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December 7, 2012 With the presidential election decided, doctors and some advocates are calling for the administration to make it easier for teenagers to get the morning-after birth control pill.

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December 4, 2012 Most people don't realize that they don't pay taxes on the value of health benefits from their job. If employer-provided health insurance was taxed in the same way as wages, the federal government could gain $250 billion a year. But it would mean higher taxes for many people.

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December 3, 2012 With growing controversy over the risk of permanent brain injury in contact sports, researchers find an association between repetitive head trauma and brain disease in samples taken from deceased athletes. Many were professional football players.

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December 3, 2012 Texting may not always be the best method of communication, but it can be a promising support network for smokers who want to quit. Several recent studies show that receiving an encouraging text can help stave off a cigarette craving and boost motivation to quit for good.

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November 30, 2012 Radiologists have an image problem with patients. Many of them don't know who the doctors are or what they do. A survey finds that only about half of patients receiving CT scans even knew radiologists are doctors.

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November 28, 2012 The chemicals are meant to prevent a sofa from going up in flames, but there are concerns about health risks. With efforts to ban the chemicals moving slowly, the solution for now may be a simple vacuum cleaner.

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November 28, 2012 There were more than 9,000 whooping cough cases in California in 2010, a 60-year high. There has been a resurgence of the disease across the country lately. Why? People going without vaccination is one factor. Another may lie in the vaccines themselves.

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November 27, 2012 The number of new HIV infections in the U.S. is relatively stable at about 50,000 people a year. But HIV is on the rise in people under 25, federal data show. The upswing is driven largely by infections among young black men.

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November 27, 2012 Some consumers of the bitter citrus fruit may need to rethink their morning routine. Chemicals in grapefruit can interfere with the body's ability to to clear certain drugs. The number of affected medicines has jumped in recent years. Pharmacists are calling for greater grapefruit awareness among physicians and patients alike.

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November 23, 2012 What made Einstein a genius? Maybe his weirdly curvy brain had something to do with it. Scientists have recently analyzed photos from the 1950s to try to figure out what made the genius tick.

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November 21, 2012 Ultrasound often catches fetuses opening their mouths, but whether they're really yawning or not has been up for debate. Now, with some fancy ultrasound techniques, scientists have show that babies do indeed yawn in the womb.

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November 21, 2012 Easier access to oral contraceptives could reduce unintended pregnancies, doctors say. But the Food and Drug Administration would have to allow purchases of the pill without a prescription, and that's not going to happen anytime soon.

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November 20, 2012 No one really wants to think about what goes down the drain when you flush. But sometimes, you've got to look to see what your bowels are telling you about your health. Doctors have been decoding our pee and poo since medieval times. They've even developed handy visual guides.

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November 16, 2012 Back in 1995, about 4.5 percent of adults in the U.S. had been diagnosed with diabetes. By 2010, the prevalence had zoomed to 8.2 percent. An interactive map shows how much worse diabetes has become in less than a generation.

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November 16, 2012 Given the pressure of evolution, why have genes behind schizophrenia, autism and others disorders persisted? A study that looks at the likelihood someone is to have kids tries to figure it out.

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