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MONDAY, Sept. 21, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- Strong gun laws may be negated by more permissive laws in neighboring states, a new study reports. It found that weaker gun laws appear to increase gun deaths in adjoining states. The finding could support policymakers looking to strengthen gun laws in their state, according to authors of the study published online Sept. 14 in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine. For the study, more than 578,000 U.S. gun deaths from 2000 to 2017 were analyzed, along with state gun laws. "Although stronger state gun policies were associated with decreased firearm deaths, the presence of permissive neighboring states undermined this protective effect," said lead investigator Bisakha Sen, of the Department of Health Care Organization and Policy at the...

MONDAY, Sept. 21, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- Middle-aged Americans are living with more physical pain than older adults are -- and the problem is concentrated among the less-educated, a new study finds. The pattern may seem counterintuitive, since older age generally means more chronic health conditions and wear-and-tear on the body. And the middle-age pain peak is not seen in other wealthy countries, researchers said. But as in other areas of health, there seems to be a dividing line among Americans, the study found. It's relatively less-educated people who are reporting more pain in middle age -- and it's because they are suffering more pain throughout life than older generations did. "We're not sure why that is," said study author Anne Case, a professor of economics and public...

MONDAY, Sept. 21, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- Many women with severe migraines don't want to get pregnant because of concerns about their headaches, a new study finds. Migraine, one of the world's leading causes of disability, particularly affects women of childbearing age. Researchers surveyed 607 U.S. women afflicted with severe migraines. One in 5 said they're avoiding pregnancy due to their migraines. Among those, 72.5% thought their migraines would be worse during or just after pregnancy; 68.3% thought their migraines would make pregnancy difficult; and 82.6% thought their migraines would make raising a child difficult. The women also expressed concern that their migraine medications would harm their child's development and that their baby would inherit genes that increase their...

MONDAY, Sept. 21, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- An immunotherapy drug significantly improved survival in patients with the most common type of bladder cancer, according to a new study. About 550,000 new cases of bladder cancer are diagnosed worldwide each year, making it the 10th most common type of cancer, the study authors noted. Chemotherapy is the initial standard of care for advanced bladder cancer. After chemotherapy, patients are checked regularly because the cancer often returns quickly. If the cancer does return, it's usually very difficult to treat. The new phase 3 clinical trial included 700 patients with locally advanced or metastatic urothelial carcinoma -- the most common form of bladder cancer -- whose disease hadn't progressed after standard chemotherapy. These patients...