Blood clot guidelines challenge economy class risk

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.

Junk foods widely available at elementary schools

Junk food remains plentiful at the nation's elementary schools despite widespread efforts to curb childhood obesity, a new study suggests.

Screenings help show who's at risk for dementia

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.

Alexis McKenzie, executive director of The Methodist Home of the District of Columbia Forest Side, an Alzheimer's assisted-living facility, right, shares a light moment with resident Catherine Peake, in Washington, Monday, Feb. 6, 2012. Dementia can sneak up on families because its sufferers are pretty adept at covering lapses early on, longer if their spouses are there to compensate. Doctors too frequently are fooled as well. Now specialists are pushing for the first National Alzheimer's Plan to help overcome this barrier to detection _ urging what's called dementia-capable primary care, more screenings for warning signs, and regular checks of caregivers' own physical and mental health.

A push for family input to detect dementia earlier

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. Photo Gallery Available

Chile on alert as prison rats spread hantavirus

Chile declared a public health alert Monday over a hantavirus outbreak that has killed three people and infected at least 10 others.

FDA questions Amgen drug for prostate cancer

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.

FILE - In this Aug. 12, 2009 file photo provided by Harpo, Inc., Dr. Mehmet Oz is pictured during the production of The Dr. Oz Show in New York. "The Dr. Oz Show" said Monday, Feb. 6, 2012 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.

Dr. Oz's health effort nets 1 million participants

Television already has "The Biggest Loser." Dr. Mehmet Oz is looking for the biggest number of losers.

Too many kids breathe others' smoke in cars: CDC

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.

Some former Komen supporters can't forgive, forget

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.

A crowd waits to attend the Planned Parenthood of North Texas' 2012 annual luncheon at the Omni Hotel in Fort Worth, Texas Friday, Feb. 3, 2012. The Susan G. Komen for the Cure breast-cancer charity on Friday abandoned plans to deny funding to Planned Parenthood. The startling decision came after three days of virulent criticism that resounded across the Internet, jeopardizing Komen's iconic image.

Surprises about Planned Parenthood cancer testing

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. Video Available Photo Gallery Available

This map released by the Yale School of Public Health on Friday, Feb. 3, 2012 shows a map which indicates areas of the eastern United States where people have the highest risk of contracting Lyme disease based on data from 2004-2007. Researchers dragged sheets of fabric through the woods to snag ticks for the survey. The map shows a clear risk across much of the Northeast, from Maine to northern Virginia. Researchers at Yale University also identified a high-risk region across most of Wisconsin, northern Minnesota and a sliver of northern Illinois. Areas highlighted as "emerging risk" regions include the Illinois-Indiana border, the New York-Vermont border, southwestern Michigan and eastern North Dakota.

New map pinpoints Lyme disease risk areas

Researchers who spent three years dragging sheets of fabric through the woods to snag ticks have created a detailed map they claim could improve prevention, diagnosis and treatment of Lyme disease.

Latest illnesses point to raw milk's popularity

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.

FILE - In this Oct. 31, 2011 file photo, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius is seen in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington. Federal law lays out several criteria for the government to determine which are religious. But in the case of the contraception mandate, critics say Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius chose the narrowest ones.

Contraception mandate outrages religious groups

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.

FILE - In a Tuesday Aug. 10 2010 file photo, Georgia gubernatorial candidate Karen Handel waves to supporters during an election-night party in Atlanta in her runoff with former Congressman Nathan Deal for the Republican nomination. According to a source with direct knowledge of decision-making at Komen headquarters in Dallas, a driving force behind Susan G. Komen for the Cure's decision this week to cut breast-screening grants to Planned Parenthood was Handel, who was hired by Komen last year as vice president for public policy after losing a campaign for governor in Georgia in which she stressed her anti-abortion views and frequently denouced Planned Parenthood. Komen's founder and CEO Nancy Brinker, in an interview with MSNBC, denied that, saying Handel didn't have a signifcant roll.

Komen drops plans to cut Planned Parenthood grants

For leaders of the nation's pre-eminent breast-cancer charity, it was a firestorm they didn't see coming - and couldn't withstand. Video Available Photo Gallery Available

Malaria death toll possibly twice as high

Malaria may be killing around twice as many people as experts previously thought, and it could also be hitting older children and adults - long considered the least susceptible - a new study suggests.

Alannah Shevenell, 9, speaks to a reporter at her home in Hollis, Maine, Thursday, Feb. 2, 2012. Alannah returned home Wednesday afternoon, three months after receiving six new organs in a groundbreaking operation. Doctors at Children’s Hospital Boston replaced Alannah Shevenell’s stomach, liver, spleen, small intestine, pancreas and a portion of her esophagus in October. 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.

Maine girl bouncing back after 6-organ transplant

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. Video Available Photo Gallery Available

Mass hysteria rare, but usually seen in girls

Fifteen teenage girls report a mysterious outbreak of spasms, tics and seizures in upstate New York. But tests find nothing physically wrong.

Highest level of drug-resistant TB found in Europe

The World Health Organization says the highest levels ever of drug-resistant tuberculosis have been found in Russia and Moldova.

Mike Kelley, influential L.A. artist, dies at 57

Mike Kelley, an influential Los Angeles artist whose physically messy and psychologically complex projects laid the groundwork for present-day installation art, has died. He was 57.

Vietnam reports 2nd bird flu death in a month

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.