(October 13, 2009 - Insidermedicine)

From Philadelphia - According to a report published in the Archives of Internal Medicine, people who live in 'healthy' neighborhoods are at a reduced risk of type 2 diabetes. For 5 years, researchers studied over 2,200 people aged 45 and older, adjusting for factors such as age, income, ethnicity, and education. They found that neighborhoods with easy access to healthy foods and opportunities for exercise had a 38% lower incidence rate of type 2 diabetes.

From Australia - Older adults who suffer irreversible poor vision have an increased risk of mortality, according to a report published in the Archives of Ophthalmology. Researchers examined data from the Blue Mountain Eye Study--a study that looked at over 3600 Australians over the age of 49. Results showed that patients with uncorrectable vision were 35% more likely to die than those with unimpaired vision.

And finally, from San Francisco - According to research presented at the 2009 ASCO Breast Cancer Symposium, women who carry hereditary BRCA mutations are being diagnosed with breast cancer earlier than ever before. Researchers studied over 100 families who carried BRCA mutations, analyzing 303 individuals over two generations. They found that women today are being diagnosed with breast cancer 6 years earlier than relatives of the previous generation who also had the disease.