A study by researchers in Oregon finds that secondhand smoke increases the levels of a known carcinogen in waitstaff and bartenders at a surprisingly fast rate
A single pill appears to hold promise in curbing the urges to both smoke and drink, according to researchers trying to help people overcome addiction by targeting a pleasure center in the brain
You've got achy shoulders from carrying the kids, the groceries, or your incredibly heavy handbag. You look for the right pill to pop, but what should you take? Aspirin? Ibuprofen? Or, you're about to get your period. You know you'll get killer cramps or that nasty headache any minute now, but nothing you take seems to help once the pain hits.
Two nurses accused in the post-Katrina deaths of four patients at New Orleans' Memorial Medical Center have been offered immunity to testify before a special grand jury, sources close to the investigation tell CNN.
A game-show in which kidney patients compete to win a donor organ -- it sounded too weird to be true. It was
Smoking is forbidden in nearly three out of four U.S. households, a dramatic increase from the 43 percent of homes that prohibited smoking a decade ago
A word of warning: this article could adversely affect your health. It all depends on how sticker shock affects your system.
In a partnership of unlikely allies, Wal-Mart's CEO, other corporate leaders and the head of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) called Wednesday for universal health care coverage for all Americans by 2012.
In 1982, transplant surgeon Dr. Clive Callender and his colleagues sat down to took a look at African-American organ donation numbers, and they were grim.
Even if you're in perfect health now, just thinking about the cost of medical care is bound to make you feel a little ill. With the price of everything from hospital visits to prescription drugs up...
Health insurance premiums this year rose 7.7 percent, the lowest growth rate in six years but still more than double the growth rate in inflation and worker earnings, according to the latest survey from Kaiser Family Foundation.
U.S. District Judge Gladys Kessler ruled Thursday that the tobacco industry engaged in a decades-long racketeering enterprise that conspired to hide the dangers of smoking.
As more and more hotels go completely smoke-free, a German entrepreneur is bucking the trend by launching an airline for those determined not to kick the habit.
In the desperate days after hurricane Katrina struck, a doctor and two nurses at a flooded New Orleans hospital allegedly killed four patients by giving them a lethal drug cocktail, Louisiana's top law enforcement official said Tuesday.
A doctor and two nurses were charged with second-degree murder Tuesday after Louisiana's attorney general launched an extensive investigation to uncover whether hospital staff euthanized some patients after Hurricane Katrina hit, a source close to the case told CNN.
Despite prompting from two Democrats, General Motors CEO Rick Wagoner stopped short Thursday of asking Congress to take a broad-based reform of the health care system.
The Florida Supreme Court Thursday upheld a ruling tossing out a $145 billion verdict against Big Tobacco but also agreed with many of the findings criticizing the industry for selling a dangerous product.
Despite the Memorial Day holiday, there was no rest for obesity researchers in the major medical journals.
Danny Boone donated a section of his liver to his brother, a gift of life that led to his death.
The clock is ticking off the seconds to a midnight Monday deadline for an estimated 5 million eligible Americans to enroll in Medicare's prescription drug benefit program or face penalties when they sign up later.
Operators are standing by to help the estimated 5 million eligible Americans who have not enrolled in Medicare's prescription drug benefit program, the Health and Human Services secretary said Sunday.
Rising gas prices and health care costs have cut into the retirement savings efforts American households, according to a report released Thursday.
The Food and Drug Administration approved Chantix, the smoking cessation drug from Pfizer.
An anti-smoking organization is accusing WebMD of betraying its patrons by couching an advertisement bankrolled by Philip Morris as an "information resource" for people who want to quit smoking.
Although Dana Reeve said that she had never smoked, most lung cancers are associated with smoking or exposure to secondhand smoke.
An average couple retiring this year will need $200,000 to cover their healthcare costs for 20 years in retirement, not including the expense of long-term care should they need it.
The truth hurts. What's the No. 1 cause of disability in the U.S.? It's not heart disease (despite the 1.2 million heart attacks that will show up in the E.R. this year). Nor is it addiction (despi...
A lobbyist assistant in Washington, Donna Watts-Brighthaupt says she hopes to give up fatty foods and quit smoking.
A lobbyist assistant in Washington, Donna Watts-Brighthaupt says she hopes to give up fatty foods and quit smoking.
A lobbyist assistant in Washington, Donna Watts-Brighthaupt says she hopes to give up fatty foods and quit smoking.
President Bush will propose new tax breaks for personal health spending during his State of the Union address next week, a newspaper reported Wednesday.
A lobbyist assistant in Washington, D.C., Donna Watts-Brighthaupt hopes to persuade herself to give up fatty foods and quit smoking.
More than one medical professional is under scrutiny as a possible person of interest as Louisiana's attorney general investigates whether hospital workers resorted to euthanasia in the chaotic days after Hurricane Katrina shattered New Orleans, a source familiar with the investigation has told CNN.
hanges in your existing insurance. They'll be flooding you with marketing materials about new coverage options. And as if the postal deluge weren't enough, you're likely to be bombarded with information and pitches on television, on the radio and in print over the next few months too. ...
Pfizer failed to prove that Lipitor, its top-selling cholesterol reducer, does a significantly better job in reducing fatal heart attacks that Merck's cholesterol-cutting Zocor, the company said at the American Heart Association conference Tuesday.
Pfizer, one of the top players in the $60 billion market for heart-disease drugs, said that next week it will unveil data on an experimental smoking cessation drug that analysts say has blockbuster potential.
If you are age 65 or older, brace yourself for a lot of mail. From your former employers. And insurers. From Uncle Sam. And still more insurers. They will be showering you with information about ch...
Louisiana Attorney General Charles Foti Jr. has issued 73 subpoenas in an investigation into allegations that euthanasia may have taken place at one of the hospitals flooded by Hurricane Katrina, he told CNN Wednesday night.
General Motors Corp. confirmed Wednesday evening that the Securities and Exchange Commission has subpoenaed records from it about its accounting practices, creating further headaches for the already embattled automaker.
General Motors Corp. announced an agreement Monday with the United Auto Workers union that the troubled automaker says will save billions in health care costs.
The Louisiana attorney general's office is investigating allegations that three days after Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, staff at Memorial Medical Center discussed euthanizing patients they thought might not survive. The attorney general has requested that autopsies be performed on all 45 bodies taken from the hospital.
Three days after Hurricane Katrina flooded New Orleans, staff members at the city's Memorial Medical Center had repeated discussions about euthanizing patients they thought might not survive the ordeal, according to a doctor and nurse manager who were in the hospital at the time.
When and how to end one's life is one of the most emotionally charged and divisive issues of our times.
WASHINGTON, D.C. (CNN/Money) - When you work for a company, your employer typically foots a large portion, if not all of your health insurance premiums. That money, which is not reported on your W2, is tax-free to you.
Q. What happens if my situation changes?
Q. How do I know if the benefit is right for me?
NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - The good news: The growth rate in the cost of employer-sponsored health insurance plan premiums declined for the second year in a row and ended four consecutive years of double-digit growth rates.
Second-hand tobacco smoke is costing the U.S. economy more than $10 billion a year, according to a study released Wednesday, although those costs are significantly lower than they were before programs initiated to limit smoking in workplaces and other public facilities.
NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Many states have been hiking cigarette taxes for years, claiming that they discourage smoking and contribute much-needed tax revenues to state coffers.
The Bush administration agreed Wednesday to ask Congress for more money to meet veterans' health care expenses after disclosing last week a politically embarrassing $1 billion shortfall in the program.
India's recent decision to ban smoking in movies and on television has ignited controversy in the popular Bollywood film industry, despite government officials' claims that such scenes glamorize tobacco use.
General Motors Corp. is set to take unilateral action to reduce its health care expenses if it doesn't get concessions from the United Auto Workers union by the end of the month, according to a published report.
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday ruled doctors can be blocked from prescribing marijuana for patients suffering from pain caused by cancer or other serious illnesses.
WHAT DO GENERAL MOTORS' WOES, the Medicare prescription-drug law, the state and local health-care time bomb described in the previous story, and Congress's recent refusal to trim soaring state Medi...
Hong Kong smokers beware -- your legislators haven't finished with you just yet.
CNN.com asked its users for their views on the national debate surrounding the rights of patients and their families. Here is a sampling from thousands of responses, some of which have been edited.
The next contentious end-of-life issue: assisted suicide. How Oregon offers a way out.
The film "Mar Adentro" -- or "The Sea Inside" -- tells the true story of a quadriplegic who wanted to end his life, and in the process became Spain's most famous case of euthanasia.
Are companies getting more intrusive in dictating private behaviors?
For Pamela Badgerow Adams, 53, and her husband Normer, 54, the past two years have been a medical nightmare. A rare intestinal ailment sent their elder son to the hospital, their younger son was ho...
Dutch health officials are considering guidelines doctors could follow for euthanizing terminally ill people "with no free will," including children, the severely mentally retarded and patients in irreversible comas.
As the time for New Year's resolutions approaches, many people will put healthier habits at the top of their list, only to abandon those lofty goals by Jan. 2. But most folks agree that money talks...
ALTRIA associate general counsel William Ohlemeyer sounded confident at a late-October press conference. He was belting out the many "compelling" reasons to anticipate that the Florida supreme cour...
England could become the latest country to ban smoking in public places, including restaurants and most pubs and bars, under a government proposal.
The European Union has launched an aggressive anti-smoking drive with grisly photos of rotten lungs, throat tumors and decayed teeth that it hopes will be used on cigarette packets.
With no cure in sight for soaring medical costs, big businesses have officially declared our health-care system DOA. GE, AT&T, and more than 100 other organizations affiliated with the National Coa...
Britain's health minister has come under fire for saying that smoking is one of the last pleasures left for the poor.
Washington is aflutter over charges that the White House may have covered up the true cost of the prescription drug bill. But whoever may have told Medicare's actuary not to share what with whom, t...
Ireland's controversial new anti-smoking law has kicked in, delighting health campaigners while promising hefty fines to those who defy the ban.
The prescription-drug bill vigorously pushed by President Bush aroused a great deal of attention and controversy when it was being debated by Congress, and then after its passage.
Year after year of double-digit insurance-premium hikes have some small businesses fearing for their health. Some have stopped providing health insurance. But an increasing number are offering "con...
The death of Kjeston "Michelle" Rodgers was, by all accounts, an accident. The 40-year-old single mother of three daughters was walking in a dimly lit area outside a General Electric plant in Louis...
A weird but true fact about modern medical insurance: The healthiest way to deal with a managed-care company is to own stock in it. If you're covered by a medical benefits plan and actually go to t...
Jerry Shay, president of KME America, is on the front lines of small business' fight against rising medical costs. Over the past three years he has watched the health insurance premiums at his 11-p...
This fall, the annual ritual of picking a health plan will be more challenging than ever. Set aside, for a moment, people's heightened sense of financial vulnerability since September's attacks on ...
Recently my father-in-law entered a hospital for treatment of a serious illness. To ensure his constant care, our family arranged for a 24-hour-a-day health-care aide, whose salary was not covered ...
If you're like most people, you probably didn't know that May 31 was World No Smoking Day. But that Thursday, as you sat at your desk and stared at your computer, anti-smoking activists all over th...
For David Titcomb, buying health insurance is a bit like buying a candy bar. Over time the price keeps rising and the bar keeps shrinking. As the president of Titcomb Associates, a land-surveying f...
If you're among the millions of smokers who resolve to quit each New Year's Day, only to find yourself a few days later dejectedly puffing away, take heart. A revolution in medical understanding of...
April 1 was the day the Senate Commerce Committee voted, 19 to 1, in favor of tough new tobacco legislation, and for the tobacco industry it must have felt like a really bad April Fools' joke. Havi...
So you've decided to quit smoking. But you've tried to go cold turkey before and this time you want help. Maybe lots of help. We found six U.S. spas and health centers with programs aimed at folks ...
Last month's sweeping tobacco settlement appears to herald a new era in which heavily regulated cigarette makers must disclose the true health hazards of their products and make do without popular ...
With the exception of raising the 24 cents-a-pack cigarette tax, Congress has so far avoided proposing in-your-face tax hikes to pay for health reform. But don't be fooled. Lawmakers are lining up ...
Our Nexis search was ''SMOK! W/25 30 PERCENT AND DATE AFT 6/1/94,'' and it instantly hit pay dirt. We were asking for all news stories since June 1 wherein any references to smokers or smoking appe...
LOST IN THE BABBLE over health care reform are two fearsome facts that many companies are just beginning to discern -- and that have them sweating. First, President Clinton's plan would shift respo...
Companies are getting even tougher on cigarette fiends now that the Environmental Protection Agency has declared that secondhand smoke causes cancer. Employers such as PepsiCo, Federal Express, Du ...
THE WINSOME schoolgirl at right below, Jennifer Darling, 17, of Mansfield, Massachusetts, suffers from one of the most terrifying and mysterious conditions challenging modern medicine. It goes by t...
Scalpels are poised to start operating on the nation's $839 billion health- care system. Although there is no consensus yet on where the knife should fall, it appears increasingly likely that you'l...
Are you healthy? If so, you may qualify for unusually low universal life or term rates. More and more life insurance companies are tinkering with the three main rate classes that partly determine t...
THE BATTLE over benefits has grabbed a starring role in the corporate drama of the 1990s. Companies gasping for profits in a sluggish economy are no longer willing to bear giant, fast-growing expen...
OUR roundtable discussion with five health-care authorities echoed reader suggestions about how medical costs could be reduced and provided several tips on how you can be a smarter, more aggressive...
When John Morey learned that health insurance costs for his 40-person electronics firm would shoot up 50% last year, he didn't get mad, he got even. He started by scrapping the traditional medical ...
Funny thing about smoking. It really does seem to be getting quite unpopular, especially among the intellectual classes, who just go on getting more and more agitated about the need to stop the wee...
IF YOU THINK your company's medical costs are off the fever charts, listen to Harry Featherstone. He's president and CEO of Will-Burt, an Orrville, Ohio, fabricator of automotive parts that employs...
WHAT ARE NOW EQUAL to half of all pretax profits and rising fast? Answer: company health benefits. No wonder managers are desperate. And no wonder many of them are marveling at a plan adopted by on...
The law does not apply to companies that make their living off tobacco. We're talking about New York City's Local Law No. 2, Title 17, Chapter 5, which bans smoking in hallways, open work areas, an...
IMAGINE A RECENT FORTUNE 500 retiree named Fred, a prince of an employee over the years, but right now a corporate horror. Fred, 60, is covered by his company's health plan and has a life expectanc...
AMERICA'S TOP CEOs view rocketing health care costs as a drain on profits and a threat to the very competitiveness of U.S. industry. Health care consumes more than 11% of GNP -- twice the bite it t...
More than any of its predecessors, the Surgeon General's latest report on smoking is a treasure trove of nicotinic esoterica. Flipping randomly through the pages, one learns, for example, that the ...
The war against smoking is turning into a jihad against people who smoke. Smokers are being exiled from public and private places and are facing discrimination in employment. The reason, we are tol...
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