U.S. researchers who followed healthy male veterans for up to 24 years found that older men who ate more high-fiber fruits were less likely to show signs of gum disease. For more than 600 men participating in a long-running Veterans Affairs dental study, each serving of high-fiber food was linked to an almost 30 percent lower likelihood of lost teeth and a 24 percent lower risk of bone loss associated with receding gums. The apparent benefit wasn't … full story

Stars who knock back whisky, wine or beer in a movie are an invisible but potent force in prompting youngsters to experiment with alcohol or binge-drink, a large US study published on Tuesday suggests. Major exposure to scenes of alcohol consumption in movies is a bigger risk for teen drinking than having parents who drink or if booze is easily available at home, it says. Unprecedented in its scope, the probe entailed a confidential telephone survey … full story

Breathing air pollutants raises the risk of having a heart attack, a new review suggested. Other studies have linked air pollution levels to hospital admissions and deaths from cardiovascular disease. But making that link for heart attacks has been controversial, since the research has been mixed. In Wednesday's issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association, Dr. Hazrije Mustafic from the Paris Cardiovascular Research Center and his team … full story

US scientists on Wednesday reported a new advance in using gene therapy to restore eyesight in people with a rare, inherited form of blindness. The therapy, which had been previously tried in just one eye of 12 people, worked well when injected into the other eye of three of the patients, offering a sign that the treatment is safe, effective and will not be rejected by the body. "Our concern was that the first treatment might cause a vaccine-like … full story

International scientists on Friday agreed to a temporary two-month halt to controversial research on a bird flu virus that may be easily passed among humans, citing global health concerns. Two separate teams of researchers, one in the Netherlands and the other in the United States, found ways late last year to engineer the H5N1 virus so that it was transmitted among mammals, something that has previously been rare. The breakthrough raised alarm … full story

People who eat lots of magnesium-rich foods such as leafy green vegetables, nuts and beans have fewer strokes, according to an international analysis covering some 250,000 people. But the authors of the study, published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, stopped short of recommending people take a daily magnesium supplement because their analysis focused on magnesium in food -- and it may be another aspect of the food that is responsible … full story

US researchers said Wednesday they have found the first genetic mutation linked to an inherited form of prostate cancer, raising new hope of one day improving early screening for the disease. The mutation appears only in a small subset of prostate cancer patients, but those who inherited it showed 10 to 20 times higher risk of developing prostate cancer, particularly before age 55, the researchers said. The advance, described in the New England … full story

People who suffer from psoriasis may want to pay extra attention to heart risks, since they may be at a greater risk for blocked arteries than those who don't have the skin disease -- although the risk increase is not that high, according to a U.S. study. And the longer patients have psoriasis, the higher their risks are, said researchers, whose findings were published in the American Journal of Cardiology. "One of the things that we've come to … full story

Top US scientists on Wednesday defended their bid to stop details of a mutant bird flu virus from being published and called for global cooperation to ward off an uncontrollable pandemic. Meanwhile, scientists involved in the experiments said they are cooperating with government officials and the editors of the journals Science and Nature to pare down their research for publication in the coming weeks. The controversy arose when two separate research … full story

In a new study from a single California community, women who had been pregnant at least four times were less likely to die from cardiovascular disease than those who'd never been expecting. Researchers said that could be due to the protective effects of pregnancy-related hormones as well as the extra social support that comes with having more children - or the fact that women who are able to get pregnant more often are healthier to begin with. … full story