Walking reduces breast cancer risk, CQC official cleared and a use for centipede venom

The Guardian has news that will make you want to head out on a brisk morning stroll. Women who walk for an hour a day can cut their chance of breast cancer by 14%, experts have said.

A study from the America Cancer Society, the first to look especially at walking, found moderate activity such as an hour of walking a day was associated with a 14% lower risk of the disease compared with women who were least active. The study involved 73,615 post-menopausal women of whom 4,760 were diagnosed with breast cancer during a 17-year follow up.

A CQC official has been cleared of wrong-doing after an internal review, the BBC reports. The CQC said media manager Anna Jefferson had not supported an alleged decision to delete a critical report showing failings in the CQC’s investigation at Furness General hospital in Cumbria.

In a statement, the CQC said that following its internal review it had found that Anna Jefferson ‘had not supported any instruction to delete an internal report prepared by a colleague’.

The Telegraph brings us an exciting new ingredient that could be used to develop painkillers as effective as morphine: centipede venom.

New research has found that Chinese red-headed centipedes contain molecules which block a channel in pain-sensing nerves called the Nav1.7 channel. People who function without a Nav1.7 channel cannot feel pain so scientists say it is likely the centipede molecules will be able to produce this effect in others.

Researchers say centipede venom could be a new source of potential drugs for treating chronic pain and other conditions.