At a Florida retirement home for former circus elephants, residents enjoy a steady diet of high-quality hay and local fruits and vegetables, as well as baths and occasional walks. For these majestic beasts, this life of relative leisure at the 200-acre Center for Elephant Conservation comes after years on the road, entertaining America in “The Greatest Show on Earth” for Ringling Bros and Barnum & Bailey Circus. In March, the circus company announced with some reluctance that it would end its elephant acts by 2018.

By Lisa Rapaport (Reuters Health) – Feeling like the target of discrimination may increase a person’s odds of harmful behaviors like smoking, eating fatty foods and getting less sleep, a study of African-Americans suggests. Researchers examined the connection between discrimination and these unhealthy habits among almost 5,000 African-American residents of the Jackson, Mississippi metropolitan area. “We conducted this particular analysis to understand the extent to which multiple measures of perceived discrimination were associated with types of behaviors that are known to be risk factors for cardiovascular disease in African-Americans,” lead study author Mario Sims, a researcher with the Jackson Heart Study and the University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson, said by email.

By Lisa Rapaport (Reuters Health) – Women who suffer from a leading cause of infertility may increase their odds of conception if they exercise and lose weight, a U.S. study suggests. Researchers compared pregnancy outcomes for 150 women with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), a condition that occurs when the female body makes higher than normal amounts of testosterone and androgens, sex hormones associated with male traits. Women with PCOS often experience irregular menstrual cycles, weight gain, excess hair on the face and body and infertility.