HEALTH

U.S. President Barack Obama's plans to overhaul the $2.5 trillion healthcare industry got a boost on Tuesday as Democrats in the House of Representatives offered sweeping legislation and predicted passage on schedule by August.

Using a relatively new way to test for blockages in the heart's arteries as a general screening exam could lead to more than thousands of new cases of cancer in the US, according to a new study in the Archives of Internal Medicine.

Later diagnosis and differences in treatment may be among the reasons that African Americans are less likely than whites to survive colon cancer, a study published Monday suggests.

The steady climb in the incidence of thyroid cancer since the early 1980s has been attributed to an increase in screening in recent years and the diagnosis of more small tumors.

Healthcare workers should get priority access to H1N1 flu vaccinations to ensure health systems keep functioning as the swine flu pandemic spreads around the globe, the World Health Organization said on Monday.

Schizophrenia patients given a cheap older drug are less likely to die prematurely than people on newer treatments, despite the older product's well-known adverse side effects, Finnish researchers said on Monday.

Using condoms consistently can help prevent people from contracting genital herpes, new research in the Archives of Internal Medicine shows.

Saying the new H1N1 virus is

The United States spends more on healthcare than any other country in the world but has higher rates of infant mortality, diabetes and other ills than many other developed countries.

Lobbyists for drugmakers, insurance companies, hospital chains and others are trying to protect lucrative businesses threatened by U.S. healthcare reforms.

Real estate agent Lisa DeWaal serves coffee at a Starbucks outlet for four hours every morning before she goes to the office to start her

Americans are getting heavier than ever, with more than 26 percent of the population now fully obese, the U.S. government reported on Wednesday.

Congressional Democrats hunted for votes for a mammoth healthcare overhaul on Wednesday as critics attacked the Obama administration's new cost-savings deal with hospitals as a sham.

Fewer than half of all Americans trust that their health insurance plans would pay for the full costs of cancer treatment and nearly two-thirds falsely believe Medicare would not pay anything, according to a survey released on Wednesday.

Three major hospital associations have offered to contribute about $155 billion over 10 years to help pay for a U.S. healthcare overhaul, The Washington Post reported on Monday, citing industry sources.

An international food safety body has set rules to cut levels of cancer-causing chemicals and bacteria in foodstuffs ranging from French fries to baby food, the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization said on Monday.

Outsourcing of healthcare services is expected to gain momentum as the prolonged slowdown forces U.S.-based government agencies and healthcare firms to cut spiraling costs and deal with a shortage in qualified personnel.

The University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) is leading a $2.9 million National Cancer Institute project to increase demand for evidence-based, Internet-based smoking cessation treatment for young adults aged 18 to 24 years.

A sizable minority of adolescents believe they are likely to die at a young age, and this perception is a powerful predictor of involvement in high risk behaviors and poor health outcomes, according to a report in the journal Pediatrics.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Monday confirmed that it has found E. coli O157:H7 bacteria in a sample of Nestle Toll House refrigerated cookie dough.

The first H1N1 infection found to be resistant to the antiviral drug Tamiflu represents an isolated case with no current implications for public health, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Tuesday.

General Electric Co is teaming up with U.S. biotech company Geron Corp to use stem cells to develop products that could give drug developers an early warning of whether new medicines are toxic.

If you are dizzy from trying to choose among all the fitness regimens out there a new survey of fitness and health experts, who were asked to identity the top trends, may help.

Hong Kong's swine flu tally has reached 596, increasing by 35 percent with 152 new cases conformed within just two days, the Department of Health (DH) said on Friday.

President Barack Obama said in an interview aired on Wednesday that he

U.S. consumers should avoid two brands of pistachios tied to a salmonella-related recall because they may have been repackaged and sold in airports and hotels, the Food and Drug Administration said.

Carrying a little extra weight may actually be good for you, according to a Canadian study that showed a few pounds appear to protect people from an early death.

President Barack Obama will throw his weight behind legislative bids to reform healthcare and cut U.S. greenhouse gas emissions on Tuesday in his fourth White House press conference since taking office.

Doctors in the United States fail to tell patients about abnormal test results 7 percent of the time, or a rate of about 1 out of every 14 tests, U.S. researchers said on Monday.