First came the “medical spa,” or medi spa, offering dermatology services in a retail setting. The medi spa begat the dental spa, bringing tooth bleaching to storefronts nationwide. The dental spa begat the podiatry spa.
And now comes the first medi spa in Manhattan wholly dedicated to strengthening and grooming a woman’s genital area. Phit — [...]

Members of the California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee (CNA/NNOC) are fighting back against insurance companies that care more about profits than people.
CNA/NNOC members, nurses, doctors, patients and Americans of every stripe will join in a national day of protest against insurance companies June 19. In more than 15 cities from Baltimore to Pittsburgh to [...]

The office of Bernard Paniel on the outskirts of Paris has for years been a mandatory stop for many Muslim women nervous about getting married.
An obstetrician-gynecologist for France’s public health system, Dr. Paniel performs an operation to reattach the hymens of women who want to appear as virgins. For such patients, virginity is a prerequisite [...]

After recovering for a week from brain surgery, Sen. Edward M. Kennedy was released from the hospital Monday.
Doctors for the 76 year-old Massachusetts Democrat are pleased with Kennedy’s progress since his June 2 operation, and he will continue to recuperate at his Hyannis Port home before starting radiation treatments and chemotherapy, according to a statement [...]

Mets reliever Matt Wise will seek a second opinion on the team’s right rotator cuff tendinitis diagnosis that landed him on the 15-day disabled list on Tuesday.
Wise’s current ailment, he said, is related to a nerve problem in the back of his shoulder that makes his arm feel as if he’s “throwing underwater.” Word from [...]

A new report says Vermont’s the second-best place in America to raise children, even if it does have high health care costs.
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The report, by the Commonwealth Fund, a New York-based foundation that supports health policy research, compared children’s health in the states and concluded that Vermont’s just behind Iowa in healthiest state [...]

If you didn’t get a Presidential Physical Fitness Award in school, the government is giving you another chance to prove you’re in shape.
An adult fitness test is being introduced Wednesday by the President’s Council on Physical Fitness and Sports. It will incorporate several of the exercises that millions of students undertake each year as they [...]

aura Casey is facing the reality of turning off life-support for her husband, Seamus Casey, after the celebrated young Christchurch opera singer was hit by a car, leaving him in a coma in Sydney.
Casey, 27, attended Burnside High School and did a Diploma of Performing Arts at the Hagley Theatre Company before moving offshore to [...]

This Patagonian winter resort town wears a mantle of white in the South American autumn. But it’s not from early snows.
Ash from the Chaiten volcano across the Andes in Chile has been falling on the Argentine side of the border since the long-dormant volcano erupted last week — its first eruption in thousands of years.
The [...]

The economic slowdown has swelled the ranks of people without health insurance. But now it is also threatening millions of people who have insurance but find that the coverage is too limited or that they cannot afford their own share of medical costs.
Even many of the 158 million people covered by employer health insurance are [...]