Curcumin, a compound in the spice turmeric, teams up with an immune-system protein to kill prostate cancer cells in a new laboratory study. (p. 317)

Parkinson's disease patients have damaged nerve endings in the heart, kidneys, and thyroid gland, suggesting the disease harms the autonomic nervous system that regulates involuntary functions of these and other organs and glands. (p. 293)

A mutation already linked to several types of cancer doubles the risk of breast cancer in a woman and multiplies men's slight risk of the disease even more dramatically. (p. 259)

Scientists have identified a gene, dubbed LKB1/STK11, that is often mutated in people with a particularly deadly form of lung cancer. (p. 254)

A drug prescribed for a condition called dry mouth stymies formation of precancerous lung lesions in cigarette smokers. (p. 254)

Of people who died suddenly, those who succumbed to a heart attack had an abundance of the inflammation indicator C-reactive protein in the blood, even though few had had outward signs of heart problems. (p. 244)

The herbal remedy St. John's wort can interfere with the effectiveness of the anticancer drug irinotecan. (p. 254)

A protein fragment dubbed NK4 can stall the development of pancreatic cancer in mice. (p. 254)

People on kidney dialysis who have high pulse pressure—the difference between the top and bottom numbers on a blood pressure reading—seem to be at a greater risk of dying than those with low pulse pressure. (p. 237)

A blood-clotting protein called fibrin seems to exacerbate the regrowth problems that plague severed nerves. (p. 221)