The first time Miriam Lipton had breast cancer, her thick locks fell out two weeks after starting chemotherapy. The second time breast cancer struck, Lipton gave her scalp a deep chill and kept much of her hair — making her fight for survival seem a bit easier. Hair loss is one of chemotherapy's most despised side effects, not because of vanity but because it fuels stigma, revealing to the world an illness that many would rather keep private. "I didn't necessarily want to walk around the...

Eating a healthy, calorie-controlled diet during pregnancy can help prevent excessive weight gain and cut the risk of obstetric complications, researchers report. In Europe and the United States, up to 40 percent of women gain more than the recommended weight during pregnancy and this excess weight is associated with a number of major health problems, according to background information in the study published online May 17 in the BMJ. In the report, an international team of researchers reviewed...

Dawn Josephson could barely believe it when she found health insurance that would actually cover the cost of treating her young son’s eye condition. Josephson, a freelance editor, wife and mother of two in Jacksonville, Fla., had been spending as much as $1,000 a month of her family’s budget on surgery, doctor visits, tests, and treatments in the seven months since 2-year-old Wesley awoke one morning with his eyes pointed toward each other, a condition called strabismus. That was on top of the...