Today in medicine …

Topic of study: Parkinson’s disease

Study subjects: Men and women, all ages
Location of study: U.S.
Results: Researchers at Harvard found that people in the study group taking three or more tablets of ibuprofen each week were about 38 percent less likely to develop Parkinson’s — a brain disorder that can cause trembling and stiffness — than patients who didn’t take the drug.
Significance: Results were inconclusive, but data indicated that taking ibuprofen might ward off the illness.

Topic of study: Visual triggers for smokers

Study subjects: 17 smokers and 17 nonsmokers
Location of study: U.S.
Results: Watching people in a movie smoke triggers the same brain activity involved in planning to actually smoke a cigarette.
Significance: People trying to quit smoking should remove visual triggers as much as possible.

Topic of study: Sexual activity in teens and young adults

Study subjects: Teens and young adults, 15 to 24 years old
Location of study: U.S.
Results: Compared to the last such study in 2002, when 22 percent of males and females reported they had never had sexual contact with another person, a new survey found that 27 percent of males and 29 percent of females were not sexually active.
Significance: Sexual activity is dropping among teens and young adults.