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Diabetes most often begins in March Ben Harder A person's likelihood of developing type 2 diabetes varies seasonally and is about 50 percent higher in March than in August, according to a 6-year study. Led by Péter Doró, researchers at the University of Szeged in Hungary analyzed 26,695 cases of the disease that arose in one Hungarian county between 1999 and 2004. The scientists recorded diabetes onset as the date on which each patient first received drugs to reduce blood glucose. Type 2 diabetes onset peaked in March, at about 10 cases per 10,000 county residents, and fell in subsequent...

Iraq war casualties often complicated Nathan Seppa From San Francisco, at a meeting of the Infectious Diseases Society of America Hundreds of injured soldiers returning from the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan harbor an unusual bacterium that complicates their wound healing and may be spreading to other patients in hospitals where the soldiers are treated, a new study shows. Moreover, the microbe seems to be lingering in soldiers, cropping up during rehabilitation care received months after they have returned to the United States. Paul M. Scott, a physician at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research in Silver Spring, Md.,...

CHICAGO - Here's some medical news you can trust: A new study confirms that what doctors once said was good for you often turns out to be bad — or at least not as great as initially thought. The report is a review of major studies published in three influential medical journals between 1990 and 2003, including 45 highly publicized studies that initially claimed a drug or other treatment worked. Subsequent research contradicted results of seven studies — 16 percent — and reported weaker results for seven others, an additional 16 percent. That means nearly one-third of the original results...

WASHINGTON - Senators traveled to exotic foreign capitals and fabulous resort towns with beaches and golf courses in 2004 — all in the name of business of course and rarely on their own dime. One such trip was taken by Senate Minority Whip Richard Durbin, D-Ill., who went to Cape Town, South Africa, for an international affairs conference, according to the Senate's financial disclosure forms. That trip was paid for by the Chicago Council on Foreign Relations and the South African Institute of International Affairs. Sen. Mike Enzi, chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, was reimbursed...

WEST SACRAMENTO – The state prison-guard union, under fire last year from those who believe it is too powerful, came up with a playful, in-your-face response. For two weeks, it flew a skull-and-crossbones pirate flag outside its two-story headquarters here. The California Correctional Peace Officers Association isn't known for having a light touch. The union's bare-knuckles approach to politics, along with its sizable bankroll, has helped make it one of the most effective and influential labor groups in the state capitol. But Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger recently said the union has too much control over the state's mammoth prison system. And...

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WASHINGTON - While politicians decry negative advertising and personal attacks, the bottom line is that such tactics often work. People may not quite recall the specific controversy, but negative campaigning can still raise a question mark in voters' minds about a candidate and prove hard to overcome. Attack campaigns, such as those by outside groups in the current presidential campaign, "are bad for the system," President Bush (news - web sites) said on Monday, including a television commercial questioning rival John Kerry (news - web sites)'s military service in Vietnam. No matter that Kerry and his supporters have claimed the...