| (USA Today) -- The smoking cessation drugs Chantix and Zyban must now carry a boxed warning -- the strongest type possible -- about the risk of serious mental health problems, including depression, behavior changes and suicidal thoughts, the Food and Drug Administration announced Wednesday.
(McClatchy-Tribune Information Services) -- All Vermont workplaces become smoke free today as a new state law goes into effect, banning the designated smoking areas that were allowed under the previous law.
ATLANTA (AP) -- In a perverse twist of medical fate, Farrah Fawcett has become the poster girl for anal cancer, a rare disease often linked to a sexually transmitted virus.
ATLANTA (AP) -- The percentage of Americans who don't have private health insurance has hit its lowest mark in 50 years, according to two new government reports. About 65 percent of non-elderly Americans had private insurance in 2008, down from 67 percent the year before, according to preliminary data released Wednesday by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
(Associated Press) -- You don't have to be Michael Jackson to have this problem: The odds of surviving cardiac arrest after getting CPR in a hospital are slim and have not improved in more than a decade, a big Medicare study concludes.
(The New York Times News Service) -- Harvard University scientists said Wednesday they discovered a master human heart cell that gives rise to three major types of heart tissue, providing new tools for drug development and an important advance toward the ultimate goal of repairing damaged hearts.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- With swine flu continuing to spread around the world, researchers say they have found the reason it is -- so far -- more a series of local blazes than a wide-raging wildfire.
(McClatchy-Tribune Information Services) -- An order of onion rings at Carl's Jr. has always had 530 calories. The difference on Wednesday was that customer Jessica Coe was legally entitled to that information -- and she ordered the onion rings anyway.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Attorney General Eric Holder had emergency oral surgery Thursday to remove a cracked tooth.
DENVER (The New York Times News Service) -- A national coalition of liberal faith groups are pushing for "affordable health care for all families" through a radio ad campaign this week in five states.
(Associated Press) -- A federal investigation has found that heart attack survivors enrolled in a study of a controversial alternative medicine treatment were not told enough about potential dangers from the drug being tested, including death.
ATLANTA (AP) -- Health officials say the number of U.S. swine flu cases has reached nearly 34,000, and deaths rose 34 percent in the past week to hit 170.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- A handful of typos in a mysterious region of the human genetic code are connected to a slightly higher risk of schizophrenia, new studies show.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Mississippi's still king of cellulite, but an ominous tide is rolling toward the Medicare doctors in neighboring Alabama: obese baby boomers.
(Associated Press) -- When Michael Jackson went into cardiac arrest, rescuers took him to a place known for bringing the dead back to life. A world-renowned surgeon at the UCLA Medical Center has pioneered a way to revive people that most doctors would have long written off, including a woman whose heart had stopped for 2 1/2 hours.
CHICAGO (AP)-- A bone growth agent used in thousands of spinal fusion surgeries for neck pain has been linked to complications and higher cost, according to the first nationwide study of the product. Safety questions arose last year about the protein product, BMP, when used in fusion surgeries in the neck region, a use not approved by federal regulators.
ATLANTA (AP) -- In a startling measure of just how widely a new disease can spread, researchers accurately plotted swine flu's course around the world by tracking air travel from Mexico.
(NY Post) -- TV pitchman Billy Mays probably died of a heart attack and not from hitting his head during a rough airplane landing, a Florida medical examiner said yesterday.
ATLANTA (AP) -- A potential fall swine flu immunization campaign may involve an unprecedented 600 million doses of vaccine, though officials said Friday they haven't figured out how to administer so many doses or accurately track side effects if a seasonal vaccine is given simultaneously.
(McClatchy-Tribune Information Services) -- Imagine every time you started to speak, you were overcome with a fit of coughing.
ADELPHI, Md. (AP) -- Government experts say the maximum dose listed for Tylenol and dozens of other painkillers should be reduced to help curb deadly overdoses.
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.
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.
(McClatchy-Tribune Information Services) -- The federal government moved one step closer to officially ending its long-standing ban on HIV-positive individuals visiting or moving to the United States, a move hailed by gay rights and AIDS advocates Monday.
LONDON (AP) -- For men with fertility problems, some doctors are prescribing a very conventional way to have a baby: more sex.
ATLANTA (AP) -- Health officials have confirmed a case of swine flu that is resistant to Tamiflu, the leading pharmaceutical weapon against the new virus.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Tylenol, Excedrin, NyQuil. These household brands and others have come to symbolize safe, convenient relief from the aches and pains of everyday life. But this week the Food and Drug Administration is focusing on a seldom-discussed side effect of the medications: severe liver damage. Since the drugs first became widely available in the 1950s, the FDA has tried to minimize the risks of acetaminophen -- the pain-relieving, fever-reducing ingredient in Tylenol and dozens of other prescription and over-the-counter medications.
PITTSBURGH (AP) -- The doctor had barely pulled away the needle when a blister appeared on Tracey Berg-Fulton's abdomen: An experimental shot was revving up the 24-year-old's immune system -- part of a bold quest to create a vaccine-like therapy for diabetes.
(USA TODAY) -- Excessive newborn crying, also known as colic, can be one of the greatest tests of a parent's love -- and sanity.
(McClatchy-Tribune Information Services) -- They used to say that teenagers think they're immortal, and that's why they do such dangerous things.
LONDON (AP) -- Two new techniques to preserve and transplant ovaries might give women a better chance to fight their biological clocks and have children when they are older, doctors announced Monday.
(McClatchy-Tribune Information Services) -- Farrah Fawcett, a reigning symbol of American pop culture who never quite managed to escape the one electrifying role that made her that symbol -- as one of "Charlie's Angels" -- has died. She was 62 and had been suffering from anal cancer, which had recently spread to her liver.
DENVER (The New York Times News Service) -- It's a pretty common desire: Couldn't someone just transfer the fat from a woman's butt and put it in her breasts?
TORONTO (Canadian Press) - A new study suggests children and adolescents who are physically abused have a greater chance of developing cancer later in life than those who are not abused.
(McClatchy-Tribune Information Services) -- Is the tobacco tin half full or half empty?
(McClatchy-Tribune Information Services) -- If caught in time, anal cancer isn't typically deadly and doesn't require surgery.
(McClatchy-Tribune Information Services) -- The University of Pennsylvania radiation oncologist at the center of the controversy about the Philadelphia VA Medical Center's prostate cancer program has taken a leave from Penn's medical school.
ATLANTA (AP) -- A potential fall swine flu immunization campaign may involve an unprecedented 600 million doses of vaccine, but health officials are still trying to figure out how to find enough workers to administer all those shots.
(McClatchy-Tribune Information Services) -- As the numbers of swine flu cases increase nationally, scientists say underlying medical conditions such as heart or lung problems, asthma and obesity have been linked to serious infections.
(McClatchy-Tribune Information Services) -- The American Heart Association has issued an advisory extending the use of a "clot-busting" drug.
ATLANTA (AP) - People exposed to rabies need only four vaccinations, not the five currently recommended, a vaccine advisory committee said Wednesday. In the past, rabies shots were dreaded almost as much as the disease itself. Until the 1970s, an encounter with a rabid animal led to at least 14 shots in the abdomen. But vaccines have improved, and five shots in the arm or thigh have been the U.S. standard for more than 20 years.
ATLANTA (AP) -- The government declared an end to a shortage of a childhood vaccine that protects against bacterial meningitis, pneumonia and other serious infections.
WASHINGTON (Deutsche Presse-Agentur) -- Dr. Jerri Nielsen Fitzgerald, who battled cancer in 1999 while stationed at the South Pole, died at home Tuesday in Southwick, Massachusetts, after a second bout with the disease, local media reported.
ATLANTA (AP) -- Health officials estimate that as many as 1 million Americans now have the new swine flu.
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."
(USA TODAY) -- The government's latest snapshot of air pollution across the nation shows residents of New York, Oregon and California faced the highest risk of developing cancer from breathing toxic chemicals.
(McClatchy-Tribune Information Services) -- Daniel Hauser, the 13-year-old cancer patient from Sleepy Eye, Minn., is making "better than satisfactory progress" in his medical treatment but still needs to remain under court supervision, a Brown County judge said Tuesday.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- In its annual report on world drug use, the United Nations concludes that global markets for cocaine, opiates and marijuana are holding steady or in decline.
CHICAGO (AP) -- When it comes to health care spending, an ounce of prevention is seldom worth a pound of cure.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Puzzling new research suggests women have a harder time than men looking at babies with facial birth defects.
LONDON (AP) - Women who have their stomachs stapled not only lose weight, they also may reduce their cancer risk by up to 40 percent, new research says. In a study of more than 2,000 obese people who had surgery to reduce the size of their stomachs, Swedish researchers found women who had the procedure were less likely to get cancer than those who did not.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Drinking during pregnancy can seriously harm a baby's brain, yet thousands of mothers-to-be still do. Now scientists have begun testing whether a prenatal nutrient might offer those babies a little protection, part of a growing quest for ways to reverse the damage.
(McClatchy-Tribune Information Services) -- Scrapes and bruises aren't all that kids are getting at summer camp this year.
WASHINGTON (Deutsche Presse-Agentur) -- U.S. President Barack Obama on Tuesday offered his most direct answer yet to a question that has been on everybody's mind since he entered the White House: He still smokes, but very rarely.
(McClatchy-Tribune Information Services) -- Four years ago, after talking to doctors at the Philadelphia VA Medical Center, the Rev. Ricardo Flippin opted for a radiation therapy that would precisely target his prostate cancer and leave nearby organs unharmed.
(McClatchy-Tribune Information Services) -- Matthew Davis was a healthy Buffalo teenager who participated in sports before complaining of headaches June 13.
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- Marijuana smoke has joined tobacco smoke and hundreds of other chemicals on a list of substances California regulators say cause cancer.
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.
(McClatchy-Tribune Information Services) -- There is a school of thought that says having an entire condo tower floor or apartment building to one's self might be fun.
(The New York Times News Service) -- Increasingly powerful antipsychotic drugs available on the market, and growing evidence that starting these medications early can help children with conditions like bipolar disorder, is putting doctors under more pressure than ever to diagnose and treat young people with mental illnesses.
WASHINGTON (USA TODAY) -- An overhaul of the nation's health care system could help do away with one of the most aggravating and expensive experiences for millions of individuals and small businesses: shopping for insurance on the open market.
(McClatchy-Tribune Information Services) -- Ronald W. Lewis dreams of a day when couples would be treated for sexual dysfunction together and therapists would be able to offer more to women with sexual problems.
NEW YORK (AP) -- Federal authorities are investigating a new national outbreak of a bacteria-triggered illness, this time related to a sweet treat treasured by the heartbroken and children-at-heart -- packaged raw cookie dough.
ATLANTA (AP) -- A new Internet data map offers a first-of-its-kind, county-level look at HIV cases in the U.S. and finds the infection rates tend to be highest in the South.
PHILADELPHIA (AP) -- Ninety-two veterans were given incorrect radiation doses in a common surgical procedure to treat prostate cancer during a six-year period at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Philadelphia, according to newspaper reports Sunday.
(Associated Press) -- Two of the most popular and promising dietary supplements -- vitamin D and fish oil -- will be tested in a large, government-sponsored study to see whether either nutrient can lower a healthy person's risk of getting cancer, heart disease or having a stroke.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The pharmaceutical industry agreed Saturday to spend $80 billion over the next decade improving drug benefits for seniors on Medicare and defraying the cost of President Barack Obama's health care legislation, capping secretive negotiations involving key lawmakers and the White House.
(McClatchy-Tribune Information Services) -- Apple co-founder and CEO Steve Jobs' prospects are good in the wake of his liver transplant two months ago, medical experts said Saturday, calling the procedure an effective strategy to contain a cancer that has likely spread.
TORONTO (Canadian Press) -- If you went by statements from the pharmaceutical industry, you might be tempted to think it was nearly time to roll up your sleeve for a swine flu shot.
(Australian Associated Press) -- Australian smokers burn a collective $7.4 billion hole in their pockets every year to sustain their habit.
WASHINGTON (Content Works) -- President Barack Obama signed a memorandum yesterday opening up benefits to same-sex couples and forbidding discrimination in the federal workplace.
(Canadian Press) -- The U.S. Centers for Disease Control says it's too soon to say if the new swine flu virus is replacing seasonal flu viruses in the Southern Hemisphere where flu season is beginning or underway.
(McClatchy-Tribune Information Services) -- Free Tamiflu will soon be available to some uninsured Utahns, in an effort to stop the spread of H1N1 swine flu.
(Canadian Press) -- In a typical flu season, the Winnipeg hospitals where Dr. Anand Kumar works might see one, maybe two life-threatening cases of viral pneumonia caused by influenza.
LOS ANGELES (The New York Times News Service) -- Today is a good day for Alida Brill: She isn't in pain. Her body isn't covered in rashes. And she's not so tired she has to spend the day in bed.
(Associated Press) -- Here is a look at how homeopathic drugs differ from conventional medicines and dietary supplements.
(The New York Times News Service) -- Ten-month-old Hannah Ostrea's life hinges on an expensive drug made by just one company, Genzyme Corp., based in Cambridge.
ATLANTA (AP) -- The first study of U.S. health care workers with swine flu found that many didn't do enough to protect themselves against the virus.
(Associated Press) -- He was like millions of other consumers who sometimes take vitamins or echinacea, hoping to build up his immunity or ward off a cold. He figured alternative remedies were as safe as a spoonful of honey. But that notion washed away with one squirt of a homeopathic cold gel.
CHICAGO (AP) -- The nation's largest group of doctors began their annual meeting as a potential obstacle to President Obama's health care overhaul. After a big pep talk from Obama himself, they ended it Wednesday by signaling they won't close the door on one of his key proposals, a public health insurance plan to compete with private insurers.
ATLANTA (AP) -- A massive effort to test pregnant women for a deadly germ they can spread to their babies has yielded a bad surprise - a high rate of wrong test results that led some infants to miss out on treatment.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (McClatchy-Tribune Information Services) -- As the hottest months of summer approach, dermatologists say people need to take extra precautions when working and having fun in the sun.
(McClatchy-Tribune Information Services) -- Judy Pickens' tender attention to her two sick children delighted the medical staff at St. Louis Children's Hospital.
FARMINGDALE, N.Y. (McClatchy-Tribune Information Services)-- At the 1999 U.S. Open that provided the lasting image of Payne Stewart, runner-up Phil Mickelson also captured America's imagination. He played that week knowing his wife, Amy, was expecting their first child at any time. He kept telling everyone he was going to leave the moment he found out she'd gone into labor.
Durham, N.C. (Content Works) -- One of the biggest risks to newborns is to be born too early and too small.
(McClatchy-Tribune Information Services) -- The only hope for dogs suffering from a common form of canine cancer used to be a pricey cancer drug for people.
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (AP) -- The unsettling little secret of Zicam Cold Remedy finally spilled out this week. Though widely sold for years as a drug for colds, it was never tested by federal regulators for safety like other drugs. And that was perfectly legal - until scores of consumers lost their sense of smell.
WASHINGTON (AP) - Consumers should stop using Zicam Cold Remedy nasal gel and related products because they can permanently damage the sense of smell, federal health regulators said Tuesday.
(The New York Times News Service) -- Anh Reiss got the first inkling of trouble when her doctor and best friend, Xiaodong Zhou, called her on a Saturday morning in mid-January.
CHICAGO (AP) - The American Medical Association has taken action to support doctors' ability to discuss obesity with their overweight patients.
WASHINGTON (AP) - Federal health regulators are urging parents to keep their children on attention deficit drugs like Ritalin and Adderall, despite new evidence from a government-backed study that the stimulants can increase the risk of sudden death.
(McClatchy-Tribune Information Services) -- This fall, getting vaccinated against H1N1 flu might be as simple as going back to school.
NEW YORK (Canadian Press) -- Leslie Fuller tried to stick to her shopping list on a recent grocery run. Instead, she found herself venturing down the candy aisle, throwing bags of Hershey's Miniatures and M&M's into her cart.
(McClatchy-Tribune Information Services) -- The human placenta could be an important source of stem cells for curing leukemia, sickle cell disease and other blood-related disorders, a new study reveals.
CHICAGO (AP) -- President Barack Obama bluntly told doctors Monday he is against their highest legislative priority -- limiting malpractice awards -- and earned a smattering of boos from an audience he was here to court for his health care overhaul plans.
CHICAGO (AP) -- The gym at Eberhart Elementary School is bright and spacious -- with high ceilings, several basketball hoops, even a large, colorful climbing wall.
SLEEPY EYE, Minnesota (Canadian Press) -- X-rays show the tumour in the chest of a 13-year-old boy who resisted treatment has shrunk significantly after two courses of court-ordered chemotherapy, a family spokesman said Monday.
TORONTO (Canadian Press) -- The antiviral drugs Tamiflu and Relenza are relatively safe for use in pregnant and breastfeeding women, say the authors of review of data that includes previously unpublished evidence.
CHICAGO (AP) -- The American Medical Association says there's no scientific proof to back up claims of anti-aging hormones.
LONDON (AP) -- With swine flu now an official pandemic, the race is on among drugmakers to produce a vaccine.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- It isn't just the thunder thighs that shrink after obesity surgery. Melting fat somehow thins bones, too.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Barack Obama is lauding the passage of historic anti-smoking legislation that gives the government sweeping authority to regulate tobacco products, pledging to quickly sign the measure into law.
CHICAGO (AP) -- The American Academy of Pediatrics wants doctors to take an active role in preventing bullying in schools and violence among dating teenagers.
BASEL, Switzerland (AP) - Swiss pharmaceuticals company Novartis AG said Friday it has successfully produced a first batch of swine flu vaccine weeks ahead of expectations.
ATLANTA (AP) -- Nearly 5,000 new U.S. swine flu cases have been reported in the last week, due partly to its continuing spread in the Northeast.
(McClatchy-Tribune Information Services) -- Major progress has been made in reducing cigarette smoking in the United States, but the success is uneven across the states and below national goals, according to a new report.
GENEVA (AP) -- The World Health Organization declared a swine flu pandemic Thursday -- the first global flu epidemic in 41 years -- as infections in the United States, Europe, Australia, South America and elsewhere climbed to nearly 30,000 cases.
CHICAGO (AP) -- The nation's largest doctors group isn't sold on President Barack Obama's call for a public health plan and could be a hurdle to his reform efforts.
ATLANTA (AP) -- U.S. health officials say they won't need to change their response now that swine flu has been declared a pandemic.
(Associated Press) -- Flu pandemics -- epidemics on a global scale -- have struck three times in the 20th century and once in the 21st century, varying widely in their severity. Here's a look at the world's flu pandemics.
(AAP) -- Young people with a sibling who has cancer are more prone to depression and psychological distress, a new Australian study has found.
(Associated Press) -- Under the World Health Organization's alert system for epidemics, phase 6 is the highest level and means a pandemic -- a global epidemic -- is under way. Here's a look at the phases.
(Associated Press) -- For the first time, a large study shows that pregnant women who suffer morning sickness are not risking harm to their babies if they take a certain anti-nausea drug. The result may lead more doctors to prescribe the drug metoclopramide and women to feel less guilty about using it during their baby's crucial first few months of development, experts said.
NEW YORK (AP) -- As early as last August, the swine flu virus may have been spreading among people -- long before it was first recognized in April, scientists reported Thursday.
BETHESDA, Md. (AP) -- Ten years ago the government set out to test herbal and other alternative health remedies to find the ones that work. After spending $2.5 billion, the disappointing answer seems to be that almost none of them do.
(Associated Press) -- Heart attack survivors are again being enrolled in a controversial federal study of an alternative treatment while the government investigates whether they were told enough about possible health risks.
GENEVA (AP) -- The World Health Organization is gearing up to declare a swine flu pandemic, a move that could trigger both the large-scale production of vaccines and questions about why the move was delayed for weeks as the virus continued to spread.
(The New York Times News Service) -- During an operation, Peter Asnis says, 'You are looking at the tissue, you are not looking at the patient or the name.'
(Associated Press) -- Lead in ginkgo pills. Arsenic in herbals. Bugs in a baby's colic and teething syrup. Toxic metals and parasites are part of nature, and all of these have been found in "natural" products and dietary supplements in recent years.
(USA Today) -- After more than a decade of debate, Congress is poised to approve the most sweeping effort ever to regulate tobacco products.
(Associated Press) -- The federal Food and Drug Administration does not analyze the content of dietary supplements, which do not need proof of safety or effectiveness before they go on sale. Here are tips from the government on their use:
GENEVA (AP) -- The World Health Organization said Tuesday a spike in swine flu cases in Australia may push it to finally announce the first flu pandemic in 41 years. It also expressed concern about an unusual rise in severe illness from the disease in Canada.
(Content Works) -- The World Health Organization (WHO) says swine flu has now spread to 73 countries, with 139 deaths from the disease since it was first detected in April.
BALTIMORE (AP) -- At one of the nation's top trauma hospitals, a nurse circles a patient's bed, humming and waving her arms as if shooing evil spirits. Another woman rubs a quartz bowl with a wand, making tunes that mix with the beeping monitors and hissing respirator keeping the man alive.
TAMPA, Fla. (AP) -- With much of her lower body consumed by cancer, Leslee Flasch finally faced the truth: The herbal supplements and special diet were not working.
BRADENTON, Fla. (AP) -- Vince Palella's brother got him started on supplements.
TAMPA, Fla. (AP) -- Leslee Flasch worked in a hospice. She had seen cancer treatments fail. Now doctors were saying she needed her colon removed to treat her rectal cancer. Barely 50 years old, she would have to wear a colostomy bag for the rest of her life.
MADISON, Wis. (AP) -- As a criminal defense lawyer, Meg Gaines valued evidence. But as a 38-year-old mom with ovarian cancer that had spread to her liver, evidence took a back seat to emotion as she desperately sought a cure.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Think your job's tedious? Try beheading 100 mosquitoes an hour.
ATLANTA (The New York Times News Service) -- When he takes the helm of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Monday, Dr. Thomas Frieden will bring a solid record of success -- and controversy.
(USA TODAY) -- Prompt bypass surgery holds no advantage over intensive drug therapy in many patients with type 2 diabetes when it comes to dying from strokes or heart attacks, new research suggests.
TAMPA (The New York Times News Service) -- After learning her ovarian cancer was back, Lois Kreditor faced what amounted to a medical game of roulette.
ATLANTA (AP) -- Dr. Thomas Frieden has swung a big stick as New York City's top health official, pushing through bans on smoking and artery-clogging trans fats.
MILWAUKEE (AP) -- Health officials in a half dozen states reported deaths from swine flu on Thursday, and said all six patients had been diagnosed with other health problems.
WHITEHOUSE STATION, N.J. (AP) -- Merck says its heart failure treatment rolofylline missed its goals in a trial, failing to improve patient symptoms compared with a placebo.
(McClatchy-Tribune Information Services) -- Fewer and fewer people are smoking in New York, and health officials peg part much of the decrease to higher taxes.
GENEVA (Canadian Press) -- The World Health Organization called a meeting of top world scientists on Friday to assess the swine flu outbreak that has killed 125 and infected almost 22,000 people.
(McClatchy-Tribune Information Services) -- Eric Wolbert has been a nonsmoker for 30 days.
(McClatchy-Tribune Information Services) -- Nothing like having the whole world watching to increase stress levels. And more stress means more troubles: mental breakdowns, physical illness, relationship woes.
CHICAGO (AP) -- Doctors are testing a new kind of obesity surgery without any cuts through the abdomen, snaking a tube as thick as a garden hose down the throat to snap staples into the stomach. The experimental, scar-free procedure creates a narrow passage that slows the food as it moves from the upper stomach into the lower stomach, helping patients feel full more quickly and eat less.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Scientists have solved a mystery surrounding a horrific illness: Why people with Huntington's disease harbor a faulty protein throughout their bodies but it destroys only certain brain cells.
AUSTIN, Texas (The New York Times News Service) -- The University of Texas is making its world-class supercomputers available to researchers working to find new ways to treat the H1N1 swine flu virus and other infectious diseases.
ATLANTA (AP) -- Tourette syndrome occurs in 3 out of every 1,000 school-aged children, and is more than twice as common in white kids as in blacks or Hispanics, according to the largest U.S. study to estimate how many have the disorder.
GENEVA (AP) -- The World Health Organization said Tuesday it is "getting closer" to declaring a global outbreak of the swine flu virus as the infection appears to be taking hold outside of North America.
GENEVA (AP) -- The World Health Organization says the number of swine flu cases worldwide has reached 19,273 after the United States reported over 1,000 new infections.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Food and Drug Administration has approved the first drug made specifically to treat cancer in dogs.
(USA TODAY) -- Children of parents with anxiety disorders are up to seven times more likely than others to develop anxiety problems themselves, research shows, and children of depressed parents also are at high risk for becoming depressed.
(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.
CHICAGO (AP) -- A persistent decline in the rate of Americans, especially children, newly diagnosed with depression followed the first federal warning on risks connected with antidepressant drugs, a study suggests.
(McClatchy-Tribune Information Services) -- Depression symptoms have disappeared for four of 10 patients taking part in a new treatment approach offered by family doctors in Minnesota.
(USA TODAY) -- The race to craft stem cells that have the virtues, but not the notoriety, of their embryonic brethren faces its final hurdle: becoming safe enough to help patients.
ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) -- Adult survivors of childhood cancer who most need mammograms and other tests to watch for second cancers are less likely to follow screening recommendations than the general public or even their healthy siblings, a new study finds.
CANBERRA, Australia (AP) -- An ocean liner docked in an Australian city on Saturday despite objections raised by port officials over a swine flu outbreak on board that cut short a Great Barrier Reef cruise.
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.
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.
LOS ANGELES (The New York Times News Service) -- Potentially joining a growing group of cities and counties in California that have banned smoking in public areas, Los Angeles County supervisors are set to vote Tuesday whether to ban or limit smoking at county parks and golf courses.
ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) -- Breast cancer survivors risk having their disease come back if they use certain antidepressants while also taking the cancer prevention drug tamoxifen, worrisome new research shows.
ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) -- First there was surgery, then chemotherapy and radiation. Now, doctors have overcome 30 years of false starts and found success with a fourth way to fight cancer: using the body's natural defender, the immune system.
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.
GENEVA (AP) -- Cigarette packages should include images of sickness and suffering caused by tobacco, along with written warnings, the World Health Organization said Friday.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Eeeww. There's a zoo full of critters living on your skin -- a bacterial zoo, that is. Consider your underarm a rain forest. Healthy skin is home to a much wider variety of bacteria than scientists ever knew, says the first big census of our co-inhabitants. And that's not a bad thing, said genetics specialist Julia Segre of the National Institutes of Health, who led the research.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Eating for two? New guidelines are setting how much weight women should gain during pregnancy -- surprisingly little if they're already overweight.
ATLANTA (AP) -- Scientists have identified a lethal new virus in Africa that causes bleeding like the dreaded Ebola virus. The so-called "Lujo" virus infected five people in Zambia and South Africa last fall. Four of them died, but a fifth survived, perhaps helped by a medicine recommended by the scientists.
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) -- The push to legalize medical marijuana in Illinois has taken a big step forward.
NEW YORK (AP) -- A Food and Drug Administration report released Wednesday recommends stronger warnings and dose limits on drugs containing the painkiller acetaminophen, citing an increased risk of liver injury.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Health insurance premiums for an average family are $1,000 a year higher because of costs of health care for the uninsured, a new report finds.
ATLANTA (AP) -- A U.S. health official said a swine flu vaccine could be available as early as October, but only if vaccine production and testing run smoothly this summer.
(Associated Press) -- Laid off from her job in Massachusetts, Danielle Marks thought immediately about losing her health insurance. How could she afford the medication and physical therapy she needed to heal after shoulder surgery?
HAYWARD, Calif. (AP) -- If Nick Glasgow were white, he would have a nearly 90 percent chance of finding a matching bone marrow donor who could cure his leukemia.
(McClatchy-Tribune Information Services) -- After a week on the run, 13-year-old Daniel Hauser was facing his first court-ordered chemotherapy in relatively good spirits after meeting with cancer specialists Wednesday at Children's Hospital in Minneapolis, said his family's lawyer, Calvin Johnson.
(USA TODAY) -- Half of the men arrested in 10 U.S. cities test positive for some type of illegal drug, a federal study found.
LOS ANGELES (AP) - Zapping away abnormal, precancerous cells in the throat may lower the risk of later developing esophageal cancer, the first major study to test this technique finds.
(USA TODAY) -- Margo Adler-Libstag isn't cancer-free.
(McClatchy-Tribune Information Services) -- A popular cancer drug, ushered into use on a wave of promise five years ago because it chokes off a tumor's blood supply, appears to raise the risk of intestinal perforations, a team of Long Island scientists has found.
(McClatchy-Tribune Information Services) -- Fake erectile dysfunction (ED) drugs have become increasingly widespread as traders are tapping high demand from Thai consumers via the internet, say international drugmakers.
(USA Today) -- The nation's epidemic of new H1N1 flu may have peaked except in New York, New Jersey and New England, a leading federal health expert said Tuesday.
WASHINGTON (AP)-- A major health insurer says the government can save big money on health care by sending patients to cheaper, more efficient doctors, reducing hospital visits by the elderly and cutting down on unnecessary care.
CHICAGO (AP) -- Supersized pro football players are prone to high blood pressure but fare better on some other health measures than more average-sized men, new NFL-sponsored research shows. The mixed results suggest that intense physical conditioning can help reduce but not wipe out ill effects excess weight has on heart disease-related risks.
MADRID, Spain (AP) -- The World Health Organization, which has helped spearhead efforts to contain swine flu, won Spain's prestigious Prince of Asturias prize on Wednesday for its work fighting global killers such as AIDS, polio and tuberculosis.
LONDON (AP) -- When a cancer patient from Singapore traveled to the United States last year, he discovered an unusual side effect of his medication: missing fingerprints.
NEW YORK (AP) -- The world's swine flu death toll reached 100 as two more New Yorkers died while infected with a virus that has sickened more than 12,000 people.
LONDON (AP) -- Special stockings commonly given to stroke patients to prevent blood clots don't work, a new study reported Wednesday.
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.
JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) -- Diabetes is spiraling in Asia but -- unlike the West -- those affected are relatively young and less likely to be struggling with obesity, a new study shows.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The huge salmonella outbreak from peanut butter represented a failure of the Food and Drug Administration, that agency's new chiefs declared Tuesday -- one they hope to fix.
CHICAGO (AP) -- A Chicago-area resident has died of swine flu, the first death in Illinois and the 12th nationally, from the illness, health authorities said Monday.
NEW ULM, Minn. (AP) -- A 13-year-old cancer patient and his mother who spent nearly a week on the run to avoid chemotherapy must again place the boy's medical fate in the hands of a judge. And this time, an attorney said she believes they'll do what the court orders.
(The New York Times News Service) -- Even if a swine flu vaccine isn't available, publicity over the worldwide outbreak probably will prompt more Americans to get the regular seasonal flu vaccination this fall, health officials say.
(McClatchy-Tribune Information Services) -- Adding insult to injury, researchers have found that women who are just beginning menopause have a more difficult time learning new things than they did before.
DENVER (The New York Times News Service) -- Children whose parents refuse to have them immunized are 23 times more likely to get whooping cough, according to a study that is perhaps the most definitive yet linking vaccine refusal to disease.
(McClatchy-Tribune Information Services) -- Fears of a swine flu epidemic in May spurred public officials -- including President Barack Obama -- to urge people with symptoms to stay home from work.
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