http://www.post-gazette.com/ Health, Science, Environment, Medicare news en-us Copyright 2010, post-gazette.com. Wed, 10 Mar 2010 22:45:04 -0500 15 http://www.post-gazette.com/includes/2007design/images/150x30pg_now_logo.gif http://www.post-gazette.com/ 144 39 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10069/1041397-96.stm?cmpid=healthscience.xml Need to find a hotel in Starkville, Miss.? Find one with confidence at TripAdvisor.com, or any number of online websites. Wed, 10 Mar 2010 02:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10069/1041567-115.stm?cmpid=healthscience.xml Let's say you are a boy who collects frogs and snakes from a neighborhood bog and who keeps a spectacled caiman and boa constrictor as pets. Further, you take the boa into the family pool to cavort, although the human swimmers might have used a different verb. Wed, 10 Mar 2010 02:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10069/1041568-115.stm?cmpid=healthscience.xml WASHINGTON -- China and India formally agreed Tuesday to join the international climate change agreement reached in December in Copenhagen, the last two major economies to sign up. Wed, 10 Mar 2010 02:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10069/1041539-113.stm?cmpid=healthscience.xml Allegheny County has hired a consultant to conduct energy audits in 104 municipal building all over the county as part of its Energy Efficiency & Conservation Program, a part of a broad energy conservation policy that County Executive Dan Onorato implemented last year. Wed, 10 Mar 2010 00:19:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10069/1041165-114.stm?cmpid=healthscience.xml Special events: Community Care, which is part of UPMC, is sponsoring its annual spring conference, "Creating Hope: Developing Communities of Care for Children, Youth, Young Adults and Families." Wed, 10 Mar 2010 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10069/1041166-114.stm?cmpid=healthscience.xml Events: The American Cancer Society is sponsoring a Daffy Workout, include toning, strength training, aerobics, water aerobics, spin, yoga and ta'i chi, from 8:30 to 11 a.m. March 20. Wed, 10 Mar 2010 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10069/1041398-114.stm?cmpid=healthscience.xml Early last week, Walter Breidigan felt tired and had a funny sensation of dizziness, like his blood pressure was plummeting down. The symptoms were familiar. Wed, 10 Mar 2010 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10069/1041399-114.stm?cmpid=healthscience.xml "I'm no longer afraid of a buffet," said Antoinette Jucha, 70, of Scott. "I've made my peace with food." Ms. Jucha has been overweight all her life. Wed, 10 Mar 2010 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10069/1041427-53.stm?cmpid=healthscience.xml Seniors at The Residence on Fifth assisted-living facility in Oakland were notified Monday that the facility would close on May 8, with a sale of the property to Carnegie Mellon University pending this spring. Wed, 10 Mar 2010 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10069/1041486-258.stm?cmpid=healthscience.xml Maple syrup season is late due to unseasonably cold days, but the recent rise in temperatures is giving producers some hope. Wed, 10 Mar 2010 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10069/1041487-114.stm?cmpid=healthscience.xml WASHINGTON -- Thousands of liberal public-option backers and conservative tea partiers launched last-chance campaigns Tuesday in the nation's capital to persuade Congress to pass -- or reject -- sweeping health care legislation. Wed, 10 Mar 2010 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10069/1041524-114.stm?cmpid=healthscience.xml An unusual study done in 49 remote Hutterite farming colonies in western Canada has provided the surest proof yet that giving flu shots to schoolchildren protects a whole community from the disease. Wed, 10 Mar 2010 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10068/1041241-455.stm?cmpid=healthscience.xml For most of their 18-year-old daughter Hannah's life, Russell and Robalee Bruesewitz have been engaged in legal battle over compensation for her seizure disorder, which they believe was caused by a vaccine. Tue, 9 Mar 2010 06:33:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10068/1041333-115.stm?cmpid=healthscience.xml In the Iranian desert, at a sprawling industrial site ringed by barbed wire and antiaircraft guns, a shift in the enrichment of uranium is producing global jitters because it could shorten Iran's path to the acquisition of nuclear weapons. Tue, 9 Mar 2010 02:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10068/1041334-115.stm?cmpid=healthscience.xml It was "Mad Men" meets "Flash Gordon." Tue, 9 Mar 2010 02:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10068/1041203-114.stm?cmpid=healthscience.xml The West Penn Allegheny Health System is considering changing its name, and it is re-evaluating services at its Suburban Hospital facility in Bellevue. Tue, 9 Mar 2010 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10068/1041239-114.stm?cmpid=healthscience.xml LOS ANGELES -- Women who drink moderate amounts of alcohol don't gain as much weight in midlife as those who abstain, according to a study released Monday. Tue, 9 Mar 2010 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10068/1041275-114.stm?cmpid=healthscience.xml GLENSIDE, Pa. -- President Barack Obama began an important political week for his health care legislation with a passionate argument for its urgency Monday at Arcadia University in Glenside, blasting the insurance industry for skyrocketing premiums, canceled coverage -- and suffering Americans. Tue, 9 Mar 2010 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10067/1041168-100.stm?cmpid=healthscience.xml The West Penn Allegheny Health System is looking at changing its name, and its Suburban Hospital facility in Bellevue may be undergoing operational changes in coming months. Mon, 8 Mar 2010 16:27:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10067/1041045-53.stm?cmpid=healthscience.xml When we touch something hot, molecules in our body go to the surfaces of our nerve cells and open up signaling channels that start the pain message heading up the spine. Mon, 8 Mar 2010 13:01:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10067/1041136-84.stm?cmpid=healthscience.xml WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court will decide whether drug makers can be sued by parents who claim their children suffered serious health problems from vaccines. Mon, 8 Mar 2010 12:40:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10067/1041104-115.stm?cmpid=healthscience.xml Red grouper are known for a few key characteristics -- their hue, which can range from pink to bright orange; their tastiness, whether they're grilled or sauteed; and their predation method, in which they ambush fellow sea creatures and swallow them whole. Mon, 8 Mar 2010 00:05:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10067/1040624-115.stm?cmpid=healthscience.xml Take some time this week to observe the Pleiades, one of the brightest and easily recognized star clusters for naked-eye observing. Mon, 8 Mar 2010 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10067/1041042-114.stm?cmpid=healthscience.xml WASHINGTON -- The virus that causes AIDS can hide in the bone marrow, avoiding drugs and later awakening to cause illness, according to new research that could point the way toward better treatments for the disease. Mon, 8 Mar 2010 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10066/1040953-113.stm?cmpid=healthscience.xml Deep in a cramped cave gouging into a Mifflin County hillside, three young biologists crawled and twisted through a narrow passage, lifting their head lamps toward a sloped stone ceiling that should have been carpeted with hibernating bats. Sun, 7 Mar 2010 15:08:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10066/1040919-56.stm?cmpid=healthscience.xml An Allegheny County judge wants to mediate a case concerning the reopening of UPMC Braddock hospital, but County Executive Dan Onorato is opposed to the idea, according to correspondence between Common Pleas Judge Gene Strassburger and attorneys for the county, UPMC and Braddock residents. Sun, 7 Mar 2010 00:28:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10066/1040945-455.stm?cmpid=healthscience.xml Bobbie Hopkinson shows off a framed sonogram photo of her son Nicholas on the mantel in her bedroom. Sun, 7 Mar 2010 00:13:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10066/1040868-84.stm?cmpid=healthscience.xml The District of Columbia will become the first city in the United States to distribute female condoms free, part of a project that will make 500,000 of them available in beauty salons, convenience stores and high schools in parts of the city with high HIV rates. Sun, 7 Mar 2010 00:00:00 -0500