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WEDNESDAY, Jan. 27, 2021 (HealthDay News) -- Moonlight feels right, the '70s song insists -- and that old nugget might have been onto something.Your sleep waxes and wanes with the phases of the moon, with folks staying up later when moonlight is strongest, researchers discovered by comparing primitive human tribes to college students."Sleep starts later and lasts less on the three or five nights that are before the full moon. On those nights, sleep tends to be shorter," said senior researcher Horacio de la Iglesia, a professor of biology with the University of Washington in Seattle.Your best sleep? That appears to be during the few nights just before the new moon, when there's the least moonlight, de la Iglesia added.The research team figured this out by tracking sleep patterns among...

WEDNESDAY, Jan. 27, 2021 (HealthDay News) -- To the ever-growing list of COVID-19's collateral damage, add one more casualty: cancer research. A new study indicates that during the first wave of the pandemic last spring, the number of newly launched cancer treatment studies cratered by 60%."In short, the first wave of COVID slowed scientific progress in a health-related area distant from the disease itself," said study author Dr. Elizabeth Lamont, senior medical director of Acorn AI, in Boston.The finding follows a review of data collected by the Medidata Enterprise Data Store, which accounts for nearly 30% of all cancer research. The team tallied all new cancer studies launched between January and May of 2020, when the pandemic began. These were then compared with numbers stretching...

WEDNESDAY, Jan. 27, 2021 (HealthDay News) -- Exercise programs that are standard for heart attack survivors can also benefit people who've suffered a stroke, a new pilot study suggests.Researchers found that a three-month cardiac rehabilitation program improved fitness levels and muscle strength in 24 stroke survivors.While the study was small, the researchers said it offers evidence of what's intuitive: People recovering from a stroke benefit from regular, structured exercise.Cardiac rehab programs have long been offered to people with heart disease. Yet insurance does not cover the therapy for stroke patients.That's partly because after a stroke, the emphasis is often on rehab for any disabilities a patient might have, said Elizabeth Regan, a clinical assistant professor of physical...

WEDNESDAY, Jan. 27, 2021 (HealthDay News) -- While most people know about mononucleosis, the dreaded "kissing" disease that knocks down teenagers and young adults, many don't know there is a link between "mono" and chronic fatigue syndrome.Now, new research that followed college students who didn't have mono yet (though some contracted it after the study began) sheds light on the risk factors that may trigger chronic fatigue syndrome for some people. "A problem is, because there's so many different causes of ending up with this very debilitating illness, it's a little bit hard to understand what are some of the factors that might be predisposing or even precipitating the illness," said study author Leonard Jason, director of the Center for Community Research at DePaul University, in...