Don't give up that daily cup of coffee just yet. Studies show drinking coffee may reduce your risk of developing Parkinson's disease, diabetes, cirrhosis of the liver, and colon cancer. It's even been linked to a decreased risk of inflammatory and cardiovascular disease in postmenopausal women.

Why? According to an article in the March 2007 issue of Ladies Home Journal, it's because coffee contains large amounts of flavonoids and antioxidants -- and these combat a whole bunch of illnesses.

Now drinking too much coffee can have adverse side effects, like restlessness, anxiety, and headaches, but limiting yourself to one to four brewed cups per day seems to be a safe practice. Although for those with high blood pressure, consuming between two to four cups per day maybe a bit risky because coffee causes blood pressure to rise immediately after consumption. And all coffee drinkers should fight the urge to add sugar, flavored syrup, and whole milk to to their beverages.

A daily cup of tea seems to be healthy too. Researchers are investigating its use in the prevention of cancer, and we already know both black and green tea have significant quantities of disease-fighting flavonoids -- although not as much as coffee.

One week ago, researchers found themselves humbled by the disappointing fact that promising cancer drug Avastin had failed to help patients with pancreatic cancer live longer. In fact, not only did the drug fail to extend survival, it actually caused adverse side effects such high blood pressure and bleeding in the stomach and intestine.

In a study of 600 patients with advanced pancreatic cancer, those who received Avastin in addition to standard chemotherapy lived for only six months -- the same amount of time as those who received chemotherapy alone.

Earlier studies predicted Avastin might improve survival. It worked in patients with advanced colorectal cancer. And so it was no surprise that crowds of pancreatic cancer patients wanted a shot at this potential wonder drug that in the end turned out -- for them -- to be not so wondrous.

Less tends to go wrong for the patient during morning surgery, according to an analysis by Duke University Medical Center researchers, who studied the records of 90,159 surgeries to determine when most surgery patients experienced unexpected adverse events related to their anesthesia. Of these, they found 2,693 cases where error or harm occurred. Patients undergoing surgery in the afternoon most often had more trouble with postoperative pain, nausea and vomiting.

There might be several factors in these time-related problems, including afternoon fatigue among health care providers caused by swings in the circadian rhythms that influence normal biological ups and downs over the course of a day, and hospital work schedules.

By injecting laboratory mice with human embryonic stem cells, Technion Institute of Technology in Israel researchers have created mice that are partly-human. After the injection of human embryonic stem cells, the mice grew mixed lumps of human tissue called tetromas. Testing experimental drugs on tetromas in mice eliminates the need to put human volunteer test subjects at a potentially life-threatening danger of unknown adverse reactions to new drugs being developed and tested for safety.

Until now, the only way to determine if an experimental drug was effective, or safe, was to test it on monkeys or human volunteers. The problem is that monkeys do not always have the same reaction to a drug that humans do. While developing laboratory mice that grow human lumps of tissue sounds freakishly Frankenstein, humanized mice do allow scientists to make much more accurate advances in the development of effective and safe drugs to treat cancer.

According to Professor Yoram Reiter, "Scientists are currently able to cure cancer in mice, but not in humans. It is hoped that the humanized mice will throw light on this discrepancy and help scientists fine tune cancer treatments."