Study suggests too many invasive heart tests given
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....
03/10/2010 07:04:00pm
Panel: Women need chance to avoid repeat C-section
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."...
03/10/2010 05:14:21pm
Brazil's Silva quits smoking after 50 years
BRASILIA, Brazil (AP) -- Brazil's president said Tuesday that he kicked the smoking habit he had for 50 years after a recent health scare sent his blood pressure soaring....
03/09/2010 07:34:33pm
Hoped-for drop in childbirth deaths not happening
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....
03/09/2010 03:04:43am
UN says mother-child HIV can be eliminated by 2015
GENEVA (AP) -- The United Nations says mother-to-child HIV transmission can be eliminated by 2015 if health programs receive increased investments as planned....
03/08/2010 05:07:17am
Researchers: AIDS virus can hide in bone marrow
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....
03/07/2010 02:15:39pm
WHO: over 85M African kids get polio vaccination
GENEVA (AP) -- The World Health Organization says more than 85 million children under 5 in west and central Africa will be vaccinated against polio....
03/05/2010 08:15:28am
FDA warning for hand sanitizer in Puerto Rico
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....
03/04/2010 05:53:43pm
Gene test claims to show what diet works best
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....
03/04/2010 05:22:29pm
Appetite may be partly linked to germs in the gut
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Germs in the gut may help drive appetite, says new research into the link between obesity and bacteria....
03/04/2010 03:49:45pm
WHO: Korean cooperation boosting health in north
GENEVA (AP) -- North Koreans are getting better medical treatment as the result of a joint program between the two Koreas that has trained thousands of doctors, provided modern equipment and renovated hospitals, the World Health Organization said Thursday....
03/04/2010 09:45:24am
Cancer society casts more doubt on prostate tests
ATLANTA (AP) -- Months after experts discounted the importance of routine mammograms and Pap smears for many women, the American Cancer Society is warning more explicitly than ever that regular testing for prostate cancer is of questionable value too, and can do men more harm than good....
03/04/2010 03:38:30am
Sanofi drug shows promise against prostate cancer
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....
03/03/2010 06:05:22pm
Should men be tested for prostate cancer?
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:...
03/03/2010 04:35:55pm
More than one way to trim health coverage premiums
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....
03/02/2010 04:21:55pm
Mullahs help promote birth control in Afghanistan
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....
03/02/2010 01:36:08pm
Shanghai declares indoor smoking ban ahead of Expo
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....
03/02/2010 05:49:18am
Scientists try to break fat-and-disease link
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....
03/02/2010 03:14:07am
Parents say doctors hastened death for dying kids
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....
03/01/2010 09:12:17pm
1 in 4 parents buys unproven vaccine-autism link
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....
03/01/2010 06:23:43am
Stroke study finds neck stents safe, effective
SAN ANTONIO (AP) -- 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....
02/26/2010 01:01:12pm
Feds probe Mass. special needs school
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....
02/25/2010 07:55:47pm
Interval training can cut exercise hours sharply
LONDON (AP) -- People who complain they have no time to exercise may soon need another excuse. Some experts say intense exercise sessions could help people squeeze an entire week's workout into less than an hour. Those regimens - also called interval training - were originally developed for Olympic athletes and thought to be too strenuous for normal people....
02/25/2010 07:05:06pm
UK publishes new rules for assisted suicide
LONDON (AP) -- New guidelines published Thursday offer people in England and Wales broad hints about how to help a gravely ill loved one end their life with minimal fear of prosecution....
02/25/2010 10:50:56am
Cheney's 5 heart attacks unusual, shows good care
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....
02/25/2010 07:57:04am
Pfizer says FDA OKs updated infection vaccine
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....
02/25/2010 07:56:55am
US panel: Too little known on lactose intolerance
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....
02/25/2010 07:56:48am
Panel recommends annual flu vaccinations for all
ATLANTA (AP) -- A government panel is now recommending that virtually all Americans get a flu shot each year, starting this fall....
02/25/2010 07:56:48am
Study: High-fat diets raise stroke risk in women
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....
02/25/2010 07:56:43am
Woman 1st giving birth twice with ovary transplant
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....
02/24/2010 05:59:35pm
Docs cut work hours as primary care shortage looms
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....
02/24/2010 03:43:20pm
UN watchdog issues warning about date-rape drugs
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 reduce their ability to resist sexual assault and remember it later, a watchdog said Wednesday....
02/24/2010 08:42:19am
WHO: Swine flu still hasn't peaked
LONDON (AP) -- The World Health Organization says the swine flu pandemic still has not peaked....
02/23/2010 05:54:33pm
Correction: Albert Kligman obituary
PHILADELPHIA (AP) -- In a Feb. 21 obituary of Dr. Albert M. Kligman, The Associated Press incorrectly described the Tuskegee syphilis study. The 40-year study conducted by the U.S. Public Health Service, not Tuskegee University, did not infect black men with syphilis. Participants who had syphilis were left untreated so researchers could observe the progression of the disease. Kligman was not involved in the study....
02/23/2010 02:24:56pm
China studies long-term impact of tainted milk
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....
02/23/2010 05:58:42am
Zapping fibroids with heat in hunt for new options
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....
02/23/2010 03:04:15am
Report: US fails to fight high blood pressure
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....
02/22/2010 12:30:25pm
Study: Health rules on flying with TB too strict
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....
02/22/2010 12:13:17pm
Retin-A researcher Kligman dies in Pa. at 93
PHILADELPHIA (AP) -- Dermatologist Albert M. Kligman, whose research led to discoveries including the acne and wrinkle drug Retin-A but whose pioneering work was overshadowed by his experiments involving prisoners, has died. He was 93....
02/21/2010 03:44:57pm
