By LEE BOWMAN, Scripps Howard News Service

Drs. Alan Sheff and Robin Merlino were about to quit primary care.
Each was attempting to care for several thousand patients in a busy group office, seeing 20 to 25 patients a day, and losing ground financially. Both were only in their 50s, but ready to leave medicine.

Politically speaking, no moss grows under the feet of President Obama.
But under his name -- that's a different story.
A California expert has decided to honor the new chief executive by naming after him a newly discovered species of lichen he collected on Santa Rosa Island, off California's southern coast.

The scariest time for many Medicare patients isn't when they go into a hospital -- it's when they leave.

Why is the doctor "out" for millions of Americans?
Family doctors and experts say there are not enough primary care doctors for two main reasons: time and money.

Federal officials report there have already been almost twice as many wildfires this year than during the same period last year, and the outlook through the middle of the year for more fires in Texas, Florida and California is not good.

They might be mistaken for meter readers or tax assessors or solicitors, bearing hand-held computers and checking out properties up and down the street, but all they want is your address.
The U.S. Census Bureau is making a list, a huge list of some 145 million residential addresses nationwide, between now and mid-July.

Things that ordinarily ought to be good for us can turn dangerous in a hurry when we're taking strong medicines.
Fruit juices, particularly grapefruit, but also orange and apple juice, can not only dramatically increase absorption of some drugs, creating the potential for overdosing, but can also block the uptake of other prescriptions, potentially wiping out their benefits.

It's hardly surprising that a stimulant like caffeine can affect athletic performance. Runners, soldiers and watch-keepers have been using it for centuries.
But researchers keep stirring things up with new findings about caffeine precisely because it seems to influence nerve and muscle and blood cells, among other things, in a variety of ways.

Investigations by E.W. Scripps television stations have found that tens of thousands of big-rig operators remain on the road, despite medical conditions that should disqualify them.
But it will be nearly three years before federal and state safety officials -- pulling over buses and trucks for roadside inspections -- can quickly verify that operators are medically fit to drive.

There was a time when the signs of aging were pretty obvious. The hair got grayer or goner, the middle got wider and the pace grew slower. Middle age started in the 30s, old age in the 60s.