Hospital delirium is common and often goes unrecognized.

When Mary, age 84, was hospitalized for a hip replacement, everything went well until a complication landed her in the intensive care unit (ICU) and she began behaving oddly. She thought she was in a hotel, reported that a cartoon character had died in the bed next to hers, struggled at night to escape nonexistent intruders, and complained that the staff was ignoring the rats infesting her room. After a psychiatric consult, Mary was given medication to calm her and help her sleep, and eventually she started acting more like her old ...

Both are on the rise — and it's important to know the difference.

It's no fun to live in fear of food. If you can't tolerate certain foods, you probably dread the gastrointestinal distress they can cause. If you have a food allergy, the stakes are higher: a meal could end in a trip to the emergency room. Or, like many people, you could be uncertain whether your symptoms are due to an allergy (which requires eliminating all traces of the food from your diet) or an intolerance (which can be managed with less drastic measures). An analysis revealed that ...

If you've ever sought information about how to cope with a medical condition, chances are that other patients were one of your best sources. Listening to the stories of people "in the same boat" can bolster us in many ways; for example, it can help us stick with sometimes burdensome treatments. Personal storytelling has long had a place in medicine — in support groups and doctor-patient relationships, for example. But how it affects the behavior of patients is hard to test. Now, in a trial, researchers have found that the blood pressure of patients with uncontrolled hypertension improved after they ...

Women tend to develop heart disease about 10 years later than men — in part, it's believed, because of the heart-protective effects of ovarian estrogens, which are around until menopause. But the female advantage seems to end there. Because women develop heart disease later, they're more likely to have coexisting conditions, like diabetes, which can complicate treatment and recovery. And because they have smaller hearts and coronary vessels, surgery can be more difficult for them. Women are more likely to die after procedures such as bypass surgery and angioplasty.

But now a study suggests that one treatment for heart failure ...

Q. I had my hair straightened six months ago. Is there any danger in getting these treatments twice a year? I hear they may contain formalin or formaldehyde.

A. Like permanent wave solutions, hair straightening products are designed to break and reform the chemical bonds in keratin, the key structural protein in hair and nails. Permanent wave solutions make the hair more curly; hair straighteners, as the name implies, make it very straight.

Several products popularized in Brazil and Japan have come into widespread use for hair straightening. Also known as hair relaxers, keratin treatments, and hair smoothing products, they ...