Results of a new study find that a certain cholesterol drug maybe keeping people up at night.

Zocor, otherwise known as simvastatin has been found to keep people from sleeping properly in a large scale study of the drug, when compared to another cholesterol drug, Pravachol.

"We were looking at the impact of the most hydrophilic [Pravachol] and most lipophilic [Zocor] statins on a range of non-cardiac endpoints with sleep as a pre-specified secondary outcome," stated study author Dr. Beatrice Golomb, of the University of California. .

Millions of Americans take the drug on a daily basis, and this may account for why many of them maybe having trouble sleeping at night.

"The findings are significant because sleep problems can affect the quality of life and may have adverse health consequences, such as promoting weight gain and insulin resistance," Dr. Beatrice Golomb, of the University of California at San Diego School of Medicine, said in a statement.

Anybody carrying around excess weight may actually be doing themselves some good, as a new study finds that being overweight may have some healthy benefits.

In a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, researchers state that being overweight can reduce your risk of death from a number of different health conditions.

They found that deaths by cancer or heart disease were not seen more often in overweight or obese people, as was originally thought by many health experts.

Furthermore, those people who were overweight were found to be at a slightly reduced risk of dying from; tuberculosis, emphysema, pneumonia, Alzheimer's disease and serious injuries.

"This doesn't mean being overweight is good for you," said Katherine M. Flegal, a senior research scientist at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta. "But it is associated with less mortality than expected."

It is being reported that study participants who were given an experimental Merck HIV vaccine maybe more susceptible to the virus as a result.

Merck, along with the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases and the HIV Vaccine Trials Network, gave up on the experimental vaccine after clinical trials of the vaccine showed little promise.

In analyzing the data from one such trial, Merck learned that a group of participants who received the vaccine, acquired HIV at a greater percentage than did a group of participants given a placebo.

"What is scary is that we're no closer than we've been for a while to the development of an HIV vaccine, which we desperately need globally and locally," said Dr. Bob Wood, director of HIV/AIDS Control Program for Public Health — Seattle & King County. "And if this vaccine actually increased people's risk of acquiring HIV, it might be very difficult to recruit people into future vaccine studies."

Results of a new study find that obesity is responsible for 6,000 cancer cases in British women each year.

These include womb cancer, breast cancer and a type of oesophageal cancer.

Researchers from the Cancer Research UK and Oxford University, used data from the Million Women Study, featuring data on more than 1 million women. They found that in women over the age of 50, 5% of cancers are directly related to their body weight.

Lead researcher Dr Gillian Reeves said: "We estimate that being overweight or obese accounts for around 6,000 out of a total 120,000 new cases of cancer each year among middle-aged and older women in the UK."

Obese and overweight women were found to be twice as likely to develop endometrial cancer and cancer of the esophagus compared with women of a normal weight.

It is being reported that as many as 3,000 health experts will be meeting this week in Cape Town for a conference to discuss ways of dealing with drug resistant tuberculosis.

Africa is currently being ravaged by the disease, and with HIV also taking its tol on the continent, experts are faced with 2 epidemics with no end in site.

The disease is curable with antibiotics, but that said it is estimated that more than 1.5 million people die from the disease worldwide each year, the majority of them in Africa.

"Despite international efforts, the increasing incidence of multi-drug resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) and extremely drug-resistant tuberculosis (XDR-TB) threatens to push that number higher," stated the International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease in a statement.

Results of a new study find that popular energy drinks can raise a person's risk of death.

According to U.S. researchers, these types of drinks can raise a person's blood pressure to unsafe levels, a fact that can lead to heart attacks and strokes that could lead to death.

They warn people who already have high blood pressure to stay away from consuming these drinks.

In a small study, healthy volunteers drank 2 cans of an energy drink that contained 80 milligrams of caffeine every day for a week. the researchers found that drinking 2 cans of an energy drink can significantly raise a person's blood pressure, and if a person already has higher than normal blood pressure then this can be quite dangerous.

"Pending more study, at least talk to your doctor about potential risks," said James Kalus, senior manager of patient care services at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit.

It is being reported that the Department of Veterans Affairs have suspended the operating privileges of three doctors at the troubled Marion VA Medical Center in southern Illinois, pending an investigation into them, as well as looking at an additional 17,000 health care providers to veterans across the US.

This is the third investigation to be carried out at the VA hospital since August, and will focus on the hiring, personnel and management practices that are used.

The VA officials who testified yesterday in front of the Senate, did not offer much detail into the three additional surgeons who were put on lieve.

Scrutiny first hit the hospital in August when Dr. Jose Veizaga-Mendez resigned three days after a Kentucky man bled to death after gallbladder surgery the doctor performed.

It is being reported that Texas voters have just approved an additional 3 billion dollars to be used to boost the fight against cancer.

The move was backed by Gov. Rick Perry, as well as popular sports figure Lance Armstrong, who himself is a cancer survivor.

"I believe that we will look back on this day as a turning point in the war against this deadly disease," Perry said.

"I believe there are cures for cancer on the horizon."

Armstrong said he was "deeply grateful to the people of this state for joining our campaign by voting to make Texas a global leader in cancer research and prevention."

Proposition 15 authorizes the state of Texas to issue as much as $300 million a year in bonds to pay for cancer research spanning the next 10 years.

It is being reported that a high school student is recovering from a bout with an MRSA infection.

The teen, 15 year old Kyle Quakenbush attends Noblesville High School and was diagnosed with the MRSA infection in September of this year. He has now recovered from the virus.

"Kyle casually mentioned his leg was hurting. By the time I saw it, it looked horrendous," said Liz Quakenbush, who took Kyle an hour later to the doctor. He was prescribed antibiotics for 17 days.

The MRSA infection has popped up in as many as 12 Indiana schools as of late, prompting school officials to step up their act when it comes to informing students and staff how to reduce their risk of contracting it.

"Fortunately, his case responded to heavy-duty antibiotics," mother Liz Quakenbush wrote in an e-mail about his bout with MRSA, a strain of bacteria commonly known as staph, which has become resistant to the antibiotics generally used to treat skin infections.

It is being reported that the wife of former NYC mayor Rudy Giuliani has given her first campaign speech.

She spoke without the presence of her husband during a breast cancer forum at the Susan G. Komen for the Cure's Leadership Summit on Breast Cancer at the Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center, and stated that an administration lead by her husband, would provide resources and support for people with cancer.

“Politics is still new to me, as many of you know,” said Mrs. Giuliani, the wife of Rudolph W. Giuliani, who is seeking the Republican presidential nomination. "But I can tell you that the challenges of health care and cancer are not," Mrs. Giuliani continued.

Speaking about the day that her husband found out that he had prostate cancer, she stated "when he was first told that his diagnosis after the biopsy … was positive, I watched his face. He said, 'Oh, wow, positive is good,'" she said. "Even someone as intelligent as my husband is, it took him a few moments for him to filter through that process and realize in this unfortunate case, positive, of course, was not good."