BEIJING - The global spread of swine flu will endanger more lives as it speeds up in coming months and governments must boost preparations for a swift response, the World Health Organization said Friday. There will soon be a period of further global spread of the virus, and most countries may see swine flu cases double every three to four days ...

There's no place to isolate sick, feverish kids if swine flu hits hard at the city's most overcrowded schools, nurses are warning. Health rules require staffers to put masks on schoolchildren with fevers of 100 degrees or higher and place them in a separate room so the airborne H1N1 virus doesn't spread. Dozens of schools, however, are functioning at more than ...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Eating for two? New guidelines are setting how much weight women should gain during pregnancy -- surprisingly little if they're already overweight. The most important message: Get to a healthy weight before you conceive, says the Institute of Medicine in the first national recommendations on pregnancy weight since 1990. It's healthiest for the mother -- less chance of ...

WASHINGTON - The Senate struck a historic blow against smoking in America Thursday, voting overwhelmingly to give regulators new power to limit nicotine in the cigarettes that kill nearly a half-million people a year, to drastically curtail ads that glorify tobacco and to ban flavored products aimed at spreading the habit to young people. President Barack Obama, who has spoken of ...

ATLANTA – Swine flu has been hitting pregnant women unusually hard, so they are likely to be among the first group advised to get a new swine flu shot this fall. Pregnant women account for 6 percent of U.S. swine flu deaths since the pandemic began in April, even though they make up just 1 percent of the U.S. population. On ...

Play games to beat brain fog Regularly challenging yourself with mental exercises and new activities keeps your mind running on all four cylinders. In fact, adults who frequently engage in mentally stimulating activities are 63% less likely to develop dementia than those who rarely do such activities, a New England Journal of Medicine study discovered. A University of Michigan study found ...

A Wilson nurse is among a group lobbying the N.C. General Assembly to legalize marijuana for medical use. Ann Hodges is hopeful that North Carolina will become the 14th state to allow doctors to prescribe marijuana for treatment of glaucoma, pain, nausea and other medical conditions. "It would mean a return to my quality of life every day," she said Thursday ...

Shelley Effert was at a Brewers game with her husband, Derek, and a couple of friends this summer -- "Our first date night in forever," she said -- when she got the call. Her daughter's new heart was ready, and the Efferts had an hour and a half to get to the hospital for the transplant. So Shelley and Derek scrambled ...

OLYMPIA, Wash. - A 66-year-old woman with terminal cancer has become the first person to die under Washington state's new assisted suicide law, an advocacy group said Friday. Linda Fleming, of Sequim, died Thursday night after taking drugs prescribed under the "Death with Dignity" law that took effect in March, said Compassion & Choices of Washington. The organization says Fleming was ...

WASHINGTON - More than 35 million people around the world are living with Alzheimer's disease or other types of dementia, says the most in-depth attempt yet to assess the brain-destroying illness - and it's an ominous forecast as the population grays. The new count is about 10 percent higher than what scientists had predicted just a few years ago, because earlier ...

WASHINGTON - And we're off: Swine flu vaccinations begin Monday with squirts in the noses scheduled for some doctors, nurses and other health workers in Indiana and Tennessee, a first step in a hugely ambitious campaign to try to inoculate over half the population in a few months. But don't start bugging your doctor about an appointment just yet. This week's ...

We need programs like Michelle Obama's "Let's Move" to ensure the health—and safety—of future generations. "Lets Move," says Michelle Obama in her first nationwide initiative as First Lady, and the country needs to do just that. With two thirds of American adults, and one third of American children overweight or obese, Michelle Obama has taken a bold, public step to address ...

WASHINGTON — Warning that the worst is yet to come, U.S. officials Sunday declared the rapid spread of swine flu to be a public health emergency and freed up 12.5 million doses of antiviral medication to help fight the disease, which has now infected 20 people in five states. The move comes as state and local authorities, the Centers for Disease ...

LAYTON, Utah – A steel mailbox-sized bin in the lobby of a police department in northern Utah was full again, crammed with half-full prescription bottles, over-the-counter cold meds and even an odd topical cream from 1983. "It's anything and everything," Layton police evidence supervisor Holly Plotnick said as she and a co-worker transferred 28 pounds of medications into a garbage bag ...

Australian biomedical scientists report they have identified a new way to treat prostate cancer. Researchers at the Monash University in Melbourne used a drug compound to selectively activate the prostate's beta estrogen receptor cells. Study co-author Gail Risbridger says this has the effect of targeting for cell death a small but important population of cells in the prostate cancer tumor that ...

PITTSBURGH — From a Pennsylvania hospital bed, Jeff Kepner says he is looking forward to being able to feel his wife's and his daughter's hands when he holds them. The 57-year-old Augusta, Ga., man is the nation's first double hand transplant patient. He held hands with his wife Valarie on Thursday as he talked to news reporters about his recovery at ...