NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Breakdancers suffer a relatively high rate of injury and many fail to give themselves time to heal, a new study suggests.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. Senate committee on Tuesday voted to confirm the nomination of Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius as health secretary, the leader of President Barack Obama's healthcare reform effort and one of the last pivotal spots in his cabinet that has not been filled.

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - The results of a study published in the American Journal of Medicine suggest there is an association between aspirin use and a decreased risk of developing type 2 diabetes.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Nearly 2 percent of the U.S. population, more than 5.5 million people, have some kind of paralysis, according to a survey published on Tuesday.

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Women with psoriasis run a higher risk of diabetes and high blood pressure, perhaps because of the underlying inflammation that causes the skin condition, researchers said on Monday.

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Despite the fancy label, hospitals designated bariatric surgery "centers of excellence" have as many deaths and complications from the weight-loss procedure as others, U.S. researchers said on Monday.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Soft drink makers should invent and market a new category of semi-sweet beverages that will help wean Americans off their reliance on sugary drinks, nutrition experts said on Monday.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The federal government's stimulus package plus budget increases will give the National Cancer Institute enough money to raise by a third the number of research projects it pays for, the agency's director said on Monday.

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Older men should visit their doctors to check for melanoma because they are less likely to find it themselves in time, U.S. researchers said on Monday.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Twenty percent of Americans say they have delayed or postponed medical care, mostly doctor visits, and many said cost was the main reason, according to a survey released on Monday.

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Dr. Bruce Psaty of University of Washington in Seattle knows how easy it can be to fall under the spell of a friendly relationship with drug companies.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Companies marketing a liquid morphine that was unapproved for sale in the United States can keep selling it for now because regulators have determined it is essential for relieving pain in some patients who are near death.

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Ten years of growth hormone treatment improves muscle strength in adults who have a deficiency of the hormone. The first five years of treatment restores muscle strength, and the second five years and thereafter slow age-related loss of strength, Swedish investigators say.

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Women who had an increase in blood pressure during pregnancy are likely to develop heart disease at an earlier age than women who maintained normal blood pressure while they were pregnant, Chilean researchers report.

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Efforts to improve food safety in the United States have "plateaued," exposing the need for an overhaul of the nation's food safety system, government health officials said on Thursday.

CHICAGO (Reuters) - The United States made little progress in 2008 at reducing the number of foodborne infections, reflecting gaps in the current food safety net and reinforcing the need for change, government health officials said on Thursday.

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Young women who have children in their teens are at greater risk of becoming fat than their peers who don't get pregnant, new research shows.

BOSTON (Reuters) - A sparse form of fat that helps keep newborns warm is more common in adults than previously thought and that discovery that could lead to a new way to lose weight, researchers said on Wednesday.

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - More than 30 percent of multivitamins tested recently by ConsumerLab.com contained significantly more or less of an ingredient than claimed, or were contaminated with lead, the company reports.

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Older women with high levels of lead in their blood are likely to die sooner -- particularly from heart disease -- than their counterparts with low lead levels, new research indicates.

LONDON (Reuters) - Patients should start taking drugs for the AIDS virus earlier to have the best chance of survival, researchers said Thursday.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. researchers said on Wednesday they had designed a new kind of malaria drug that kills the parasite that causes the disease and keeps it from becoming resistant to the drug.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A penny-per-ounce tax on sugary drinks could help fight obesity by cutting consumption and raising billions of dollars to help state and local governments pay for programs, two experts said on Wednesday.

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - People with chronic lung conditions tend to be underweight or malnourished, but dietary counseling can help them gain some weight and function better, new research shows.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Makers of 25 types of medical devices including metal hip joints and spinal screws must supply safety and effectiveness data so the government can decide if the products need a more thorough review, U.S. regulators said on Wednesday.

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Enrolling young teens in organized sports does not prevent a decline in physical activity during later teenage years, but it does seem to help them maintain some level of physical activity over time, study findings suggest.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. officials launched a AIDS awareness campaign on Tuesday they said would focus on the groups most likely to be infected, starting with black men and women and later targeting Latinos and others.

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - As a strategy for treating type 2 diabetes in obese individuals, gastric surgery to induce weight loss is effective and worth the cost, investigators in Melbourne, Australia, report.

ANAND, India (Reuters) - Shabnam had dreamed of owning a home for years, but with few prospects for her husband, she followed the lead of many poor women in her town in western India: she signed up to carry a baby for another couple.

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Both body mass index (BMI) and waist size influence a person's risk of being hospitalized with heart failure or dying of the condition, new research shows.

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - A couple cups of coffee before a tough workout may lower the chances of sore muscles later on, a small study suggests.

CHICAGO (Reuters) - U.S. marshalls served a warrant on a New Jersey company that has refused to recall peanut products at the center of a major salmonella outbreak, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said Wednesday.

NICOSIA (Reuters) - Desk jobs are increasing obesity, with many employees and employers ignorant of the risks of sitting down all day, researchers said on Wednesday.

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - People with mild cognitive impairment appear to have a lower risk of progressing to full blown dementia than previously thought, according to a new report.

PARIS (Reuters) - French surgeons have replaced parts of a burn victim's face and hands using donor tissue, in what their hospital said was the world's first combined operation of that kind.

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - A program that gets employers, pharmacists and people with diabetes to work together to reign in skyrocketing diabetes-related health care costs as well as improve patient health is showing promise, according to a report released today by the American Pharmacists Association (APhA) Foundation.

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - A patient-centered program of telephone support, close monitoring and tight control of modifiable risk factors such as high blood pressure and cholesterol levels results in a significant improvement in "risk profiles" among survivors of heart attack and other acute heart "events," research shows.

LONDON (Reuters) - Up to 70 percent of melanoma skin cancers may be triggered by a gene mutation that causes cells to become cancerous after excessive exposure to the sun, researchers said on Monday.

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Women who conceive in the spring or summer may run a higher risk of having a baby with a birth defect -- and pesticide exposure might help explain why, a new study suggests.

LONDON (Reuters) - AstraZeneca Plc faces a delay in marketing its asthma drug Symbicort to young children in the United States after regulators asked for more information, dealing a blow to an important growth driver.

HONG KONG (Reuters) - Eating two and a half ounces of baby broccoli daily for two months may protect against a common stomach bug that is linked to gastritis, ulcers and even stomach cancer, a study in Japan has found.

HONG KONG (Reuters) - Eating two and a half ounces of baby broccoli daily for two months may protect against a common stomach bug that is linked to gastritis, ulcers and even stomach cancer, a study in Japan has found.

LONDON (Reuters) - AstraZeneca Plc faces a delay in marketing its asthma drug Symbicort to young children in the United States after regulators asked for more information, dealing a blow to an important growth driver.

LONDON (Reuters) - ReNeuron reported on Monday positive results in preclinical trials of its lead line of stem cells in peripheral arterial disease (PAD).

JAKARTA/HONG KONG (Reuters) - Ria Pane took her 7-year-old daughter Kezia to a doctor in Jakarta to check on her fever and sore throat, and was prescribed seven drugs, including antibiotics and medicine to prevent febrile seizures.

JAKARTA/HONG KONG (Reuters) - Ria Pane took her 7-year-old daughter Kezia to a doctor in Jakarta to check on her fever and sore throat, and was prescribed seven drugs, including antibiotics and medicine to prevent febrile seizures.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Hospitals in the United States can help patients by doing less and could save at least $4 billion in the process, Thomson Reuters says.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Hospitals in the United States can help patients by doing less and could save at least $4 billion in the process, Thomson Reuters says.

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - A study shows that the powerful prescription painkiller oxycodone is an effective treatment for the sometimes excruciating pain of shingles.

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Black women, regardless of age or body weight, have a threefold greater risk of developing a particularly aggressive type of breast cancer, compared with non-black women, Boston-based researchers report.