By LEE BOWMAN, Scripps Howard News Service

If your sleep habits are not what they could be, chances are, neither are your arteries.
Scientists have found that the same molecule that makes us want to go to sleep also has a natural inflammatory effect in the body.

While long-ago swine flu shots or exposures may offer some immune advantage against the new H1N1 flu strain, scientists say a regular flu shot in the past few years provides no protection.
A study published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention used blood samples from 79 children and 280 adults who had been vaccinated against seasonal flu during one of past two winters.

While long-ago swine flu shots or exposures may offer some immune advantage against the new H1N1 flu strain, scientists say a regular flu shot in the past few years provides no protection.
A study published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention used blood samples from 79 children and 280 adults who had been vaccinated against seasonal flu during one of past two winters.

Sometimes it seems as though modern medicine is guided by bigger-than-life technology, dominated by million-dollar machines that scan the brain, resonate through soft tissue or deliver precision doses of radiation.

Your money or your life.
It's a no-brainer in a stickup situation. But when discussing health-care reform, the answers get a little trickier.
Most people would say they want both access to good medical care when they need it and for that care to be affordable.

Can too much sunlight make people more inclined to take their own lives?
It seems counterintuitive to those who have endured long dreary winters that late spring and early summer are the height of suicide season in higher latitudes, including the United States.

The hazards of childhood change with age.
Take furniture, for instance.

Across the country, adults with less education are more than twice as likely than college graduates to consider themselves healthy, according to a new study released Wednesday.

While there has been an uptick in sales of the flu drugs Tamiflu and Relenza in some communities hit hard by the new flu strain, experts say people could do more harm than good popping the pills without cause.

If you are old enough to remember Marcus Welby, MD, you probably know he isn't on TV anymore, and he is rarely found practicing medicine in real life.
Dr. Welby was the kindly white-coated family physician who seemingly could cure anything with just a quick exam and a little common sense.