By LEE BOWMAN, Scripps Howard News Service

The prospect of going paperless in healthcare is a little bit like thinking about going to heaven -- it sounds like a great goal, but the details of how you get there are daunting.

As Congress begins to work out details of an economic stimulus package likely to include large sums to fix the nation's roads and plumbing, two new reports urge federal officials to update flood protection as part of the effort.

With Caesarean sections heralding the arrival of about a third of babies in the United States and in other developed nations, researchers are struggling to understand why a greater percentage of women are having the procedure and the implications this may have for infants.

Hypertension really is something to stress over.
An estimated 50 million Americans have high blood pressure. Only about half of all adults have blood-pressure readings at or below 120 over 80 (beating heart and resting heart) -- the cautionary threshold for pre-hypertension.

Even those who didn't vote for him have to admit that President-elect Barack Obama gives quite a speech.
Some might argue that after an 18-month run for the presidency, plus more than two months spent in an unusually high profile preparatory effort, the novelty of an Obama Inaugural Address is likely to be more symbolic than substantive.

Americans like to think of themselves as fundamentally healthy, able to run out and clear a field, build a log cabin or race a 5K whenever so moved.
But various estimates by the government indicate that anywhere from 90 million to 133 million of us are living with at least one chronic illness or condition.

Whether it's to detox the brain from holiday excess or just to start a new routine, many people will take a walk or a run on New Year's Day or soon thereafter.
As far as your body's concerned overall, exercise of most any sort, anywhere (short of jogging behind a bus), is a plus.

In this season of believing, it's a good time to take a look at some of the current science of faith and medical miracles.
Numerous surveys of both doctors and the general public show that many believe that prayer and divine intervention can help a patient.

Chances are, the flu will become part of the sharing among family and friends this holiday season.
In fact, outbreaks of the winter's nastiest viruses typically get rolling around this time of year largely because we spend more time indoors, in crowds and among different people than we normally hang with -- a perfect environment for swapping germs.

Up to 100,000 miles of levees, many of them at least a half century old and of uncertain structural soundness and capacity, may stand between flood waters and millions of Americans, a federal committee established to review levee safety is finding.