As 2013 nears to a close, the year's top health news story -- the fumbled debut of the Affordable Care Act, often dubbed Obamacare -- continues to grab headlines. The Obama administration had high hopes for its health-care reform package, ...
People who take certain acid-reflux medications might have an increased risk of vitamin B-12 deficiency, according to new research. Taking proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) to ease the symptoms of excess stomach acid for more than two years ...
Tags: acid-reflux medications, vitamin B-12 deficiency, proton pump inhibitors
People with sleep apnea and hard-to-control high blood pressure may see their blood pressure drop if they treat the sleep disorder, Spanish researchers report. Continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) is the standard treatment for sleep ...
Expectant mothers who smoke marijuana may triple their risk for a stillbirth, a new study suggests. The risk is also increased by smoking cigarettes, using other legal and illegal drugs and being exposed to secondhand smoke. Stillbirth ...
Tags: expectant mothers, smoke, stillbirth, pregnancy, fetal death
Better diabetes treatment has slashed rates of complications such as heart attacks, strokes and amputations in older adults, a new study shows. "All the event rates, if you look at them, everything is a lot better than it was in the ...
Tags: diabetes treatment, hypoglycemia, low blood sugar, diabetes
Oxycodone -- the active ingredient in OxyContin -- and hydrocodone are the most popular drugs among Americans who abuse prescription painkillers, a new study finds. OxyContin and Percocet are brand names for drugs containing oxycodone. ...
Tags: oxycodone, abuse prescription painkillers, OxyContin, Percocet
Contact lenses that deliver glaucoma medication over long periods are getting closer to reality, say researchers working with laboratory animals. In their study, the lenses delivered the glaucoma drug latanoprost (brand name Xalatan) ...
Tags: contact lenses, glaucoma medication, glaucoma drug, latanoprost, Xalatan
There's good news for people trying to quit smoking: Aids such as nicotine gums and patches or smoking cessation drugs such as Chantix won't harm the heart. The new findings may ease concerns that some products that help people "butt out" ...
Tags: quit smoking, nicotine gums, smoking cessation drugs and patches, Chantix
Antibiotics for children that are covered by private insurance cost five times more in the United States than in the United Kingdom, where costs are covered by a government universal health plan. That's the finding of researchers who ...
Drug labels often lack infant-specific information, despite U.S. government legislation encouraging drug studies involving children, a new study finds. The research focused on neonates, who are infants up to 28 days of age. They are at ...
Tags: drug labels, infant-specific information, drug studies, neonates
Women dealing with painful menstrual cramps may receive relief from an unexpected source -- the erectile dysfunction medication normally found in their husbands' little blue pills. Sildenafil, the active ingredient in Viagra, appears to ...
Tags: menstrual cramps, erectile dysfunction medication, Viagra, Sildenafil
Abuse of narcotic painkillers and other prescription drugs is a growing problem in the United States, and a leading doctors' group is urging members to exercise tighter control on the medications. The American College of Physicians (ACP) ...
For men having prostate cancer surgery, the type of anesthesia doctors use might make a difference in the odds of the cancer returning, a new study suggests. Researchers found that of nearly 3,300 men who underwent prostate cancer ...
Tags: ostate cancer, anesthesia, cancer returning, men health
More concern about the safety of a common anesthetic has been raised in a new study. Patients who received the anesthesia drug etomidate during surgery might be at increased risk for cardiovascular problems or death, according to the ...
Should people in danger of contracting HIV because they have risky sex take a pill to prevent infection, or will the medication encourage them to take even more sexual risks? After years of debate on this question, a new international ...
Tags: HIV, medication