An estimated 170 million people worldwide, including 3 to 5 million Americans, are infected with the hepatitis C virus, which can sit dormant for years before causing serious liver damage. As many as three quarters of those with the disease don t know they have it, according to the Centers for Disease Control. The virus is spread by shared needles, blood transfusions administered before 1992, and unprotected sex with someone who has the virus.

Under a barrage of conflicting information from medical scientists, women have been suffering the travails of severe menopausal symptoms needlessly because of a flawed 2002 study that led them to be fearful of taking hormone replacement therapy, ACSH s Dr. Gilbert Ross writes in his latest column on Examiner.com.

The tide seems to be finally turning in California.

According to recent findings, obese women are at a twofold-increased risk in developing atrial fibrillation (AF) compared to their healthy-weight counterparts.

Although ACSH and other public health groups have repeatedly encouraged parents to vaccinate their children against the human papillomavirus (HPV), which causes cervical cancer (among other unpleasant conditions, such as genital warts), some parents have been reluctant to do so out of fear it would encourage earlier sexual activity or riskier sex.

As New Yorkers prepare for the ban on the sale of some sugary sweetened beverages exceeding 16 ounces that will go into effect in March, a new study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention finds that in the last decade, consumption of calories from sugar in regula

As the summer season has drawn to a close and we enter the cooler days of fall, sunshine will become increasingly sparse and tans will start to fade. But for those who are committed to keeping a year round sun-kissed glow, indoor tanning salons offer the perfect solution. And as temperatures drop, visits to such establishments increase.

When so-called tan-a-holic mother of four Patricia Krentcil made headlines for allegedly taking her five-year-old daughter into a tanning booth, the story elicited mostly disgust nationwide both for her mistreatment of a child as well as her uncanny resemblance to burnt toast. Krentcil even became the focus of an SNL skit where her look was described as Wile E. Coyote after something blows up in his face.