MSNBC Health News

By Joseph BrownsteinMyHealthNewsDailyWhen you distract yourself from pain, you actually hurt less, a new study suggests.

Students at a Pennsylvania university can obtain the "morning-after" pill from an unusual source — a vending machine at the campus health center.

Some people are better at recognizing a face. Now a study of individuals who have prosopagnosia, a disorder rendering them unable to distinguish another's mug, suggests a possible cause: a breakdown in a brain pathway used to process faces.

Karen Handel, an executive with the Susan G. Komen for the Cure breast-cancer charity has resigned after a dispute over funding for Planned Parenthood.

Despite public health messages telling Americans to lower the amount of salt in their diets, 90 percent of people in the U.S. older than age 2 consume more than the recommended amount of sodium each day, a new report says.

The Obama administration announced Tuesday it is increasing spending on Alzheimer's research — planning to surpass half a billion dollars next year — as part of a quest to find effective treatments for the brain-destroying disease by 2025.

If you feel tired all the time, don’t blow it off. Give yourself time to make some lifestyle changes — but if you're still exhausted, it could be a sign of something more serious.

The company that made its name peddling drugstore paternity tests to uncertain parents now says that more than 1 in 10 adults in the U.S. has had reason to ask the question: Who’s your Daddy? Gary Garner finally confirmed he's the real father of Skyler, 14.

By Christopher WanjekLiveScience Sex education is failing to reduce adolescent birthrates in conservative states, according to a new study. Perhaps paradoxically, states with a majority conservative population and higher degree of religiosity tend to have higher teen birthrates.

By Stephanie PappasLiveScience Facebook's initial public offering of stock is likely to make a lot of developers and designers of the site very wealthy.

Almost everyone currently diagnosed with a mild form of Alzheimer's disease would be downgraded to not having the condition, if new proposed criteria for the diagnosis of cognitive problems were applied, a new study shows.

A review of 20 years of research finds that physically disciplining a child has long-term, harmful effects on their development.

After years of studying, experts think they've figured out what was ailing Harry Potter all those years -- a  nummular headache.

In the first national estimate of serious injuries due to child abuse, Yale University researchers say 4,600 U.S. children were hospitalized with broken bones, traumatic brain injury and other serious damage caused by abuse. Babies younger than one were the most common victims.

Dark chocolate, blue potatoes and lemon macaroons! Find out what other surprising foods can help feed your brain and improve mood.

Texting while driving, speeding and back-seat hanky-panky aren't all that parents need to worry about when their kids are in cars: Add secondhand smoke to the list.

Elderly adults who regularly drink green tea may stay more agile and independent than their peers over time, according to a Japanese study that covered thousands of people.

When the nation’s pre-eminent breast cancer advocacy group, the Susan G. Komen for the Cure foundation, decided to stop most of its financing of Planned Parenthood in December, Komen’s leaders hoped to quietly distance the foundation from a politically controversial organization that they feared was costing them support and donations, a board member said.

Take a look at this - but not too hard. Researchers with a little time on their hands found that this black-and-white striped rug gives people symptoms of nausea and motion sickness.

An outbreak of bacterial infections on the East Coast illustrates the popularity of raw, unpasteurized milk despite strong warnings from public health officials about the potential danger.