HEALTH

Treating depression may help people with diabetes get their blood sugar under control.

Synthetic blood platelets injected into patients at the scene of a traumatic injury can speed up blood clotting and stem internal bleeding, U.S. researchers reported on Wednesday.

Will a gene bring healthful blessings or the curse of disease? It may depend on whether it is inherited from mom or dad, researchers reported on Wednesday.

Small particles from traffic and heating oil combustion may cause children younger than two to wheeze and cough, according to a new study.

The U.S. Senate staggered toward the healthcare finish line on Wednesday, as Republicans used new tactics to delay debate and a Democratic holdout remained uncommitted after meeting President Barack Obama.

Nearly 20 percent of the U.S. population -- or almost 60 million people -- went without health insurance at some point since January 2008, according to government estimates released Wednesday.

Genes may explain why some people are more susceptible than others to leprosy, an extensive study in China published in the New England Journal of Medicine appears to have found.

Scientists have indentified all the changes in cells of two deadly cancers to produce the first entire cancer gene maps and say the findings mark a transforming moment in their understanding of the disease.

People who had greater intellectual ability as children may have fewer heart disease risk factors in middle-age, a new study suggests.

Implanted heart defibrillators may help elderly heart failure patients live longer, a study released today suggests.

A single patient infected with the increasingly common superbug known as MRSA can cost a hospital $60,000, U.S. researchers reported Tuesday.

If the U.S. Congress fails to agree on a healthcare bill soon, the opportunity for a sweeping overhaul of the $2.5 trillion system will be lost for a generation, Vice President Joe Biden warned on Tuesday.

President Barack Obama pushed fractious Senate Democrats on Tuesday to pass a broad healthcare overhaul and said he was cautiously optimistic they could iron out their differences to win the 60 votes needed.

The United States committed $2.7 billion on Wednesday to help fight HIV infection in Kenya where more than a million people are living with the disease.

Significantly more Americans are nearsighted today than in the early 1970s, a report released today indicates.

The advent of antibody testing to diagnose celiac disease has led to a substantial increase in the number of cases detected among children, a new study suggests.

Many survivors of the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) pandemic of 2003 suffer from persistent mental health problems and chronic fatigue years later, new research from Hong Kong shows.

Imaging tests may be able to detect the early signs of Alzheimer's disease long before it begins to affect memory, a finding that may lead to earlier, more effective treatments, U.S. researchers said on Monday.

A Democratic proposal to ban the collection of doctors' prescription records for marketing purposes is unlikely to be included as part of the Senate's overall health reform bill, a Senate staff member said on Monday.

Americans may live significantly longer in the future than current U.S. government projections, and that could mean sharply higher costs than anticipated for Medicare and other programs, researchers reported on Monday.

About three-quarters of women with breast cancer report some degree of sexual problems, according to results released at the 32nd Annual San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium (SABCS).

Methamphetamine use and smoking among U.S. teens has dropped significantly in recent years, but declines in marijuana use have stalled, according to an annual government survey released on Monday.

Radiation from CT scans done in 2007 will cause 29,000 cancers and kill nearly 15,000 Americans, researchers said on Monday.

Obesity is becoming more common among poor city dwellers in Africa because of easier access to cheap, high fat, high sugar foods, scientists said on Tuesday.

Increased funding is starting to pay off in the battle against malaria but prevention and treatment must be increased to try to halt the killer disease, the World Health Organization said on Tuesday.

Coffee, tea, or decaf-no matter what your choice, drinking any of these beverages may reduce your risk of diabetes, according to a new analysis of 18 studies including hundreds of thousands of people.

Perhaps it's not surprising, but in the Air Force, combat duty in Iraq and Afghanistan increases the risk of depression, according to a new study.

China's vaccination campaign against the H1N1 flu strain is not proceeding as fast as it should be partly because people are needlessly worried about the safety of the vaccine, officials said on Friday.

Democrats scrambled on Friday to resolve a stalemate over whether to permit imports of cheaper prescription drugs from Canada and elsewhere as part of a larger effort to overhaul the U.S. healthcare system.