| WASHINGTON (AP) -- Too many pregnant women who want to avoid a repeat cesarean delivery are being denied the chance, concludes a government panel that urged doctors to rethink litigation-spurred policies that have swung the pendulum back toward the days of "once a C-section, always a C-section."
LONDON (AP) -- It seems the old cliche may be true. Men are more likely than women to be interested in sex, have sex and enjoy sex, according to new scientific research, which also found people who stay active and healthy enjoy longer sex lives.
NEW YORK (AP) -- A troublingly high number of U.S. patients who are given angiograms to check for heart disease turn out not to have a significant problem, according to the latest study to suggest Americans get an excess of medical tests.
TORONTO (Canadian Press) -- A landmark study looking at how to limit the spread of influenza has shown what experts have long believed but hadn't until now proved: Giving flu shots to kids helps protect everyone in a community from the virus.
DAYTON, Ohio (The New York Times News Service) -- Even if you are doing your best to exercise and watch what you eat, it's still possible to reach a point where weight loss slows down or even stops altogether. In order to avoid a plateau, don't forget to decrease the amount of calories you are consuming as your body weight decreases.
NEW YORK (Canadian Press) -- Baseball commissioner Bud Selig says it's too soon to determine whether a blood test for human growth hormone can be used for minor leaguers.
WASHINGTON (Canadian Press) -- Nicotine builds up gradually in smokers' brains rather than spiking after each puff, according to a study that might help point to new ways to help people quit smoking.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Eleven days after her son Benjamin's birth by C-section, Linda Coale awoke in the middle of the night in pain, one leg badly swollen. Just as her doctor returned her phone call asking what to do, she dropped dead from a blood clot.
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (Canadian Press) -- Both knees are shot, injected with synthetic cartilage until he can have surgery next summer. His right arm is still healing from a major operation to fix a staph infection. He continues to deal with other side effects of cancer.
BRASILIA, Brazil (AP) -- Brazil's president says a recent health scare led him to quit smoking -- a habit he's had for 50 years.
SAN FRANCISCO (The New York Times News Service) -- Dr. Barry Franklin, a Michigan-based cardiologist, is a widely respected expert on nutrition and exercise and a prominent member of the American Heart Association -- and he's a pretty trim and fit guy, to boot.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The virus that causes AIDS can hide in the bone marrow, avoiding drugs and later awakening to cause illness, according to new research that could point the way toward better treatments for the disease.
(The New York Times News Service) -- Food-borne illnesses sicken 76 million Americans every year and kill about 5,000, federal health records say. The financial costs are staggering, too: nationwide, $152 billion a year. Florida spends $1,984 per case, according to a new report from the Produce Safety Project, an initiative of the Pew Charitable Trusts.
GENEVA (AP) -- The United Nations says mother-to-child HIV transmission can be eliminated by 2015 if health programs receive increased investments as planned.
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) -- Puerto Rico's government sent inspectors across the island Thursday to stop stores from selling locally produced hand sanitizers tainted with a dangerous bacteria.
GENEVA (AP) -- The World Health Organization says more than 85 million children under 5 in west and central Africa will be vaccinated against polio.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Germs in the gut may help drive appetite, says new research into the link between obesity and bacteria.
TORONTO (Canadian Press) -- Canadian scientists have discovered the genetic cause for a particular bleeding disorder that traces back to one family in Quebec, and they've developed a genetic test to help diagnose the condition.
Diet not working? Blame your genes. That's the pitch behind a new test that claims to show whether people will do better on a low-fat or a low-carb weight loss plan.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Germs in the gut may help drive appetite, says new research into the link between obesity and bacteria.
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) -- The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is warning consumers in Puerto Rico that two locally produced hand sanitizers contain high levels of bacteria.
(Associated Press) -- For the first time, an experimental drug has extended the lives of men with advanced prostate cancer who are no longer responding to other treatments and are out of options for fighting the disease, a company-led study found.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Federal regulators said Thursday that Takeda Pharmaceuticals will change the name of a heartburn drug that has repeatedly been confused by pharmacists with drugs meant to treat cancer and other ailments.
(Associated Press) -- The American Cancer Society revised its guidelines for prostate cancer screening on Wednesday. The advocacy group is one of many organizations that make such recommendations. Some questions and answers:
NEW YORK (Deutsche Presse-Agentur) -- The United Nations will on Thursday unveil a simple "citizen solution" under which each traveler around the world would be asked to donate 2 dollars to a fund to fight HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis.
(Associated Press) -- Skyrocketing premiums have stunned some consumers who buy their own health insurance policies. People in several corners of the country are facing increases of 20 percent or more from some insurers.
WASHINGTON - What if you could be fat but avoid heart disease or diabetes? Scientists trying to break the fat-and-disease link increasingly say inflammation is the key.
ATLANTA (AP) -- The American Cancer Society is urging doctors to make clearer to men that the test used to screen for prostate cancer has limits and may lead to unnecessary treatments that do more harm than good.
NEW YORK (Deutsche Presse-Agentur) -- The United Nations on Tuesday launched a five- year plan to fight for an end to gender inequalities and human rights violations that put women and girls at risk of HIV infection.
SHANGHAI (AP) -- Restaurants and office buildings in China's commercial capital Shanghai are scrambling to set up nonsmoking areas as the city bans lighting up in indoor public spaces ahead of the World Expo.
(Associated Press) -- Some mullahs in Afghanistan are distributing condoms. Others are quoting the Quran to encourage longer breaks between births. Health experts say contraception is starting to catch on in a country with the world's second highest maternal death rate.
CHICAGO (AP) -- It's a situation too agonizing to contemplate -- a child dying and in pain. Now a small but provocative study suggests that doctors may be giving fatal morphine doses to a few children dying of cancer, to end their suffering at their parents' request.
WASHINGTON (Canadian Press) -- Poll results, congressional head counts and U.S. government deficits are not the only numbers President Barack Obama has to worry about. Now, he's trying to walk off a marginally high cholesterol count.
(The New York Times News Service) -- The health care industry -- like so many others -- is feeling the financial pain of medical care's ballooning costs.
TAMPA (The New York Times News Service) -- The latest treatment for depression sounds like something out of science fiction: using an electromagnetic coil to beam pulsations through the skull to stimulate a part of the brain thought to be involved in depression.
(The New York Times News Service) -- Earlier this month, the British medical journal The Lancet retracted a famous study that linked vaccines with autism.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- What if you could be fat but avoid heart disease or diabetes? Scientists trying to break the fat-and-disease link increasingly say inflammation is the key.
WASHINGTON (The New York Times News Service) -- Three days after an extraordinary forum moderated by President Obama to bridge the gulf between Democrats and Republicans over a health care, leaders of both parties drew clearer lines in the sand on Sunday.
(The Atlanta Journal-Constitution) -- Shawn Helbig can only read small words but knows every line of "High School Musical."
CHICAGO (AP) -- The odds of obesity appear stacked against black and Hispanic children starting even before birth, provocative new research suggests.
CHICAGO (AP) -- One in four U.S. parents believes some vaccines cause autism in healthy children, but even many of those worried about vaccine risks think their children should be vaccinated.
(Deutsche Presse-Agentur (dpa)) -- London (dpa) - The artery-clogging food and drink habitually consumed by the kings and queens of ancient Egypt would be classified as "junk food" by contemporary standards and certainly guaranteed an early death rather than immortality, British scientists have found.
BOSTON (AP) -- The U.S. Justice Department has begun a review of whether the use of electric shock therapy by a Massachusetts special needs school violates the Americans with Disabilities Act.
(Canadian Press) -- TORONTO - A Wii bit of therapy using virtual reality game technology provided measurable benefits to stroke patients taking part in a small pilot study, researchers reported Thursday.
(The New York Times News Service) -- Breast cancer patients are increasingly having preventive surgery to remove the unaffected breast, but a new study suggests it's not beneficial for the vast majority of women who undergo it.
SAN ANTONIO - People at risk of a stroke because of narrowed neck arteries can be safely treated with a less drastic option than the surgery done now, the largest study ever done on these treatments concludes.
TORONTO (Canadian Press) -- Virtually everyone has had their blood pressure measured with a pumped-up cuff encircling their upper arm. But it turns out that this commonplace medical device could one day have another critical use - reducing the amount of damage from a heart attack, researchers say.
ATLANTA (AP) -- A government panel is now recommending that virtually all Americans get a flu shot each year, starting this fall.
LONDON (AP) -- People who complain they have no time to exercise may soon need another excuse.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Many people who think they cannot digest dairy products might do all right if they eat a small amount at a time, but surprisingly little is known about just how many have true lactose intolerance, a government panel concluded Wednesday.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Pfizer said Wednesday the Food and Drug Administration has approved an updated version of its best-selling infection vaccine for infants and children.
LONDON (AP) -- Britain's top prosecutor published new guidelines Thursday spelling out what types of assisted suicide cases were more likely to face prosecution, keeping the practice illegal but finding some leeway for suspects not to be charged.
SAN ANTONIO (AP) -- A moment on the lips, forever on the hips? A bad figure is hardly the worst of it. Eating a lot of fat, especially the kind that's in cookies and pastries, can significantly raise the risk of stroke for women over 50, a large new study finds. We already know that diets rich in fat, particularly artery-clogging trans fat, are bad for the heart and the waistline.
WASHINGTON (The New York Times News Service) -- Democrats in Congress showed signs of enthusiasm for passing a health care bill yesterday after President Obama offered his own proposal Monday. But it remained far from clear whether they could muster enough votes to pass a bill, and the political focus remained on tomorrow's "summit" between Obama and congressional Republicans - which is threatening to become more of a showdown than a sober policy debate.
LONDON (AP) -- The World Health Organization says the swine flu pandemic still has not peaked.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Surviving five heart attacks makes former Vice President Dick Cheney pretty unusual -- showing that he has good medical care as well as a particularly aggressive form of heart disease.
CHICAGO (AP) -- Doctors have steadily cut their work hours over the past decade, a new study finds, something that experts say may only worsen the health care situation.
VIENNA (AP) -- Governments around the world must step up their efforts to limit access to "date-rape drugs," sedatives that are secretly added to a person's drink to limit their ability to resist sexual assault and remember it later, a watchdog said Wednesday.
WASHINGTON (Canadian Press) -- The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is warning about potential heart risks of combining two anti-HIV drugs.
LONDON (AP) -- When Stinne Holm Bergholdt of Denmark was diagnosed with bone cancer at age 27, she was afraid she wouldn't be able to have children.
(Canadian Press) -- An international expert on heart repair says he would rarely recommend the type of heart surgery Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Danny Williams received earlier this month at a Miami hospital because its only long-term benefit is cosmetic.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- They're a bane of that decade or two before menopause, growths in the uterus called fibroids that cause bleeding, pain or other problems in nearly a third of women -- and they're the No. 1 cause of hysterectomies.
BEIJING (AP) -- More than one in 10 Chinese children sickened by contaminated milk showed signs of kidney damage six months afterward, researchers have found, raising concerns about the long-term effects of the country's massive food safety scandal.
BOSTON (AP) -- A Massachusetts doctor has pleaded guilty to one count of health care fraud stemming from accusations that he faked research in published studies that suggested after-surgery benefits from painkillers including Vioxx and Celebrex.
SAN DIEGO (AP) -- Aggressive, early anti-viral therapy might provide a way to derail the spread of AIDS, a battle where a successful vaccine remains elusive.
NEW YORK (AP) -- A Senate report said Saturday that drug maker GlaxoSmithKline knew of possible heart attack risks tied to Avandia, its diabetes medication, years before such evidence became public.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- A critical new report declares high blood pressure in the U.S. to be a neglected disease -- a term that usually describes mysterious tropical illnesses, not a well-known plague of rich countries.
ATLANTA (AP) -- Provocative new research suggests international rules that bar potentially infectious tuberculosis patients from flying are too stringent and airline passengers are really at little risk from catching TB from a fellow traveler.
(Scotland on Sunday) -- Harrison Ford film airbrushes history claims Scottish father
CHICAGO (AP) -- When 4-year-old Eric Stavros Adler choked to death on a piece of hot dog, his anguished mother never dreamed that the popular kids' food could be so dangerous.
LONDON (AP) -- It was heralded as a medical miracle. After spending more than two decades in a vegetative state, Rom Houben, a Belgian man in his mid-40s, was suddenly able to communicate, news reports trumpeted last November.
RIVERSIDE, Calif. (AP) -- Marco Torres stood on a busy road and waved an oversized yellow arrow with an unconventional message for a street marketing campaign: "FREE TODAY: H1N1 Flu Shots for All."
LONDON (AP) -- When it comes to the placebo effect, it really may be mind over matter, a new analysis suggests.
(Daily Mail) -- Women with breast cancer who take aspirin at least twice a week can more than double their chance of surviving, researchers say.
LONDON (AP) -- You've heard it before: to avoid a heart attack don't smoke, eat right and exercise. But it also may help to be happy, a new study says.
LONDON (AP) -- The World Health Organization is recommending that swine flu be added to the regular flu vaccine next season.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The government is taking steps to curb use of some long-acting asthma drugs used by millions, issuing safety restrictions Thursday to lower a life-threatening risk that asthma could worsen suddenly.
(Associated Press) -- Some of mankind's most devastating inherited diseases appear to be declining, and a few have nearly disappeared, because more people are using genetic testing to decide whether to have children.
ATLANTA (AP) -- New government statistics show the rate of high-tech diagnostic imaging has dramatically increased since the mid-1990s.
BUCHAREST, Romania (AP) -- For post-communist Romanians a Big Mac and soda meant much more than a meal: It was a culinary signpost from the free and capitalist west -- a sign they too, at last, had arrived.
(USA TODAY) -- King Tut died of malaria and family bone disease, not murder, suggests a comprehensive new genetic and medical study of royal mummies.
TRENTON, N.J. (AP) -- Consumers in at least four states who buy their own health insurance are getting hit with premium increases of 15 percent or more -- and people in other states could see the same thing.
WASHINGTON (Associated Press) -- Sit by the window in school? Lack of the right light each morning to reset the body's natural sleep clock might play a role in teenagers' out-of-whack sleep, a small but provocative school experiment suggests.
(Associated Press) -- Inherited diseases such as cystic fibrosis often occur in families with no known risk for them. Gene mutations can pass silently for generations until two carriers mate; then children have a one-in-four chance of getting the disease.
(USA TODAY) -- When Leonor Childers' heart quit, it wasn't without reason.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Nearly half the people who need potentially lifesaving checks for the nation's No. 2 cancer killer -- colorectal cancer -- miss them, despite years of public efforts to make colon screening as widespread as tests for breast and prostate cancer.
LONDON (AP) -- The most powerful force against AIDS in Africa may be circumcision, a procedure that's easily done in the developed world. But it's a challenge on a continent where there are too few medical workers and a reluctance by men for cultural reasons and fear of pain.
TORONTO (Canadian Press) -- A new report shows a higher proportion of Canadians needed specialized hospital care for H1N1 influenza than those admitted for complications of seasonal flu during a typical winter.
NEW YORK (Deutsche Presse-Agentur (dpa)) -- Former US president Bill Clinton left hospital early Friday, a day after undergoing a heart procedure for a blocked artery.
DARMSTADT, Germany (Deutsche Presse-Agentur) -- A member of Germany's leading female pop group has been charged with infecting a man with the AIDS virus through unprotected sex, prosecutors said Friday.
TORONTO (Canadian Press) -- Just shy of Valentine's Day, a holiday known for the sale and consumption of copious amounts of chocolate, Canadian researchers have released a review of studies to assess whether eating chocolate is associated with a lower risk of stroke.
(Associated Press) -- Bill Clinton has a new lease on life, but there's no cure for the heart disease that has twice forced the former president to get blocked arteries fixed.
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) -- Health insurer WellPoint blames the Great Recession and rising medical costs for its planned 39 percent rate increase for some California customers. To President Barack Obama, however, it's Exhibit A in his campaign to revive the health care overhaul.
(Associated Press) -- Below are key points health insurer WellPoint Inc. cited in a letter Thursday responding to an inquiry by Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius into a steep rate hike planned for some individual insurance policies in California. The insurer has taken criticism for premium increases at its Anthem Blue Cross subsidiary that will approach 40 percent for some customers.
ATLANTA (AP) -- Swine flu cases are down, but health officials say the disease's cumulative impact has grown to 57 million U.S. illnesses, 257,000 hospitalizations and 11,690 deaths.
SYDNEY (AP) -- The island nation of Papua New Guinea is struggling to contain its first cholera outbreak in 50 years, which has killed at least 40 people and sickened 2,000 over the past several months, a top World Health Organization official said.
GENEVA (AP) -- The World Health Organization will hold an expert meeting later this month to consider whether the swine flu pandemic's peak has passed.
CHICAGO (AP) -- Some people with Asperger's syndrome are upset about proposed changes in how their form of autism is diagnosed.
NEW YORK (AP)-- Why people stutter has long been a medical mystery, with the condition blamed over the years on emotional problems, overbearing parents and browbeating teachers. Now, for the first time, scientists have found genes that could explain some cases of stuttering.
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) -- Health insurer WellPoint is blaming the Great Recession and rising medical costs for its planned 39 percent rate increase for some California customers of its Anthem Blue Cross plan.
ATLANTA (AP) -- A mumps outbreak among Orthodox Jews in New York and New Jersey has now surpassed 1,500 cases and shows no sign of ending soon, health officials said Thursday.
LONDON (AP) -- Can you really be bored to death?
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Don't say "mental retardation" -- the new term is "intellectual disability." No more diagnoses of Asperger's syndrome -- call it a mild version of autism instead. And while "behavioral addictions" will be new to doctors' dictionaries, "Internet addiction" didn't make the cut.
LONDON (AP) -- Swinging London will take on a whole new connotation for the capital's aging baby boomers, who will soon get their own specially designed outdoor playground.
BROCKTON, Mass. (AP) -- A Massachusetts woman has been found guilty of second-degree murder in the prescription drug overdose of her 4-year-old daughter.
WASHINGTON (The New York Times News Service) -- Despite the blizzard gripping Washington, Democrats, Republicans and advocacy groups began intense maneuvering Tuesday in advance of the televised health care summit that President Obama has set for Feb. 25 in an attempt to bring new life to what had been his top domestic priority.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Gallbladder surgery is usually a very safe operation, but a powerful congressman's death is a reminder of the known risks.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- A critical safety net for babies -- that heelprick of blood taken from every newborn in the U.S. -- is facing an ethics attack.
TORONTO (Canadian Press) -- Women prescribed tamoxifen to prevent a recurrence of breast cancer should avoid taking the antidepressant Paxil and its generic equivalents because of a potentially dangerous drug interaction, a study suggests.
WASHINGTON (USA TODAY) -- Her daughters were 6 and 9, and Michelle Obama was like any other working mom -- struggling to juggle office hours, school pick-ups and mealtimes. By the end of the day, she was often too tired to make dinner, so she did what was easy: She ordered takeout or went to the drive-through.
(The Atlanta Journal-Constitution) -- Controversy in the death of a 25-year-old man has pitted a family active in the metro Atlanta church community against a major medical facility over a procedure generally regarded to pose little threat.
(USA TODAY) -- At the height of fears over H1N1 flu this fall, some vaccination foes claimed it was safer to get swine flu than to be inoculated against it. But data from California show that getting the flu was drastically far more dangerous.
(The Atlanta Journal-Constitution) -- Emory University graduate student Meredith Philyaw plans to put up a clothesline in the middle of campus.
(Associated Press) -- A woman's chance of having a child with autism increase substantially as she ages, but the risk may be less for older dads than previously suggested, a new study analyzing more than 5 million births found.
GENEVA (Canadian Press) -- Aid groups say they are launching an emergency vaccination campaign for 140,000 people in Haiti to protect them against measles and other diseases.
LONDON (AP) -- You know an election is coming when British politicians suddenly promise sweeping improvements to the National Health Service, a simultaneous source of national pride and worry.
(Associated Press) -- High rates of the most effective type of malaria-fighting drugs sold in three African countries are poor quality -- including nearly half the pills sampled in Senegal -- raising fears of increased drug resistance that could wipe out the last weapon left to battle a disease that kills 1 million people each year, according to a U.S. report released Monday.
MONSEY, N.Y. (AP) -- More than 300 people have been diagnosed with the mumps in suburban New York as the nation's largest outbreak of the disease in years spreads.
BEIJING (AP) -- China has found another 170 tons of tainted milk powder in an emergency crackdown that has made it increasingly clear many products discovered in the country's 2008 milk scandal were repackaged for sale instead of destroyed.
ATHENS (Deutsche Presse-Agentur) -- More than six months after Greece introduced a ban on smoking in public places, officials were conceding that the third attempt to stamp out the habit is failing, it was reported Friday.
CALGARY (Canadian Press) -- Just over one-third of Canadians live too far away from a specialized hospital to get the best available treatment for a heart attack, suggests a new study.
MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) -- A radioactive substance recently found in groundwater monitoring wells at a Vermont nuclear plant has turned up again at levels more than nine times those previously reported and more than 37 times higher than a federal safe drinking water limit, officials said Thursday.
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- The teen fashion chain Aeropostale (air-uh-post-AL) and outlet stores of the upscale Saks Fifth Avenue are pulling from shelves necklaces that tests showed have high levels of the toxic metal cadmium.
ATLANTA (AP) -- Is the U.S. swine flu epidemic over? Federal health officials won't go so far as to say that, but on Friday they reported for the fourth week in a row that no states had widespread flu activity.
(USA TODAY) -- About one in five people can train all they want but, because of their genetic makeup, are not likely to see much improvement in their endurance levels, an international team of researchers reported Thursday.
NEW YORK (AP) -- Scientists have detected glimmers of awareness in some vegetative brain-injury patients and have even communicated with one of them -- findings that push the boundaries of how to assess and care for such people.
BANGKOK (Deutsche Presse-Agentur) -- Eighty-three students at a Bangkok secondary school had to be hospitalized after overdosing on cough suppressant pills that they believed would make them smarter, immune to pain and would whiten skin, media reports said Thursday.
OTTAWA (Canadian Press) -- More than 30 organizations from across Canada are forming partnerships in a $15.5-million series of initiatives designed to prevent chronic disease.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- For all the hue and cry over a government takeover of health care, it's happening anyway.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Expectant mothers are getting a new tool to help keep themselves and their babies healthy: pregnancy tips sent directly to their cell phones.
THE ACREAGE, Fla. (The New York Times News Service) -- Stinging from news that a cluster of childhood brain cancer cases exists in their community, Acreage residents reacted with a range of emotions -- some determined to flee their homes, others saying they aren't worried about staying in an area where they have lived for years.
LONDON (AP) -- About 40 percent of cancers could be prevented if people stopped smoking and overeating, limited their alcohol, exercised regularly and got vaccines targeting cancer-causing infections, experts say.
LONDON (AP) -- A major British medical journal on Tuesday retracted a flawed study linking the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine to autism and bowel disease.
(Associated Press) -- A dizzying array of choices awaits those searching for a Medicare Advantage plan.
CHICAGO (AP) -- An experimental abstinence-only program without a moralistic tone can delay teens from having sex, a provocative study found.
CHICAGO (AP) -- Fish oil pills may be able to save some young people with signs of mental illness from descending into schizophrenia, according to a preliminary but first-of-its-kind study.
Serena Koenig, M.D., has been providing medical care to the people of Haiti since 2001. After 10 days there after the earthquake, Dr. Koenig says the country's future medical needs will be enormous.
(USA TODAY) -- A common complication during pregnancy may predispose children born prematurely to asthma, a large study reports today.
CHICAGO (AP) -- Paris Woods is hardly a poster child for the obesity epidemic. Lining up dripping wet with kids on her swim team, she's a blend of girlish chunkiness and womanly curves.
(The New York Times News Service) -- Every year, about 250,000 people in the United States undergo surgery to lose weight, paying or having their insurance companies pay tens of thousands of dollars for procedures that essentially restrict how much food they can take in.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- A pill to ease a type of mental retardation? An experiment is under way to develop one, aimed at a genetic disorder that might unravel some of the mysteries of autism along the way.
(Associated Press) -- Federal consumer safety regulators on Friday announced the recall of "The Princess and The Frog" pendants because of high levels of the toxic metal cadmium, an unprecedented action that reflects concerns of an emerging threat in children's products.
ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) -- First lady Michelle Obama framed her national campaign against childhood obesity in intensely personal terms Thursday, relating that her own daughters were starting to get off-track before the family's pediatrician gave her a wake-up call and warned her to watch it.
DAVOS, Switzerland (AP) -- The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation will donate $10 billion over the next decade to research new vaccines and bring them to the world's poorest countries, the Microsoft co-founder and his wife said Friday.
LONDON (AP) -- A new type of morning-after pill is more effective than the most widely used drug at preventing pregnancies in women who had unprotected sex and also works longer, for up to five days, a new study says.
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Higher Medicare copays, sometimes just a few dollars more, led to fewer doctors visits and to more and longer hospital stays, a large new study reveals.
TORONTO (Canadian Press) -- For decades, the enduring image of the Canadian Cancer Society has been the gently nodding spring flower, the daffodil. And while that bright yellow symbol of hope and renewal isn't being abandoned, the venerable charity is now taking a much bolder approach.
(Associated Press) -- At least a half-dozen states are considering measures that would toughen restrictions on young athletes returning to play after head injuries, inspired by individual cases and the attention the issue has received in the NFL.
(USA TODAY) -- Two leading medical centers on Monday launched the largest effort to date to find all of the genetic mutations that cause childhood cancer.
NEW YORK (AP) -- Sweet news for baby boomers: Despite all those warnings that loud rock music would damage their ears, their generation appears to have better hearing than their parents did.
TORONTO (Canadian Press) -- Canada faces a "perfect storm" of heart disease, with younger adults at increased risk of earlier onset of heart disease and the huge baby boom generation approaching their senior years, the Heart and Stroke Foundation warned Monday.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- If the cardiologist's warnings don't scare you, consider this: Controlling blood pressure just might be the best protection yet known against dementia.
WASHINGTON (The New York Times News Service) -- U.S. Representative Barney Frank declared the health care bill dead after Massachusetts voters on Tuesday deprived Democrats of the 60th Senate vote they needed to pass it. Later, he issued a statement saying he might have overreacted.
BEIJING (AP) -- Melamine-tainted dairy products were pulled from convenience store shelves in southern China more than a year after hundreds of thousands of children had been sickened in a massive milk safety scandal, a government spokeswoman said Monday.
GENEVA (AP) -- The World Health Organization has rejected as "irresponsible" allegations that swine flu is a fake pandemic.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- U.S. newborns are arriving a little smaller, says puzzling new Harvard research that can't explain why.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- A new kind of genetic sleuthing suggests hospital outbreaks of drug-resistant staph bacteria don't always spread from one patient to another, but that numerous people - patients, visitors or staff - bring in the deadly germ.
LONDON (AP) -- People with early lung cancer who quit smoking could double their chances of surviving, a new study says.
LONDON (AP) -- American soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan were more likely to be medically evacuated for health problems such as a bad back than for combat injuries, a new study says.
ATLANTA (AP) -- Tests of the first two oral drugs developed for treating multiple sclerosis show that both cut the frequency of relapses and may slow progression of the disease, but with side effects that could pose a tough decision for patients.
WASHINGTON (USA TODAY) -- Calling obesity an epidemic and one of the greatest threats to America's health and economy, first lady Michelle Obama said Wednesday that she would launch a major initiative next month to combat the problem in childhood.
(USA TODAY) -- Pancreatic cancer, which claimed the life of actor Patrick Swayze last year, is one of the most aggressive of all tumors, killing all but about 5% of patients. By the time the disease is found, it usually has spread around the body and left many patients with only a few months to live.
LONDON (AP) -- Here's a new warning from health experts: Sitting is deadly.
DALLAS (AP) -- Here are the seven secrets to a long life: Stay away from cigarettes. Keep a slender physique. Get some exercise. Eat a healthy diet and keep your cholesterol, blood pressure and blood sugar in check.
(The Atlanta Journal-Constitution) -- Talk about spicing things up! Move over, trans fats; salt is under fire as the next nutrition no-no on its way out from restaurant menus and processed foods.
PORT AU PRINCE, Haiti (The New York Times News Service) -- The wide ramp sloping down from the third floor at the Sacred Heart (Sacre Couer) Hospital echoes the brisk swish of Dr. Alberto Sosa's surgical scrubs as he again races to the emergency room.
ALBANY, N.Y. (The New York Times News Service) -- People join online communities to help support them through all kinds of life changes, from getting married to moving, from having children to changing jobs. Why wouldn't they join an online support group to help them meet their weight-loss goals?
CHICAGO (AP) -- An influential advisory panel says school-aged youngsters and teens should be screened for obesity and sent to intensive behavior treatment if they need to lose weight - a move that could transform how doctors deal with overweight children.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Just as millions head to tanning beds to prepare for spring break, the Food and Drug Administration will be debating how to toughen warnings that those sunlamps pose a cancer risk.
TORONTO (Canadian Press) -- When she started treatment for cancer, Lauren Donnelly went from being an active teen taking part in soccer and dance to completely bedridden.
BEIJING (Canadian Press) -- China is tightening smoking regulations to ban lighting up in any indoor public spaces in seven provincial capitals, the latest sign of rising health awareness in the world's largest tobacco-consuming nation.
ATLANTA (AP) -- A new government estimate says swine flu has sickened about 55 million Americans and killed about 11,160.
ATLANTA (AP) -- About 1 in 5 Americans have been vaccinated against swine flu, according to the government's first detailed estimates of vaccination rates against the new pandemic.
(Associated Press) -- Quickly giving morphine to wounded troops cuts in half the chance they will develop post-traumatic stress disorder, according to a provocative study that suggests a new strategy for preventing the psychological fallout of war.
CHICAGO (AP) -– New research casts doubt on increasingly popular blood-based injections reportedly used by Tiger Woods and other athletes to speed recovery after orthopedic surgery.
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- The warnings from the nation's chief product safety officer were unprecedented: Don't give your child any of that cheap metal jewelry you've been hearing about. And don't let your young ones play with it either -- those shiny $3.99 bracelets and charms could contain toxic cadmium or lead, almost definitely imported from China.
LONDON (AP) -- For more than a quarter of a century, Linda De Croock lived with constant pain from a car accident that smashed her windpipe.
PROVIDENCE (The Providence Journal) -- The public-health challenges facing Haiti in the wake of this week's devastating earthquake are monumental and will persist for a very long time, said an infectious disease specialist with the Warren Alpert School of Medicine and Brown University who has twice worked on the island.
LONDON (AP) -- The British government apologized Thursday to people who were harmed in the womb when their mothers took the anti-nausea drug Thalidomide.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Attention is shifting to the world's five leading flu vaccine makers: How fast are they really producing swine flu vaccine, and just how do they plan to test that it works?
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