After Silvia Clarke lost a sales executive job she had held for 18 years, the Miami Shores wife and mother of two worried about how she would support her family of four as the household's primary wage earner.
Carlos and Jorge de Céspedes, founders of Pharmed, once one of the largest Hispanic owned businesses in the country, were charged Tuesday in federal court with healthcare-related wire fraud and income tax evasion.
It was a hot lead for detectives on a cold case. People suddenly were getting salmonella at a Minnesota restaurant more than 1,000 miles from the center of the nation's outbreak.
Find a doctor, check their background, search state disciplinary records or malpractice settlements.
The Miami Herald can help you solve your healthcare needs, with the most complete information on doctors in South Florida.
Can't find your doctor? Email the doctor's name to health@MiamiHerald.com and we'll add him or her to our list.
Find local doctors, insurance information, health facilities, hospitals, clinics and pharmacies near you.
Provided by Healthcare.com
Join a community to share your stories, discuss the latest in treatments and seek advice for your healthcare issues.
Stay informed. Links to vital health and fitness information.
1 Problem: This condition, which is not generally serious, causes pain and inflammation in the balls of the feet, especially when walking barefoot on a hard surface. Some people might experience numbness or tingling in the toes.
JOCK DOC
Q: I am a 30-year-old high-level tennis player and I have been having problems with my right wrist for three months. A hand specialist ordered an arthrogram and an MRI scan and told me that I had a tear of my TFCC. He said that if rest doesn't help, I might need surgery. What is the TFCC and what are my chances of it getting better?
Sex and the City's Carrie Bradshaw used her oven for storage, and the Sleuth suspects that plenty of you could say the same about your vegetable crisper. So can the crop of new fruit-plus-veggie juices let you drink your five to nine servings a day?
NUTRITION
¿Quiere un taco? Think blue. Food scientists in Mexico and Venezuela have found that tortillas made with blue corn have 20 percent more protein, 9 percent less starch and a more healthful glycemic index than their white corn cousins. ''In addition to having a prettier -- or fancier -- color, blue corn appears to have interesting functional properties on human metabolism, particularly regarding antioxidant and [glycemic] features,'' writes coauthor Juscelino Tovar, professor of biochemistry...
FOOTWEAR
You can take a nice walk or a nice run to stay in shape, but you'll need the proper shoes. From Consumer Reports magazine, here are some tips for buying the right pair:
It takes more than crunches to achieve six-pack abs. It takes proper nutrition as well as exercises tailored for your body. You can find the right exercises in James Villepigue's The Body Sculpting Bible for ABS: The Way to Physical Perfection (Hatherleigh, $17.95). It includes detailed illustrations and a bonus CD. Remember, if you don't watch your diet, you can still get six-pack abs, but they'll be hidden beneath a layer of fat.
MEN
Though they didn't look like much, the white specks squirming under a microscope in researcher Debra Wolgemuth's lab could have a big impact in the high stakes world of controlling fertility, not for women but for men.
When Roberto and Deborah Heros first saw the news that Sen. Edward M. Kennedy had been diagnosed with a brain tumor, theirs was not a typical reaction.
HEALTH
''Chill out'' could be Broward Sheriff Fire Rescue's new motto when it comes to cardiac arrest victims.
WEIGHT LOSS
Eight years ago, Darlene Dillard was obese. At 58, 280 pounds hung on her 5-foot-2-inch frame. She was borderline diabetic, had high blood pressure and couldn't tie her shoes.
Tony Mendoza fractured his ribs and mangled his nose after he had an epileptic seizure and fell down a flight of stairs. Sydney Pershing often cried in her room because of the depression resulting from her epilepsy, a neurological condition characterized by recurrent seizures, usually of unknown cause.
FEDERAL COURT
Carlos and Jorge de Céspedes, who started with nothing and built up one of the largest Hispanic-owned businesses in the country, were charged Tuesday with healthcare-related wire fraud and income tax evasion.
More than 1,000 applicants are seeking to be among the 40 students admitted next year as the first medical students at Florida International University.
BIOTECHNOLOGY
Several Miami researchers and a longtime healthcare executive have joined to form a company that is working to develop a revolutionary ''bioactive'' stent using biotech and genetic engineering.
HEALTHCARE
A new report from a free-market think tank argues that Florida's Medicaid pilot program has had ''numerous accomplishments'' and should be expanded statewide. It contends that previous studies critical of the program -- including one by the Inspector General at the Agency for Health Care Administration -- were flawed.
HEALTH
Spending only $10 in prevention per person may save billions of dollars in cures, according to a national study released Thursday.
EMPHYSEMA
English singer Amy Winehouse is no stranger to tabloid headlines -- routinely grabbing attention for alleged drug use, brushes with the law, bizarre onstage behavior and curious fashion choices.
Christian Michael Tellez, 7, thinks ''king of the mountain,'' but the 40-foot rock-climbing wall at the Miami Children's Museum responds ''yo-yo.'' For every step up he takes, he slips back a notch or two.
HEALTH
The pain chased Dalouse Cesard from childhood in Haiti into her adolescence after she moved to the United States. She wondered why she was the one to endure debilitating agony that kept her out of school, put her in the hospital and forced her to sit while her friends played.
ROLE MODEL
Fifty teens from local Miami high schools got the chance to spend some off-court time with Serena Williams, the defending women's singles Sony Ericcson champ. Nike invited the girls to meet with Williams and chat about the advantages and challenges of being a female athlete. Williams lauded the efforts of ``pioneers like Billy Jean King, not to mention all the other great women athletes who really led the way in starting title IX which was really, really important so the female athlete like...
CHILDREN'S HEALTH
Approximately 2.2 million school-age children have food allergies. Allergic reactions to food occur when the immune system mistakenly identifies a food as harmful and triggers antibodies to form to fight it. The next time the food or a component of it is ingested, the antibodies release histamines and other chemicals into the bloodstream.
Fort Lauderdale Ocean Rescue Lt. Jim McCrady spends 10-hour days patrolling the beach. Most people would worry that's too much sun. But to some, McCrady, 41, is soaking up critical ultra-violet rays. McCrady may be slightly pink at the end of his four-day work week, but there's one thing he's not suffering from: lack of vitamin D.
If your aging parents are thinking of moving to Florida, you might want to suggest Fort Myers, not Miami-Fort Lauderdale. They'll live just as long there, but the healthcare will be less intense and less expensive. And when they die, they'll be less likely to do so in what one researcher calls ''a therapeutic frenzy,'' hooked up to tubes and machines.
