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Gut Brain: The health of the gut is tied to more than digestion, with links to processes and conditions including bone formation, learning and memory, Parkinson’s disease and, in lab rats, depression and anxiety, the WSJ reports. Researchers call the enteric nervous system the “gut brain” and note that about 95% of the neurotransmitter serotonin is produced by neurons in the gut.

Hepatitis C Deal: Bristol-Myers Squibb is buying Inhibitex, which has a hepatitis C drug in development, for $26 per share in cash, or about $2.5 billion, the WSJ reports. Like Bristol-Myers, Inhibitex is developing a drug belonging to the so-called nucleotides class. A Bristol executive tells the WSJ Inhibitex’s drug could combine with Bristol’s drugs to become “a very powerful regimen” for use against hepatitis C, the paper reports.

President Obama’s health-reform law goes before the Supreme Court in the new year. Chief among the issues it will consider: Is the individual mandate constitutional? WSJ’s Neil Hickey reports.

Excerpt from: Health Care Law Faces Showdown in Supreme Court/a>

The health-care overhaul law includes a provision requiring insurers to spend a certain proportion of premium dollars on patient care and quality-improvement programs.

It all sounds straightforward enough — large-group plans must spend at least 85% and individual and small-group plans, 80% — but the devil is always in the details.

You might want to give your high-school student an extra helping of sweet potatoes or squash for Thanksgiving dinner.

A new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirms just how few fruits and vegetables high-school students are eating. More than a quarter of 10,765 students surveyed in the 2010 National Youth Physical Activity and Nutrition Study don’t eat fruit every day, and a third don’t get their vegetables daily.

Teen Births Drop Again: The birth rate among Americans ages 15 to 19 years old fell 9% from the previous year, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said. The WSJ reported that more effective sex-education programs along with a rough economy may help explain the continued decline.

Physically fit older men and women show fewer age-related changes in their brains, new research shows, buttressing medical evidence that regular exercise can preserve key parts of the brain involved in attention and memory.

By analyzing aerobic fitness and neural differences, researchers at the University of Arizona found a clear relationship between exercise and healthier aging brains, they reported in a new study.

The Supreme Court will hear arguments over the constitutionality of Obama’s health care law, Jess Bravin reports on Markets Hub. Photo: AFP/ Getty Images.

View original post here:  Supreme Court Will Rule on Health Care Law/a>

For those keeping score of the health-care overhaul law’s record in U.S. appeals courts, the tally now stands at three rulings for the Obama administration and one for the law’s opponents.

As the WSJ reports, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled 2-1 that the health law’s individual mandate — that’s the requirement that most people carry health insurance or pay a penalty — doesn’t violate the Constitution.