Fifty years since the introduction of the oral birth control pill, it is still the preferred method of contraception for American women, used by 10.7 million women between the ages of 15 and 44. The second most popular method of contraception is female sterilization, with 10.3 million users.
More women are also using birth control …
With an international health group declaring indoor tanning booths carcinogenic in 2009, you might think that studies connecting indoor tanning and skin cancer are pretty well established.
Despite the fact that sharks do not tend to get cancer, it turns out that their cartilage does not contain any magical cancer-fighting agent that could help patients battling the disease.
That’s the conclusion of the latest research from a government-funded study on the subject. Reporting in the Journal of the National Cancer …
We’re a stressed out society, and between the faltering economy and juggling the pressures of everyday life, it’s no wonder that 65 million of Americans suffer from hypertension.
High blood pressure is a combined product of stress, obesity, a high sodium diet, and some genetic factors that keep the pressure on blood vessels …
The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) loosened its position on swimming lessons for toddlers younger than 4 years old.
Until now, the national pediatricians group has recommended against swimming lessons for very young children on the grounds that there was no evidence that early aquatic lessons reduced the risk of drowning or …
More than one-third of the world’s population lives in an area at risk for transmission of dengue fever, but the Florida Keys haven’t traditionally been among them.
Federal health officials report, however, that 28 residents and visitors to Key West, Fla., were infected with dengue fever between July 2009 and April 2010 — the …
It took nearly six months but the General Medical Council (GMC) in the U.K. has pulled Dr. Andrew Wakefield’s license to practice medicine in the United Kingdom.
Wakefield is the researcher who nearly single-handedly fueled parental concerns about the link between vaccines and autism. In 1998, he published a paper in the medical …
Surviving cancer is definitely a good thing, and no group of patients has benefited more from recent advances in cancer care than the youngest patients. Among cases of the most common childhood cancers, five year survival rates have jumped from 25% in the 1970s to 80% today.
But because young survivors are more likely to live years, …
In all the time I’ve covered health and medicine issues, nothing has been more polarizing than the debate over childhood immunizations. And while scientific evidence continues to mount against a causal connection between vaccines and developmental disorders such as autism, there was one concern voiced by some parents that seemed to …
After surviving a heart attack, it makes sense that people want to avoid any activity that could cause their ticker to falter again. Yet, as the Associated Press reports, according to new research presented this week at a conference of the American Heart Association in Washington, D.C., because of lack of information about their risk,
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Having excess belly fat in middle-age may increase the risk for dementia later in life, according to results of a new study published this week in the Annals of Neurology. In an analysis of 733 middle-aged men and women, researchers at the Boston University School of Medicine found that not only was higher body mass index (BMI)
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Autism researchers from around the world are meeting this week in Philadelphia at the annual conference of the International Society for Autism Research, and have presented studies investigating everything from the impact of an autistic child on the strength of his or her parents’ marriage, to the merits of popular gluten-free,
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Marie Stopes International, a sexual health group akin to the U.S.’s Planned Parenthood that provides abortions and other services at clinics throughout the U.K., has purchased a time slot for a 30-second commercial scheduled to air Monday night, the Telegraph reports. The ad — which does not mention the word abortion, but directs
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