- FRIDAY, Oct. 3 (HealthDay News) — The standard test for checking the
vision of young children cannot be completely trusted, Johns Hopkins
University researchers report.

The test, called fixation preference test (FPT), is used to evaluate
visual acuity, which is the ability of the eyes to focus images on the
macula, the part of the eye that handles [...]

- FRIDAY, Oct. 3 (HealthDay News) — New research suggests that federal
guidelines on the length of needles used to vaccinate children could put
some kids in danger of injury.

“Based on our findings, the CDC [U.S. Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention] should alter their guidelines,” said study author William C.
Lippert, a graduate student at Tulane University [...]

- FRIDAY, Oct. 3 (HealthDay News) — If you take extended sick days
from work, you may be at higher risk of dying sooner than your office
colleagues, a new study suggests.

Taking extended sick leave more than once in three years, particularly
if the absence is because of surgery or circulatory or psychiatric
problems, is a red [...]

- FRIDAY, Oct. 3 (HealthDay News) — A Chinese herbal remedy known
as “horny goat weed” may indeed live up to its name as a natural version
of Viagra.

Italian researchers report that laboratory studies show that the
compound has the potential to treat erectile dysfunction, and possibly
with fewer side effects than its pharmaceutical cousin.

“No in-vivo studies [...]

- FRIDAY, Oct. 3 (HealthDay News) — Couples made up of one Asian
and one white partner may face an increased risk of gestational diabetes
and a higher risk of Caesarean delivery, say researchers at the Lucile
Packard Children's Hospital and the Stanford University School of
Medicine.

In a study published in the October issue of the American Journal [...]

- FRIDAY, Oct. 3 (HealthDay News) — A protein that helps keep
immune cells quiet — and has been suspected of being tied to multiple
sclerosis — is more abundant in the spinal fluid of people with MS than
those without the disease, a new report says.

The finding, by researchers at Washington University School of Medicine
in [...]

- FRIDAY, Oct. 3 (HealthDay News) — With the Chinese milk
products-melamine scandal generating fresh headlines, U.S. health
officials on Friday unveiled what they consider acceptable levels of
contamination with the industrial chemical.

The bottom line: No amount of melamine is safe in infant formula.

For all other foods, only amounts less than 2.5 parts per million are
risk free, [...]

- FRIDAY, Oct. 3 (HealthDay News) — Cataracts used to be terrible
to treat.

Removing them meant stitches in your eye and days spent recuperating.
And artificial replacement lenses only came in one power, which meant
eyeglasses for most recipients.

But those days are over.

Cataract surgery has been honed to the point where it's now done on an
outpatient basis, [...]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -
The U.S. government on Friday urged consumers to follow package cooking instructions after 32 people in 12 states got Salmonella poisoning after eating frozen stuffed chicken entrees that were raw but breaded.

Although many of the chicken dishes had instructions identifying the product as uncooked, people who got sick did not follow those instructions [...]

A man smokes under a Beijing Olympic Games billboard in Beijing in April 2008. Tobacco use and smoke from coal and wood are likely to claim tens of millions of lives in China over the next quarter-century, according to a study published online on Saturday by the British journal The Lancet.(AFP/File/Teh Eng Koon)

PARIS (AFP) -
Tobacco [...]