Diabetes: 3 types of basal insulin; New AHA guidelines for coronary heart disease in women; Polycystic ovary syndrome

An analysis of mortality and body mass index (BMI) data from 1971 through 2000 revealed that while being either underweight (BMI 18.5 or less) or obese (BMI 30 to 35 or greater) could endanger your life, just being overweight (BMI 25 to less than 30) did not. On the contrary, it turned out that overweight people had lower mortality rates from any cause than people who managed to maintain a so-called normal weight (BMI 18.5 to less than 25).

Skyrocketing numbers of invasive, methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) disease originating not only in health care facilities but in the community as well are cause for enormous concern. A new study from the CDC estimates the 2005 incidence of invasive MRSA in the United States at an astounding 31.8 per 100,000, a rate higher than the combined rate for invasive disease caused by pneumococcus (14.1/100,000), Group A streptococcus (3.6/100,000), meningococcus (0.35/100,000), and Haemophilus influenzae (1.4/100,000). Most of these infections were associated with health care facilities, whether the actual onset of the infection occurred in a hospital or nursing home or after discharge. But about 14% were classified as community-associated, occurring in previously healthy individuals with no history of hospitalization. For many, the infection was lethal: The 18,650 deaths projected country-wide in 2005 exceeds the number of deaths attributed to HIV/AIDS in the United States for that year.

Dementia: Do drugs really work? Specific phobias

According to the American Cancer Society, cancer death rates decreased an average 2.1% a year from 2002 to 2004, nearly twice the annual 1.1% decrease of previous years.¹ The extent of the decline varied by gender (2.6% a year among men and 1.8% among women), type of cancer, and American Indian/Alaska Native (AI/AN) ethnicity. For the population as a whole, cancer death rates have fallen for the majority of the 15 most commonly diagnosed cancers in both men and women. For men, that decline includes a drop in lung, prostate, and colorectal cancers, the 3 leading causes of cancer deaths in men. Women have experienced a decline in 2 of the 3 leading causes of cancer deaths in women-breast and colorectal cancer. Death rates from lung cancer, the number 1 cause of cancer death for both sexes, are still increasing in women but at a much slower rate than in years past.

The 2007 entering class at US medical schools is the largest ever, according to just-released data from the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC). There are close to 17,800 entering students for 2007, a 2.3% increase over 2006. The applicant pool was up 8.2% from the previous year and included greater numbers of black and Hispanic men. Actual enrollment of black male students rose by 5.3%, while Hispanic enrollment remained at 2006 levels.¹ Proportions of men and women in the entering class are close to equal: 48.3% women, 51.7% men.

Bridge anticoagulation therapy; New cervical cancer guidelines

Metabolic syndrome and prediabetes; Troponins

Celiac disease; Angiodedema's potentially dire consequences; Leukotriene receptor antagonists in allergic rhinitis