Washington: Do your neighbors have their house lights on? Is their walk shoveled? Are the newspapers and mail piling up? You might want to knock on the door and check on them, says Debbie Jansky, assistant manager, Gottlieb Home Health & Hospice.

National Diabetes Month, observed each year in November, is a time for communities across the country – and the world – to renew and reinforce their fight against diabetes and encourage action to change the life style to reduce its impact.

Singapore: Scientists from Nanyang Technological University have successfully used dead bacteria to kill colorectal cancer cells.

San Francisco: To determine whether healthy food could help low-income people better control their diabetes, a pilot study by UC San Francisco and Feeding America tracked nearly 700 people at food banks in California, Texas and Ohio over two years.

San Diego: Many of the body’s processes follow a natural daily rhythm or so-called circadian clock that is based on regular sleep-wake cycles. Now a new study finds that kidney function may be compromised when sleep is disrupted. 

Washington: Anxious patients heading into surgery often receive medication to ease their fears, but a few calming words from their physicians might actually be more effective medicine. In fact, “conversational hypnosis” as the approach is known, may do a better job than pills for relaxing patients before anesthesia and surgery, suggests research presented at the ANESTHESIOLOGY 2015 annual meeting.