Health | featured news

Britain's new health secretary has said he favors reducing the time limit for women to have abortions from 24 to 12 weeks, sparking criticism from opposition lawmakers and women's rights activists....

As authorities continue to focus on a potentially contaminated steroid as the source of a widening outbreak of fungal meningitis, some patient-safety advocates are calling for greater restrictions on the type of injection involved.

Free birth control led to dramatically lower rates of abortions and teen births, a large study concluded Thursday, offering strong evidence for how a bitterly contested Obama administration policy could benefit women’s health.

An outbreak of a rare form of meningitis is likely to grow after sickening 26 people in five states, including four who died, health officials warned... All received steroid injections used mostly for back pain that have been traced back to a specialty pharmacy in Massachusetts. The pharmacy issued a recall last week and has shut down operations.

Dozens of weight loss and immune system supplements on the market are illegally labeled and lack the recommended scientific evidence to back up their purported health claims, government investigators warn in a new review of the $20 billion supplement industry....

A former beauty queen has undergone an incredible surgery where a quarter of her skull was removed and stored in her stomach while she recovered from a devastating head injury. Surgeons removed the rear quarter of Jamie Hilton's skull and placed in her abdomen so that the bone would remain sterile and nourished as her brain swelling subsided. When the mother-of-three and former Mrs. Idaho woke up from the operation she found the large, hard lump in her stomach and a portion of her head missing.

Scientists reported Thursday that they succeeded in creating tiny medical devices sealed in silk cocoons that did the work they were designed for, then dissolved in the bodies of lab mice. It's an early step in a technology that may hold promise not only for medicine but also for disposal of electronic waste.

Mice with brittle skin, which tears off to escape predators, may offer clues to healing wounds without scars, according to US researchers.

The World Health Organization said Monday it is too soon to say whether there could be an outbreak of a SARS-like killer respiratory disease after health officials in Britain announced they detected a related virus in a severely ill patient from the Middle East.

A suburban Denver man who was diagnosed with "popcorn lung," possibly from inhaling the artificial butter smell of the microwave popcorn he regularly ate, has won a $7.2 million verdict against various food companies.