On Monday, US researchers revealed that those who have repeated flu infections or repeated flu vaccines may have some protection already against the new pandemic swine flu. Researchers have found evidence that the humane immune system is capable of recognizing bits of the new H1N1 virus that are similar to older, distantly related strains of H1N1.

Alessandro Sette, director of the Center for Infectious Disease at California's La Jolla Institute said:

"What we have found is that the swine flu has similarities to the seasonal flu, which appear to provide some level of pre-existing immunity. This suggests that it could make the disease less severe in the general population than originally feared."

The study was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, and may help to explain why many older people are less likely to have severe cases of the disease.

Allison Deckhut-Augustine of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases said:

"Adults may have some pre-existing immunity for H1N1."

Deckhut-Augustine noted that this does not mean that older people are protected against infection and stressed that people should still be vaccinated against H1N1.

Drew Carey may have left his hometown of Cleveland for fame and fortune in Hollywood, but he hasn't forgotten the little people. When a man by the name of Drew Olanoff, a cancer-fighting blogger, decided to auction off his enviable Twitter.com username - @drew - and donate the proceeds to LiveStrong, he anticipated he could raise $10,000. He never expected that his auction would capture the attention of Price Is Right host Drew Carey, and he especially did not anticipate the hefty $1 million offer that Carey would eventually make. And while some may think that Carey is simply trying to get publicity, he insists that that's not the case and that he didn't even think about his bids when he made them.

An active Twitter user ( @DrewFromTV), Carey surpassed Olanoff's $10,000 expectation by tweeting an initial bid of $25,000. He then decided to quadruple his offer, moving it up to $100,000 if he could get 100,000 Twitter followers. This generous offer was topped when Carey - without really thinking - decided to increase it even more: he would donate $1 million if he can get one million followers by midnight on December 31, and if he doesn't reach a million followers he will give a prorated donation of $1 for every follower.

In an email exchange with The Cleveland Leader, Drew Carey says:

The advent of oral contraceptives, aka the "Pill", ushered in the sexual revolution of the 1960's and gave women control over their own fertility. However, according to a new study, the Pill may have also changed women's taste in men. Researchers say that the hormones in the Pill suppress a woman's interest in masculine men, and make boyish men more attractive.

Dr. Alexandra Alvergne of the University of Sheffield in the UK says that the Pill may also alter the way women pick mates, which could have long term implications for society:

'There are many obvious benefits of the Pill for women, but there is also the possibility that the Pill has psychological side effects that we are only just discovering. We need further studies to find out what these are,' she said.

This past spring,sixty Cleveland Clinic doctors nominated one hundred medical breakthroughs for consideration to be included in the Clinic's list of the Top 10 Medical Innovations of 2010. Since then, they have narrowed down the list, revealing the Top 10 on Wednesday morning at the 2009 Medical Innovation Summit.

In choosing the Top 10, doctors looked at four major criteria:

• Significant potential for short-term clinical impact -- either a major improvement in patient benefit or an improved function that enhances healthcare delivery
• A high probability of success
• On the market or close to being introduced
• Sufficient data available to support its nomination

Here are the Top 10, with the top vote-getter snagging the number one spot on the list:

1. Bone Conduction of Sound For Single-Sided Deafness: A new non-surgical, removable hearing and communication device designed to imperceptibly transmit sound via the teeth to help people with single-sided deafness.
2. Low-Volume, Low-Pressure, Tracheal Tube Cuff To Reduce Ventilator-Associated Pneumonia: A device that dramatically reduces the risk of ventilator-associated pneumonia and death in hospital ICUs by providing continuous effective airway seals.

When the first swine flu vaccinations begin being given to the general public in just a few weeks, there will be some people who get them that will have strokes or heart attacks. Some pregnant women may miscarry, and some children may have seizures. However, officials are warning that these events will not necessarily have anything to do with the flu vaccine.

Federal officials are aware of the potential public relations challenges, recalling how sensational reports of death and illness thwarted the large-scale swine flu vaccine drive of 1976. This time, however, they are prepared and have begun making plans to quickly respond to such events to reassure the wary public that the vaccine is not the culprit.

It is important to keep in mind that each year 200,000 Americans will have their first seizure, and there are 1.1 million heart attacks, 795,000 strokes and 876,000 miscarriages. Some of these will inevitably occur within hours or days of receiving a flu shot.

Dr. Harvey V. Fineberg says that the government "is right to expect coincident deaths, since people are dying every day, with or without flu shots." Fineberg is the president of the Institute of Medicine, and co-author of "The Epidemic That Never Was", a book on the history of the 1976 swine flu vaccination drive.

According to a survey conducted by Norwegian scientists, those who abstain from drinking alcohol are at a higher risk of suffering from depression than "moderate drinkers". Researchers used data from the Nord-Trondelag Health study which included information about the drinking habits and mental health of more than 38,000 participants.

Researchers found that those who reported no alcohol consumption during a two week period were more likely to report depression than moderate drinkers. Moderate drinkers are defined as women who drink no more than one drink per day, and no more than two for men.

The highest risk was found in the group who identified themselves as "abstainers." Considering that we most often associate depression with alcoholism, researchers were unable to explain this. They also found that 14 percent of the abstainers had previously been heavy drinkers, which makes sense. However this does not explain the other 86 percent. The only explanation the authors of the study offered is that in societies where drinking is common or even normal, abstinence may be associated with the socially marginalized, or wit particular personality traits that are associated with depression.

Video games are often an activity associated with the young, but a new study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention paint quite a different picture. Researchers found that the average gamer is age 35, often overweight, introverted, and may be depressed.

The CDC looked at the behavior of 552 adults aged 19 to 90 from the Seattle-Tacoma area. Of these, 249 (45 percent) were video game players. Men accounted for 56 percent of the video game players.

Men who played video games weighed more and used the internet more than other men. Women who played video games reported greater levels of depression and poorer overall heath than non-gamers. Adult video gamers were also found to be less outgoing, and less social and assertive than non-gamers.

Researcher James Weaver and his colleagues suggested that for adults, video gaming may be a form of "digital self-medication". They said women in particulary may immerse themselves in brain-engaging digital environments as a means of self-distraction.

Adult gamers of both sexes relied more on the internet for social support than non-gamers. This also supports prior research that suggests that adult gamers may "sacrifice real-world social activities to play video games."

According to a new study from the University of Michigan, young women in their 20s consistently exercise less than young men. The results of the study will be published in the October issue of the American Journal of Public Health.

Phillippa Clarke, lead author of the study and a research at the U of M Institute for Social Research, says that the disparities in health behaviors are consistent with disparities in prevalence of obesity, particular among women.

This study is one of the first to look at the long-term patterns in weight related activities, and to assess how these patterns vary by race, gender, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status. It is based on data obtained every two years from 17,314 men and women who were aged 19 to 26 between 1984 and 2006.

Researchers looked at the trends over the 23 year period in six different health behaviors. They measured:

• How often they exercised vigorously (jogging, swimming, or calisthenics)

How often they reported eating breakfast

• How often they ate green vegetables and fruit
• How much television watched on an average weekday
• How often they got at least seven hours of sleep

What they found is:

Researchers at the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine have identified, for the first time,the prion as a biomarker for pancreatic cancer. Pancreatic cancer is one of the most deadly cancers in humans with a five year survival rate of less than 10 percent.

Chaoyang Li, Ph.D., Wei Xin, M.D., and professor of pathology, Man-Sun Sy, Ph.D., discovered the mechanism by which prions cause tumours to grow at a more aggressive rate. Unlike normal cells, the prion is incompletely processed and thus binds to a molecule inside the cell known as filamin A, which is an important regulator of the cell's skeleton and its isignalling mechanisms.

The binding of incompletely processed prion to filamin A disrupts the cell's organization and signaling, and as a result the tumor cells begin to grow more aggressively. When the prion level is reduced, the tumor cell loses its ability to grow tissue culture and in animals.

Researchers found that a subpopulation of patients had incompletely processed prion protein in their pancreatic cancer, and had significantly shorter survival compared to patients whose tumors did not have prion.

Women who are trying to lose weight or stick to a diet might be wise to dine in the company of men instead of heading out for a girls night. According to a new study, women eat less when dining with men and more with other women.

Tests conducted by psychologists showed that women eating with a single male companion - whether that is their husband, date, colleague, or a friend - are more likely to order a salad than a steak. However, when eating with another woman, women tend to pig out.

In mixed-gender groups, women chose food choices at the lower end of the caloric scale, but the more men in the group, the fewer the calories. In all-female groups, women are more and consumed more calories.

Researchers believe that the choice may be subconsciously controlled by a desire to signal attractiveness, which apparently small portions do.