March 5, 2013 -- A new study adds yet more evidence that the decline in physical activity is contributing to the rise in obesity in the U.S. This study, however, is bound to cause some controversy, as researchers found the increase in obesity in women is tied to a falloff in (More)
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March 5, 2013 -- Spring allergy season is again off to an early start in many parts of the country, and doctors say there are some signs it may be even more miserable than usual this year.

Last year was the fourth warmest winter on record, with consistently mild temperatures. That led to record-breaking pollen counts that struck (More)
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March 1, 2013 -- Sleeping fewer than six hours for several nights in a row affects hundreds of genes responsible for keeping us in good health, says a new study.

Research led by the U.K.'s Surrey Sleep Research Centre found that people who were subjected to sleep deprivation for a week underwent changes at a molecular level that could affect their (More)
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Feb. 28, 2013 -- Young women found the news surprising and more than a little scary: Cases of advanced breast cancer have been rising in women 25 to 39 over the past three decades, researchers reported this week.

From 1976 to 2009, the number of cases of advanced breast (More)
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Feb. 25, 2013 -- Nearly two-thirds of Missouri tanning salons included in a new survey would allow children as young as 10 to use their tanning beds.

There is clear evidence that ultraviolet radiation exposure from tanning beds is associated with a higher risk of skin cancer. Even so, 65% of 243 Missouri tanning salons said they would allow children as young (More)
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Feb. 21, 2013 -- The FDA has approved a new silicone-gel breast implant from Allergan called Natrelle 410. It will be used to increase breast size in women 22 and older, and to rebuild breast tissue in women of all ages.

The implant is designed to mimic the slope of the breast. The gel is intended to help the implant hold its shape over time while remaining soft to (More)
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Feb. 20, 2013 -- More American women are aware of their risk for heart disease than ever before, but huge gaps in knowledge still remain.

A new survey shows that the number of women who know that heart disease is their leading cause of death has nearly doubled since 1997: from 30% in 1997 to 56% today.

Awareness has roughly doubled since 1997 among all of the (More)
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Feb. 19, 2013 -- New research suggests that caffeine is linked to low-birth-weight babies and that drinking coffee is linked to a longer pregnancy.

The report suggests that drinking 200-300 milligrams of caffeine per day raised the risk of a (More)
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Feb. 15, 2013 -- IBM's Watson, the supercomputer that grabbed headlines after beating the best contestants on Jeopardy!, now is setting its sights on cancer.

Two years after Watson's victory on the game show, IBM is offering up the pizza-box-sized computer for health care. Its developers have chosen to debut it prominently in cancer care.

Watson's first application is (More)
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Feb. 14, 2013 -- Added sugars in soft drinks are hazardous to health and need to be at lower levels, according to a new citizen petition from the watchdog group Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI).

The petition, co-signed by prominent scientists, professional societies, health-advocacy organizations, and state and county public-health departments, calls for the FDA to set safe levels of sugars in sweetened beverages. The added sugars include (More)
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