health - "study published"

The volume of alcohol consumption may have a significantly different effect on heart and stroke risk in men and women, according to a study of Japanese people published in Stroke: Journal of the American Heart Association. 'An amount of alcohol that may be beneficial for men is not good for women at all,' said Hiroyasu Iso, M.D., co-author of the study and professor of public health at Osaka University in Japan.

A new study published on bmj.com reports that although hormone replacement therapy (HRT) results in an overall increase in risk of gallbladder disease, HRT administered by skin patches or gels poses a smaller risk than HRT given orally. In 2005, about 1 million women in the UK were taking HRT - any of several medications designed to artificially raise estrogen, progesterone, and sometimes testosterone levels in menopausal women.

It has never been easy for parents to talk to their children about sex, but public health researchers have not lost hope. According to a study published on bmj.com, programs for parents that take place at work have the potential to substantially improve the ability of parents to talk about sexual health with their children.

Researchers from the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) discovered a new way to make use of drugs' unwanted side effects. They developed a computational method that compares how similar the side effects of different drugs are and predicts how likely the drugs act on the same target molecule. The study, published in Science this week, hints at new uses of marketed drugs.