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

Common Sweetener Linked to Obesity Rise?

The soaring rate of obesity that began in the 1970s and has been climbing ever since mirrors the introduction of a sweetener that's widely used in processed foods, including sodas and fruit juices, a Louisiana State University researcher points out.

In next month's issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Dr. George Bray says there's evidence of a link between the use of high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) and the obesity epidemic in the United States.

Bray -- an obesity expert at the school's Pennington Biomedical Research Center -- says HFCS appears to work differently than other sugars in that it stifles the body's ability to feel full, encouraging a person to eat more. He acknowledges, however, that this behavior hasn't been scientifically proven, according to an account from CBS News.

Many food manufacturers prefer HFCS to cane sugar, since it's cheaper and tastes sweeter, the network reports. A group representing HFCS manufacturers issued a statement denying Bray's hypothesis, saying the corn-derived substance is "compositionally equivalent" to table sugar. The statement points out that obesity also is on the rise in Mexico and Europe, both of which don't use HFCS to the extent that it's used in the United States.

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Army Evaluates Soldier Suicides in Iraq

A year after a significant spike in suicides among soldiers serving in Iraq, a U.S. Army assessment team says it has found a number of common threads among the 24 who took their own their lives in 2003, the Associated Press reports.

The soldiers were faced with personal finance problems, failed personal relationships, and various legal difficulties, according to the team's findings that were to be released Thursday.

The soldiers also tended to avoid seeking professional help for fear of being ostracized, a trend that's been observed in past investigations of Army suicides, the AP reports.

The 24 suicides in Iraq and Kuwait last year don't include soldiers who killed themselves after returning to the United States. The suicide rate among the Mideast-based GIs equates to 17.3 per 100,000 soldiers, compared to 12.8 for the entire Army during 2003, the AP reports.

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Researchers Cite Genetic Link to Nicotine Addiction

People who have mutations of a gene known as Epac are more likely to start smoking and become addicted to nicotine, according to researchers at Virginia Commonwealth University.

Noting a tendency among twins to start smoking and become hooked, the scientists studied 688 twins, finding that a common mutation of the Epac gene was shown to have a modest association with nicotine dependence. And a different mutation appeared to have a weaker association with starting to smoke, the researchers point out in a prepared statement.

The Epac gene, located on chromosome 12, has been shown to become more active in a rat's brain after the animal has been given nicotine, the researchers say.

While past research has found that genes -- as well as environmental factors like parents smoking at home -- have an influence on whether a person begins smoking and becomes nicotine dependent, no specific gene has been identified that is responsible for an increased tendency to smoke, they add.

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Religious Leaders Push Drugmakers to Fight AIDS

A major coordinated campaign to pressure four large drug companies to respond more strongly to the HIV/AIDS crisis was announced Wednesday in New York by a coalition of 275 groups of religious and other concerned shareholders.

The campaign, conducted through the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility (ICCR), calls on Abbott Laboratories, Merck & Co., Bristol-Myers Squibb, and Pfizer, Inc., to take new steps in the fight against HIV/AIDS, including the pandemic in Africa.

ICCR-backed resolutions call on these major drugmakers to "review the economic effects of the HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria pandemics on the company's business strategy, and its initiatives to date, and report to shareholders within six months following the 2004 annual meeting."

Currently, only 4 percent of the world's 40 million people with HIV/AIDS have access to lifesaving medicines. Of those with no access to drugs to fight HIV/AIDS, 95 percent live in the developing world. Drug companies have been criticized for not doing enough to help these people.

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Paintball Gun Warning Issued by CPSC

Two deaths have led the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) to issue a safety warning about carbon dioxide cylinders flying off paintball guns.

The warning advises paintball gun users that the brass- or nickel-plated valve that connects directly to the canister must not be unscrewed from the canister when removing the canister assembly from a paintball gun. The valve must stay secured and rotate with the carbon dioxide canister.

The CPSC investigated two deaths that occurred when the brass valve was unscrewed from the canister, turning the canister into a deadly projectile. In one case, a 15-year-old boy died when he was struck by a canister while removing it from a paintball gun. In the other fatal incident, a female bystander was killed by a canister that was expelled as someone else was removing the canister from a paintball gun.

The CPSC warning also recommends that people ensure that any modifications made to a paintball gun or its canister are done properly.

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Lose a Strong Jaw, Gain a Strong Brain

Here's a tidbit for your brain to chew on.

We humans may owe our superior intelligence to a genetic mutation 2.4 million years ago that weakened our jaw muscles, according to research published in this week's issue of the journal Nature.

These weakened jaw muscles may have allowed the skull to change shape and give our minds room to expand.

Hansell H. Stedman of the University of Pennsylvania and his colleagues discovered that modern humans around the world share a mutation in a gene called MYH16. This gene encodes a crucial protein in primate jaw muscles. Other primates, such as chimpanzees, have intact MYH16 and strong jaw muscles.

The researchers note that estimated age of this gene mutation in humans matches well with the appearance in the fossil record of humans with round skulls and small jaws.

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