Nine weekly sessions of acupuncture lessen perceived pain intensity, and improve functional capacity and quality of life, in people diagnosed with the blanket pain condition called fibromyalgia.

Fibromyalgia diagnoses are based on claims of chronic widespread pain, along with fatigue, disordered sleep patterns, and/or depression.  Surveys show that 90% of people who have fibromyalgia try some form of alternative medicine, including massage, hydrotherapy, and acupuncture. Clinical trials have shown acupuncture doesn't work but the authors of the new paper say the lack of efficacy is because those were clinical trials of standard, rather than individually tailored, treatment.

Wide and stubborn variations in longevity have persisted across Europe over the past 20 years, indicates research published online in the Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health.

People can expect to live to a ripe old age in northern Spain, north eastern Italy, and in southern and western France, but not so much in parts of The Netherlands, Scandinavia, and the UK, the figures show.

And the UK has one of the highest proportions of the population living in areas of low old age survival.

An increase in old age survival contributes to overall life expectancy, and is particularly important, give the rising proportion of older people in the populations of high income countries, say the study authors.

The cover of Time magazine 3/2/15 features an Anglo baby (so remarkably cute one wonders whether he isn't a computer generated composite of everything we like about babies) with the statement (not question, statement) THIS BABY COULD LIVE TO BE 142 YEARS OLD.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Final results for the Sunbelt Melanoma Trial, published online this month in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, show that thanks to current diagnostic techniques, most stage III melanoma patients do not benefit from treatment with interferon. Kelly McMasters, M.D., Ph.D., the Ben A. Reid, Sr., M.D. Professor and Chair of the Hiram C. Polk, Jr., M.D. Department of Surgery at the University of Louisville, was the principal investigator and initiated the trial.

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. - Feb. 15, 2016 - Using a sophisticated, custom-designed 3D printer, regenerative medicine scientists at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center have proved that it is feasible to print living tissue structures to replace injured or diseased tissue in patients.

Reporting in Nature Biotechnology, the scientists said they printed ear, bone and muscle structures. When implanted in animals, the structures matured into functional tissue and developed a system of blood vessels. Most importantly, these early results indicate that the structures have the right size, strength and function for use in humans.

Eating fish more than three times a week during pregnancy was associated with mothers giving birth to babies at increased risk of rapid growth in infancy and of childhood obesity, according to an article published online by JAMA Pediatrics.

There appears to have been no change in the incidence of epilepsy in patients younger than 65 over the past 40 years in Finland but an increased incidence among older patients, which a new study suggests means no progress in preventing new cases of epilepsy, according to an article published online by JAMA Neurology.

Prevention of new-onset epilepsy is an important public health issue. Antiepileptic drugs can block seizures in most patients but they do not prevent epilepsy in people at risk. The current primary prevention of epilepsy happens by reducing the risk for traumatic brain injury, stroke and dementia.

The Ordnance Survey (national mapping agency for the UK) has just released their first map of a region on another planet. It's a high resolution relief shaded contour map, and includes the area of Mars where ExoMars will land in 2018. Here is a close up view of it with the ESA landing ellipse in Oxia Planum superimposed. 

Preview of the full map - low resolution, again with landing ellipse.

Bilinguals use and learn language in ways that change their minds and brains, which has consequences -- many positive, according to Judith F. Kroll, a Penn State cognitive scientist.

"Recent studies reveal the remarkable ways in which bilingualism changes the brain networks that enable skilled cognition, support fluent language performance and facilitate new learning," said Kroll, Distinguished Professor, psychology, linguistics and women's studies.

Researchers have shown that the brain structures and networks of bilinguals are different from those of monolinguals. Among other things, the changes help bilinguals to speak in the intended language -- not to mistakenly speak in the "wrong" language.

Marijuana use is on the rise, with an estimated 12.5 percent of adults living in the United States reportedly using the drug at least once in 2013, according to a new study that looked at drug usage over the span of a decade.

But that research, from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, also shows that the rate of pot use did not double from 2002 to 2013 -- as had been reported in the fall -- and that the rate of problems related to the drug remained steady.

The Washington University researchers found that rather than doubling, the increase in marijuana use among adults was closer to 20 percent over the same time period and that problems related to using pot, such as addiction, remained steady or even declined.