This week's top health stories

Blocking gene forces cancer cells to age

Science Online - 18/03/2010
Instead of killing off cancer cells with toxic drugs, scientists have discovered a molecular pathway that forces them to grow old and die.

Holden recalls thousands of small cars

AM - 18/03/2010
Holden is recalling 9,000 of its big selling Cruze sedans because of concerns about potential fuel leaks. Holden says it's aware of 71 cases of possible leaks linked to a defect in the car's fuel feed hose.

Heart disease more likely a killer outside the city

PM - 17/03/2010
A new report has found the more remote your home is, the more likely you are to have or die of heart disease. But the study by the Institute of Health and Welfare says these same people are less likely to go to the doctor or receive cholesterol lowering drugs than city dwellers.

Poorer women seek out manlier men

Science Online - 17/03/2010
Scottish scientists report that women living in countries with worse rates of disease and ill health are far likelier to head for masculine-looking men than feminine-looking rivals.

Commissioner calls for more Indigenous medicos

The World Today - 17/03/2010
There's a call today for more initiatives to be introduced to increase Indigenous representation in medical schools. Indigenous people make up 2.5 per cent of the population, but less than one per cent of all medical practitioners are of Indigenous descent.

Glaucoma may start in the brain

Science Online - 17/03/2010
In what may be a turning point in glaucoma research, scientists have determined that the disease, the leading cause of irreversible blindness, shows up first in the brain, not the eye.

Renewed push to list Melancholia as a mental illness

AM - 17/03/2010
Melancholia hasn't been included in the psychiatrist's diagnostic manual for mental illness since 1980. Now a Sydney psychiatrist is leading a global push to have it recognised as a condition in its own right. He argues that the condition doesn't respond to the same treatments that are effective for depression.

Lack of clean water kills 4,000 children a day: UN

The World Today - 16/03/2010
The World Health Organisation and UNICEF have released a report that's found more than 2.5 billion of the world's people live without proper sanitation and access to clean water. It's also found the lack of sanitation spreads diseases which kill 4,000 children every day.

Kennett suggests surgery for PM's plan

The World Today - 16/03/2010
Jeff Kennett joins The World Today to discuss the Prime Minister's hospital reform plan. Kevin Rudd has been highlighting Victoria's case-mix system, introduced by Mr Kennett, as the model for his national funding proposal, but the former Victorian premier is yet to come aboard.

Rudd pledges doctor training funding boost

Lateline - 15/03/2010
Kevin Rudd has promised a huge financial injection into doctor training to massively boost the number of qualified GPs and specialists.