By VICTORIA COLLIVER, San Francisco Chronicle

If you don't have something nice to say ... well, go ahead and say it anyway. You may actually be doing something good for your health as well as humanity.

SAN FRANCISCO - Starting Sunday, California will become the first state to try to curb the abuse of over-the-counter cold medicines containing a powerful cough suppressant by requiring consumers to show proof they're over age 18.

The ingredient is dextromethorphan, or DXM, and it's found in popular medications such as Robitussin-DM, Mucinex-DM, Delsym, Coricidin and NyQuil.

When Jeanene Harlick's weight dropped to 65 percent of normal, her doctors recommended the San Mateo, Calif., woman go into an intensive residential treatment facility that specialized in treating anorexia and other eating disorders.

SAN FRANCISCO - Researchers have discovered that two chemicals commonly used in consumer products -- bisphenol A and methylparaben -- can interfere with the effectiveness of drugs used to fight breast cancer.

Thirteen years after federal regulators last approved a new drug to treat advanced melanoma, the Food and Drug Administration has given the green light to two revolutionary drugs in the past five months to treat the deadliest form of skin cancer.

SAN FRANCISCO - Record shortages of prescription drugs in the United States are forcing pharmacists and doctors to scramble to find medications for their patients or to delay potentially lifesaving treatments.

Medical professionals say they've been able to blunt the impact by turning to alternative drugs or reserving supplies of vital medications for patients who need them most.

SAN FRANCISCO - Alex Trebek, host of the television game show "Jeopardy," was injured Tuesday as he chased a burglar in his San Francisco hotel.

The longtime game-show host appeared on crutches Wednesday to host the National Geographic World Championship at Google Inc.'s Mountain View, Calif., headquarters.

SAN FRANCISCO - Christopher Patterson, co-owner of High Street Pharmacy in Oakland, Calif., didn't panic when two young thieves in masks walked in last month and pointed a gun at him. He and his staff simply gave them what they wanted: the store's entire supply of a prescription narcotic cough syrup that that sells for up to $200 a bottle on the street.

SAN FRANCISCO - Combat veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder are more likely to have dementia, cardiac problems and structural changes in the brain as they get older than veterans without PTSD, according to new research.

SAN FRANCISCO - A major medical insurer knew in January that a security failure had put the health, financial and other personal records of nearly 2 million people at risk but reported the breach only this week.

California-based Health Net Inc. was informed Jan. 21 of the security problem, but waited until Monday to put out the word publicly.