When you're smiling, the whole world really does smile with you. A paper being published Friday in a British medical journal concludes that happiness is contagious - and that people pass on their good cheer even to total strangers. American researchers who tracked more than 4,700 people in Framingham, Mass., as part of a 20-year heart study also found the transferred happiness is good for up to a year.
Many of the thousands of troops who suffered traumatic brain injuries in Iraq and Afghanistan are at risk of long-term health problems including depression and Alzheimer's-like dementia, but it's impossible to predict how high those risks are, researchers say.
Measles deaths worldwide declined dramatically to about 200,000 a year, continuing a successful trend, global health authorities reported Thursday.
The Cleveland Clinic says it will publicize the business ties its 1,800 doctors and researchers have with drug companies and device makers.
Consumers should be wary of Web sites from clinics that offer stem cell treatments, says a study that found a lack of firm medical evidence to back up their claims. The Web sites in the study generally portrayed their therapies as safe, effective and ready for routine use, but published research doesn't support that "overoptimistic" picture, the study authors said.
The Saudi government has found excessive amounts of the industrial chemical melamine in powdered milk imported from China and lower concentrations in chocolate wafer cream made in Malaysia.
Wall Street headed toward a lower open Thursday as investors began sifting through retail sales reports that were expected to point to another pullback in consumer spending.
Faith was breathing for Hope. So when the newborn conjoined Williams twins were separated, it turned out that Hope couldn't live without her sister.
Doctors-in-training are still too exhausted, says a new report that calls on hospitals to let them have a nap. Regulations that capped the working hours of bleary-eyed young doctors came just five years ago, limiting them to about 80 hours a week.
Unique brain wave patterns, spotted for the first time in autistic children, may help explain why they have so much trouble communicating.
Imagine sitting in a dark room all day, evaluating CT scans and other medical images on a computer screen but never actually seeing real patients. That's life for many radiologists.
Almost one in five young American adults has a personality disorder that interferes with everyday life, and even more abuse alcohol or drugs, researchers reported Monday in the most extensive study of its kind.
Older people who are depressed are much more likely to develop a dangerous type of internal body fat - the kind that can lead to diabetes and heart disease - than people who are not depressed, a disturbing new study found.
Patients with asthma and other lung diseases should stay tuned: Quick-acting albuterol inhalers aren't the only lung medicines poised for changes because they're powered by ozone-damaging chemicals called CFCs.
Last warning: Asthma inhalers go "green" on Dec. 31, forcing patients still using the old-fashioned kind to make a pricey and even confusing switch. The medicine inside these rescue inhalers - the albuterol that quickly opens airways during an asthma attack - isn't changing. But the chemicals used to puff that drug into your lungs are.
More than half a million U.S. children have autism with costly health care needs that often put an unprecedented financial strain on their families, national data show.
The Bush administration stopped short of blaming last week's terror rampage in India on Pakistani extremists Monday, but said the new civilian government in Pakistan must cooperate fully and hide nothing.
About one in 10 doctors who vaccinate privately insured children are considering dropping that service largely because they are losing money when they do it, according to a new survey.
As World AIDS Day is marked on Monday, some experts are growing more outspoken in complaining that AIDS is eating up funding at the expense of more pressing health needs.
Tony Parker had 15 points and seven assists in his first game in three weeks, leading the San Antonio Spurs to a 109-98 victory over the Memphis Grizzlies on Friday night.
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