More on Medicine
By Shari Roan, Los Angeles Times
End-of-life medical decisions, such as whether to stop treatment or discontinue life support, are often difficult for friends or relatives...
By Shari Roan, Los Angeles Times
Fever in a child is scary for parents. It doesn't matter how high the temperature is. If it's low, you're worried it's going to rise. If it'...
By Amanda Leigh Mascarelli, Special to the Los Angeles Times
As Americans' waistlines continue to grow, so does the number of people who aren't getting a good night's sleep.
By Thomas H. Maugh II, Los Angeles Times
With record U.S. obesity rates and newly expanded Food and Drug Administration eligibility criteria for Lap-Band surgery, more and more...
By Chris Woolston, Special to the Los Angeles Times
Big-time, bed-rattling snoring is more than just a detriment to good sleep or happy relationships. It's also a sign that airways aren't open...
By Amanda Leigh Mascarelli, Special to the Los Angeles Times
Many people with sleep apnea are not aware that they have it. Because the disorder is so prevalent, sleep experts say that doctors should...
By Valerie Ulene, Special to the Los Angeles Times
Malpractice is on everyone's mind these days. In his recent State of the Union address, President Obama voiced his support for malpractice...
By Valerie Ulene, Special to the Los Angeles Times
No one wants to think about the possibility that something will go wrong — that an error will be made — with his or her...
By Francesca Lunzer Kritz, Special to the Los Angeles Times
When Steven Dimmick, 31, was diagnosed with HIV seven years ago, his doctors felt confident they could find a regimen of drugs to help him...
By Shari Roan, Los Angeles Times
Charlie's Sheen's most recent antics have led to the cancellation of his show for the remainder of the season just days before Sheen was...
By Shari Roan, Los Angeles Times
Hot flashes and night sweats at menopause are uncomfortable and annoying to many women. But they are also associated with a reduced risk...
By Shari Roan, Los Angeles Times
Schizophrenia is a severe, complicated illness. There are no obvious explanations for what causes the condition, which causes hallucinations...
By Shari Roan, Los Angeles Times
Drug addictions plague about 22.5 million Americans, according to recent statistics. But promising scientific research may one day begin...
By Shari Roan, Los Angeles Times
Osteoporosis drugs known as bisphosphonates have pros and cons that should be carefully considered by doctors and their patients,...
By Melissa Healy, Los Angeles Times
The melancholy mind and the broken heart: For poets and philosophers through the ages, the two have been fellow travelers, chicken and egg,...
By Melissa Healy, Los Angeles Times
From an early age, congenital heart problems have given Bruce Lowen a will to survive that drew open admiration from his doctors and...
By Jill U. Adams, Special to the Los Angeles Times
Sometimes less is more in breast cancer treatment; so says a study that made headlines earlier this month: The finding, published in the...
By Marc Siegel
The premise: Annie (Jennie Garth) is a waitress, a widow and a mother with a big problem. Her 6-year-old daughter, Taylor (Dannika...
By Melissa Healy, Los Angeles Times
In his years as a banker and then an automobile executive, Fred Deutsch never let on that he labored in the shadow of depression. He got...
By Shari Roan, Los Angeles Times
It's an annual rite most women would prefer to skip: a trip to the doctor for a checkup that includes shedding every stitch of clothing,...
The artificial vessels created by Humacyte do not perfectly mimic nature's recipe. They lack a major component of natural vessels: the...
By Amber Dance, Special to the Los Angeles Times
Heart bypass patients may soon be able to get new arteries without having to sacrifice vessels from other parts of their body, thanks to...
By Shari Roan, Los Angeles Times
Understanding how certain genes function is a key to finding treatments that could reverse disease processes and abnormalities including,...
By Shari Roan, Los Angeles Times
Soldiers fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan are sustaining a significant rate of complex musculoskeletal injuries that will require medical...
By Shari Roan, Los Angeles Times
Warm weather is known to aggravate multiple sclerosis, increasing the number of lesions that develop in the brain and spinal cord and...
By Thomas H. Maugh II, Los Angeles Times
The Food and Drug Administration has approved marketing the Lap-Band weight-loss surgery to patients who are significantly less obese than...
By Shari Roan, Los Angeles Times
Knee replacement surgery has become common in the last 30 years, and more younger people with bad knees are considering the surgery. A study...
By Shari Roan, Los Angeles Times
Biomarkers are substances in the body that provide clues to a disease or injury. Researchers announced Wednesday that they have identified a...
By Shari Roan, Los Angeles Times
Zinc lozenges, tablets or syrup taken at the first signs of a cold may shorten the duration of the illness, researchers reported Tuesday....
By Shari Roan, Los Angeles Times
Drinking problems in adolescence may be passed off as "just a phase" that a person may outgrow. But a study suggests instead that problem...