Abortion

HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt on Thursday announced plans to implement a regulation intended to protect health care providers and other workers from disciplinary measures if they refuse to provide abortions or refer patients to other providers for abortions because of personal, religious or moral reasons, the

Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.) on Saturday announced that he has chosen Sen. Joseph Biden (D-Del.) to be his running mate in the presidential election, the New York Times reports.

A quarter of specialists polled by Myeloma UK said they hid facts about treatments for bone marrow cancer that may be difficult to obtain on the NHS. Doctors said they did not want to "distress, upset or confuse" patients if drugs had not yet been approved by the NHS drugs watchdog NICE. Primary Care Trusts can provide drugs ahead of NICE approval but many do not.

Keeping blood sugar under tight control is vital to total body health. Most recently, esearchers from the National Cancer Institute discovered that eating fruit may prevent colorectal polyps, something that may occur as the result of frequent high blood glucose levels.

Children born by Caesarean section have a 20% higher risk of developing type 1 diabetes than those born naturally, says a report in PubMed journal. This form of diabetes, which can start in early childhood, is on the rise in Europe and scientists are unsure why. Queen's University Belfast examined 20 past studies, suggesting contact with hospital bacteria rather than maternal bacteria in delivery may be to blame.

A Sydney, Australia study also found the women prepared to accept higher pain levels, reports the British Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology. Researchers asked 102 pregnant women and 341 midwives, obstetricians and other doctors what complications would make them choose a Caesarean section. The journal editor said doctors were "biased", having seen things go wrong.

An Indian-origin researchers in the U.S. says that a cure for drug-resistant tuberculosis (TB) is possible with a combination of at least five drugs. Dr. Salmaan Keshavjee of Harvard Medical School in the US carried out a trial with 600 patients in Russia, about five per cent of whom had extensively drug-resistant TB.

A new study has found that elderly patients who are prescribed a conventional, or first-generation, antipsychotic medication are at an increased risk of death from cardiovascular or respiratory diseases as compared to those who take an atypical, or second-generation, antipsychotic medication.

US Democrats have launched their national convention in Denver, with ringing endorsements of the party's White House hopeful Barack Obama. In a keynote speech, Mr Obama's wife, Michelle, praised his values, saying her husband would make "an extraordinary president".
Senator Edward Kennedy, undergoing treatment for brain cancer, said the "dream lives on" through Mr Obama.

Eight out of 10 adolescents taking part in sports activities don't smoke, according to a new study in Spain. The study linking tobacco consumption and sports, based on a survey of 3,000 students between 13 and 18, was carried out by the University of Granada, Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), the universities of Murcia, Zaragoza and Cantabria, and the Nuestra Señora de la Consolación School of Granada.