Sales of suicide kits, like the do-it-yourself asphyxiation hood used by a man to kill himself late last year, could soon be outlawed in the state of Oregon. The state’s House of Representative passed the bill on Monday to ban the products. It must now be considered in the state Senate, which passed similar legislation in May. Sponsors say the bill would in no way impinge on a landmark 1997 state law legalizing physician-assisted suicides... 

Falling asleep first after having sex may leave your partner longing for attention and more bonding time, new research finds. “The time the couple spends together after sex is prime time for bonding and the commitment conversation,” said Daniel Kruger of the University of Michigan School of Public Health. “Your oxytocin and the hormones related to affective relationships are raging, so it’s prime time for bonding.” This... 

U.S. births apparently have declined for a third year in a row, probably because of the weak economy. Births had been on the rise for years, and the number hit an all-time high of more than 4.3 million in 2007. But the count has been dropping since then. Last year, it fell 3 percent to slightly more than 4 million births, according to preliminary figures released Wednesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It’s possible... 

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Doctors are harvesting lungs from patients in Belgium who’ve been euthanized because the organs are in much better condition compared to someone who has died in an accident, according to a study published in the journal Applied Cardiopulmonary Pathophysiology. The authors of the study, Initial Experience with Transplantation of Lungs Recovered From Donors, reported their experience with four recipients who received lungs between 2007 and... 

My colleague on the Fox Medical A Team, Dr. Marc Siegel, has written a crucial book called The Inner Pulse that explores why some patients summon the will to live and defeat illnesses that might otherwise have been terminal.  He has borne witness repeatedly to the way that a patient’s intuition and spirit fuels that person’s recovery and he has refined ways to tap that “inner pulse” in service to extraordinary healing. Tapping... 

European neuroscientists said on Tuesday that the withdrawal by some big drugmakers from research into illnesses like depression, schizophrenia and Alzheimer’s could halt the discovery of new drugs. A report published by the European College of Neuropsychopharmacology (ECNP) said brain diseases and mental disorders like depression, dementia and addiction account for more a third of the burden of disease in Europe, but public and corporate... 

Drug companies are increasing their focus on using the body’s immune system to fight cancer, which may hold the key to eventually defeating the disease, Dow Jones Newswires reported. Thanks to the approvals of Dendreon’s Provenge and Bristol-Myers Squibb’s Yervoy, so-called immunotherapies are now seen as part of any larger cancer solution because they can help provide long-term resistance. However, their development still... 

Dr. Sue Zieman can almost set her watch by her disease: Twice a day, she gets a fever and the already arthritic joints in her arms and hands, legs and feet abruptly, painfully swell even more. During the evening flare, even the tendons in her feet puff up, rope-like worms just under her skin. The rest of the day, her joints are so stiff that the once robust Maryland physician frequently uses a scooter to get around. Just shaking hands hurts... 

BERLIN –  Germany’s national disease control center says the number of new cases of E. coli illness being reported has slowed to a trickle. The Robert Koch Institute said Tuesday that a total of 3,235 people in Germany have been reported ill, only seven more than the previous day. A total of 36 people — 35 in Germany and one in Sweden — have died in what has been the deadliest outbreak of E. coli ever. German authorities...