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Health Check: Prize-winning Body Clock News

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2017/10/04 GMT

Prize-winning Body Clock News

BBC World Service - Health Check, Prize-winning Body Clock News

Tips for a good night’s sleep as body clock scientists win science prize

Tips for good sleep as body clock scientists win science prize; breast density risk for breast cancer; cancer care in developing countries

The Nobel prize for physiology or medicine has been awarded to three American scientists who discovered the existence of circadian rhythms – the body clock in all living cells. Their research involved fruit flies – but the findings are also relevant to humans. Our body clock which tells us to sleep at night relies on this internal rhythm. Sleep scientist Professor Matthew Walker who’s written a book called Why We Sleep has some top tips for a good night’s sleep.  

Breast density is a risk factor for breast cancer – but you cannot tell from the look or feel, it can only be picked up on x-ray mammography.  Breast density is noted during screening in the United States. But in the UK this information has largely been ignored. Doctors are now suggesting that more specialised screening of women with denser breasts could help to spot more cases of cancer.  

Inspiring ideas on cancer care from doctors in low and middle-income countries have been shared at a conference at the Royal Society of Medicine in London this week. Centralising pancreatic cancer surgery in India and giving women the results of their breast screening on the same day they visit clinics in Zambia have improved care for patients. 



(Photo: Getty Images)

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