health/fitness

Heart disease is the number one killer of both men and women.

But conventional wisdom has been that older men die of heart attacks, while women die of old age.

These friends start Tuesday morning by scouting out the lay of the land.

Under an autumn sky billowing with grays, they stroll a path in Swan Creek Metropark, near Toledo, Ohio, scanning for a slice of scenery with enough color, shape and inspiration to hold them for three or four hours.

It's been a while since we've checked in on our favorite guilty pleasure: the Center for Science in the Public Interest's "Food Porn" statistics. It's a rundown of nutritional horrors that restaurants foist upon diners. Take our highly caloric quiz:

If there is anything we as Americans can do well, it's panic.

A call for a dusting of snow from the National Weather Service that has the most remote chance (in the neighborhood of 1 in 1,000) of being a significant snowfall becomes the storm of the century on television news, prompting a run on milk and toilet paper.

Snoring denies you restorative deep sleep. It can set you up for illness, irritation, high blood pressure, chronic tiredness and poor performance at work.

And you're not even the snorer.

Legendary snorers in history

-- Napoleon Bonaparte: Overweight, with a short, thick neck, Bonaparte was thought to have had a nasal blockage.

-- Winston Churchill: Overweight, drank considerably, smoked cigars.

-- President Grover Cleveland: Weighed 280 pounds, had a fleshy, thick neck and enjoyed his beer.

Could there be a healthy upside to an economic downturn?

During the Great Depression of the 20th century, life expectancy actually increased in the United States, according to a new analysis of mortality statistics by University of Michigan researchers.

As the economy collapsed, life expectancy rose from 57.1 years in 1929 to 63.3 in 1932.

At Army bases throughout the land, an early-morning regimen has been repeated the same way for generations. Troops assemble at oh-dark-30 -- that's "early," in military talk -- first for calisthenics (heavy on pushups and sit-ups), then for a run in formation.

As thousands of young, healthy athletes line up at the start of marathons this fall, the vast majority will be focused on the finish line -- not on whether they will make it there alive.

Checking in at a doctor's office or hospital increasingly requires at least two documents -- an insurance card and a photo ID.

Don't take it too personally.

The providers are simply trying to protect themselves -- and you -- from joining the growing ranks of medical identify theft victims.