MONDAY, Aug. 2 (HealthDay News) -- Factors that increase the risk of severe myopia (nearsightedness) and related vision loss have now been discovered by researchers, and the findings may lead to improved screening and treatment of people with the eye disorder.

MONDAY, August 2 (HealthDay News) -- Drug studies paid for by the pharmaceutical industry are more likely to publish favorable results than those funded by sources with no financial interest in the findings, a new review has found.

MONDAY, Aug. 2 (HealthDay News) -- Studying for an exam while listening to music is not smart, because background music can impair your ability to perform memory tasks, new research has found.

WEDNESDAY, July 28 (HealthDay News) -- Certain compounds used in meat processing may increase the risk of bladder cancer, a new study from the National Institutes of Health and the AARP shows.

(HealthDay News) -- Skateboarding safely requires knowing how to protect yourself. The popular sport contributes to more than 15,000 injuries each year, U.S. government statistics show.

(HealthDay News) -- The neck has the vital task of supporting the head, but since it isn't as protected as the rest of the spine, is it more susceptible to injury.

MONDAY, Aug. 2 (HealthDay News) -- If you want to know the true thoughts of a politician, watch his or her hand movements, a new study suggests.

MONDAY, Aug. 2 (HealthDay News) -- A new study suggests that injecting steroids straight into the spinal nerve might serve as an alternative to surgery for a kind of back pain known as sciatica when it's caused by herniated discs.

MONDAY, August 2 (HealthDay News) -- The anesthetic drug ketamine helps ease depression in patients with treatment-resistant bipolar disorder, a new study finds.

MONDAY, Aug. 2 (HealthDay News) -- The expectation of receiving an active drug increases the likelihood of a strong brain chemical response when Parkinson's disease patients are given a placebo, finds a Canadian study.

MONDAY, Aug. 2 (HealthDay News) -- The number of injuries to young children caused by exposure to household cleaning products have decreased almost by half since 1990, but roughly 12,000 children under the age of 6 are still being treated in U.S. emergency rooms every year for these types of accidental poisonings, a new study finds.

MONDAY, Aug. 2 (HealthDay News) -- Scientists have genetically tweaked a virus to fashion a therapeutic vaccine that appears to attack a variety of advanced cancers.

MONDAY, Aug. 2 (HealthDay News) -- In another sign that autism is at least partly inherited, a new study reveals that close relatives of people with the disorder share something in common: their eyes are much more likely than those of other people to function abnormally.

Here are some of the latest health and medical news developments, compiled by the editors of HealthDay:

(HealthDay News) -- Here are the latest clinical trials, courtesy of ClinicalConnection.com:

MONDAY, Aug. 2 (HealthDay News) -- Teens who spend far too much time on the Internet run the risk of developing depression, a new Australian study suggests.

MONDAY, Aug. 2 (HealthDay News) -- If you're overweight, should you cut carbs or fat?

MONDAY, Aug. 2 (HealthDay News) -- What's good for the heart is probably also good for the brain, suggests new research.

MONDAY, Aug. 2 (HealthDay News) -- Children in an African village who ate a largely vegetarian diet and were breast-fed until the age of 2 had vastly different gut bacteria than children in a European city who ate a Western diet and were breast-fed about only half that time.