Recently, researchers compared the effects of tai chi to leg strengthening exercises (a physical therapy called "lower extremity training," or LET) in reducing falls. Falls are a leading cause of serious injuries in older adults and can lead to hospitalization, nursing home admission, and even death. Arthritis, heart disease, muscle weakness, vision and balance problems, dementia, and other age-related health problems can increase an older adult's risk for experiencing a fall. The study is published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.

Recent studies have indicated that patients with sleep apnea may be associated with worse cancer outcomes. Now a new animal study, presented at the European Association of Urology Congress in Munich, uncovers a possible mechanism which may underlie this link.

ITHACA, N.Y. - Genetic cues from male Aedes aegypti mosquitoes passed on during sex affect which genes are turned on or off in a females' reproductive tract post-mating, including genes related to blood feeding, egg development and immune defense, according to new Cornell research.

The researchers believe such processes provide information that could be exploited to fight mosquito-borne diseases, such as dengue fever, chikungunya and Zika virus.

People with type 2 diabetes and obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) may not experience improved glycemic control by using continuous positive airway pressure, or CPAP, as some studies have suggested, according to the results of a randomized, controlled trial published online ahead of print in the American Thoracic Society's American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.

BOSTON, MA - The use of contralateral prophylactic mastectomy (CPM), the surgical removal of a breast unaffected by cancer as part of the course of treatment for breast cancer, has more than tripled from 2002 to 2012 despite evidence suggesting no survival benefit over breast conservation, according to a new study from Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH) published in Annals of Surgery on March 11, 2016.

A regimen of beta carotene (precursor to vitamin A), vitamins C and E and magnesium has been linked to slow progression of hereditary deafness in the mice with a connexin 26 gene deletion. Mutations in this gene are a leading cause of genetic hearing loss in many populations.

The supplement cocktail had the opposite effect on another mutant mouse modeling AUNA1, a type of hearing loss, according to a paper in Scientific Reports.