That glass of clear, golden apple juice may look tastier than a glass of cloudy, unclarified juice, but researchers say the healthier choice is the less aesthetically appealing one.

A new study shows that cloudy, or unclarified apple juice contains more polyphenols than clear apple juice. Polyphenols are antioxidants found in plants and may fight heart disease and cancer.

The study, published in the Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture, showed cloudy juices had up to four times the polyphenols of clear juice, and cloudy juice made from Champion apples had the highest polyphenol content. Researcher Jan Oszmianski and colleagues at the Agricultural University of Wroclaw, Poland say the clarification process involved in creating clear apple juice may remove solids and other compounds rich in polyphenols.

Source: Oszmianski, J. Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture, Jan. 15, 2006 online edition. News release, Society of Chemical Industry.

People who learn and perform skin self-examination with a partner are more likely to regularly engage in this cancer-screening activity according to a report in the January issue of Archives of Dermatology.

Skin self-examination can help detect skin cancer early and lead to decreased death rates from melanoma, the most serious form of skin cancer.

A study conducted by June K. Robinson at Northwester University found that particpants who learned self-exam techniques with a partner were more likely to perform follow up exams and over the long term.

Performing skin exams with a partner also provides the ability to examine parts of the body a patient may not be able to adequately view alone.

So, grab your partner and learn the ABCDE’s of melanoma.

There is no effective screening test to identify ovarian cancer. As a result, 75% of ovarian cancers are diagnosed in a late stage, lessening the chance for a cure.

The problem is that the symptoms of ovarian cancer are not uncommon among all women at times and so are often misdiagnosed as being related to other causes, such as menopause.

Here are the six most common complaints associated with ovarian cancer according to researchers at the University of Washington School of Medicine:

* pelvic pain
* abdominal pain
* increased abdominal size
* abdominal bloating
* difficulty eating
* feeling full quickly

When any of these symptoms had been present for less than a year and occurred more than 12 days a month, they were considered independently predictive of ovarian cancer risk.

Speaking to WebMD, researcher Barbara Goff, MD, said “These are very common symptoms that everyone has from time to time. The purpose is not to scare women and make everyone think they have ovarian cancer. It is to alert women and their physicians that there may be cause for concern if these symptoms come on quickly and occur with frequency.”

Six Warning Signs of Possible Ovarian Cancer

Specially grown soy beans produce a compound that may fight the growth of breast and ovarian cancers according to Tulane University cancer researcher Matthew Burow.

The compound, known as glyceollin, was tested on mice with ovarian and breast cancers that are stimulated by the hormone estrogen. Glyceollin interferes with the tumor’s ability to respond to estrogen, stopping further growth.

According to Burow, the finding is significant because of the lack of effective therapies available to women with advanced breast or ovarian cancer. Unlike some of the available therapies, the glyceollins did not stimulate uterine cancer growth.

Tulane University