They savor pizza and burgers, no longer frighten children, and many of them can walk the streets without people knowing they have someone else’s cheeks, nose, lips and skin. People who have had face transplants increasingly are going public, helping to transform an operation that six years ago was daredevil theory into one that is widely accepted. At least 18 face transplants have been done around the world, starting with a French woman... 

A new study of age-related changes in semen in Chinese men shows sperm health can start declining as early as age 30, with notable changes after age 35, although the research stops short of determining the effects on fertility. Dr. Qian-Xi Zhu and colleagues at the Shanghai Institute of Planned Parenthood Research looked only at physical and activity changes in the sperm, and found marked declines in both. Sperm numbers and semen volume remained... 

As a high school senior, Aaron Weir decided to attend Texas Tech University in Lubbock, not for any particular academic program but for the hospitality that school extends toward students in recovery from alcoholism and drug addiction. “I was 16 years old when I got clean and sober and I want to stay that way in college,” says Mr. Weir, a 20-year-old business major now entering his junior year at Texas Tech. Among amenities including... 

Flaxseed may protect against the damaging effects of radiation, whether from a terrorist’s dirty bomb or a routine cancer treatment, a new study in mice suggests. Mice that ate flaxseed either before or up to six weeks after receiving a large radiation dose to the chest were more likely to survive and had fewer lung problems than mice not given flaxseed. Four months after receiving radiation, up to 88 percent of mice that ate flaxseed... 

A 19-year-old British student took her love for the Korean culture to new heights when she had her tongue surgically lengthened so she could speak the language better, the Telegraph reported. Rhiannon Brooksbank–Jones underwent a procedure called a lingual frenectomy, which involves a surgeon either using a scalpel or a laser to remove the frenulum – the band of tissue that connects that tongue to the floor of the mouth. The procedure,... 

World Health Organization officials said Friday that famine-hit Somalia faces a cholera epidemic as dirty water and poor sanitation are leading to an increase in outbreaks of the disease. Officials say cases of acute watery diarrhea — an important indicator of the risk of cholera — are now at 4,272 in Somalia — an 11 percent rise on last week’s WHO reported figure of 3,839. WHO public health adviser Dr. Michel Yao told reporters... 

It sounds like the complaint of a jaded adult: Kids these days are narrow-minded and just not as creative as they used to be. But researchers say they are finding exactly that. In a 2010 study of about 300,000 creativity tests going back to the 1970s, Kyung Hee Kim, a creativity researcher at the College of William and Mary, found creativity has decreased among American children in recent years. Since 1990, children have become less able to... 

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As a doctor, I get a lot of questions from patients in my practice and in my email inbox. Here’s one that was sent to me recently by a viewer: Dr. Manny, are there any health benefits to drinking beer? Which beers are the ‘healthiest’? – Brian Well, Brian, this is what I have to say: If you’re planning a cookout this weekend like I am, don’t be afraid to knock back a cold one. Beer has several surprising health benefits. Despite... 

“Infertility.” Just the word sounds like it’s female business, doesn’t it? It’s the career chicks who “forgot to have babies” that seem to be spending so much time at those fertility clinics, right? Wrong. Infertility is a couple’s problem, and according to a recent Wall Street Journal article, it’s one not often talked about unless it’s a success story. Infertility is as much a man’s problem as a woman’s. And...