They are, advertisements say, a game-changer in athletic footwear: sneakers that are supposed to tone muscles, promote healthy weight loss and improve the posture of those who walk, work or shop in them. The makers of "toning shoes" say the shoes can help give wearers more shapely butts, legs and abs, often without the need for gym workouts. Read more...

Some widely used blood pressure drugs may be associated with an increased risk of cancer. In a meta-analysis of nine published studies the blood pressure drugs called angiotensin-receptor blockers were associated with a statistically significant 8 percent increase in the relative risk of a new cancer. Angiotensin-receptor blockers, or ARBs, are a drug class that includes Diovan, Cozaar, Micardis, and Atacand. Read more...

Dr. Oz explains easy methods to increase your life expectancy. 

From The Chicago-Sun Times --- A cancer vaccine that stimulates the immune system to fight advanced prostate cancer was approved Thursday by the Food and Drug Administration, the first time a therapy of this kind has been approved to treat cancer. The vaccine, Provenge, isn't a cure for cancer. And it doesn't prevent men from getting prostate cancer.

But Provenge does appear to modestly prolong survival in men whose cancer has advanced beyond the prostate and is resistant to standard treatment. The hope is that the vaccine would eventually prove effective in treating less-advanced prostate cancer, said Dr. Dennis Pessis, associate chairman of the department of urology at Rush University Medical Center.

Read the rest on The Chicago Sun Times.

Through Silvano's case, Italian scientists discovered an extremely rare genetic disease called fatal familial insomnia, or FFI. FFI sufferers fall into a state in which they are neither fully asleep nor awake. The inability to sleep wreaks havoc on their lives. Sleeplessness deteriorates into exhaustion, dementia and, ultimately, death. There is no cure.

Read the rest on ABC News.

From Yahoo --- Wholesale prices rose more than expected last month as food prices surged by the most in 26 years. The Producer Price Index rose by 0.7 percent in March, compared to analysts' forecasts of a 0.4 percent rise. A rise in gas prices also helped push up the index. Still, there was little sign of budding inflation in the report, which measures price changes before they reach the consumer.

Wholesale prices rose more than expected last month as food prices surged by the most in 26 years. The Labor Department said the Producer Price Index rose by 0.7 percent in March, compared to analysts' forecasts of a 0.4 percent rise. A rise in gas prices also helped push up the index. Still, there was little sign of budding inflation in the report, which measures price changes before they reach the consumer. Excluding volatile food and energy costs, wholesale prices rose by 0.1 percent, matching analysts' expectations.

Read the rest on Yahoo.

From Yahoo --- A variant of an obesity gene carried by more than a third of the U.S. population also reduces brain volume, raising carriers' risk of Alzheimer's disease, U.S. researchers said on Monday. People with a specific variant of the fat mass and obesity gene, or FTO gene, have brain deficits that could make them more vulnerable to the mind-robbing disease.

"The basic result is that this very prevalent gene not only adds an inch to your waistline, but makes your brain look 16 years older," said Paul Thompson, a professor of neurology at the University of California Los Angeles, who worked on the study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Brains generally shrink with age.

Read the rest on Yahoo. 

From Kathleen Doheny, HealthDay - Frequent alcohol consumption by teenage girls may increase the chances that they will develop non-cancerous breast disease in their 20s and possibly breast cancer later in life. Research published online April 12 in the journal Pediatrics found that girls who drank the most alcohol during their teen years — were five times more likely to develop benign breast disease as young adults.

Benign breast disease (BBD) includes a number of nonmalignant conditions. Fibroadenoma, a noncancerous tumor, is the most common in those aged 30 and younger. Study co-author Catherine Berkey, a biostatistician at Harvard Medical School in Boston, said that benign breast disease is known to boost the risk for breast cancer. So does that mean that teens who drink alcohol are increasing their breast cancer risk early in life? "Our study may suggest that teen drinking increases the risk for breast cancer, whether in all females or in those who go on to develop BBD, but longer-term follow-up is certainly required" to confirm it, she said.

Read the rest on USA Today.

From The Sun ---- UK scientists have created "designer embryos" containing DNA from a man and TWO women. The breakthrough gives hope of healthy children to couples with genetic disorders in their families. It also offers the prospect of eradicating fatal genetic diseases.

Read the rest on The UK Sun.

Happy Easter from Your Daily Slice!

Deborah Peel at The Wall Street Journal writes...

I learned about the lack of health privacy when I hung out my shingle as a psychiatrist. Patients asked if I could keep their records private if they paid for care themselves. They had lost jobs or reputations because what they said in the doctor's office didn't always stay in the doctor's office. That was 35 years ago, in the age of paper. In today's digital world the problem has only grown worse. 

A patient's sensitive information should not be shared without his consent. But this is not the case now, as the country moves toward a system of electronic medical records. In 2002, under President George W. Bush, the right of a patient to control his most sensitive personal data—from prescriptions to DNA—was eliminated by federal regulators implementing the Health Information Portability and Accountability Act. Those privacy notices you sign in doctors' offices do not actually give you any control over your personal data; they merely describe how the data will be used and disclosed.

Read more on WSJ.com