health/fitness

Most women who want to lose weight just want to fit into a smaller dress or pair of jeans. But not Linda Ann Spurza of Lutz, Fla. She lost weight so she could live longer.

Just before Thanksgiving, officials of the international drug company Novartis will be joined by a gaggle of local, state and federal officials in a business park on the edge of Holly Springs, N.C.

A spoonful of hope might not be the best medicine, according to a new study that asserts that optimism can actually be harmful to mental health.

Strength doesn't come from the arms, back, chest or even legs. It comes from the core. Every sport, from tennis to tae kwon do, relies on the major muscle rectus abdominis, better known as "the abs."

That extra hour of sleep last weekend doesn't begin to make a dent in tired for most Americans.

Richard Huhn drove his uncle's flashy 1929 Buick when he was just 12.

Years later, assigned to the Army motor pool in World War II, he chauffeured officers in France, Belgium and Germany. "I drove down the main street in Paris," he remembers.

Now 94, his vision severely impaired, Huhn doesn't drive anymore. His ophthalmologist insisted he quit about four years ago.

A video of a cheerleader supposedly crippled after getting the H1N1 flu vaccine has received almost a million hits on the Internet.

It's driving doctors crazy, as they insist the vaccine is safe and anti-vaccine preachers are plain wrong.

With her diabetes, high blood pressure and cholesterol under control, Gail Johnson expects to be around to see her grandchildren grow up. But she figures she'll die long before she's able to pay off her hospital bills.

"I don't even know how much I owe (the hospital). That's how bad it is," she says, guessing it's well over $20,000.

Seasonal flu vs. H1N1 flu. What you should know that sets this strain of influenza apart from others:

Seasonal Flu

Typical influenza viruses infect the cells lining the main airway and nasal tract, according to Earl Brown, a virologist at the University of Ottawa.

H1N1

He was a healthy teenager from another country, visiting friends and relatives in Minnesota, when he got sick.

Then really sick.