Although secondhand smoke (SHS) exposure in the United States dropped by half between 1999 to 2000 and 2011 to 2012, one in four nonsmokers -- 58 million people -- are still exposed to SHS, according to a new Vital Signs report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Drinking more than two alcoholic beverages daily in middle-age may raise your stroke risk more than traditional factors such as high blood pressure and diabetes, according to new research in the American Heart Association journal Stroke.

New research in the American Heart Association’s journal Circulation shows that long-term exposure to elevated cholesterol substantially increases lifetime risk for heart disease. For every ten years you have even mildly elevated cholesterol between the ages of 35 and 55, your risk of heart disease may be increased by nearly 40 percent.

According to the United States Department of Health and Human Services Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, hand washing or use of alcohol-based hand rubs has been shown to reduce overall infection rates. As an alternative to traditional hand washing with soap and water, the Centers for Disease Control is recommending the use of waterless (alcohol-based) hand rubs by healthcare professionals for hand hygiene.

The hand and wrist have multiple small joints that work together to produce motion, including the fine motion needed to thread a needle or tie a shoelace. When the joints are affected by arthritis, activities of daily living can be difficult. Arthritis can occur in many areas of the hand and wrist and can have more than one cause.

Winter weather can range from moderate snow cover falling in a few hours to blizzards with blinding, wind-driven snow that lasts for several days. Winter weather can bring forth periodic storms that are accompanied by dangerously low temperatures and sometimes wind, ice and freezing rain.

Insomniacs who take longer than 14 minutes to fall asleep face a greater risk of hypertension, according to new research in the American Heart Association journal Hypertension. The study, conducted at West China Hospital, is the first to test whether insomnia with physiological hyperarousal, defined as a longer time to fall asleep, is linked to hypertension.

At one time or another, everyone has had a minor injury to a finger, hand, or wrist that caused pain or swelling. Most of the time our body movements do not cause problems, but it's not surprising that symptoms develop from every day wear and tear, overuse, or an injury. Finger, hand, or wrist injuries most commonly occur during:

When Mother Nature whips up a wicked winter wind-chill factor it creates a real health risk for outdoor workers if they don’t take precautions against what OSHA calls “cold stress”: hypothermia, frostbite, and trench foot—a nonfreezing injury to wet, cold feet.