The leading cause of disability and death in the United States is chronic disease. Heart disease and diabetes lead the list. ...more

December 27, 2009

The leading cause of disability and death in the United States is chronic disease. Heart disease and diabetes lead the list. About 133 million Americans live with at least one chronic disease and more than one in 10 have three or more. Your humble author is well acquainted with these numbers in so far as 18 months ago I received a new lease on life, a liver in an 8-hour transplant surgery. The costs are staggering. Chronic disease accounts for 75 percent of the more than $2 trillion spent on health care each year. Coronary heart disease alone, which afflicts 16.8 million Americans, costs some $165 billion a year. ...more

December 27, 2009

United Airlines acted correctly in removing an ill patient from the airplane ("Swine flu challenges airlines," front page, Nov. 10). Tuberculosis, measles and influenza are among many serious diseases that have spread in an airplane cabin. ...more

November 13, 2009

Q. Why did they open the schools, why not wait until everyone had the shot and then open the schools, seems like a lot of people could avoid getting ill. ...more

October 27, 2009

More and more I am in contact with others who have food allergies. It's very challenging at home and out. I belong to a support group, and it has been my lifesaver in many ways, and hopefully others have support, too. Are more people getting food allergies? ...more

March 19, 2009

A new study from Italy adds to a mountain of evidence that a mercury-based preservative once used in many vaccines doesn't hurt children, offering more reassurance to parents. ...more

January 26, 2009

Cancer will overtake heart disease as the world's top killer by 2010, part of a trend that should more than double global cancer cases and deaths by 2030, international health experts reported Tuesday. Here's a look at the statistics from the new report by the World Health Organization. ...more

December 10, 2008

The Justice Department released nearly 100 documents Tuesday that it used to falsely accuse scientist Steven J. Hatfill of masterminding the 2001 anthrax attacks. ...more

November 25, 2008

People who have the AIDS virus should start drug treatments sooner than current guidelines recommend, suggests a large new study that could change the care of hundreds of thousands of Americans. ...more

October 27, 2008

Most deaths in the 1918 influenza pandemic were caused not by the virus alone but by common bacterial infections that overwhelmed victims' weakened immune systems, according to two new studies that could change the strategy for the next pandemic. ...more

August 18, 2008