Will outpatient rehab be enough for Mel?

LOS ANGELES, California (AP) -- A lot is riding on Mel Gibson's recovery from alcoholism: his health, his image, his reputation and his chance to repair relations with the Jewish community.

Pinkie points to gout in Charles V's fall

NEW YORK (AP) -- A 450-year-old piece of Charles V's pinkie lends support to the theory that it was gout that led one of the most powerful rulers of all time to abdicate, Spanish researchers report.

2006 seasonal flu vaccine formula approved

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Vaccines that protect against three strains of seasonal influenza considered most likely to strike the northern hemisphere this winter have received federal approval.

Many nut-allergic kids can't spot the culprits

NEW YORK (Reuters) -- More than one in four children with nut allergies can't identify the nut that they are allergic to, a new study shows.

Wild Blue

Growing up in upstate New York, I remember eating blueberries the size of marbles. But those were cultivated berries -- not the tiny wild ones that are in season right now, as I discovered last year when I visited the wild blueberry fields in Maine. These petite gems don't grow on big bushes like the cultivated ones, but on small plants that barely reach my knees.

Body-image disorder brings higher suicide risk

NEW YORK (Reuters) -- People with "body dysmorphic disorder" are 45 times more likely to commit suicide than people in the general population, a new study shows.

Scientists take step toward obesity vaccine

NEW YORK (Reuters) -- In what could become a new weapon in the battle of the bulge, scientists on Monday reported initial success with an experimental vaccine for obesity.

Low libido may not be due to low testosterone

NEW YORK (Reuters) -- While there's a statistical link between men's sex drive and their testosterone levels, in practice there's little meaningful difference in testosterone levels between men with low libido and those with high libido, researchers report.

Breathing your way to lower blood pressure

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Take a slow deep breath, then exhale just as slowly. Can you take fewer than 10 breaths a minute?

Doctors poke and prod Bush, find him 'fit for duty'

WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Bush's doctors pronounced him healthy and in better shape than most men his age Tuesday, but the president himself seemed a little upset about packing on some extra pounds.

Morning-after pill entangles Bush's FDA nominee

WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Bush's nominee to lead the Food and Drug Administration said Tuesday that "sound science" would guide the agency under his leadership. But Dr. Andrew von Eschenbach initially sidestepped any mention of the controversial morning-after pill.

U.S. surgeon general leaves post

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Quietly leaving his post as surgeon general, Dr. Richard Carmona said he would judge himself successful if he had persuaded one student to make good health choices or one mother to stop smoking.

Bird flu virus mix doesn't transmit easily in animal test

ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- Tests using ferrets suggest that the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus has to undergo complex genetic changes before it could develop into a pandemic flu virus, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

School vaccine season grows more complex

ATLANTA, Georgia (AP) -- The growing list of childhood vaccinations reads like an alphabet soup: Hib, HepA, HepB, IPV, PCV, MCV4, DTaP, Tdap, varicella and influenza.

Autism: Slowly unraveling, still a mystery

Autism. It's a word more often heard these days. But what autism actually is is probably less understood by the average person.

FDA considering over-the-counter sales of morning-after pill

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The government is considering allowing over-the-counter sales of the morning-after pill to women 18 and older -- a surprise move Monday that revives efforts to widen access to the emergency contraceptive almost a year after it was thought doomed.

For portion control, look to the container

NEW YORK (AP) -- How many M&MS are enough?

Stem cells: The hope and the hype

(Time.com) -- Stems-cell research has joined global warming and evolution science as fields in which the very facts are put to a vote, a public spectacle in which data wrestle dogma.

Four-drug strategy reduces repeat miscarriages

NEW YORK (Reuters) -- For women who experience repeated unexplained miscarriages, the combination of prednisone, aspirin, folate, and progesterone increases their chances of having baby, a team of clinicians from Austria reports in the journal Fertility and Sterility.

Obesity weighs more heavily on women's health

NEW YORK (Reuters) -- Being overweight puts a greater burden on women's health than men's, a new study shows.