By LEE BOWMAN, Scripps Howard News Service

Completing the document that marks the end of every American's life can take extraordinary amounts of time and persistence for both funeral providers and medical professionals.

A hospital's emergency department -- the ER -- is a place most of us don't want to visit, yet collectively we go about 120 million times a year, some of us a lot more frequently than others.

Only about a quarter of us go even once in a given year.

Beyond the debate over the relative value of research involving stems cells from embryos or adults, scientists are increasingly finding that when it comes to repairing or replacing bone or muscle tissue, different cells can yield a wide array of results.

Toasted tots are no fun, as the parents of any kid who gets a bad sunburn can attest.
By the time children can run around, most moms, even many dads, are reasonably conscientious about slathering the youngsters with sunscreen when they're outside for any length of time.

Shocks to the mind can have equally devastating long-term consequences for the brain as physical trauma, researchers are learning.
New evidence that post-traumatic stress syndrome is linked to an elevated risk for Alzheimer's disease was presented at an international meeting on the degenerative brain disorder this week.

Do you Twitter when you've got flu symptoms? Blog about your blahs? E-mail your doctor when you need a prescription refilled or search for treatment alternatives and information even before you're diagnosed?
Congrats. Like more than half of American adults, you're an "e-patient."

To recover from concussion, young brains require not only restrictions on physical activity, but also reduction of mental effort.
That's part of the consensus reached by a recent international conference on concussions from sports injuries and the central theme of new guidelines published in The British Journal of Sports Medicine.

A federal program intended to reduce wildfire risks in the West has been largely ineffective because fuel-reduction efforts seldom hit areas near homes and businesses, according to a new study.

Public health experts are worried that many state and local agencies will find themselves short-staffed and underfunded if they have to manage a double vaccination campaign against both traditional and the new H1NI swine flu this fall.

Maybe you still can't get away with paying for the next comedy you rent or see in a theater out of your health savings account.
But indications that a good giggle or two are good for you, psychologically and physically, continue to pile up credits in medical studies and literature.