Penny Sarchet doesn't think of herself as a detective, but she's been acting like one. She recently received a prize for her science essay on the nocebo effect, one of the winning entries in a writing contest sponsored by the Wellcome Trust in association with the Guardian and...

The rising tide of health information -- from advertising, studies, statistics, media reports, personal advice and professional opinions -- has reached flood level. As anyone who has experienced a real flood will tell you, the challenge is keeping your head above water and not getting swept away by rushing currents.

A lot of sectors are struggling in today's economy. Personal experience isn't one of them. Personal experience is soaring in value thanks to our technical ability to access and share information. Personal health and health care experiences are no exception.

A study from the Pew Research Center found...

After reading Martha Rosenberg's eye-opener on pharma's latest marketing strategy for antidepressants, you might wish someone would come up with a cure for perpetually feeling at risk.

It isn't that the selling of sickness is new, or that we haven't been warned before to not be...

Summertime, and the livin' is easy, sizzling hot, frenzy-free, less tethered to email.

But is it truly leisure time?

It should be. Authentic leisure is good for us. It's revitalizing and healthy. But to make the most of leisure it helps to widen rather than narrow our concept of...

Did you catch the brief but remarkable story about researchers who have concluded (once again) that more and more Americans are praying about their health? As striking as that is, it's not the big surprise in the latest study.

Here's what is: as of 2007 the percent of...