Researchers on Thursday challenged a tenet of modern medicine that higher levels of "good" cholesterol automatically boost cardiovascular health.

For the first time ever, white births in the United States are no longer in the majority, according to US Census Bureau estimates Thursday that underscored the growth of the Hispanic population.

A popular antibiotic used for treating bronchitis, pneumonia, ear infections and sexually transmitted diseases may boost the risk of death, a US study said Wednesday.

In most developed countries, children with autism are usually sent to school where they get special education classes. But in France, they are more often sent to a psychiatrist where they get talk therapy meant for people with psychological or emotional problems.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Obama administration's top health official on Friday took the debate over whether healthcare coverage should include contraceptives to the campus of a Catholic university that has been deeply divided over the administration's policy. U.S. Health Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, in a speech at Georgetown University a few miles from the White House, praised the new U.S. healthcare law requiring coverage and called for "conversation and compromise. ...

(Reuters) - All baby boomers should be tested at least once for the liver-destroying hepatitis C virus, according to proposed guidelines from U.S. health officials released on Friday. The often-undiagnosed virus is transmitted through contaminated blood. While infection rates have dropped dramatically since the early 1990s - due in part to the introduction of blood and organ screening - many older adults are still at risk, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which released the draft guidelines. ...

CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez has not been seen or heard in public since returning a week ago from his latest cancer treatment in Cuba but was well enough to monitor a jail riot in Caracas, an ally said on Friday. The usually garrulous and attention-seeking Chavez's disappearances from public view have become longer and more frequent this year. That has fueled speculation his condition has worsened and may complicate a re-election bid in October. ...

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Some parents swear by fish oil as a treatment for the "tics" caused by Tourette's disorder, but so far the research evidence is slim. In a small study of children with Tourette's, researchers found that omega-3 fatty acids were no better than a placebo at reducing the severity of tics -- the sudden, involuntary movements or vocalizations that mark Tourette's. On the other hand, children who took omega-3 did show an improvement in the degree to which their tics bothered them, researchers report in the journal Pediatrics. ...

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - High school kids in California, a state that limits the junk food sold in vending machines, eat fewer calories in school than kids in states without such regulations, according to a new study. "We were definitely pleased by the size of the differences, particularly for calories and sugar," said Daniel Taber, the study's lead author and a professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago. ...