Germany, and Britain. About half the patients received a year's standard care, while the other half were given … full story

Scientists have found that a glass of milk may contain up to 20 painkillers, antibiotics and growth hormones. Through a highly sensitive test, scientists found a host of chemicals used to treat illnesses in animals and people in samples of cow, goat and human breast milk, Daily Mail reported. Though the doses of drugs were far too little to create an effect on anyone drinking them, the results highlight how man-made chemicals were now found throughout … full story

Liposuction if fraught with unwanted consequences that can turn other parts of a patient’s body fatter. Even as the fat will not return to the areas of the body where it was removed from, usually the thighs, lower abdomen and buttocks, it will reappear elsewhere, typically around the shoulders, arms and upper abdomen, according to US researchers, the Daily Mail reports. Liposuction is a simple but crude surgical process which literally sucks the … full story

Curcumin, an extract of root turmeric, could destroy chemotherapy-resistant cancer cells and help fight the disease. This could improve the effectiveness of chemotherapy and also help prevent the condition from returning. Researchers at the University of Leicester in Britain have been using curcumin to target chemo-resistant cells. The aim is to use the extract in colorectal tumour tissue, which kills far more than 600,000 people every year and … full story

Scientists say two glasses of tomato juice a day strengthens bones and can ward off osteoporosis. The key ingredient is thought to be lycopene, the antioxidant already credited with cutting the risk of prostate cancer in men and protecting against heart disease, reports dailymail.co.uk. Osteoporosis affects around three million people in Britain and researchers at the University of Toronto in Canada asked 60 post-menopausal women, aged 50 to 60, … full story