HEALTH

AstraZeneca's new pill Brilinta for preventing heart attacks works better than Plavix, the world's second biggest selling drug, without increasing the amount of life-threatening bleeding, researchers said on Sunday.

A sensor made with gold nanoparticles can detect lung cancer in a patient's breath and may offer a diagnosis before tumors show up on an x-ray, Israeli scientists said on Sunday.

The new H1N1 swine flu is estimated to have infected about 800,000 people in New York City in the spring, a top U.S. health official said on Sunday, citing a study due to be released later this week.

People who are heavily in debt are more likely to be heavy themselves, too, according to new research from Germany.

The day after U.S. Senator Edward Kennedy's burial, leading Democratic and Republican senators on Sunday seized on his reputation for compromise to call for cooperation in the healthcare debate but showed little give in their own positions.

Fewer Americans are afraid that they will be unable to pay for healthcare services and fewer expect to postpone medical treatments due to costs, according to a Thomson Reuters survey published on Monday.

Men with prostate cancer are being diagnosed at a younger age and earlier stage today than in years past, and the racial disparity in stage at diagnosis has decreased significantly, researchers report today in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

Even though testing has so far raised no

Swine flu infected 14 times as many children as adults over 60 in Chicago, city health department officials reported on Thursday in one of the first detailed looks at the new pandemic virus.

Researchers searching for a cure for obesity said on Thursday they have developed a drug that not only makes mice lose weight, but reverses diabetes and lowers their cholesterol, too.

For women, feelings of hopelessness are not just unfortunate, they are a stroke risk, U.S. researchers said on Thursday.

U.S. health authorities are turning to social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter in a bid to prepare people to be vaccinated against the pandemic H1N1 virus.

Democrats scrambled on Thursday to quickly fill the seat of Senator Edward Kennedy,

Vital signs for healthcare stocks are improving at the expense of what is shaping up to be a watered down government health reform initiative.

Men and people of South Asian descent are more likely to have unfavorable perceptions of colon cancer screening, research from the UK shows.

New ultra-sensitive blood tests can rapidly detect when heart muscle is dying from a heart attack, even from the moment the patient arrives in the emergency room, according to two studies on Wednesday.

The chief executives of the biggest U.S. health insurance companies were called to testify about industry practices before a congressional hearing examining coverage, costs and claim denials.

Younger Americans are being exposed to worrisome amounts of radiation from medical scans that increase their risk of cancer, U.S. researchers said on Wednesday.

Scientific advisers to President Barack Obama may have asked the government to speed up the availability of swine flu vaccines, but they are unlikely to be ready before October, the new head of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Wednesday.

Senator Edward Kennedy called providing health insurance for all Americans

Hormone-based drugs that help treat aggressive prostate cancer may be dangerous for some men with heart disease, U.S. researchers reported on Tuesday.

People as young as 45 with high blood pressure are more likely to have memory troubles, U.S. researchers said on Tuesday in a study suggesting aggressive early treatment of the condition may pay huge dividends.

China launched its first national organ donation system in a bid to crack down on organ trafficking and create a source for transplants other than executed prisoners, who currently make up the majority of donors.

Even as the US lowers the lead levels allowed in paint dramatically, paint with dangerously high lead levels is still being sold for household use worldwide, putting hundreds of millions of young children at risk of permanent brain damage,

In the United States, there has been an increase in cases of typhoid fever resistant to the drugs most commonly used against the illness, federal health officials reported Tuesday.

You've heard about using marijuana and drugs derived from it to keep some of the side effects of toxic cancer chemotherapy in check. But what if smoking marijuana for 10 to 20 years could actually protect against certain tumors?

Tobacco use will kill 6 million people next year from cancer, heart disease, emphysema and a range of other ills, global cancer experts said in a report issued on Tuesday.

Vietnam will ban smoking in all indoor public places next year and raise tariffs on tobacco products to reduce consumption, the government said.

A sexually transmitted virus that causes cervical cancer is also to blame for half of all cases of cancer of the penis, Spanish researchers said on Tuesday.