(CBS) think detecting ovarian cancer symptoms is easy? think again. Even doctors have a hard time making the call. in part, that's because many of the symptoms, like weight gain and abdomen pain, could be a host of things, or nothing at all.

It's no small problem. Each year around 20,000 American women get ovarian cancer in the United States and yet many are not fully aware of the warning signs.

The symptoms, according to Medline are:

- Heavy feeling in pelvis- Pain in lower abdomen- Bleeding from the vagina (especially after menopause)- Weight gain or loss- Abnormal periods- Unexplained back pain that gets worse- Gas, nausea, vomiting, or loss of appetite

Sounds like a lot of things right? and sometimes there are no symptoms at all, which makes things tough on doctors. more than 25 percent of women with apparent  signs of early stage ovarian cancer are not receiving biopsies to test for it, according to new research from the University of California Davis Cancer Center.That's a big deal, because the longer you wait, the more deadly the disease becomes.

To make matters worse, there is no simple screening test for the disease. your doctor can perform several tests to help narrow it down including a rectovaginal pelvic exam, a transvaginal ultrasound, and a CA-125 blood test.

The disease overwhelming strikes older women – 90 percent are over 40 and most of those are over 60, according to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC).

There are several things that can lower your chance of getting the disease and some risk factors too. Here's the short list, according to the CDC.

LOWER YOUR RISK

- having used birth control pills for more than five years.- having had a tubal ligation (getting your tubes tied), both ovaries removed, or hysterectomy (an operation in which the uterus, and sometimes the cervix, is removed).- having given birth.

RISK FACTORS

- being middle-aged or older.- having close family members(such as your mother, sister, aunt, or grandmother) on either your mother's or your father's side who have had ovarian cancer.- having had breast, uterine, or colorectal cancer.- having an Eastern European (Ashkenazi) Jewish background.- having never given birth or having had trouble getting pregnant.- having endometriosis (a condition where tissue from the lining of the uterus grows elsewhere in the body).

For more information check out Medline, the Mayo Clinic and the CDC.

ScienceDaily (Aug. 18, 2010) — B vitamins-B-6, B-12 and folate-all nourish the brain. but much remains to be discovered about the relation between these essential nutrients and our brainpower.

U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) nutritionist Lindsay H. Allen has collaborated in ongoing research that has taken a closer look at the role these nutrients may play in preventing decline in brain function. The investigations, led by Mary N. Haan of the University of California-San Francisco, are part of the multiyear Sacramento (Calif.) Area Latino Study on Aging, or "SALSA." Begun in 1996, the study attracted nearly 1,800 Hispanic seniors, ages 60 to 101, as volunteers.

According to Allen, the research is needed because many studies of B vitamins and brain function have given inconsistent or conflicting results. Allen is director of the Agricultural Research Service (ARS) Western Human Nutrition Research Center in Davis, Calif. ARS is the chief intramural scientific research agency of USDA. Scientists from the University of California-Davis (UCD) and the UCD Medical Center also are collaborating in the research.

An analysis of volunteers’ blood samples showed that lower levels of one B vitamin, folate, were associated with symptoms of dementia and poor brain function, also called "cognitive decline," as determined by standard tests of memory and other factors. The impairments were detectable even though less than 1 percent of the volunteers were actually deficient in folate.

In women, but not men, low levels of folate were associated with symptoms of depression. in fact, female volunteers whose plasma folate levels were in the lowest third were more than twice as likely to have symptoms of depression as volunteers in the highest third. That finding provided new evidence of an association between lower blood folate and depression. Depression is already known to affect brain function.

In research with vitamin B-12, the SALSA team determined that a protein known as holoTC, short for holotranscobalamin, might be key to a new approach for detecting cognitive decline earlier and more accurately.

The researchers have published these and other findings, beginning in 2003 and continuing through this year, in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine, The European Journal of Clinical Nutrition, The Journal of Nutrition, and The Journal of Nutrition, Health, and Aging.

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The above story is reprinted (with editorial adaptations by ScienceDaily staff) from materials provided by USDA/Agricultural Research Service. The original article was written by Marcia Wood.

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