Health, Fitness & Medical News

The answers to the questions of why only some people get funny-smelling urine after eating asparagus, develop Alzheimer's in old age or sneeze when looking at the sun depends on their genome.

Pot physicians, touting marijuana as a healthier alternative to pharmaceuticals, are writing medical cannabis recommendations for a far wider range of ills, from restless leg syndrome to psoriasis, from sleep apnea to menopause.

Employees are taking long walks during lunch breaks, enjoying healthier food from the cafeteria, and keeping body and mind fit with yoga and Pilates. Read who their employers are, and why they're committed to keeping employees fit.

Placer County will hold free H1N1 vaccine clinics starting Dec. 2, county officials announced Wednesday.

Health Net may have won a reprieve from the federal Government Accountability Office that staves off the company's loss of a $16 billion military contract, company officials confirmed Wednesday.

Today is your last chance to get a seasonal flu shot through one of Sacramento County's public clinics.

A letter of sympathy should have arrived at the home of Gerald and Elizabeth Hawkins 10 days after their son Scott was beaten to death.

Sacramento County Supervisors on Tuesday agreed to the declaration of a state of emergency to deal with the H1N1 flu virus.

On Saturday, 10 days after Scott Hawkins was beaten to death inside his dormitory at California State University, Sacramento, his parents got a letter in the mail. It contained a bill from the UC Davis Medical Center for $29,186.50.

El Dorado County health officials will conduct several more community flu shot clinics.

The operator of Sacramento's Mercy hospitals has reached a tentative agreement on new contracts with more than 12,000 of its nurses in California and Nevada, giving them a substantial wage boost and beefed up protections against pandemics such as the H1N1 virus.

Sacramento County's chief public health officer is recommending a state of emergency be declared in response to the accelerating spread of the H1N1 flu virus, which has killed at least 15 people in the county since April.

Doctors are no longer perceived as the only authority on health information. Almost all U.S. physicians said in a survey that at least some patients come to appointments with health information they found online.

Rock drummers, some claim, are finely tuned athletes, as fit as any long-distance runner. But to get your head around that idea, you'll have to put aside all sorts of assumptions and stereotypes.

Budget-cutting changes to the state's In-Home Supportive Services program begin today, affecting thousands of low-income seniors and disabled people and their caregivers.

Heady discussions are unfolding on Capitol Hill over the nation's health care system, but smaller debates are playing out in living rooms and workplaces across America as many go through the ritual of open enrollment.

Two Vacaville schools were closed today amid concerns about the the H1N1 virus, which authorities said might have contributed to the death of a Vacaville first-grader Sunday.

If you're considering getting the H1N1 flu shot, forget it for now, unless you are pregnant or have a very young child.

In one of the largest studies yet, UC Davis researchers said Monday that they found no real difference in blood mercury levels of children with, and without, autism.

A federal judge on Monday halted the state of California's plan to cut or reduce caregiver services for 130,000 disabled and low-income seniors starting Nov. 1.

Kennedy Joplin's roar was deafening – perhaps excruciating for her father, Steven Joplin. The 2-year-old squirmed and wailed as a nurse sprayed into her nostrils one of the Sacramento region's first doses of the H1N1 vaccine.

New research by a pair of UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine scientists confirms previous theories that people 65 and older may be protected from the most serious effects of the novel H1N1 virus by many decades' worth of previous exposure to other flu viruses.

Mercy hospitals and UC Davis Medical Center are launching a three-year partnership aimed at widening access to pediatric care at area hospitals.

Some critics of the Obama administration's plan to remake health care call it a government takeover of medicine. But Kathy Dennis doesn't think it goes far enough.

Today

Unlike noisy town-hall meetings on overhauling health care that dominated the summer in Northern California, Saturday's session in Sacramento was more pep rally than shouting match.

Three months after paramedics rolled her into Mercy San Juan Medical Center with respiratory failure, Jessica Cruz and her fiance are to be married today. And they have a healthy baby boy.

Californians may lead healthier lives than most Americans, but the state's record on health care is mostly mediocre or dismal, according to a study released today that provides a state-by-state snapshot of health care in this country.

All UC Davis Health System employees and students will be required to get seasonal and H1N1 flu vaccines, or wear facial masks throughout this flu season.