EmpowHer is bringing you the latest news on Senator Edward Kennedy's progress midway through his six weeks of radiation and chemotherapy for brain cancer.

To provide you the best health information possible we've compiled a list of the most important news and information on this story.

_____

In an e-mail to family and friends sent Wednesday, Vicki Kennedy said her husband has been exercising each morning before heading to Boston for treatment at Massachusetts General Hospital. By afternoon, he's back at his family's compound in Hyannis Port.

BOSTON (AP) — Sen. Edward Kennedy, midway through six weeks of radiation and chemotherapy treatments for brain cancer, is doing well aside from some fatigue, his wife says.

In an e-mail to family and friends sent Wednesday, Vicki Kennedy said her husband has been exercising each morning before heading to Boston for treatment at Massachusetts General Hospital. By afternoon, he's back at his family's compound in Hyannis Port.

Read more from The Associated Press

Every now and then, for no apparent reason (emphasis on "apparent"), I feel an annoying, painful, pins and needles sensation in my big toe. It's usually only one toe, usually my left big toe, that gets this.

Doing a search online, I found all sorts of possibilities. But, I really didn't fit any of the symptoms. My symptoms are momentary, sudden, annoying and painful. Of the possible causes, a lower back problem fit the best.

Has anyone ever felt anything like this? Did you consult a chiropractor or neurologist? Which helped?

TUESDAY, July 1 (HealthDay News) -- A new questionnaire may help in both diagnosing older adults facing dementia and also in identifying individuals who need help with daily living.

The Everyday Cognition instrument consists of 39 questions to be answered by people who know the patient well.

(HealthDay News) -- If you're an older American with no major health problems, chances are about one in 10 that you've had a stroke and didn't know it.

It was probably not severe enough to cause recognizable symptoms, such as vision problems, facial weakness or trouble walking, but it was still a blockage of a brain artery, and it reduced your thinking powers just a bit.

FRIDAY, June 27 (HealthDay News) -- People with multiple sclerosis are at a greater risk than the general population for developing restless legs syndrome (RLS), a new Italian study suggests.

"This is important, because RLS is one of the symptoms that can seriously affect an MS patient's quality of life, even more than a lot of other problems MS patients face," said lead researcher Dr. Giovanni Cossu, a neurologist at Brudzu Hospital in Cagliari, Italy. "Therapies for RLS [such as] dopamine agonists are normally very effective and can restore this quality of life, " he added.

FRIDAY, June 27 (HealthDay News) -- The key to a healthy mind in old age may lie in an active social life, a new study suggests.

"If you are socially engaged, you are at lower risk of dementia," said Dr. Valerie C. Crooks, a researcher at the Department of Research and Evaluation, Kaiser Permanente Southern California.

During her study, which followed more than 2,200 women ages 78 and older for four years, those with large social networks reduced their risk of getting dementia by 26 percent, she said.

(HealthDay News) -- Here are the latest clinical trials, courtesy of CenterWatch:

Insomnia

Volunteers aged 21 and older in remission from cancer who have difficulty sleeping are needed for a study investigating the ability of an Internet intervention to reduce insomnia.

The research site is in Charlottesville, Va.

More information

Please see http://www.centerwatch.com/patient/studi....

-----

Osteoarthritis

Sense of Adventure Rests in Primitive Brain Region

WEDNESDAY, June 25 (HealthDay News) -- Your sense of adventure comes from a primitive area of the brain called the ventral striatum, British researchers say.

Scientists from the Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging at University College London used fMRI to track brain activity in volunteers and found the ventral striatum was activated when participants chose unfamiliar items over familiar ones. This may be an evolutionary feature shared by many animals, the researchers said.

By Serena Gordon
EmpowHer's HealthDay Reporter

TUESDAY, June 24 (HealthDay News) -- By combining the results of a heel ultrasound with known risk factors for osteoporotic fractures, Swiss researchers were better able to assess which women faced a greater risk of hip fracture.

According to the study of more than 6,000 women, which was published in the July issue of Radiology, 6.1 percent of women in the group identified as high risk went on to have a hip fracture, while just 1.8 percent of the women in the low-risk group did.