Mirror may some day help patients prepare for surgery.
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(Reuters) - A federal judge on Wednesday permanently blocked North Dakota from enforcing the country's most restrictive abortion law, a ban on ending a pregnancy once a fetal heartbeat can be detected, as early as six weeks after conception. North Dakota's only abortion clinic had challenged the law approved by the state legislature in 2013, and U.S. District Judge Daniel Hovland last July had temporarily blocked it from taking effect. "The state of North Dakota has presented no reliable medical evidence to justify the passage of this troubling law," Hovland wrote in a 25-page opinion released on Wednesday. Hovland said the U.S. Supreme Court has recognized the constitutional right of women to end a pregnancy before the fetus is determined to be viable for more than 40 years and the federal court is obligated to uphold that precedent.
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 AC/DC guitarist Malcolm Young will take a break from the Australian hard rock group he founded because of ill health, the band said in a statement on Wednesday. The pioneering group dispelled speculation that they would disband after Young, 61, took his leave, saying "the band will continue to make music." "Malcolm would like to thank the group's diehard legions of fans worldwide for their never-ending love and support," the group said in a statement. The band did not say what sort of illness Young was suffering from or whether it would cease from touring without one of its founding members. The Scotland-born Young founded AC/DC with his younger brother, Angus, in 1973.
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Abbott Laboratories Inc reported better-than-expected quarterly earnings on Wednesday, but combined sales of its nutritional products, medical devices and generic medicines were slightly below Wall Street expectations. Analysts, on average, were expecting 36 cents per share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. Wells Fargo analyst Lawrence Biegelsen said operating expenses of $2 billion in the quarter were $100 million below his forecasts, and bolstered results. Shares were up 0.4 percent at $38.14 in afternoon trading on the New York Stock Exchange, amid a 0.7 percent gain for the ARCA Pharmaceutical Index of large drugmakers. "But management is very confident that business will accelerate in the remainder of the year, led by nutritionals, where they should be able to recapture market share." Sales of nutritional products, the company's biggest product line which includes Similac infant formula and Ensure beverages for adults, fell 4 percent to $1.63 billion in the quarter.
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3D installation creates what your body might look like on the inside.
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At least 224 people in Franklin and Delaware counties have contracted the virus.
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By Ronnie Cohen NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Self-defense and empowerment classes designed to arm girls with tools to prevent rape reduced sexual assaults among Kenyan students, a new study shows. In addition, half of the nearly 2,000 girls enrolled in the intervention classes reported using skills learned in the program to stop a total of 817 sexual assaults, according to results published in Pediatrics. "This is the first time anyone's proven you can prevent rape with a simple, low-cost intervention," Dr. Jake Sinclair told Reuters Health. "It's like a vaccine." Sinclair, a pediatrician at John Muir Medical Center in Walnut Creek, California, and his wife, Lee Paiva, of No Means No Worldwide, created the series of classes after witnessing what they described as an epidemic of rape in Kenya.
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 By Allison Bond NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Moving to a new area may be hard on the mental health of children, especially adolescents, according to a new U.S. study. Based on analysis of medical records for more than a half million children, researchers found the chances a child will require mental health care rise by as much as 20 percent after a move. "Knowing how moves affect psychological health issues in children is important so families and healthcare providers can anticipate those challenges and prepare accordingly," said Jeffrey Millegan, lead author of the study and a psychiatrist at Naval Medical Center in San Diego, California. Although military families have a long tradition of moving frequently, "geographic moves are an increasingly common part of the American experience in general as our economy becomes more dynamic," Millegan told Reuters Health in an email.
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Many parents hesitate to vaccinate their children because of safety concerns.
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 Jacques Servier, founder and president of France's second-largest drugmaker, has died before his trial over Mediator, a weight-loss pill at the center of the country's biggest public health scandal in years. Servier died of old age, a company spokeswoman said on Thursday. Officials have blamed at least 500 deaths on Mediator, which was marketed to overweight diabetics but often prescribed for weight loss. Servier posted revenue of 4.2 billion euros ($5.8 billion) in 2013, making it France's second-biggest drugmaker by sales behind Sanofi.
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 Producer and director Bryan Singer has been accused of drugging and raping a teenage boy in California and Hawaii in the late 1990s, according to a lawsuit filed in U.S. court on Wednesday. Michael Egan seeks unspecified damages and a jury trial after wide-ranging abuses at California and Hawaii house parties beginning in the late 1990s, according to the civil action filed in a Hawaii federal court. The suit accuses Marc Collins-Rector, a former entertainment business executive and registered sex offender, of initiating the sexual abuse by arranging for Singer to meet Egan at "notorious parties" in Encino, California, around 1998.
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 Belgian biotech group Galapagos NV on Thursday said it has successfully concluded the phase 2a study of a skin disease drug it is developing with Britain's GlaxoSmithKline PLC. Galapagos tested drug GSK2586184 on 66 patients with chronic psoriasis and observed a 75 percent improvement in significantly more patients than in the placebo group. GSK, which owns the drug's commercial rights, will decide whether to proceed with clinical trials, Galapagos said in a statement. Galapagos said it could receive a milestone payment of up to 34 million euros ($46.94 million) as well as double-digit royalties as the program proceeds towards commercialization.
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 By Toni Clarke WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Complaints of injury linked to e-cigarettes, from burns and nicotine toxicity to respiratory and cardiovascular problems, have jumped over the past year as the devices become more popular, the most recent U.S. data show. Between March 2013 and March 2014, more than 50 complaints about e-cigarettes were filed with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, according to data obtained through a public records request. The health problems were not necessarily caused by e-cigarettes. Still, David Ashley, director of the office of science at the FDA's tobacco division, said the uptick is significant, especially in light of a recent report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showing an increase in the number of e-cigarette-related calls to poison control centers.
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By Matt Siegel SYDNEY (Reuters) - An outbreak of dengue fever at an Australian refugee detention center in the tiny Pacific island nation of Nauru sparked calls on Thursday for greater oversight at the facility, which has been criticized by rights groups and the United Nations. Australian Immigration Minister Scott Morrison's office said that medical officers at the center had confirmed three cases of the potentially fatal tropical disease, which is transmitted by mosquitoes. ...
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By Sharon Bernstein SACRAMENTO, California (Reuters) - California on Wednesday made it harder for health insurers to deny or delay coverage of key interventions for children with autism, the latest in an ongoing series of actions by U.S. states to help families obtain the expensive therapies. In tightening its rules on covering behavioral intervention for children with autism, California is tackling a problem encountered by numerous states seeking to improve access to therapies for children with autism, the state's top regulator said. "The insurance companies deny the treatment, or they delay, delay, delay," California Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones said in an interview. The new rules make it clear that insurers must cover behavioral interventions for children with autism at the same level that they cover visits to a medical doctor, Jones said.
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(Reuters) - The Foods Standards Agency (FSA) said it will begin a new round of tests on lamb takeaway meals from restaurants across the UK after the consumer watchdog found evidence of cheaper substitutes such as beef and chicken. The FSA said local authorities were being asked to test 300 samples from restaurants providing takeaway meals and report their findings to the agency. An FSA review of local authority sampling data from July to December 2013 found that 43 out of 145 samples of lamb takeaway meals contained meat other than lamb. No samples were found to contain horse meat, it said.
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(Reuters) - Britain's Foods Standards Agency (FSA) said it will begin a new round of tests on lamb takeaway meals from restaurants across the UK after the consumer watchdog found evidence of cheaper substitutes such as beef and chicken. The FSA said local authorities were being asked to test 300 samples from restaurants providing takeaway meals and report their findings to the agency. An FSA review of local authority sampling data from July to December 2013 found that 43 out of 145 samples of lamb takeaway meals contained meat other than lamb. No samples were found to contain horse meat, it said.
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 By Ben Hirschler LONDON (Reuters) - Scientists and drugmakers are pioneering a new kind of clinical trial that changes the way cancer drugs are studied, potentially cutting both the time and cost of bringing them to market. Instead of testing one drug at a time, a novel lung cancer study announced on Thursday will allow British researchers to test up to 14 drugs from AstraZeneca and Pfizer at the same time within one trial. The aim is to quickly pinpoint medicines that can fight advanced lung cancer by targeting specific rare genetic mutations - and it upends the normal approach of putting a particular drug at the centre of a study. Harpal Kumar, chief executive of charity Cancer Research UK, which is working on the 25-million-pound project with the two drugmakers, said the new approach would "re-write the rule book on how we do clinical trials".
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By Dave Warner (Reuters) - A New Jersey mother of three teenagers was charged on Wednesday with attempted murder and endangering the welfare of children after allegedly driving her minivan into the Delaware River with them inside, authorities said. Joann Smith, 49, is accused of driving the minivan off a boat ramp in Florence, about 18 miles south of Trenton, New Jersey, according to authorities. Smith and her three children, ages 13, 14 and 15, escaped from what authorities described as the partially submerged vehicle with the help of an area man, who was not identified. ...
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By Andrew M. Seaman NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - The time between football seasons may not be enough for players' brains to recover from hard hits to their heads during games and practices, suggests a new, small study. Researchers discovered changes in the white matter of 10 college football players' brains after one season, compared to people who didn't play sports. After six months of not playing, the athletes' brains were still different. "Our best guess is that it's mild brain injury - the same kind of injury that the brain would undergo after having a concussion," Dr. Jeffrey Bazarian told Reuters Health.
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By Gene Emery NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Diabetes is becoming increasingly common in the United States, but the risks of complications from the blood sugar disease have declined since 1990, according to a new study. Better preventive care for adults with diabetes contributed to a 68 percent drop in their risk of heart attacks and a 64 percent drop in deaths from high blood sugar. The risks of strokes and lower-limb amputations both fell by about one half, researchers found, and there was a 28 percent drop in cases of kidney disease so serious that dialysis or a transplant was required. ...
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 The Vermont Senate passed a bill on Wednesday that would make it the first U.S. state to enact mandatory labeling of foods made with genetically modified organisms, or GMOs. Unlike bills passed last year in Maine and Connecticut, which require other states to pass GMO labeling laws before they can be enacted, Vermont's contains no such trigger clause. Vermont's effort comes as the developers of genetically modified crops and the $360 billion U.S. packaged food industry push for passage of an opposing bill introduced in Congress last week that would nullify any law that would require labeling of foods made with genetically modified crops. GMO labeling is just one front in an increasingly high-stakes food fight raging in the United States, where consumers increasingly are demanding to know where their food comes from and how it was produced.
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 Doctor Pens Controversial Op-Ed Comparing HIV to Diabetes
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 Vials Containing SARS Fragments Not Dangerous, But Hint at Vulnerability
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In a victory for consumers, a federal appeals court on Wednesday directed that litigation about a product linked to the death of an infant be made public, saying the manufacturer could not keep the details secret to protect its image. Overturning a lower court's findings, the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said allowing the manufacturer known in court papers as Company Doe to maintain confidentiality "effectively shut out" the public and the press from their constitutional right to obtain access to civil proceedings. "A corporation very well may desire that the allegations lodged against it in the court of litigation be kept from public view to protect its corporate image, but the First Amendment right of access does not yield to such an interest," Circuit Judge Henry Floyd wrote for the appeals court. Three consumer advocacy groups - the Consumer Federation of America, Consumers Union and Public Citizen - had sought to make the records public and reveal Company Doe's identity.
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 If you really want to learn how babies are made, you need to know about Juno and Izumo. Fertilization takes place when an egg cell and a sperm cell recognize one another and fuse to form an embryo. Researchers said on Wednesday they have identified a protein on the egg cell's surface that interacts with another protein on the surface of a sperm cell, allowing the two cells to join. This protein, dubbed Juno in honor of the ancient Roman goddess of fertility and marriage, and its counterpart in sperm, named Izumo after a Japanese marriage shrine, are essential for reproduction in mammals including people, they said.
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 Miley Cyrus has canceled a concert in St. Louis on Wednesday as she remains hospitalized from a "severe allergic reaction to antibiotics," according to a statement issued from the pop star's spokeswoman. Cyrus, 21, who is currently on the North American leg of her "Bangerz" tour, also had to cancel her Tuesday concert in Kansas City, Missouri, because of the allergic reaction which landed her in the hospital. "The hospital is sayin i wont b released today," Cyrus said on Twitter on Wednesday.
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 By Radu Marinas and Bogdan Cristel BUCHAREST (Reuters) - When French film actress Brigitte Bardot began a campaign to spare the thousands of stray dogs in Romania's capital from being put down, she did it with a $150,000 donation scheme. A similar campaign is being waged by Ana-Maria Ciulcu, a 13-year-old schoolgirl with braces on her teeth who uses Facebook to appeal to dog lovers all over Europe - and to make sure the dogs go to the right homes. Ciulcu was a baby when Bardot started her sterilization campaign in 2001. But Bucharest's state-funded wards now hold 2,800 dogs, and 2,000 dogs have been euthanized in the past two months, according to Romania's Authority for Animal Surveillance and Protection.
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 By Kathryn Doyle NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Cutting boards used to prepare raw poultry may be an important source of drug-resistant bacteria in hospital kitchens and private homes, according to a new study. The more bacteria are exposed to antibiotics, the higher the chance they will develop resistance to the drugs. Unnecessary exposure can happen in humans who take antibiotic drugs they don't need, like for the common cold, which is caused by a virus and not affected by antibiotics. It can also happen when large numbers of livestock are given feed laced with antibiotics to help them grow faster and larger.
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Vials containing SARS fragments not dangerous, but hint at vulnerability.
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 In the study, all of the ferrets were infected with canine distemper virus, which is closely related to measles. "The emergence of strong antiviral immunity in treated animals is particularly encouraging, since it suggests that the drug may not only save an infected individual from disease but contribute to closing measles immunity gaps in a population," Dr. Richard Plemper of Georgia State University said in a statement. The drug was developed specifically for measles. Plemper said it wasn't possible to test the drug against the measles virus because there is no model that replicates human measles in animals.
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 Departing Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, who took withering criticism over the botched rollout of President Barack Obama's signature healthcare law, is considering a run for the U.S. Senate in Kansas, The New York Times reported on Wednesday. Sebelius, a former Kansas governor, is weighing overtures from Democrats who want her to run for the Senate seat occupied by Republican Pat Roberts, the newspaper said, quoting unidentified Democrats. A run for the Senate would be a bold move in a solidly Republican state after Sebelius oversaw the introduction last October of the policy known as Obamacare, becoming a lightning rod for critics of the health insurance reform law. Republicans have made problems with the health care law, which they view as a step towards socialized medicine, as the central theme of their campaign to wrest control of the Senate away from Democrats and strengthen their grip on the House of Representatives.
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Mirror may some day help patients prepare for surgery.
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 NEW YORK (AP) — In the midst of the diabetes epidemic, a glimmer of good news: Heart attacks, strokes and other complications from the disease are plummeting.
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 The Ebola virus that has killed scores of people in Guinea this year is a new strain — evidence that the disease did not spread there from outbreaks in some other African nations, scientists report.
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 PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Call it the Big Flush 2, and this time the sequel promises to be much bigger than the original.
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 By David Stanway BEIJING (Reuters) - China's capital has ordered more than 50 companies to shut down this year in an effort to cut pollution but pushing factories out could raise objections in surrounding areas reluctant to host Beijing's polluters. Smog-shrouded Beijing and the surrounding province of Hebei have become a front in a "war against pollution" declared by Premier Li Keqiang last month. But experts say efforts to cut coal consumption and industrial output in big cities like Beijing is likely to put pressure on other regions to endure more pollution to keep the economy growing, with overall coal consumption expected to rise by a quarter from 2011 to 2015. "Moving Beijing's plants to Hebei isn't the best way," said Yang Fuqiang, a former government researcher and senior energy and environment adviser with the National Resources Defense Council, a U.S.-based think-tank.
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Reporter Carl Azuz tells us when it's OK to use a drug that has expired and when it's not. 
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Making health news: benefits of marriage, kids and cholesterol and unfilled prescriptions. 
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CNN's Holly Firfer tells us about a new study that finds eating plenty of fruits and veggies may help us live longer. 
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CNN's Holly Firfer looks at some popular claims to find out if they are 'old wives' tales.' 
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Measles...how do you know you have them and what can you do to protect yourself? 
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CNN's Carl Azuz looks at how to prepare for a visit to the vet. 
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CNN's Carl Azuz introduces us to a new campaign that brings attention to our bottoms and colon cancer. 
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CNN's Carl Azuz looks at the importance of having good posture and highlights some of our common mistakes. 
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CNN's Martha Shade gives us tips on how to handle allergy symptoms this spring. 
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CNN's Martha Shade tells us about this week's health headlines from probiotics and children to mid-life crises. 
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With Ebola, we humans are the invaders. The sense of being an alien in the world of this virus is jarring. 
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Scientists have made significant strides in being able to decode thoughts based on brain activity. 
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With Ebola, we humans are the invaders. The sense of being an alien in the world of this virus is jarring.
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Do some people really need to work out -- and will they suffer withdrawal symptoms if they don't? 
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The world is smaller and people are more mobile than ever. What's happening anywhere on the globe can harm Americans' health. 
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Our lives have increasingly become more digital today. While some may see this as a benefit, others are finding that it can literally be a pain in the eye. 
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Dr. Charles Raison, CNN's mental health expert, addresses two questions from readers on anxiety. 
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This week, the U.S. Preventive Service Task Force issued its long-awaited guideline on lung cancer screening. 
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A former Georgia hospital technician was sentenced to up to six months in prison after pleading guilty to manipulating the mammogram records of 1,289 patients. Ten of those women were given false negatives, and two of them are now dead, a prosecutor says. 
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As many as 12 million to 18 million Americans have obstructive sleep apnea, and many don't know it. 
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Do some people really need to work out -- and will they suffer withdrawal symptoms if they don't?
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CNN's Anthony Bourdain talks to Dr. Sanjay Gupta about enjoying local food and health risks of eating while abroad. 
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You can't juice all day every day and expect to stay healthy, experts say. We answer your most pressing questions about this diet trend. 
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Numerous research studies have uncovered benefits to working out that aren't necessarily visible from the outside. 
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Researchers have been studying the placebo effect for decades -- and there's plenty of evidence it works. Learn three ways to use it. 
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Two brain map studies released Wednesday in the journal Nature describe the brain in different ways. 
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Nightly gunshots wake Veronica Morris. 
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Her brother's sudden death in 2004 hit Sarah Huerta hard. 
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Cady Stanton used to find solace in the sweet taste of ice cream. Now she finds solace in her new self image. 
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Denny McLain is a recognizable name to almost any baseball fan. But even his best friends wouldn't recognize him today. 
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Sara Lugger was skeptical as she placed her first $5 bet. But she realized that all she had to lose was 140 pounds. 
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Several myths prevail about what you can expect in the emergency room. Here are five that need to be declared DOA. 
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The FDA program that allows patients to use experimental drugs is called "compassionate use." Some, including a biotechnology industry group, wonder if there might be a way to make it a little more compassionate. 
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When Elizabeth Joice found out that she was pregnant, she and her husband, Max, were ecstatic. 
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Scientists have grown reproductive organs and nasal cartilage in labs, and successfully implanted them in patients. 
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Experts say electrical stimulation in the spinal cord is another step toward helping paralyzed people walk again. 
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When Sia Figiel started believing in herself, she realized she could go a lot farther than she'd ever thought possible. 
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I used to fill up on stuff, not really knowing what I was eating but just going through the motions until I got my "fix." Most of the time I was left with guilt, gas and a growing stomach to accompany my gluttony. 
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There's not enough time. That was the excuse I used for 19 years. Now I know there's enough time. I just have to make time. 
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CNN's Carl Azuz tells us that some wipes made for your face, fingers and fannies can cause serious allergies. 
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CNN's Melisa Raney gives us the latest health news about flu drugs, sneezing, and whether procrastination is genetic. 
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Women are at higher risk for some eye diseases than men and the majority aren't aware of this. 
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Our pets could provide new insights into disease
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A US trial of hi-tech goggles could reduce the need for secondary operations for cancer patients.
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A PhD student has allowed bees to sting him 190 times - to find out which part of the body it hurts the most.
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New technology such as smartphones and tablets could be affecting how much sleep people get, a survey suggests.
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As the government moves forward with plans to ban branding on cigarette packs in England, the BBC's Peter Taylor visits a tobacconist in Australia where a ban was introduced in 2011.
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The emotional problems associated with loneliness have long been acknowledged, but now there is evidence that being lonely has an impact on overall health.
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The Ebola outbreak that has killed 78 people in Guinea is "unprecedented", a medical charity has said
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President Barack Obama has said that 7.1 million people have signed up for health coverage under the Affordable Care Act.
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The World Health Organization has declared its South East Asia region polio-free, so 80% of the world is now officially free of the disease.
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Does it matter that drug firms give doctors money and gifts?
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Boston marathon bombing survivors cope with aftermath
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Can you live without processed food?
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The glasses that help surgeons find cancer
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Why parents who have a stillbirth are now being listened to
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The man who isolated a virus causing cancer
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The Ugandans who pay for bogus HIV results to get jobs
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Did heading the ball cause footballers' deaths?
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How safe are e-cigarettes – and should they be banned?
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How this 21-year-old coped with the horrors of WW1
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Actors faking ailments to help doctors perform
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Researchers have developed a new type of pressure sensor - dubbed a "second skin" - which they say could prevent dangerous sores.
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UK drug company GlaxoSmithKline is facing a criminal investigation in Poland for allegedly bribing doctors, BBC Panorama discovers.
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Hundreds of millions of pounds have been wasted on Tamiflu, a drug for flu that may work no better than paracetamol, a landmark analysis says.
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A patient who awoke from an anaesthetic minutes before major surgery speaks of the "terrifying" experience.
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Four women have had new vaginas grown in the laboratory and implanted by doctors in the US.
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The Ebola outbreak could take up to four months to contain as the number of people killed by the virus in Guinea passes 100, the UN says.
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Spending lots of time on Facebook looking at pictures of friends could make women insecure about their bodies, research suggests.
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Young men with an eating disorder are not getting the help and support they need because of perceptions about a "women's illness", say researchers.
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An elderly organ in a living animal has been regenerated into a youthful state by DNA manipulation for the first time, UK researchers say.
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Four paralysed men have been able to move their legs for the first time in years after electrical stimulation of their spinal cords, US doctors report.
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The number of people who donated their organs after death in Scotland almost doubled over a six-year period, according to government figures.
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Kits allowing people to test themselves for HIV at home can be bought over the counter in the UK for the first time - but no kits exist yet in Britain.
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Dentists say elite athletes could stand a better chance of winning gold medals if they took more care of their teeth.
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A Japanese researcher creates glasses that show computer-generated eyes that express emotions so that the wearer does not need to bother.
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The boom and bust of men's beard fashions may mirror Darwinian selection, scientists say.
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Should we pay to be members of the NHS?
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