Over the course of their lives, about 80 percent of persons suffer from back pain at one time or another. A recent study found that more than a third of adults say that low back pain has affected their ability to perform the tasks of daily living, exercise, or sleep. Treating this pain remains a difficult problem, and for millions of people the pain is chronic.

Ann Arbor: Nearly half of women treated for early stage breast cancer reported at least one side effect from their treatment that was severe or very severe according to a new study.

A yoga program for children with cancer can be carried out even during cancer treatment, and has quality of life benefits for the children as well as their parents, suggests a study in Rehabilitation Oncology, official journal of the Oncology Section of the American Physical Therapy Association. The journal is published by Wolters Kluwer.

Minneapolis: Welders can develop Parkinson’s disease-like symptoms that may get worse the longer and more they are exposed to the chemical element manganese from welding fumes, according to a study published recently in Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

Philadelphia: Does eating good-tasting food make you gain weight? Despite the common perception that good-tasting food is unhealthy because it causes obesity, new research from the Monell Center using a mouse model suggests that desirable taste in and of itself does not lead to weight gain.

It’s no secret that the cost of prescription drugs—especially brand-name drugs—has been rising far faster than inflation over the last few years. This high cost is one reason that some people aren’t taking the medication their providers prescribe for them. It’s not just people paying out of pocket who are affected. Although those with good insurance from their employer or elsewhere may feel the sting far less dramatically each time they pick up a prescription, those costs do eventually trickle out to everyone. Ultimately insurance companies or other payers shift some of the burden to patients in the form of higher co-payments or deductibles.