health research in the WSJ

I didn't know they provided this feature on a regular basis, so I'm blogging about that-- as well as the particulars of this report...

Migraines and Breast Cancer: Women with a history of migraines were 74% as likely to have had breast cancer as women who reported no migraines...The reduced risk was similar among both pre- and postmenopausal women, and even for women who drank alcohol or smoked tobacco. The association between migraines and breast cancer is of particular interest because both diseases are influenced by hormonal changes... (Read more.)

Mental Health: People who were married or lived with a partner around age 50 retained much more cognitive function two decades later than people who at midlife were single, divorced or widowed...subjects who were widowed around age 50 and continued to live without a partner were nearly eight times as likely to develop Alzheimer’s... (Read more.)

Smoking On Screen: Adolescents who see larger numbers of movies in which a main character smokes are more likely to try smoking regardless of whether that character is a “good guy” or a “bad guy”... (Read more.)

Stress and Risk: Stress increases the difference in risk-taking behavior between the sexes, causing men to take even more risks and women to take even fewer... (Read more.)

Epilepsy: Two types of cells that act as part of the brain’s immune-system response to help heal brain injury and infection may also cause chronic epileptic seizures by overexciting nearby neurons... (Read more.)