The hormone that helps plants grow toward the sun may also help people fight cancer.

Researchers in England found that indole acetic acid (IAA) within the hormone attacks cancerous cells, while leaving healthy cells alone. IAA is likely to be effective against most types of cancers, says Wardman, DSc, the study author. Clinical trials in humans are expected to start in two to three years.

Life’s aggravations are bad enough without having your blood pressure soar and your heart pound in outrage when some guy in a Tata Safari cuts you off. Fortunately, a new study shows getting fit can keep your ticker calm and collected in moments of mental stress.

And it might let you survive more than just your commute. There’s growing evidence that people whose hearts overreact to anxiety are more prone to developing serious hypertension or a heart attack years later, says Duke University psychologist Anastasia Georgiades.

To see how much exercise could help, Georgiades enlisted 99 overweight couch potatoes, some with high blood pressure. For six months, one group walked, biked, and, eventually, jogged regularly; another crew worked out and went on a low-fat diet. A third bunch stuck to their usual habits. At the trial’s end, everyone’s cardio-vascular response was monitored in stressful situations - giving a speech and recalling an irritating event, for example.

The results were encouraging. For one thing, resting blood pressure eased up only in the people who got off their duffs. (The biggest drop, by 5 to 7 points, was in those exercisers who also dieted). What’s more, the researchers found that only those who worked out didn’t get all worked up : In both active groups, heart rates and blood pressures rose less under stress.

If that’s not a kick in the pants to get fit, consider this : Those who exercised and cut calories dropped about 18 pounds.

Ever wonder if the 2 minutes it took you to scarf down that bag of chips took 2 minutes off your life. Health experts at Loma Linda University studied members of the California Seventh-Day Adventists, many of whom lead rigorously healthy lives and live longer than the rest of us. According to the study, here’s how many years each of these habits could add to your life :

Vegetarian diet : 2.4 years

Vigorous exercise three times a week : 2.1 years

Maintaining a healthy weight ; 1.5 years

Eating nuts five times a week : 2.9 years

Never having smoked adds another 1.3 years. And you don’t have to give up meat, says Gary Fraser, MD, study co-author. You get many of the same benefits by eating less saturated fat and more fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and legumes.

Just as a heart pacemaker can regulate heart rhythm, a battery powered electrode implanted in the brain can regulate the abnormal neuron activity that causes Parkinson’s disease, potentially reducing the tremors that characterise the disease by 90 per cent or more.

Deep brain stimulation (DBS) was first approved by the US FDA in 1997 for the treatment of tremor and shows promise in other symptoms of Parkinson’s disease such as joint stiffness and stress walking.

The pacemaker is implanted below the collarbone with a thin wire threading it to the electrode in the brain.

DBS may reduce other Parkinson’s symptoms such as rigidity, walking difficulties, and uncontrollable twisting by 60 per cent, says Ali Rezai, MD, a neurosurgeon at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation in Ohio and one of the first to perform this procedure in the US. The pacemakers can be reprogrammed over time to adjust to the patient’s changing condition. And the procedure is completely reversible.

A tool that will catch medical mistakes before it’s too late

The ubiquitous "black box" found on airplanes may soon be coming to a hospital near you. Surgeons in England and Scotland are testing "clinical data recorders" in operating rooms in an attempt to catch and prevent medical errors. Thousands of people die each year due to medical mistakes. Many of those tragic mishaps could be prevented through monitoring of procedures and medications. And for those that can’t be prevented, a record of the cause might help hospitals develop methods to prevent similar mistakes from happening.

Ara Darzi, MD, a surgeon at the Imperial College in London, says the device will link audio-video recording of surgeries with real time information on the patient’s vital signs and any medical equipment being used. ‘We will for the first time have a comprehensive and objective record of the entire procedure," he says.

Although no hospital has immediate plans to install the data recorders, Darzi reports that several leading institutions in the US have expressed an interest in academic and development collaborations.