Health News

Mexico wins praise for swine flu response

AP - 1 hour, 13 minutes ago

CANCUN, Mexico - As swine flu runs rampant in the Southern Hemisphere winter, world health experts are concerned that some hard-hit countries have been reluctant to take forceful measures to protect public health.

Weight Loss News

  • Bedwetting, being overweight linked to sleep apnea Reuters - Fri Jul 3, 10:44 AM ET

    NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Children who are overweight and wet the bed at night may have obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), researchers report.

  • Kids With Type 1 Diabetes Often Overweight HealthDay - Thu Jul 2, 11:48 PM ET

    THURSDAY, July 2 (HealthDay News) -- Children with type 1 diabetes are more likely to be overweight than those without the disease, increasing their risk of serious health complications, researchers say.

  • Obesity Rates Continue to Climb in U.S. HealthDay - Wed Jul 1, 11:49 PM ET

    WEDNESDAY, July 1 (HealthDay News) -- The rates of adult obesity in the United States increased in 23 states during the past year and did not decrease in any state.

Sexual Health News

  • A woman who performs genital cutting displays a knife she uses to perform the procedure. Uganda will pass a law banning female genital mutilation, which is rampant among pastoralist tribes in the country's eastern region.(AFP/File/Kambou Sia)
    Uganda to outlaw female circumcision AFP - Fri Jul 3, 7:45 AM ET

    KAMPALA (AFP) - Uganda will pass a law banning female genital mutilation, which is rampant among pastoralist tribes in the country's eastern region, the president said in a statement Friday.

  • Hundreds of mourners paid tribute to Farrah Fawcett as the "Charlie's Angels" star was laid to rest in a private ceremony in Los Angeles. The 62-year-old actress and pin-up girl died last Thursday after a three-year battle with anal cancer, news that was quickly overshadowed by the death of King of Pop Michael Jackson later that day.(AFP/Getty Images/Jason Merritt)
    Fawcett's death spotlights a rare cancer AP - Wed Jul 1, 8:07 PM ET

    ATLANTA - 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.

  • Women's Sexual Health Issues Hit Home HealthDay - Thu Jun 25, 11:49 PM ET

    THURSDAY, June 25 (HealthDay News) -- A new survey finds that 70 percent of American women have experienced a sexual health issue, and 22 percent felt very or extremely concerned about it.

Medications/Drugs News

  • Health Tip: Controlling Asthma HealthDay - Thu Jul 2, 11:49 PM ET

    (HealthDay News) -- Medication used to control asthma may be used every day, without the fear of becoming addicted, the American Academy of Family Physicians says.

  • Clinical Trials Update: July 2, 2009 HealthDay - Thu Jul 2, 11:49 PM ET

    (HealthDay News) -- Here are the latest clinical trials, courtesy of CenterWatch and ClinicalConnection.com:

  • Glaucoma patients overrate their eyedrop skills Reuters - Thu Jul 2, 4:41 PM ET

    NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Although more than 90 percent of patients taking ocular medication reported feeling confident about their eyedrop instillation technique, less than one third actually demonstrated adequate skills, researchers report in the Archives of Ophthalmology.

Parenting/Kids News

  • Fertility drug combo promising in older women Reuters - Fri Jul 3, 1:27 PM ET

    NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - The combination of two drugs -- Femara (letrozole) and follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) -- could be of benefit in infertile women of advanced reproductive age undergoing intrauterine insemination, results of a study indicate.

  • A mother comforts her son as a doctor performs a circumcision in 2007. Thirty-one teenage boys have died from complications after botched traditional circumcision rites in South Africa's rural Eastern Cape region.(AFP/File/Fayez Nureldine)
    Botched circumcisions leave 31 dead in S.Africa AFP - Fri Jul 3, 11:52 AM ET

    JOHANNESBURG (AFP) - Thirty-one teenage boys have died from complications after botched traditional circumcision rites in South Africa's rural Eastern Cape region, officials said on Friday.

  • U.S. parents think twice about sending kids to camp Reuters - Fri Jul 3, 10:47 AM ET

    NEW YORK (Reuters) - Since its opening last week, camp counselors at New Jersey's Liberty Lake Day Camp disinfect door knobs, take the temperatures of children as they arrive and remind the campers not to share canned sodas.

Seniors/Aging News

  • New Weapons in Fight Against TB? HealthDay - 1 hour, 47 minutes ago

    FRIDAY, July 3 (HealthDay News) -- Extreme drug-resistant tuberculosis might someday meet its match in two drugs now used to treat Parkinson's disease, suggests a new study.

  • Multicomponent approach curbs urinary woes in men Reuters - Fri Jul 3, 10:34 AM ET

    NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - An intervention including drug and behavior therapy may help curb frequent nighttime urination or "nocturia" in elderly men, researchers have found.

  • Living Alone Increases Odds of Developing Dementia HealthDay - Thu Jul 2, 11:48 PM ET

    THURSDAY, July 2 (HealthDay News) -- Middle-aged adults who live alone are twice as likely to develop dementia or Alzheimer's disease later in life compared to those who are married or live with a partner. And the risk is three times higher among those who are divorced or widowed, according to a new study by Swedish and Finnish researchers.

Diseases/Conditions

  • Cell Pathway May Be Key to Lung Cancer's Spread HealthDay - 1 hour, 47 minutes ago

    FRIDAY, July 3 (HealthDay News) -- U.S. researchers say they've found a major cellular flaw that may drive the rapid spread of relapsed lung cancer.

  • Prostate cancer screening still unproven: report Reuters - Fri Jul 3, 10:45 AM ET

    NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - PSA blood tests are often used to screen men for prostate cancer, but there is still no good evidence that they cut death rates from the disease, a new review finds.

  • On Memory, Older Americans Outsmart the English HealthDay - 1 hour, 47 minutes ago

    FRIDAY, July 3 (HealthDay News) -- Older people in the United States scored better than their counterparts in England on a memory and awareness test, possibly because of differences in levels of depression and education and the fact that American adults receive more aggressive treatment for heart disease, a new study suggests.

Most Popular Health News

  • A vegetarian salad. Australian researchers have said that people who live on vegetarian diets have slightly weaker bones than their meat-eating counterparts.(AFP/File/Jay Directo)
    Vegetarian diet 'weakens bones' AFP - Thu Jul 2, 6:31 AM ET

    SYDNEY (AFP) - People who live on vegetarian diets have slightly weaker bones than their meat-eating counterparts, Australian researchers said Thursday.

  • A physician holds samples of patients suspected of being infected with swine flu at a hospital in Buenos Aires, Wednesday, July 1, 2009.  Health authorities have warned that while the swine flu peak has passed in Mexico, the Southern Hemisphere is at risk as it heads deeper into its winter flu season as the nation's swine flu death toll surged to 35. (AP Photo/Ezequiel Pontoriero)
    Study: New flu inefficient in attacking people AP - Thu Jul 2, 5:03 PM ET

    WASHINGTON - 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. The new virus, H1N1, has a protein on its surface that is not very efficient at binding with receptors in people's respiratory tracts, researchers at the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology report in Friday's edition of the journal Science.

  • Prostate cancer screening still unproven: report Reuters - Fri Jul 3, 10:45 AM ET

    NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - PSA blood tests are often used to screen men for prostate cancer, but there is still no good evidence that they cut death rates from the disease, a new review finds.