Health | featured news

Cancer-related deaths in the United States are dropping — and have been for the past two decades — according to this year's annual report by the American Cancer Society. And some of the largest reductions came in cases involving the biggest killers, including breast, colon, lung, and prostate cancers. The decline came thanks mostly to early detection by increasingly sophisticated screening methods, and advances in treatment.

The Food and Drug Administration says it will limit the presence of one type of antibiotics in meat, saying they could increase human resistance to the drugs. The agency said Wednesday it will restrict the use of cephalosporin antibiotics, which are often given to cattle, swine, chickens and turkeys before slaughter. The drugs are used to treat pneumonia, skin infections and other diseases in humans.

This guest post is written by John Scott Holman. Diagnosed with autism just a few months ago, Holman talks about the long, winding road to diagnosis -- and what arriving feels like.

The Environmental Protection Agency recently finalized a rule that for the first time requires U.S. coal and oil-fired power plant operators to limit emissions of mercury and other hazardous air pollutants.

If you want your memory to stay strong, you probably already know what to avoid -- excessive alcohol, beating your head on things, getting any older. What you probably didn't know is that there are other, lesser known everyday threats that may be slowly turning you into that guy from 'Memento.'

A prestigious scientific journal is retracting a controversial 2009 report that linked chronic fatigue syndrome to a virus.

French health authorities are considering whether to suggest that an estimated 30,000 women in France get their breast implants removed, amid warnings by leading doctors about the risks of rupture and possible cancer....

The National Institutes of Health on Thursday suspended all new grants for biomedical and behavioral research on chimpanzees and accepted the first uniform criteria for assessing the necessity of such research. Those criteria require that the research be necessary for human health, and that there be no other way to accomplish it.

Tanning beds have already been linked to an increased risk of the deadliest type of skin cancer and now new research shows they can also raise the odds of developing the most common form of the disease.

Apparently some of the fainting at screenings of "The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn -- Part 1" isn't over the epic romance between Edward Cullen and Bella Swan. Folks are allegedly having epileptic seizures. A report Friday said a California man and his girlfriend were watching the vampire love story when, during a particularly gory scene, he started convulsing.