Women and men share many of the same health problems, but with more focus on women in medical research, we now know that some problems, such as heart disease, may affect women differently from men. While often taking care of families and spouses, women need to make sure they are addressing their own health and prevention measures.
Instead of contractions, they're called surges. And don't call it labor, it's birthing. When the discomfort of childbirth kicks in, it's pressure -- not pain.
It was the worst possible news at the worst possible time.
Endurance swimmer Diana Nyad struggled through ocean swells, shoulder pain and asthma Monday as she attempted to become the first person to swim between Cuba and Florida without a shark cage, according to her team and a CNN staffer on a chase boat.
Middle-aged women searching for a safe alternative to hormone therapy to prevent bone loss and ease the symptoms of menopause are in for another letdown.
Diana Nyad's personal test has begun. At 7:45 p.m. ET Sunday she jumped into the water and began her 103-mile swim between Cuba and Florida.
As Dorrie Aber-Noyek enters the cafeteria at Memorial Regional Hospital in Hollywood, Florida, the staff bursts into a round of "Happy Birthday."
Christie Hall began putting off mammograms long before debate about appropriate screening became a hot-button issue.
Women are drastically more likely to develop a mental disorder at some point in their lives if they have been the victim of rape, sexual assault, stalking, or intimate-partner violence, according to a new study in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced new guidelines in Washington Monday requiring health insurance plans beginning on or after August 1, 2012 to cover several women's preventive services, including birth control and voluntary sterilization.
There I was at a long-awaited dinner with friends Saturday night, when in the midst of our chatting, I watched my right hand sneaking away from my side to grab my phone sitting on the table to check my e-mail.
Many radiologists rely on specialized computer software to pinpoint suspicious areas in routine mammograms.
Anyone who's sought solace in pizza or a pint of ice cream knows that food can be comforting. But experts still don't know exactly why we gravitate toward fatty or sugary foods when we're feeling down, or how those foods affect our emotions.
You've heard (and tried) it all before: down a dozen oysters, watch a marathon of sultry movies, get a couples massage.
Women have long relied on cranberry juice or supplements to prevent painful urinary tract infections.
When Dr. Carolyn LaFleur was in a car accident six years ago, she couldn't move her neck for a year and a half, she had terrible pain in her hip, and she would get headaches at her temples.
The scorching temperatures affecting almost half of the U.S. population isn't just causing heatstrokes -- it's also causing people to feel drained and more susceptible to other health problems. The humidity can wreak havoc and feel suffocating to people who have breathing or heart-related problems.
Contraceptives, sterilization and reproductive education should be covered by health insurance plans with no cost to patients under the health care reform law, a new report recommends.
You have no interest in being 21 again. (Neither do we.) But, oh, wouldn't it be nice to feel 21 again: The energy! The metabolism! The sense of I-can-accomplish-anything-I-set-my-mind-to!
For two years after a hip surgery that didn't work out as well as he'd hoped, pain shot down Jim Heckler's leg like electrical shocks. Several doctors, eager to help Heckler feel better, prescribed various narcotic painkillers.
Michael Musick is all too familiar with the toll heat can take on the human body.
You might not realize it, but your doctor could be complaining about you online.
Children whose mothers take Zoloft, Prozac, or similar antidepressants during pregnancy are twice as likely as other children to have a diagnosis of autism or a related disorder, according to a small new study, the first to examine the relationship between antidepressants and autism risk.
At a photo studio in downtown New York City, Julianne Moore is heard before she is seen -- her ringing laugh fills the room.
Elaine Farstad got antsy as she waited for her doctor, who was late for her scheduled appointment. Then she got downright impatient. Then, as nearly two hours passed, she got mad. Then she came up with an idea.
Over the past several decades Americans have steadily gotten fatter. Although our increasingly sedentary lifestyles are partly to blame, a big reason for our national weight gain is that we're simply eating more.
The first thing I did after receiving what is surely one of the top two or three most terrifying medical diagnoses was pick up the telephone to call my husband to tell him to come home, and my brother to ask him to call my parents, because I couldn't bear their grief as well as my own.
Sitting too much will probably shorten your life.
When Hilarie Cash arrives home from work in the evening, she has a choice: She can go outside and tend to her garden or she can hop on her laptop.
Drugs that treat psoriasis and rheumatoid arthritis, or RA, by suppressing the immune system may also reduce the risk of developing diabetes, at least in people who already have one of these conditions, according to a new study in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
Nine new graphic cigarette warning labels showing cancerous lesions and other impacts of smoking were unveiled Tuesday by the Food and Drug Administration, part of the agency's sweeping new powers to regulate tobacco and tobacco products.
The level of support that people perceive in their surroundings when they come out as lesbian, gay, or bisexual is closely related to their mental health and overall well-being, and this may mean that coming out to some people (but not others) is less psychologically damaging than has been believed, a new study suggests.
The first time Wilson Alvarado got lost on the way to a neighborhood park, he told his wife, Patricia, not to worry about it -- he was 62, he told her, and just getting a little forgetful.
Life expectancy in most U.S. counties lags behind that of the world's healthiest nations, in some cases by 50 years or more, according to a new analysis of government data.
In 1985, Edmund White had five or six published books behind him, a Swiss lover with him and the outcome of an HIV test ahead of him. When the results came in, White told his partner:
As much as she would like to, Dr. Lissa Rankin, a gynecologist, will never forget the woman who planned her wedding while lying naked on her examining table.
Mary Kole loves her job, but she's been feeling like she's lost the line between "work" and "not work."
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is a big, serious government agency with a big, serious job: protecting public health from threats ranging from hurricanes to bird flu.
Dylan Ryan and Danny Wylde knew each other online -- she's read his blog, he's seen her tweets -- before they met in person in Los Angeles a few weeks ago. A bit awkward, they made small talk, spending an hour or so getting to know each other.
When she found the lump in her breast, Jessica Denton had known she was pregnant with her first child for just a few days.
Dallas Wiens wanted to feel his 4-year-old daughter's kisses again, something he couldn't do after a horrific electrical accident disfigured his face.
The use of mammograms has dipped since a medical task force made controversial recommendations that women in their 40s may not need to get breast cancer screenings every year, according to one of three small studies to be presented Monday.
If you're going under the knife, you might want to ask your surgeon what she had to drink the night before.
Weaves and braids may contribute to a type of permanent hair loss that appears to be common among black women, a new study has found.
Has Neve Campbell taken a dip in the fountain of youth? At 37, she looks exactly the same as she did in the '90s when she played the ultrasensitive teenager Julia Salinger on "Party of Five," the hit show that launched her career.
There is no health risk from consuming milk with extremely low levels of radiation, like those found in Washington state and California, experts said Thursday, echoing the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
I was in the security line at an airport a few months ago when I watched a fellow passenger do something I'd never seen done before: He dissed the scan.
Say it aloud: NUCLEAR. How does it make you feel? Many people have negative associations with the word, feelings that have been magnified since a massive earthquake and tsunami crippled a power plant called Fukushima Daiichi in Japan on March 11.
Ryan Jeffers finds it hard to believe his daughter, Malyia, went from being a perfectly healthy 2-year-old who loved to dance, sing and entertain to an amputee facing a lifetime of medical care.
Congress might cut most of the federal funding for your local poison control center, which could mean a longer wait during your next poison-related emergency.
Incontinence can happen to anyone, although it's more common in women than in men.
Nuclear power has generally proved safe and nondetrimental to human health.
Thanks to our BlackBerries, iPhones, and iPads, the line between work and family time is getting blurrier. But a new study suggests that women feel 40% more distress than men when family life is frequently interrupted by these electronic devices or other types of contact, despite being under the same amount of work pressure.
Maybe you're the one whose feet can't touch the floor without thick socks. Or you're the one who starts to sweat when your partner cranks up the heat.
In the movie "The King's Speech," there is a pivotal scene where Elizabeth, the future queen, frustrated by the failures of doctors who were trying to treat her husband's stutter, ventures into the streets of London to the office of controversial speech therapist Lionel Logue. So unaccustomed to the outside world, Elizabeth doesn't even know how to properly work the elevator in Logue's building.
Sitting in her trailer between filming scenes for "Parenthood," Lauren Graham is still in hair and makeup, but dressed in what could be considered her casual uniform: a pair of stretchy jeans tucked into boots, a tank top, and a Current/Elliott denim shirt.
When Debbie Wasserman Schultz visited her friend Gabrielle Giffords in the hospital last week, she talked to her about the demonstrations in Egypt and the Republicans' proposed budget cuts -- not exactly topics you might expect during a hospital visit.
When the weather turns frigid, your survival instincts kick in. You jump into a scalding shower, slather on medicated lip balm and blow-dry your hair into submission. Little did you know these common beauty blunders only perpetuate a vicious cycle.
This may rock your winter world: You can't get a cold just from cold weather.
Drinking alcohol may help put you to sleep, but as the night wears on -- and the booze wears off -- you may find yourself tossing and turning. This may be especially true if you're a woman, according to a new study.
Robyn Nichols always knows when it's going to rain. She can feel it in her bones -- literally.
Gradual hearing loss is a common symptom of aging, but in some people it may also be an early sign of Alzheimer's disease or other types of dementia, a new study suggests.
Eating a diet rich in fiber - especially the kind of fiber found in whole grains - reduces the risk of dying at an early age from a range of causes, a new government study suggests.
Ida Alvarez avoided close conversations. She was afraid of what someone might tell her. She was pretty sure she had really bad breath.
In her early 20s, the very thing most fundamental to Jessi Teich's career started to turn against her: Her voice.
When 2-year-old Malyia Jeffers developed a fever one Sunday afternoon in November, her parents gave her a children's Motrin and kept a cautious eye on her throughout the night.
Women with early stage breast cancer that has spread to their lymph nodes may require less extensive surgery than previously thought, according to a new study in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
Day after demoralizing day, Dr. Doug Lefton watched uninsured patients leave his office needing laboratory tests but unlikely to have them done because of the cost.
Shelley Brown spent much of her life feeling ashamed and embarrassed that she didn't know the identity of her father.
The Environmental Protection Agency will set a limit on the amount of the chemical perchlorate, as well as other "toxic contaminants," in drinking water, it announced Wednesday.
Three weeks ago, while recovering in the hospital after giving birth to a baby girl, Rena Jones was amped up and on guard.
As if deciding how to handle an unplanned pregnancy wasn't stressful enough, several studies in recent years have suggested that young women who have an abortion may be at increased risk of mental health problems afterward.
Women who smoke have an increased risk of developing breast cancer, especially if they become smokers early in life, a new study suggests.
Robin Gray's knee had been bothering her for almost two years, but when it finally got to the point where it interfered with her duties as a custodian at Emory University, she knew it was time to take action.
A thumbs up. Two opened eyes. A smile. These simple signs of recognition from U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords kept hope alive for her recovery from a bullet to the head January 8. And later this week, her parents have told family members and friends in an e-mail, she'll be moved to Houston, Texas, to begin aggressive rehab with a team of medical specialists.
The antidepressant Lexapro (escitalopram) may reduce the frequency and severity of hot flashes, the bouts of sweating and overheating that are an uncomfortable fact of life for many menopausal women, a new government-funded study suggests.
During a major storm, the emergency room is eerily quiet. But in the hours afterward, the injured pour in.
The controversial drug Avastin should be phased out as a treatment for metastatic breast cancer, the Food and Drug Administration said Thursday, citing recent studies that show its benefits may be outweighed by dangerous side effects.
When Ryan Arnold died after donating a piece of his liver to his brother, Chad, his friends and family mourned the loss of a hero who risked his life to save his brother.
On Thursday, December 2, as Aneka sat at home nine months pregnant, the phone rang.
If you want to stave off the middle-age spread, get active in your 20s and stay that way through your 30s and 40s, especially if you're a woman, a new study suggests.
When it's holiday and flu season, you need your energy more than ever -- Santa can't get sick! We come bearing good news: "New moms have an increased ability to withstand and fight infections through their powerful immune system during this time of life," says Maureen Groer, Ph.D., professor of nursing at the University of South Florida College of Nursing in Tampa. The following tips can help you maintain your immunity edge throughout the season.
If you're a woman in your 40s, you probably remember how checking the health of your breasts became a point of national contention last year.
Vitamin D and calcium have long been touted as the best nutrients for strong bones, muscles and teeth. Recent studies have shown that vitamin D could be used to fight cancer, heart ailments, autoimmune diseases, even diabetes.
Kelly, 22, has suffered from depression since age 8. But it's only recently that she realized how much worse she feels when her acne flares up. During the two years in college when her depression waned, so did her skin problems.
Curled up on a couch in New York City, clad in a white tank top and black track pants, Janet Jackson is ready to get personal.
Barack Levin recently showed his children where the kidneys are in a human anatomy book, trying to explain why their daddy has been taking so many pills and feeling so tired.
Elizabeth Anderson had to act fast when she learned she had advanced breast cancer in April 2009.
Drinking too much soda, orange juice, or other sugary drinks appears to increase the risk of developing gout, an especially painful form of arthritis, according to a new study in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
Just after she'd gotten a divorce and gone back to work, Alice Thornton would feel cold one minute and hot the next, and her temper was shorter than usual.
Dating someone new means learning about each other's quirky behaviors, emotional baggage, and the experiences that have shaped both of your lives. But what if this involves a health or medical secret you're hesitant to talk about?
Year after year, doctor's visit after doctor's visit, Myke Triebold kept a secret from her gynecologist.
As a wife and mother to five children, Sally Massagee had always led an active lifestyle. She ran her own successful CPA firm in her hometown of Hendersonville, North Carolina, and loved to cook and play tennis with friends.
The bounce in your step has become a plod. Climbing stairs feels like summiting Mount Everest. Your brain's mired in fog. Whatever your personal energy crisis might be, it's time to act.
A medical school professor once said to me, "Mysteries are not hidden from us, they are hidden for us."
After completing his second year of business classes at Miles College in Fairfield, Alabama, in 2007, Joshua Armstrong decided to take a break from full-time studies.
Having three daughters of my own, I was a little nervous to meet 6-year-old Kylie McPeak. She was born just about a year before my oldest daughter and was the picture of health up until a couple of years ago.
Tucked away on the sprawling campus of the National Institutes of Health, an elite team of doctors and researchers search for clues to solve medical mysteries that have eluded a diagnosis.
Women who have gene mutations that increase the risk of breast and ovarian cancer can substantially reduce their chances of developing -- and dying from -- those cancers if they have their breasts or ovaries removed preemptively, according to a new study.
In the wake of an outbreak that has left an estimated 1,300 people sick with salmonella infections, and the recall of more than half a billion eggs, a debate is brewing over whether modern farming methods pose a health risk.
Forget diet pills and cleanses. A new study suggests that an effective weight-loss aid is available straight from your kitchen sink.
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