CT scans may break the impasse over lung cancer screening, although many questions remain.

Screening people for lung cancer ought to work. Lung cancer is common, relative to other cancers, so you're not looking for a needle in a haystack. If it's caught at a very early stage, it often can be treated effectively with surgery and even cured. Current and former smokers are easy to identify, so focusing on a high-risk group is pretty straightforward. And the technological means to spot suspicious growths and lesions in the lungs has existed for decades.

The chest x-ray came first. As early ...

Nutritionally, nuts have a lot to offer, and they should figure more in our diets — and not just as snacks.

Nuts are dense little packages of fat and protein, with most of the fat being the healthful, unsaturated kind. They don't contribute much in the way of vitamins but make up for it by supplying respectable amounts of potassium, magnesium, and several other required minerals.

Dieters have tended to stay away from nuts because the fat content makes them a high-calorie food. It doesn't help that we tend to shovel them in as snacks, not as part of meals. ...

As Americans have gotten fatter, so have their livers, and some hearts may suffer as a result.

There's a fair amount of guesswork to the estimates, but perhaps as many as 20% of American adults have some degree of fatty liver disease, a condition that used to occur almost exclusively in people who drink excessively. The epidemics of obesity and diabetes are to blame. Fatty liver affects between 70% and 90% of people with those conditions, so as obesity and diabetes have become more common, so has fatty liver disease.

Fatty liver disease isn't confined to any one group, and ...

Physical activity and mentally challenging and engaging activities may help prevent cognitive decline.

A study of patients with Alzheimer's disease found that taking the omega-3 fat DHA did not affect the progression of the disease.

A study of two drugs used to treat macular degeneration found no added risk of heart disease or death compared to older treatments.

Researchers found that the nasal cavities of older people were larger than those of younger people.

Getting a full night's sleep may help the body lose more fat.

I heard about a study that found that ARBs can cause cancer. I am taking one, Cozaar, because of high blood pressure. Should I stop taking it?

Because of the recent news about Avandia, my physician has advised me to stop taking it. Is that wise?