In 1999, the Institute of Medicine published a report that described how 98,000 Americans were dying every year in hospitals due to preventable medical errors. This report at HealthGrades follows up on that report and indicates that while another 500,000 Americans have needlessly died in the past 5 years, little has been done to […]

Negative self-image of adolescents fosters increasingly damaging behaviors
Adolescents who think little of themselves tend to shy away from interactions with peers. This uncertainty and withdrawal then draws negative feedback from other students, prompting even more withdrawal and leaving them with few chances to have close friends and as targets for teasing or bullying.
Such are the […]

Ancient brewery discovered on mountaintop in Peru
Archaeologists working in southern Peru found an ancient brewery more than 1,000 years old. Remains of the brewing facility were uncovered on Cerro Ba�l, a mountaintop city over 8,000 feet above sea level, which was home to elite members of the Wari Empire from AD 600-1000.
Predating the Inca Empire […]

The maker of a popular medicine for schizophrenia has notified doctors that it minimized potentially fatal safety risks and made misleading claims about the drug in promotional materials.
Janssen Pharmaceutic Products sent a two-page letter to the health care community this past week to clarify the risks of Risperdal, Carol Goodrich, a spokeswoman for the Johnson […]

Alcohol is the Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde of the medical world: Drinking too much causes serious problems, while drinking a little may help many people’s health.
How many drinks provide just the benefits and not the harm? It depends on whether a person is most at risk of heart disease, diabetes or breast cancer. But […]

Somewhere among the more than 15,000 newspaper, magazine, television and radio journalists roaming the Democratic National Convention this week in Boston will be more than 30 people without a notebook, an editor or a deadline.
For the first time, bloggers - the Internet’s equivalent of freelance writers - have been issued press passes to the national […]

The Bargaining Council for the Cleaning Contract Industry has ruled against a Durban cleaner who claimed damages from her employer after she was stripped of her underwear by a security guard and forced to go home without it.
Read the rest here.

It’s not something that’s easy to talk about.
Suicide.
It can be a source of shame for loved ones and family members, who speak of it in hushed tones and whispers — if at all.
Unless they are forced to speak of it. Forced to because the person who took his life was a public […]

The thoughts of family members and colleagues left behind fill with “what ifs.”
Over and over in their minds, they replay the last hours, days or months before the suicide. What obvious signs or minor changes in behavior did they miss?

Ask travel agent Kathy Kurtzman whether a lot of people are stressed and overdue for vacations by the time they book their holidays and she replies emphatically, “Oh, gawd, yeah — including me.”

The Department of Health and Human Services will announce this fall a plan to improve access to mental health services. The initiative follows the release last year of a report commissioned by President George W. Bush recommending that “schools should . . . play a larger role in mental health care for children,” screening public […]

An authoritative medical study has given further backing to claims that smoking cannabis can trigger mental illness.
Scientists found the drug caused schizophrenia-like symptoms including paranoia and memory problems.