GOOD NEWS

Saline solution

Two studies showed that saline water can dramatically improve the symptoms of cystic fibrosis, a devastating lung disease. Inhaling a mist of saline quickens the clearance of the mucus that accumulates in the lungs of CF patients, as well as reduces pulmonary exacerbations, and improves lung function in general, University of North Carolina and Australian research teams reported in the New England Journal of Medicine. The finding provided proof that rehydration of the lungs is a key factor in improving mucus clearance, a theory that has been hotly debated among researchers.

Fat may fight stress

Leptin, a hormone involved in obesity, also appears to act as an antidepressant. When researchers at the University of Texas at San Antonio made rats miserable by subjecting them to chronic unpredictable stress, leptin levels fell and the animals showed signs of ratty depression, they reported in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.Giving them shots of the hormone appeared to reverse the effects of the stress. Now they’re trying to find out if it works in humans.

BAD NEWS

Movies breed brats

According to University of North Carolina researchers, as teenagers become adults, they are often already habituated to smoking, drinking, and a fast-food, low-exercise lifestyle that climaxes with obesity. Part of the problem might be the movies, another study in the Journal of Studies on Alcohol says. According to it youngsters watch a lot of boozing on the screen, and the exposure seems to be linked with a tendency to experiment with drinking.

Cancer monitor

People who once had bladder cancer have a high risk of recurrence. Now a simple urine test, with results available in the doctor’s office within an hour, can dramatically improve the detection of renewed cancer, investigators at the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston said in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Combined with standard procedure that examines the tissue of the bladder directly, the BladderChek test detected 99 per cent of all recurrent cancers in a new study.