ThirdAge

We know the excuses: Who has the time? I'm exhausted after working all day. I'll try again next week.

No, we're not talking about exercising (though you really should hit the gym for health and longevity sake). We're talking about sex.

Researchers have developed a cancer “sorting machine” that could distinguish a few malignant cells among billions of benign ones.

Two engineers at Johns Hopkins University said that their “microfluidic device” uses gravity to separate cells into groups that can be analyzed.

Researchers have discovered that two neurotransmitters work together in the brain to block dangerous muscle movements during sleep—and the finding could lead to improved treatment of serious conditions like REM sleep disorder.

The global availability of the bladder cancer drug ImmuCyst is being assessed after its Toronto manufacturer had to stop production because of mold problems.

The Health Canada agency said in a release mold was found in the sterile manufacturing area at the Sanofi Pasteur company's Toronto plant and production was halted.

An existing drug dramatically reduced the most serious complications of bone marrow transplants, University of Pennsylvania researchers are reporting Thursday.

The finding could someday point the way toward an entirely new method of preventing the body from "rejecting" transplanted organs of all kinds in the future, experts said.

The work demonstrates a possible new approach to transplants of donated bone marrow, said Joseph Antin, a professor of medicine at Harvard, who was not involved with the study.

A slew of new low-cost generic drugs coming to the U.S. and other wealthy countries, along with slower increases in spending on brand-name drugs, will significantly slow growth in worldwide spending on drugs over the next four years.

That good news for patients comes from a new forecast from IMS Health, which collects and analyzes data on pharmaceutical sales around the world.

It says worldwide spending on medicines will hit about $1 trillion in 2016.

The Food and Drug Administration plans to create a database of 100,000 foodborne germs in an effort to speed up the government's response to outbreaks of salmonella, E. coli and other food-related diseases.

The five-year effort aims to sequence the genetic code of the most common foodborne germs. With this information, FDA says scientists may be able to create tests that can identify foodborne germs in a matter of days, rather than weeks. Every year about 48 million people in the U.S. get sick from foodborne bacteria.

By Eve Marx