Once upon a time, having health insurance meant security. If you got sick, your care was covered. At least that's what we all thought.

But a 2009 study published in The American Journal of Medicine found that in 2007, 62% of all bankruptcies in this country were related to medical expenses. And three out of four people with medical debt had health insurance.

The difference between a good and not-so-good health insurance plan makes a huge impact (More)
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March 23, 2011 - Exciting findings from an early-stage clinical trial offer new hope to patients with Duchenne's muscular dystrophy, the most common but incurable and devastating form of muscular dystrophy.

Patients who received three months of weekly injections with PRO051 had a modest improvement in their ability to walk, reports a research (More)
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March 14, 2011 -- Among the casualties of Japan's earthquake/tsunami disaster were several nuclear power plants. Damage and failed cooling systems have raised the fears of a meltdown happening.

There's hope that a major nuclear disaster can be averted. But what are the risks from the radiation that already has been released -- and from the radiation that could be released if containment efforts fail?

Here's WebMD's FAQ.

What does it mean for a (More)
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Feb. 28, 2011 -- People who have rare diseases -- and their caretakers -- are the savviest seekers of online health information and support, a Pew survey finds.

Health information trails only email and search engines as the main reason people go online. But when using the web to share information and (More)
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Think actor Jeff Bridges is really the Dude? In the way that John Wayne was, well, John Wayne, on-screen and off?

You may be surprised to learn the star of The Big Lebowski, the Cohen brothers' 1998 film in which Bridges created the quintessential do-nothing, laze-about Dude, isn't like his most famous character at all, even if it's the one young fans most often identify him as while he's out in public. The Academy Award-winning actor is busy (More)
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Jan. 20, 2011 -- Next time you are faced with the daunting task of shoveling snow, consider this: The task sends on average more than 11,000 adults and children to the hospital every year.

A new 17-year study published in this month's American Journal of Emergency Medicine details the most common health hazards associated with shoveling snow. Snow shoveling can sometimes lead to bad backs, broken bones, (More)
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Jan. 19, 2011 -- The Republican-led U.S. House voted to repeal the health care reform law Wednesday, fulfilling a GOP campaign promise to undo President Barack Obama's signature domestic policy achievement.

The repeal of the Affordable Care Act passed the House 245 to 189. Republicans voted unanimously to repeal health reform; only three Democrats voted for repeal. Still, few observers expect the vote to mount to more than a political effort since Democrats (More)
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Jan. 18, 2011 -- Genes may link both your family and your friends, according to a new study.

Researchers found genetic links among groups of friends that suggest people tend to form friendships with others who share at least some genetic markers with them.

"People's friends may not only have similar traits, but actually resemble each other on a genotypic level," write researcher James H. Fowler, of the division of medical genetics at the University of (More)
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Jan. 7, 2011 -- Pill splitting, a common practice among many people who are looking to cut medication costs or dosages, is risky business, according to a study in the January issue of the Journal of Advanced Nursing.

Some pills can't be split 50-50 and there can be a narrow margin between a dose that can help you and one that can hurt you, the researchers (More)
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Dec. 21, 2010 -- An experimental cystic fibrosis drug appears to delay the progression of the chronic disease in children who have normal to mildly impaired lung function, according to a new study.

''These findings are encouraging," researcher Frank Accurso (More)
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Dec. 3, 2010 -- A majority of adult Americans trust their doctors and are confident in their advice, a new survey indicates.

The new Gallup Health and Healthcare Survey shows that 70% of Americans are confident in their doctor's advice and don't feel a need to seek out a second opinion or do additional research on their own.

That's up from 64% of Americans who expressed such confidence in Gallup's 2002 survey on the same subject.

The new (More)
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Nov. 24, 2010 -- Some hospitals are no safer today than they were 10 years ago, according to a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

In 1999, an Institute of Medicine (IOM) report revealed that medical errors cause as many as 98,000 deaths and more than 1 million injuries per year. Researchers have found that despite efforts to ensure patient safety in the years since the report was published, those rates have remained largely (More)
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