Health News

ROME (Reuters) - More than 50 dissident Catholic groups published an unusually frank open letter to Pope Benedict on Friday saying the Church's ban on contraception had been "catastrophic" and urging him to lift it.

HONG KONG (Reuters) - HIV infections could quadruple over 10 years if HIV-positive people who are taking antiretroviraldrugs become complacent and stop using condoms, researchers in Australia warned.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Cocktails of HIV drugs help patients live an average of 13 years longer -- if they are lucky enough to get them, researchers reported on Thursday.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Meditation may slow the worsening of AIDS in just a few weeks, perhaps by affecting the immune system, U.S. researchers reported on Thursday.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Bristol-Myers Squibb Co, which sells leading blood clot preventer Plavix, on Thursday dismissed Eli Lilly and Co's rival Effient drug as a "niche" product that has harmed or failed to help three groups of patients in a big study.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. pharmaceutical companies benefited from a $3.7 billion "windfall" during the first two years of Medicare's prescription drug coverage, according to a report from Democratic congressional staff released on Thursday.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. health officials unveiled plans on Thursday to help people who lived or worked near New York's World Trade Center who may have been harmed by exposure to dust and debris from the collapse in the 2001 attacks.

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Two forms of oxygen therapy may help manage two types of debilitating headache pain, a new research review suggests.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - At least 1,013 people died of overdoses in several U.S. cities from 2005 to 2007 after illegally injecting the highly potent painkiller fentanyl, U.S. officials said on Thursday.

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Victims of bullying -- and the bullies themselves - are at increased risk of suicidal thinking and are also more likely to attempt suicide than their peers who aren't involved in bullying, according to a systematic review of 37 studies conducted in 16 different countries.

CHICAGO (Reuters) - A growing number of older U.S. children are being diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, while diagnoses among younger children have held steady, government researchers said on Wednesday.

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - While psychological factors increase the risk of developing coronary heart disease, they do not affect inflammation, a factor also associated with the development of coronary heart disease, according to findings published in the journal Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis, and Vascular Biology.

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Girls and young women who devote much time to the Internet, get too little sleep or regularly drink alcohol are more likely than their peers to put on excess weight, a new study suggests.

BOSTON (Reuters) - British researchers have located a gene responsible for muscle pain or weakness experienced by some people taking statin drugs to fight "bad" cholesterol, they reported on Wednesday.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Cholesterol-fighting statin drugs, already known to help ward off heart attack and stroke, may help people who have received a kidney transplant live longer, researchers said on Wednesday.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Cancer findings in a new study of cholesterol drug Vytorin are "likely to be an anomaly" unrelated to the drug, makers Merck & Co and Schering-Plough Corp said in a letter to doctors.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Cyclist and testicular cancer survivor Lance Armstrong joined forces with four former U.S. surgeons general on Wednesday to urge Americans to do more to prevent cancer and get recommended screening tests.

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Novice teenage smokers often make repeated attempts to quit smoking soon after they start, but most are unsuccessful, according to research funded by the Canadian Cancer Society.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Essential health care workers would be immunized first if a flu pandemic broke out in the United States, the government said on Wednesday.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A moratorium on the opening of new fast food restaurants in one of the poorest areas of Los Angeles moved one step closer to reality on Tuesday in a measure aimed at countering obesity.