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This week in the medical journalsBy Peggy Peck Editor's note: CNN.com has a business partnership with MedPageToday.com, which provides custom health content. A medical journal roundup from MedPage Today appears each Thursday. This week brought more evidence that obesity increases the risk of breast cancer. Weighty concernGaining just 20 pounds after age 18 was associated with an 89 percent increase in risk of ductal carcinoma and more than a tripling of the risk of breast cancer that spreads to other areas of the body, according to American Cancer Society researchers who reported their findings in Cancer. Obesity-breast cancer link fleshed out Be still my heartChecked your heart rate lately? Maybe you should. A team of German researchers reported this week that the ability of the heart to slow down is a better indicator of survival after a heart attack than left-ventricular ejection fraction, which is a time-honored measure of the efficiency of the heart at pumping blood through the body. The researchers studied more than 1,400 heart attack patients and reported their findings in The Lancet. Heart slowdown rate predicts post-MI mortality risk Colon cancer screening every 10 yearsIn other cancer news this week, the American Cancer Society said that people who have no evidence of cancer when undergoing screening colonoscopy can safely wait 10 years before having the procedure again. That conclusion emerged from an analysis of reports from more than 35,000 colon cancer screenings. The new recommendation was reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association. 10-year interval confirmed as safe after negative colonoscopy A not-so-rare diseaseVarient Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, which is often referred to as the human form of mad cow disease, may be more common than previously believed, according to a team of geneticists from the University of Edinburgh. Writing in BMJ the researchers said that two genotypes, one found in about 40 percent of the population and another, which is found in about 10 percent of the population, put people at risk for the disease. Genetic finding raises fears of wider human mad cow spread Winning combination after strokePeople who survive strokes caused by blood clots that block the blood supply to the brain are often put on aspirin therapy to reduce the risk of future clots. A study this week suggested that while aspirin is good, combining it with Persantine (dipyridamole), a drug that makes blood less sticky, is even better. A Dutch study found that patients randomized to the Persantine-aspirin combination reduced the risk of death, heart attack, or second stroke by 18 percent compared with patients taking just aspirin. Aspirin-Persantine duo best after ischemic stroke Not so great care for the greatest generationJust in time for Memorial Day weekend comes a report from researchers at the San Francisco Veterans Affairs Medical Center that suggested some old soldiers may be managed with an eye toward hospital staff convenience rather than evidence-based medicine. The problem, the authors wrote in the Journal of Patient Safety, is that as many as one in four older patients are given urinary catheters rather than the needed help getting to the bathroom. The decision to use a catheter is often based on staffer convenience rather than medical necessity, they wrote. Older hospitalized patients often catheterized unnecessarily Physical decline suggests mental declineAlso this week there was a report that suggests poor physical functioning, meaning difficulty rising from chair or gripping something tightly in one's dominant hand, is often an early sign of dementia. University of Washington researchers based that conclusion on a study of more than 2,200 people ages 65 or older. They reported the results in Archives of Internal Medicine. Poor physical performance portends future mental decline Teens face date violenceTurning from the old to the young, a pair of studies reported this week pointed out once again that the teenage years can be difficult. First, a survey form the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported in Mortality and Morbidity Weekly Report found that as many as 1.5 million high school students said they had been hit, slapped, or physically hurt by a boyfriend or girlfriend. Moreover, the rate of dating violence is about the same for boys and girls (just under 9 percent). Dating violence affects 1.5 million teens In the second study, researchers reported that Mexican high school students are as resistant to the safe-sex message as their north-of-the-border counterparts. Writing in BMJ researchers with the National Institute of Public Health in Mexico said that intensive 15-week HIV-education course did not increase condom use when compared with standard sex-education programs. But there was one encouraging note: access to morning-after contraception did not decrease condom use. Risky sex remains popular among teens despite education A little song, a little dance...And finally, there was evidence this week that music can sooth savage pain. Pain researchers at the Cleveland Clinic reported that any kind of music -- vocal, piano, jazz, orchestra, or harp -- can ease unrelenting, nonmalignant pain. In a study of 60 chronic pain patients, music was associated with a 20 percent reduction in pain, they wrote in Journal of Advanced Nursing. Conclusion: Headache? Take two CDs and call me in the morning. Music hath charms to soothe chronic nonmalignant pain 
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