| (The New York Times News Service) -- ATLANTA -- Esther Notrica dreads this time of year when she must review dozens of Medicare prescription drug plans to figure out which one works best for her.
ATLANTA (AP) - Health officials say four people in North Carolina have tested positive for a type of swine flu that's resistant to the drug Tamiflu.
ATLANTA (AP) - Health officials say swine flu cases appear to be declining throughout most of the U.S., but the specter of Thanksgiving gatherings makes it hard to predict what will happen next.
ATLANTA (The New York Times News Service) -- Esther Notrica dreads this time of year when she must review dozens of Medicare prescription drug plans to figure out which one works best for her.
ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) -- Doctors say that a new type of heart pump greatly improves survival of people with severe heart failure. It could become the first one of these devices to be widely used as a permanent treatment.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Tom Dougherty jokes that he takes "get-lost walks." To his wife, Cleo, it's a constant fear: When will his Alzheimer's get bad enough that she has to end his 4-mile daily strolls?
(Associated Press) -- If you're among the hundreds of thousands of Americans with clogged kidney arteries, you might want to consider trying medicines before rushing into angioplasty to open them up. The pricey procedure is no more effective and carries surprisingly big risks, a study found.
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) -- Lillian Landry always said she wasn't afraid to die. So when death came last week, the 99-year-old was lying peacefully in a hospice with no needles or tubes. Her final days saw her closest friend at her side and included occasional shots of her favorite whiskey, Canadian Mist.
NEW YORK (AP) -- It seemed like a great idea -- doing bypass surgery while the heart is still beating, sparing patients the complications that can come from going on a heart-lung machine. Now the first big test of this method has produced a surprise: Bypass has fewer problems and is more successful done the old way.
FORT COLLINS, Colo. (The New York Times News Service) -- Colorado State University researchers think insulin levels in the brain may be the key to understanding how some types of dementia progress.
(The New York Times News Service) -- A growing number of Americans who are 50 to 64 are losing their health insurance, casualties of rising unemployment and the increasing number of businesses that can't afford to cover their workers.
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- A surprising number of frail, elderly Americans in nursing homes are suffering from futile care at the end of their lives, two new federally funded studies reveal.
(NewsRx.com) LOS ANGELES -- The standard explanation for what causes Alzheimer's is known as the amyloid hypothesis, which posits that the disease results from of an accumulation of the peptide amyloid beta, the toxic protein fragments that deposit in the brain and become the sticky plaques that have defined Alzheimer's for more than 100 years.
(McClatchy-Tribune Information Services) -- When the first shipments of swine flu vaccine begin arriving in coming weeks, federal officials want only people on priority lists to line up for the first 45 million doses, but there won't be "vaccine police" enforcing it.
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Hate to get flu shots? A new comparison of flu vaccines gives adults a good reason to roll up their sleeves and get a jab in the arm instead of a squirt in the nose.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- More than 35 million people around the world are living with Alzheimer's disease or other types of dementia, says the most in-depth attempt yet to assess the brain-destroying illness -- and it's an ominous forecast as the population grays.
MIAMI (AP) -- Seniors who for years have made flu shots a fall ritual are being sent to the end of the line for the swine flu vaccine. And the reason -- their age group seems to have a bit of immunity -- appears to have warded off most potential grumbling.
CHICAGO (AP) -- Even in the "oldest old," a little physical activity goes a long way, extending life by at least a few years for people in their mid- to late 80s, Israeli researchers found.
(Associated Press) -- Who needs vaccine against regular winter flu, and who should be first in line for the swine flu shot? There's lots of overlap.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Doctors don't know yet if it will take one dose or two of vaccine to protect against the new swine flu. Add that to vaccine for the regular winter flu, and it could be a multishot season for a lot of people -- or a multisquirt season, for those who choose the FluMist nasal-spray version.
CHICAGO (AP) -- A new study links hormone therapy for prostate cancer with a higher risk of death in older men who've had serious heart problems.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- New research says the best way to protect society's most vulnerable from the flu: Vaccinate school-age children and their parents.
WASHINGTON (The New York Times News Service) -- A collection of little-known insurance cooperatives around the country is winning attention as being key to a possible health reform compromise in Washington, but while some of their practices have cut costs and serve as models for change, big questions remain about their ability to transform American health care.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Exercise your hips to help achy knees? If you've got knee arthritis, your whole leg starts subtly shifting out of alignment as you favor the sore spot.
(Associated Press) -- Breast cancer patients with even the tiniest spread of the disease to a lymph node have a much higher risk of it recurring years later and may need more treatment than just surgery, new research suggests.
CHICAGO (AP) -- Score another win for the humble aspirin. A study suggests colon cancer patients who took the dirt-cheap wonder drug reduced their risk of death from the disease by nearly 30 percent.
ATLANTA (The New York Times News Service) -- Get ready to roll up your sleeve three times for flu shots this fall. That's right, three times. This year's flu season is shaping up to be a very different one. Most people will need one shot for the regular seasonal flu and probably two others to protect against the new swine flu.
WASHINGTON (The New York Times News Service) -- Got an itch to scratch? Scientists have pinpointed a key group of cells that sends itch-alerts to the brain. When researchers at Washington University in St. Louis knocked out those cells in mice, it alleviated their itchiness without affecting their ability to sense pain -- work that opens a possible new target for creating better itch relievers.
NEW YORK (AP) -- A common treatment that uses medical cement to fix cracks in the spinal bones of elderly people worked no better than a sham treatment, the first rigorous studies of the popular procedure reveal.
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Medicare's 3-year-old prescription drug plan has largely met its main goal of making lifesaving medicines more affordable for seniors, a new report found.
(Associated Press) -- Old for their sports, yet still vying to be at the top of their games, Tom Watson and Lance Armstrong showed the skills that made them great when they were young haven't faded away with the years.
ATLANTA (AP) -- People who learn through genetic testing that they have a higher than average risk for Alzheimer's disease are able to handle the bad news pretty well, results from the first major study of this suggest.
HILTON HEAD ISLAND, S.C. (McClatchy-Tribune Information Services) -- Glenn Burgeson of Bluffton has suffered from Parkinson's disease for 20 years. A brain disorder, Parkinson's disease can cause shaking, rigidity, slow movement and difficulty with balance.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Irregular heartbeat. Prostate cancer. Back pain. Hearing loss. The government is about to spend millions to try to uncover the best treatments for scores of ailments -- and how to handle these four biggies leads a list of top 100 questions that doctors need answered.
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- Each day, skeleton crews of doctors, nurses and pharmacists field almost 900 calls a day around California from people such as a mother whose child swallowed flea repellant and an elderly man who accidentally doubled up on his medication.
(McClatchy-Tribune Information Services) -- When Lila Kleinman left St. Francis Hospital with a pacemaker last year, she was given a list of precautions. High on the list: Don't come into contact with, or be near, a "radio transmittal tower."
CHICAGO (AP) - No news isn't necessarily good news for patients waiting for the results of medical tests. The first study of its kind finds doctors failed to inform patients of abnormal cancer screenings and other test results 1 out of 14 times.
CHICAGO (AP) -- The American Medical Association says there's no scientific proof to back up claims of anti-aging hormones.
(The New York Times News Service) -- You know the drill. You schlep to the doctor's office and wait for what seems like hours -- despite having an appointment. As the time ticks away, your frustration level rises, along with the number of other commitments you are missing.
ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) -- There's more troubling news about hormone therapy for menopause symptoms: Lung cancer seems more likely to prove fatal in women who are taking estrogen-progestin pills, a study suggests.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Baby-protecting folic acid is getting renewed attention: Not only does it fight spina bifida and some related abnormalities, new research shows it also may prevent premature birth and heart defects.
DALLAS (AP) -- A change to stroke treatment guidelines is expanding the time that some patients can get clot-busting drugs. Current recommendations limit the use of the medicine to within three hours after the start of stroke symptoms. That treatment window is now being lengthened to 4 1/2 hours for some patients.
TRENTON, N.J. (AP) -- A research institute devoted to Alzheimer's and related diseases has teamed up with a major maker of diagnostic tests to speed development of what could be the first test to detect Alzheimer's in its early stages.
ATLANTA (AP) -- The U.S. cancer death rate fell again in 2006, a new analysis shows, continuing a slow downward trend that experts attribute to declines in smoking, earlier detection and better treatment.
LONDON (AP) -- Special stockings commonly given to stroke patients to prevent blood clots don't work, a new study reported Wednesday.
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