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Call it the alter-ego of super-sizing. Researchers infiltrated a fast-food Chinese restaurant and found up to a third of diners jumped at the offer of a half-size of the usual heaping pile of rice or noodles _ even when the smaller amount cost the same. Giant portion sizes are one of the culprits behind the epidemic of bulging waistlines, and nowhere is the portion-creep more evident than in restaurants with French fry-heavy meal deals or plates overflowing with pasta. Now scientists are tapping...

Call it the alter-ego of super-sizing. Researchers infiltrated a fast-food Chinese restaurant and found up to a third of diners jumped at the offer of a half-size of the usual heaping pile of rice or noodles _ even when the smaller amount cost the same. Giant portion sizes are one of the culprits behind the epidemic of bulging waistlines, and nowhere is the portion-creep more evident than in restaurants with French fry-heavy meal deals or plates overflowing with pasta. Now scientists are tapping...

The World Health Organization warned Monday that the battle against the age-old scourge of leprosy is not yet over, with more than 5,000 new cases reported yearly in the Western Pacific, where the disease was declared eliminated in 1991. WHO regional director Shin Young-soo said the Marshall Islands, Micronesia and Kiribati are three of 37 countries in the region that have failed to meet the target of lowering cases to less than one per 10,000 people _ the health body's definition of leprosy elimination....

It happened to nurse Jane Byron years after an in-line skating fall, business owner Haralee Weintraub while doing "men's" push-ups, and avid cyclist Gene Wilberg while lifting a heavy box. "It" is that pop, strain or suddenly swollen joint that reminds active older adults they aren't as young as they'd like to think. Even among the fittest baby boomers, aging bodies just aren't as nimble as young ones, and they're more prone to minor damage that can turn serious if ignored or denied. But not...

University of Michigan officials said Friday they have ordered an outside review of campus security in the wake of a botched response to child pornography found on a medical resident's computer flash drive. An internal investigation determined a hospital attorney aware of the discovery decided after a month there wasn't enough evidence to tell police and closed the matter in June. But the case was reopened after doctors expressed concern in the wake of the Penn State University scandal, in which...

What birth control debate? A half-century after the introduction of the pill, acceptance of birth control by American women is virtually universal. But that didn't keep the Obama administration from landing in a political mess over a side issue to a new policy that will soon make contraceptives available free of charge as preventive care for women enrolled in workplace health plans. The big question: how the rules would apply to nonprofit institutions such as hospitals, colleges and charities...

A Hungarian obstetrician known for promoting home births lost an appeal Friday against her two-year prison sentence for malpractice. Budapest's Court of Appeals also banned Dr. Agnes Gereb from working in her profession for the next 10 years, increasing last year's court ruling, which had banned her for five years. Defense lawyer Andrea Pelle said her client would likely appeal for clemency to President Pal Schmitt. The court said Gereb must serve at least two-thirds of the sentence before parole,...

Researchers have encouraging news for women who find themselves in a very frightening situation: having cancer while pregnant. Studies suggest that these women can be treated almost the same as other cancer patients are, with minimal risk to the fetus. Only about 1 in 1,000 pregnant women face this dilemma, but doctors fear that more will because the risk of cancer rises with age, and more women are delaying having children until they're older. Doctors have long worried about how to balance treating...

A rash of teenage suicides in Russia has set off alarm bells and experts are urging the government to take immediate action. Russia has the world's third-highest rate of suicide among teenagers aged 15-to-19, with about 1,500 taking their own lives every year, according to a recent UNICEF report. The rate is higher only in the neighboring former Soviet republics of Belarus and Kazakhstan. In recent years, there have been 19-to-20 annual suicides per 100,000 teenagers in Russia _ three times...

Efforts by India and the European Union to strengthen trade are threatening India's ability to deliver lifesaving medicines to the world's poorest, analysts say as the two sides push through protracted negotiations on a free-trade pact. The two sides said after a summit Friday in New Delhi that they would speed up efforts to reach an agreement this year. Health industry workers and activists worry India may bow to EU demands for strict intellectual property protections and investor guarantees,...

Efforts by India and the European Union to strengthen trade are threatening India's ability to deliver lifesaving medicines to the world's poorest, analysts say as the two sides resume protracted negotiations on a free-trade pact. India's prime minister and top EU officials sit down Friday to a summit in New Delhi they hope moves beyond disagreements over issues like European labor market limits and Indian duties on cars. But health industry workers and activists worry that India may bow to EU...

Researchers have encouraging news for women who find themselves in a very frightening situation: having cancer while pregnant. Studies suggest that these women can be treated almost the same as other cancer patients are, with minimal risk to the fetus. Only about 1 in 1,000 pregnant women face this dilemma, but doctors fear that more will because the risk of cancer rises with age, and more women are delaying having children until they're older. Doctors have long worried about how to balance treating...

Hold the mystery meat: Military mess halls soon will be serving more fruits, vegetables and low-fat dishes under the first program in 20 years to improve nutrition standards across the armed services. First lady Michelle Obama and Pentagon officials announced the effort Thursday during a visit to Little Rock Air Force Base in Arkansas, where the military has been experimenting with ways to improve the quality and variety of foods served on base. The first lady toured a gleaming cafeteria line,...

The number of people claiming they were injected with the parasite causing malaria at a Vienna psychiatric ward while teenagers grew to seven Thursday, with the lawyer representing six of them saying their accounts, given separately, are credible because they are similar. Most _ but not all _ of the alleged victims were wards of Vienna foster homes in the 1960s. Lawyer Johannes Oehlboeck said one of his clients told him that her parents took her to the clinic "because she was rebellious," while...

More and more U.S. adults are being told by their doctor to get out and exercise, according to government survey released Thursday. Nearly 33 percent of adults who saw a doctor in the previous year said they were told to exercise. That was up from about 23 percent in 2000, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported. The report also found more women got that advice than men. And among people with chronic health problems, diabetics, were the most likely to get the advice and cancer...

The ancient Chinese exercise of tai chi improved balance and lowered the risk of falls in a study of people with Parkinson's disease. Symptoms of the brain disorder include tremors and stiff, jerky movements that can affect walking and other activities. Medications and surgery can help, and doctors often recommend exercise or physical therapy. Tai chi (ty-CHEE'), with its slow, graceful movements, has been shown to improve strength and aid stability in older people, and has been studied for a...

People learned better when a key part of their brains got mild zaps of electricity, a finding that may someday help Alzheimer's patients keep more of their memories. In a small but tantalizing study, participants played a video game in which they learned the locations of stores in a virtual city. They recalled the locations better if they learned them while receiving a painless boost from tiny electrodes buried deep inside their brains. In the future, that strategy might help curb memory loss...

Trust your doctor? A survey finds that some doctors aren't always completely honest with their patients. More than half admitted describing someone's prognosis in a way they knew was too rosy. Nearly 20 percent said they hadn't fully disclosed a medical mistake for fear of being sued. And 1 in 10 of those surveyed said they'd told a patient something that wasn't true in the past year. The survey, by Massachusetts researchers and published in this month's Health Affairs, doesn't explain why, or...

Bread and rolls are the No. 1 source of salt in the American diet, accounting for more than twice as much sodium as salty junk food like potato chips. That surprising finding comes in a government report released Tuesday that includes a list of the top 10 sources of sodium. Salty snacks actually came in at the bottom of the list compiled by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "Potato chips, pretzels, and popcorn _ which we think of as the saltiest foods in our diet _ are only No....

Smokers not only have more problems with their teeth than non-smokers, they also go to the dentist less often. Those are the findings of a new government survey, released Tuesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The CDC looked at 2008 survey responses from more than 16,000 adults ages 18 through 64. More than a third of smokers reported having three or more dental problems, ranging from stained teeth to jaw pain, toothaches or infected gums. That was more than twice as much...

Vienna's mayor on Tuesday promised compensation for anyone injected with the parasite that causes malaria after two former foster home children claimed to have been given such shots in the 1960s. Mayor Michael Haeupl told reporters it is unclear if anyone underwent such treatment _ and if so whether they were the victims of a crime or the targets of "outmoded medical treatment." But in a sign that he was taking the allegations of the two former foster home wards seriously, he said he has asked...

Good news for budget-minded travelers: There's no proof that flying economy-class increases your chances of dangerous blood clots, according to new guidelines from medical specialists. Travelers' blood clots have been nicknamed "economy class syndrome" but the new advice suggests this is a misnomer. The real risk is not getting up and moving during long flights, whether flying coach or first-class. Sitting by the window seems to play a role, because it makes people less likely to leave their...

The Obama administration is increasing spending on Alzheimer's research _ planning to surpass half a billion dollars next year _ as part of a quest to find effective treatments for the brain-destroying disease by 2025. In a two-part plan announced Tuesday, the National Institutes of Health immediately will devote an extra $50 million dementia research, on top of the $450 million a year it currently spends. The boost opens the possibility that at least one stalled study of a possible therapy might...

Venezuelan health authorities are investigating the deaths of 11 newborns within four days at a single public hospital. Regional health officer Angel Melchor says the babies died from Thursday to Sunday at Central Hospital in the city of Maracay in the central state of Aragua. He says officials believe contamination with bacteria is a factor. Melchor told the Venezuelan television channel Globovision on Monday that authorities are investigating the deaths. He says the newborns were all underweight...

Alexis McKenzie's mother had mild dementia, but things sounded OK when she phoned home: Dad was with her, finishing his wife's sentences as they talked about puttering through the day and a drive to the store. Then their phone service was cut off. "I mailed that check," McKenzie's father insisted. No, he'd mailed the phone company a bank deposit slip instead. McKenzie visited and discovered spoiling food. Dad the caregiver was in trouble, too. Dementia can sneak up on families. Its sufferers...

Detecting early warning signs of dementia can be difficult, but there are several types of cognitive screenings _ quick, simple tests of memory and thinking skills _ that can help a doctor decide if it's time to recommend a more in-depth exam. One example: Tell someone three random words. Then time how quickly the person can draw a clock face, with the hands pointing at 11:10. Then ask how many of those original words he or she still remembers after the distraction of the clock task. The Alzheimer's...

Alexis McKenzie's mother had mild dementia, but things sounded OK when she phoned home: Dad was with her, finishing his wife's sentences as they talked about puttering through the day and a drive to the store. Then their phone service was cut off. "I mailed that check," McKenzie's father insisted. No, he'd mailed the phone company a bank deposit slip instead. McKenzie visited and discovered spoiling food. Dad the caregiver was in trouble, too. Dementia can sneak up on families. Its sufferers...

Junk food remains plentiful at the nation's elementary schools despite widespread efforts to curb childhood obesity, a new study suggests. Between 2006 and 2010, nearly half of public and private schools surveyed sold sweet or salty snack foods in vending machines or other places, the study found. There was little change over the four years, a surprising finding given vocal advocacy campaigns to improve kids' diets, said researcher Lindsey Turner, a health psychologist at the University of Illinois...

Detecting early warning signs of dementia can be difficult, but there are several types of cognitive screenings _ quick, simple tests of memory and thinking skills _ that can help a doctor decide if it's time to recommend a more in-depth exam. One example: Tell someone three random words. Then time how quickly the person can draw a clock face, with the hands pointing at 11:10. Then ask how many of those original words he or she still remembers after the distraction of the clock task. The Alzheimer's...

Chile declared a public health alert Monday over a hantavirus outbreak that has killed three people and infected at least 10 others. Health Minister Jaime Manalich said wildfires in the southern Bio Bio and Araucania regions have driven rats from their normal habitat into places where people live. In an interview with Chile's Radio Cooperativa on Monday, he said that he fears this may be just the leading edge of a much wider problem. The outbreak began in the El Manzano prison, where two inmates...

Television already has "The Biggest Loser." Dr. Mehmet Oz is looking for the biggest number of losers. "The Dr. Oz Show" said Monday that it had netted its 1 millionth participant in its "transformation nation" health effort, and the number is climbing. One of those people will win a $1 million prize in May. Since September, Oz has urged viewers to participate in his health challenge, done together with Weight Watchers. The number of registrants has increased steadily to a point that Oz said...

Scientists for the Food and Drug Administration say that an Amgen drug slowed the spread of cancer to the bone in men with hard-to-treat prostate cancer, though the drug did not extend life and carried significant side effects. The Food and Drug Administration will ask a panel of outside experts on Wednesday whether the benefits of Amgen's Xgeva outweigh its risks, which included bone disease in about 5 percent of patients taking the drug. The agency posted its review of the drug online Monday...

Texting while driving, speeding and back-seat hanky-panky aren't all that parents need to worry about when their kids are in cars: Add secondhand smoke to the list. In the first national estimate of its kind, a report from government researchers says more than 1 in 5 high school students and middle schoolers ride in cars while others are smoking. This kind of secondhand smoke exposure has been linked with breathing problems and allergy symptoms, and more restrictions are needed to prevent it,...

When Dorothy Twinney first saw a Race for the Cure walk for breast cancer _ "a sea of pink" traveling through her hometown of Plymouth, Mich. _ she was so moved she sat in her car and wept. This week, after watching The Susan G. Komen for the Cure breast cancer charity announce plans to cut funding to Planned Parenthood, then abandon those plans amid a public furor, Twinney decided she was done with the organization for which she raised thousands of dollars on three-day, 60-mile walks that left...

To many people, breast cancer screening means a mammogram. But for millions of poor, mostly young women who visit Planned Parenthood, it is usually just a physical exam by the only health professional they may ever see. Those clinical breast exams are controversial _ government advisers don't endorse them. Yet for some, this simple exam has helped spot breast cancer. And Susan G. Komen for the Cure isn't the only group paying Planned Parenthood to do them _ the government does, too. Komen actually...

An outbreak of bacterial infections on the East Coast illustrates the popularity of raw, unpasteurized milk despite strong warnings from public health officials about the potential danger. Even presidential candidate Ron Paul has joined the cause of consumers looking to buy unprocessed "real foods" straight from the farm, saying government shouldn't deny them that choice. An outbreak of campylobacter illness is a reminder of the potential hazards, however. Raw milk from a dairy in Pennsylvania...

For leaders of the nation's pre-eminent breast-cancer charity, it was a firestorm they didn't see coming _ and couldn't withstand. Susan G. Komen for the Cure on Friday abandoned plans to eliminate funding for Planned Parenthood. The dramatic retreat followed a three-day furor that resounded across the Internet, in Congress and _ perhaps most tellingly _ among Komen affiliates who openly rebelled, suggesting the leadership had bowed to anti-abortion pressure. "We want to apologize to the American...

A 9-year-old Maine girl is home from a Boston hospital healthy, active and with high hopes _ and a new stomach, liver, spleen, small intestine, pancreas, and part of an esophagus to replace the ones that were being choked by a huge tumor. It's believed to be the first-ever transplant of an esophagus and the largest number of organs transplanted at one time in New England. Spunky and bright-eyed as she scampered around her family's farmhouse outside Portland, Alannah Shevenell said Thursday that...

The Obama administration's decision requiring church-affiliated employers to cover birth control was bound to cause an uproar among Roman Catholics and members of other faiths, no matter their beliefs on contraception. The regulation, finalized a week ago, raises a complex and sensitive legal question: Which institutions qualify as religious and can be exempt from the mandate? For a church, mosque or synagogue, the answer is mostly straightforward. But for the massive network of religious-run...

A 9-year-old Maine girl is home from a Boston hospital healthy, active and with high hopes _ and a new stomach, liver, spleen, small intestine, pancreas, and part of an esophagus to replace the ones that were being choked by a huge tumor. It's believed to be the first-ever transplant of an esophagus and the largest number of organs transplanted at one time in New England. Spunky and bright-eyed as she scampered around her family's farmhouse outside Portland, Alannah Shevenell said Thursday that...

The renowned breast cancer charity Susan G. Komen for the Cure faced an escalating backlash Thursday over its decision to cut breast screening grants to Planned Parenthood. Some of Komen's local affiliates are openly upset, including all seven in California, and at least one top official has quit, reportedly in protest. Meanwhile, Komen has been deluged with negative emails and Facebook postings, accusing it of knuckling under to pressure from anti-abortion groups, since The Associated Press reported...

Fifteen teenage girls report a mysterious outbreak of spasms, tics and seizures in upstate New York. But tests find nothing physically wrong. Scores of adults in Northern California report crawling skin sensations and other bizarre symptoms. Government doctors find no physical cause after an extensive study. The conclusion by experts is that these are just the latest examples of what used to be called mass hysteria. Now known as conversion disorder, sufferers experience real, but psychologically...

The World Health Organization says the highest levels ever of drug-resistant tuberculosis have been found in Russia and Moldova. But the agency didn't have data from most of Africa and India, where tuberculosis rates are much higher. Experts said trends in drug-resistant TB in most countries "are still unclear." In research published in the February edition of WHO's journal, Bulletin, experts reported that about 29 percent of new TB patients in parts of Russia were drug-resistant. They also found...

A Vietnamese official on Thursday confirmed the country's second human death from bird flu in less than a month, after it went nearly two years with no reported fatalities. Test results confirm that a 26-year-old woman died of the disease Jan. 28 after being hospitalized in southern Soc Trang province, said Truong Hoai Phong, director of the provincial health department. The woman had recently given birth in another hospital, but her infant son tested negative for the H5N1 strain of bird flu,...

A federal judge is considering whether Washington state can require pharmacies to stock and sell Plan B or other emergency contraceptives, even in the face of religious objections by druggists who believe they destroy human life. U.S. District Judge Ronald Leighton heard closing arguments Wednesday in a lawsuit that claims state rules violate the constitutional rights of pharmacists by requiring them to dispense such medicine. The state requires pharmacies to dispense any medication for which...

British researchers say parts of England and Wales with more suicide prevention programs had bigger drops in deaths than regions with fewer services. Experts analyzed data for people who killed themselves between 1997 and 2006 who were in contact with mental health services before they died. The researchers found that providing 24-hour crisis care correlated with a significant fall in suicide rates. But the authors from the University of Manchester and elsewhere couldn't prove such programs were...

Planned Parenthood said Wednesday that it received more than $400,000 from 6,000 donors in the 24 hours after news broke that its affiliates would be losing grants for breast screenings from the Susan G. Komen for the Cure breast-cancer foundation. Komen, meanwhile, incurred heated criticism from some members of Congress, numerous liberal advocacy groups and some newspaper editorial writers. But it was applauded by many conservative religious and anti-abortion groups that abhor Planned Parenthood...

New research offers hope for the first pill to treat a common problem in young women: fibroids in the uterus. The growths can cause pain, heavy bleeding and fertility problems, and they are the leading cause of hysterectomies. In two studies, a lower dose of a "morning after" contraceptive pill stopped the bleeding and shrank the fibroids. It worked as well as shots of a hormone-blocking drug that has unpleasant side effects. "This is very, very good news. The results are better than we expected,"...

First lady Michelle Obama on Wednesday said the campaign to bring healthy food to all Americans is happening neighborhood by neighborhood. Standing in a vacant Southern California store set to be refurbished and reopened this summer, Obama lauded efforts to bring large grocery retailers to inner-city areas that traditional supermarket chains spurn. "That's how we solve this problem _ one community, one household at a time," Obama said, speaking in front of a display depicting an old-fashioned...

A proposed settlement in the W.R. Grace and Co. bankruptcy case would pay $19.5 million into a trust for people sickened by asbestos exposure from the company's now-shuttered vermiculite plant in Libby, Mont. Jon Heberling, the attorney representing the Libby claimants, said Tuesday that the Libby Medical Plan Trust would ensure that the company doesn't terminate the Libby Medical Program, which began in 2000 after news reports first documented the widespread disease and deaths among residents...

The nation's leading breast-cancer charity, Susan G. Komen for the Cure, is halting its partnerships with Planned Parenthood affiliates _ creating a bitter rift, linked to the abortion debate, between two iconic organizations that have assisted millions of women. The change will mean a cutoff of hundreds of thousands of dollars in grants, mainly for breast exams. Planned Parenthood says the move results from Komen bowing to pressure from anti-abortion activists. Komen says the key reason is that...

A warning to men considering a pricey new treatment for prostate cancer called proton therapy: Research suggests it might have more side effects than traditional radiation does. A study of Medicare records found that men treated with proton beams later had one-third more bowel problems, such as bleeding and blockages, than similar men given conventional radiation. This is an observational study so it is not definitive, but it is one of the largest to compare these treatments. Proton therapy is...

Pfizer Inc. is recalling 1 million packets of birth control pills after uncovering a packaging error that could leave women with an inadequate dose of the hormone-based drugs and raise the risk that they will get pregnant accidentally. The problem affects 14 lots of Lo/Ovral-28 tablets and 14 lots of generic Norgestrel and Ethinyl Estradiol tablets. Both products are manufactured by Pfizer and marketed in the U.S. by Akrimax Rx Products. Pfizer found that some packets of the drugs had too many...

The first drug that treats the root cause of cystic fibrosis won approval Tuesday, offering a life-changing treatment for a handful of patients with the deadly illness and broader hope for thousands more patients with the inherited disease. About 30,000 Americans live with cystic fibrosis, a disease that causes sticky mucus buildup in the lungs and other organs, leading to infections, digestive problems and death in young adulthood. The typical life expectancy is about 37 years, according to the...

Swine flu is back in Mexico, the epicenter of a world pandemic three years ago that panicked people around the globe. The country registered more cases of all types of flu and more incidents of the H1N1 strain, originally called swine flu, in January than in all of 2011, federal health officials said Tuesday. Despite the spike, the number of cases is well within a normal flu season for Mexico, which can see from 5,000 to 11,000 incidents of all strains, Health Secretary Salomon Chertorivski Woldenberg...

The remnants of Hurricane Irene did what policymakers hadn't been able to accomplish for more than a decade _ close the state's antiquated psychiatric hospital. The storm flooded much of the state Aug. 28, including the complex containing the Vermont State Hospital in the north-central town of Waterbury, but it's still raining down on the mental health system. It has been felt in the emergency rooms and medical wards of community hospitals, where the state's most acutely mentally ill residents,...

Zimbabwean authorities say they are making sure poor townships get uninterrupted water supplies after a typhoid outbreak, leaving wealthy areas with reduced supplies. Harare official Tendai Mahachi told reporters Tuesday well-to-do suburbs will get water about twice weekly. He said "the wealthy can afford to buy water" and cope with outages. At least 900 cases of the bacterial disease have been treated this year in poor western suburbs of Harare, many having had no piped water for months and...

Dr. Richard Olney, an internationally renowned researcher who dedicated his life to finding a cure for Lou Gehrig's disease, has died after his own eight-year battle with the disease. He was 64. The University of California, San Francisco announced Monday that Olney died Friday at his Marin County home. He had spent nearly his entire 25-year research career at UCSF, the last 18 investigating amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS. Olney launched the UCSF ALS Center in 1993 to pursue treatments...

When a stroke hits at 52, like what happened to Sen. Mark Kirk of Illinois, the reaction is an astonished, "But he's so young." The reality is that strokes don't just happen to grandma. They can happen at any age, even to children _ and they're on the rise among the young and middle-aged. That makes it crucial to know the warning signs no matter how old you are. "Nobody's invincible," warns Dr. Ralph Sacco, a University of Miami neurologist and past president of the American Heart Association....

Federal regulators on Monday approved a pill that treats the most common type of skin cancer, basal cell carcinoma. The pill is called Erivedge and is made by Genentech, a unit of Swiss drugmaker Roche. Erivedge is intended to treat locally advanced cancer for patients who are not candidates for surgery or radiation, and for patients whose cancer has spread to other parts of the body. The capsule is taken once per day. Genentech said Erivedge is the first drug approved to treat advanced basal...

When a stroke hits at 52, like what happened to Sen. Mark Kirk of Illinois, the reaction is an astonished, "But he's so young." The reality is that strokes don't just happen to grandma. They can happen at any age, even to children _ and they're on the rise among the young and middle-aged. That makes it crucial to know the warning signs no matter how old you are. "Nobody's invincible," warns Dr. Ralph Sacco, a University of Miami neurologist and past president of the American Heart Association....

An independent doctors' group in Zimbabwe is reporting 800 cases of the bacterial disease typhoid in a recent outbreak. No deaths have been reported in the past three weeks. The Zimbabwe Association of Doctors for Human Rights said Sunday that the nation's troubled coalition government lacked urgency in dealing with public health woes. In a statement, the group said that amid heavy rains clean water supplies were still irregular or "completely absent" in most impoverished townships in Harare....

Health insurer WellPoint Inc. plans to improve primary care reimbursement and start paying for care management it doesn't currently cover, changes that could give patients more quality time with their doctors. The Indianapolis company said Friday it will increase the fees it pays to doctor practices, and it will start paying for services like preparing care plans for patients with complex medical problems. It also will offer doctors an opportunity to share in some savings when better patient care...

NEW PAYMENT PLAN: Insurer WellPoint Inc. plans to boost primary care reimbursement and start paying for care management it doesn't currently cover to improve quality and save money. SHARE THE WEALTH: It also will offer doctors an opportunity to share savings when better patient care leads to reduced costs. WHY: WellPoint wants physicians to take a more holistic approach to care, instead of just treating patients for whatever happens to bring them to the doctor's office. It expects this approach...

America may be a technology-driven nation, but the health care system's conversion from paper to computerized records needs lots of work to get the bugs out, according to experts who spent months studying the issue. Hospitals and doctors' offices increasingly are going digital, the Bipartisan Policy Center says in a report being released Friday. But there's been little progress getting the computer systems to talk to one another, exchanging data the way financial companies do. "The level of health...

Kristy Bryner worries her 80-year-old mom might slip and fall when she picks up the newspaper, or that she'll get in an accident when she drives to the grocery store. What if she has a medical emergency and no one's there to help? What if, like her father, her mother slips into a fog of dementia? Those questions would be hard enough if Bryner's aging parent lived across town in Portland, Ore., but she is in Kent, Ohio. The stress of caregiving seems magnified by each of the more than 2,000 miles...

Police in pre-dawn sweeps Thursday arrested two top former executives of the now-defunct French company at the center of a breast implant scandal affecting tens of thousands of women worldwide. Jean-Claude Mas, who founded and ran implant-maker Poly Implant Prothese, was detained as part of a judicial probe in the southeastern city of Marseille into manslaughter and involuntary injuries, an official said. A regional official said former No. 2 executive Claude Couty also was detained. The suspect...

About 16 million Americans have oral HPV, a sexually transmitted virus more commonly linked with cervical cancer that also can cause mouth cancer, according to the first nationwide estimate. HPV _ human papilloma virus _ is increasingly recognized as a major cause of oral cancers affecting the back of the tongue and tonsil area. Smoking and heavy drinking are also key causes. Until now, it was not known how many people have oral HPV infections. Overall, 7 percent of Americans aged 14 to 69 are...

Imagine having the feeling that tiny bugs are crawling on your body, that you have oozing sores and mysterious fibers sprouting from your skin. Sound like a horror movie? Well, at one point several years ago, government doctors were getting up to 20 calls a day from people saying they had such symptoms. Many of these people were in California and one of that state's U.S. senators, Dianne Feinstein, asked for a scientific study. In 2008, federal health officials began to study people saying they...

Surprising results from two new studies may reopen debate about the value of Avastin for breast cancer. The drug helped make tumors disappear in certain women with early-stage disease, researchers found. Avastin recently lost approval for treating advanced breast cancer, but the new studies suggest it might help women whose disease has not spread so widely. These were the first big tests of the drug for early breast cancer, and doctors were cautiously excited that it showed potential to help....

Brazil says it will fine private health plans that refuse to pay for the removal and replacement of faulty breast implants sold by two European companies. The National Health Agency says in a Wednesday statement that health plans that do not pay for replacement of implants sold by France's Poly Implant Prothese and Dutch company Rofil Medical Nederland BV will be fined 80,000 reals (US$45,599) for each refusal. The agency regulates Brazil's private health plans. Brazil recently banned sales of...

The pharmaceutical industry won approval to market a record number of new drugs for rare diseases last year, as a combination of scientific innovation and business opportunity spurred new treatments for diseases long-ignored by drug companies. Drug companies are increasingly taking advantage of the commercial benefits of developing so-called orphan drugs, which include extra patent protections, higher pricing and a streamlined review process by FDA. Among the innovative treatments approved in...

A European Union high court ruled on Wednesday that the name Viaguara cannot be registered as an EU trademark for energy and alcoholic drinks because it is too similar to the impotence pill Viagra. The EU's General Court ruled that the similarity allowed Viaguara "to take unfair advantage of the distinctive character or repute of the trademark Viagra." The Polish company by the same name had already applied for the EU trademark in 2005 but was refused. The court has now rejected the appeal. The...

California did not suffer a single death from whooping cough in 2011, the first year since 1991 that there have been no fatalities in the state from the highly contagious illness, health officials said Tuesday. The news comes after the state experienced a whooping cough epidemic in 2010 when 9,000 were infected. Most vulnerable to the disease are infants too young to be fully immunized. Ten babies died after exposure from adults or older children. Cases of whooping cough, also known as pertussis,...

An acid reflux drug often used for hard-to-treat asthma doesn't help children with the breathing disease and may cause side effects, a study in 300 children found. The results echo recent research showing that a similar heartburn drug didn't work in adults with asthma. Use of these heavily promoted acid-blocking drugs, called proton pump inhibitors, has more than doubled in U.S. children in recent years, but the study results suggest doctors should put the brakes on that practice, said University...

Two legally blind women appeared to gain some vision after receiving an experimental treatment using embryonic stem cells, scientists reported Monday. While embryonic stem cells were first isolated more than a decade ago, most of the research has been done in lab animals. The new results come from the first tests in humans for a vision problem. Researchers caution the work is still very preliminary. "This study provides reason for encouragement, but plans to now get such a treatment would be...

Recent headlines offered a fresh example of how the health care system subjects people to too many medical tests _ this time research showing millions of older women don't need their bones checked for osteoporosis nearly so often. Chances are you've heard that many expert groups say cancer screening is overused, too, from mammograms given too early or too often to prostate cancer tests that may not save lives. It's not just cancer. Now some of the nuts-and-bolts tests given during checkups or...

A crude new method of making methamphetamine poses a risk even to Americans who never get anywhere near the drug: It is filling hospitals with thousands of uninsured burn patients requiring millions of dollars in advanced treatment _ a burden so costly that it's contributing to the closure of some burn units. So-called shake-and-bake meth is produced by combining raw, unstable ingredients in a 2-liter soda bottle. But if the person mixing the noxious brew makes the slightest error, such as removing...

Former rugby player Tony Nicklinson had a high-flying job as a corporate manager in Dubai, where he went skydiving and bridge-climbing in his free time. Seven years ago, he suffered a paralyzing stroke. Today he can only move his head, cannot speak and needs constant care. And he wants to die. To try to ensure that whoever ends his life won't be jailed, the 57-year-old Nicklinson recently asked Britain's High Court to declare that any doctor who gives him a lethal injection with his consent...

China on Sunday reported its second bird flu fatality in a month following deaths last week in Vietnam and Cambodia. The patient died Sunday in Guizhou province in the southwest after being hospitalized on Jan. 6, the health ministry said in a brief statement. It said the flu was highly pathogenic but gave no indication whether it was confirmed to be the H5N1 strain. Mainland officials told Hong Kong authorities the patient was a 39-year-old man who reported having no contact with poultry, government-run...

Britain's broadcast advertising body has given the go-ahead for private abortion clinics to advertise their services on television, angering those who say that the move desensitizes the public to the practice. The Broadcast Committee of Advertising Practice said late Friday there was no justification for barring private clinics that offer post-pregnancy services, including abortions, from advertising on television. Nonprofit post-pregnancy services are already allowed to advertise on television,...

A hospital in southern Turkey on Saturday performed the world's first triple limb transplant, attaching two arms and one leg to a 34-year-old man, an official said. At the same time, a team of doctors at Akdeniz University Hospital, in the Mediterranean coastal city of Antalya, transplanted the face of the same donor onto another patient _ a 19-year-old man. It was Turkey's first face transplant. "Today, we have put our signature on a world success," Dr. Israfil Kurtcephe, the university hospital's...

A European agency is investigating a multiple sclerosis drug made by industry giant Novartis to determine whether the medicine played any role in the deaths at least 11 patients. The drug, Gilenya, was licensed last year in the European Union to treat a severe type of multiple sclerosis. It can cause a slow heart rate when first taken and doctors closely monitor patients after the first dose. The European Medicines Agency, which is now investigating the drug, said it isn't clear if it caused...

The Air Force has sent into space a satellite that is expected to improve communications with military drones in the Middle East and Southeast Asia. Officials say a Delta 4 rocket carried the WGS 4 satellite from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station at 7:38 p.m. Thursday. It's the fourth in a series of military satellites that have been put into place since 2007. The next one is expected to be ready to launch next year. WGS stands for Wideband Global SATCOM. The satellites are replacing aging...

Mexico enacted tough new rules Thursday to ban advertising of "miracle cures" for weight loss, sagging body parts and more serious illnesses like prostate ailments, chronic fatigue and even cancer. Mexico has a long history of faith healers and home remedies, but the problem has come to a head in the last few years with a constant stream of ads on television for more "scientific" sounding creams that supposedly lift or enlarge breast and buttocks, magnets that help users lose weight, or pills...

A new government study suggests a lot of teenage girls are clueless about their chances of getting pregnant. In a survey of thousands of teenage mothers who had unintended pregnancies, about a third who didn't use birth control said the reason was they didn't believe they could pregnant. Why they thought that isn't clear. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention survey didn't ask teens to explain. But other researchers have talked to teen moms who believed they couldn't get pregnant the...

A routine news story took a strange turn when an ABC "Nightline" anchor had a full body scan that turned up a possible warning sign. Bill Weir was interviewing Dr. David Agus, who gave him a full series of tests. That included a costly body scan that's not recommended for screening people with no symptoms of disease. The scan found calcium deposits in two arteries, which the doctor told Weir could put him at risk for a future heart attack. But since the program aired Tuesday night, other doctors...

Vietnam on Thursday confirmed its first human death from bird flu in nearly two years, a day after neighboring Cambodia also logged its first fatality this year as new cases of the H5N1 virus are reported in Asia and the Middle East. Both deaths appear to be linked to contact with poultry, and no human-to-human transmission is suspected. Other human bird flu cases have been reported recently in Indonesia, Egypt and China. Outbreaks typically flare among poultry stocks during the winter flu months,...

Vietnam has recorded its first human bird flu death in nearly two years, and although the victim worked at a duck farm the H5N1 virus has yet to be found in poultry there, officials said Thursday. Test results confirmed that an 18-year-old man died of the disease Monday after being hospitalized a day earlier, said Dang Thi Thanh of southern Kien Giang province's health department. She said the man was working at a duck farm in neighboring Can Tho City when he fell sick with a high fever and breathing...

A routine news story took a strange turn when an ABC "Nightline" anchor had a full body scan that turned up a possible warning sign. Bill Weir was interviewing Dr. David Agus, who gave him a full series of tests. That included a costly body scan that's not recommended for screening people with no symptoms of disease. The scan found a calcium deposit in an artery, which the doctor told the Wisconsin native could put him at risk for a future heart attack. But since the program aired Tuesday night,...

New research could mean millions of older women can skip frequent screening tests for osteoporosis: If an initial bone scan shows no big problems, many can safely wait 15 years to have another one, the study suggests. Government advisers and leading doctor groups urge osteoporosis screening, but no one has known how often that should happen. The findings offer the best information to date on that question, experts said. "This is landmark, in the sense that it could allow us to move on to more...

The parents of a 3-year-old New Jersey girl who claim she's being denied a kidney transplant because of her mental disabilities said their problems may be with one doctor, and not The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. "It's one doctor who's never seen us who is making this call," Joe Rivera told The Associated Press on Wednesday. "We've had a great experience with CHOP. We're not against CHOP, but maybe something needs to be changed. One guy tarnished their reputation." Rivera, 39, and his...

The parents of a 3-year-old girl say she's being denied a kidney transplant because of her mental disabilities, but experts caution the situation may be much more complex. Chrissy Rivera, who lives in New Jersey, last week posted a blog entry that described an encounter she claimed happened at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. She said she was there to discuss treatment for her daughter, Amelia, who was born with Wolf-Hirschhorn syndrome, a rare genetic defect that can cause physical and...

Paula Deen, the Southern belle of butter and heavy cream, makes no apologies for waiting three years to disclose she has diabetes while continuing to dish up deep-fried cheesecake and other high-calorie, high-fat recipes on TV. She said she isn't changing the comfort cooking that made her a star, though it isn't clear how much of it she'll continue to eat while she promotes health-conscious recipes along with a diabetes drug she's endorsing for a Danish company. "I've always said, `Practice moderation,...

Effective treatments for Alzheimer's by 2025? That's the target the government is eyeing as it develops a national strategy to tackle what could become the defining disease of a rapidly aging population. It's an ambitious goal _ and on Tuesday, advisers to the government stressed that millions of families need better help now to care for their loved ones. "What's really important here is a comprehensive plan that deals with the needs of people who already have the disease," said Alzheimer's Association...

America's obesity epidemic is proving to be as stubborn as those maddening love handles, and shows no sign of reversing course. More than one-third of adults and almost 17 percent of children were obese in 2009-2010, echoing results since 2003, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Tuesday. "It's good that we didn't see increases. On the other hand, we didn't see any decreases in any group," said CDC researcher Cynthia Ogden. Early in the decade, slight increases were seen among...

Babies don't learn to talk just from hearing sounds. New research suggests they're lip-readers too. It happens during that magical stage when a baby's babbling gradually changes from gibberish into syllables and eventually into that first "mama" or "dada." Florida scientists discovered that starting around age 6 months, babies begin shifting from the intent eye gaze of early infancy to studying mouths when people talk to them. "The baby in order to imitate you has to figure out how to shape...

Babies don't learn to talk just from hearing sounds. New research suggests they're lip-readers too. It happens during that magical stage when a baby's babbling gradually changes from gibberish into syllables and eventually into that first "mama" or "dada." Florida scientists discovered that starting around age 6 months, babies begin shifting from the intent eye gaze of early infancy to studying mouths when people talk to them. "The baby in order to imitate you has to figure out how to shape...