By Kay Lazar, Globe Staff

The severe allergic reaction a Plymouth girl suffered a decade ago after taking Children’s Motrin is an incredibly rare phenomenon, according to a Boston Children’s Hospital specialist who said parents should not be scared off from giving their youngsters such ibuprofen-based medications.

By Deborah Kotz, Globe Staff

The US Food and Drug Administration needs to regulate the amount of added sugars in soda and other sweetened beverages to reverse the obesity epidemic, urged a Washington, DC-based nutrition activist group in a petition signed by Harvard School of Public Health researchers, the Boston Public Health Commission, and others.

By Deborah Kotz, Globe Staff

Nearly two years ago, I wrote about a heart attack theme restaurant in Las Vegas -- yes, that city has everything -- wondering whether it was a health hazard after its 575-pound unofficial spokesperson died at age 29 of pneumonia, likely complicated by his extreme obesity. Well, now a second unofficial spokesman of Heart Attack Grill has died -- of a heart attack.

By Deborah Kotz, Globe Staff

Breast cancer rates continue to rise in the U.S. -- even beyond the extra cancers detected through mammography and other screening techniques -- and researchers need to focus more of their attention on finding ways to prevent the cancer including identifying environmental causes. That recommendation was made in a 270-page report issued Tuesday by the federal government’s Interagency Breast Cancer and Environmental Research Coordinating Committee.

By Deborah Kotz, Globe Staff

Do you find it rude to play with your smartphone during a meal with a friend or loved one sitting across from you? Your answer may depend on your age -- or the type of phone you own. The vast majority of baby boomers reported that they would find the practice offensive, according to a new national survey conducted by the USC Annenberg Center for the Digital Future, while a far lower percentage of college students would.

By Deborah Kotz, Globe Staff

Researchers are still debating whether saturated fat is devil or angel. National Institutes of Health researchers conducted a re-analysis of an old clinical trial involving 458 male heart patients and found that those who were randomly assigned to eat a diet richer in polyunsaturated vegetable oils instead of saturated animal fats had a bigger drop in cholesterol levels over a three-year period than those who stuck with their usual dietary habits -- but they also had more heart disease deaths.

By Deborah Kotz, Globe Staff

New research indicates that a diet mixer increases breath alcohol levels more quickly than a calorie-laden one, which could lead to more drunk driving violations. But this doesn’t mean weight conscious folks should switch back to juice and sugary soda mixers. Here’s what to keep in mind.

By Deborah Kotz, Globe Staff

About 1 to 3 percent of Americans develop tennis elbow -- an overuse injury that causes chronic pain around the outside of the elbow -- but a clinical trial published Tuesday found that patients who received standard treatments such as a cortisone injection and physical therapy fared no better after one year than those who went untreated. The researchers found no differences in whether patients experienced long-term pain relief or a recurrence of the condition.

By Deborah Kotz, Globe Staff

As researchers debate whether American men have become less fertile in recent decades and try to determine reasons for the possible decline in sperm counts, a new Harvard School of Public Health study suggests that too much TV watching and not enough exercise may be at least partly to blame.

By Deborah Kotz, Globe Staff

After having an incredibly unproductive work day on Friday -- due to dealing with the stress of a family member’s minor car accident -- I decided that I need to find simple ways to manage those anxious moments that keep me from getting things done. Simply slowing my breathing rate could have helped me, which is something I’m going to try this week. Here are some tips.

By Deborah Kotz, Globe Staff

On August 6, 2010, a 16-year-old teenage girl and her 47-year-old mother went to a hospital emergency department with diarrhea, light-headedness, and pins and needles sensations around their body after eating barracuda that was purchased at a New York fish market; hours later, four more family members who had eaten the fish arrived at the hospital with the same symptoms. They were sickened from ciguatera fish poisoning. How much do you need to worry?

By Deborah Kotz, Globe Staff

My husband last night felt the need to alert me to a new study showing an inverse relationship between household chores performed by men and how often they had sex with their wives. Since I rely on him greatly to help with homework and pick up around the house, I hastened to tell him that I’m sure the study had flaws that made its conclusions shaky at best. But the researchers did raise some interesting points about shifting gender roles.

By Deborah Kotz, Globe Staff

Heading into the Super Bowl, Baltimore Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis has been fighting off allegations this week that he ordered deer antler spray -- a banned supplement in the NFL that purportedly boosts testosterone -- in order to heal his torn triceps muscle. It’s legal for men to purchase but is it effective and safe?

By Deborah Kotz, Globe Staff

Cancer 2.0. That’s what Consumer Reports has dubbed the new age of cancer screening where patients should be taking a good hard look at all those blood tests, X-rays, and ultrasounds before agreeing to be tested. The magazine released a report Wednesday rating screening tests by effectiveness and found that many aren’t worth the time, money, or risk.

By Deborah Kotz, Globe Staff

Do the calories you consume earlier in the day cause you to put on less weight than those you consume later on? That’s long been a matter of debate, but research from Brigham and Women’s Hospital suggests that meal timing may play a role in determining a person’s body weight.

By Deborah Kotz, Globe Staff

Mastectomies are back in vogue: Blame it on certain celebrities who appeared to bounce back easily after having recent double mastectomies, or blame it on the overwhelming need to have some peace of mind after receiving a frightening breast cancer diagnosis. Oncologists, though, are hoping that a new research finding, once again, that lumpectomies with radiation are just as lifesaving will swing the pendulum back toward more conservative treatments.

By Deborah Kotz, Globe Staff

About 7 in 10 people track a particular health indicator for themselves or their loved one -- like weight, blood pressure, blood sugar, or their diet or exercise routine, according to a survey conducted by Pew Internet and released on Monday. Only 2 in 10 use phone apps or software programs, but more are bound to do so in the future as tech savvy youngsters hit the beginning of middle age and all its chronic health problems.

By Deborah Kotz, Globe Staff

In their new book When Doctors Don’t Listen, Brigham and Women’s Hospital emergency room physicians Dr. Leana Wen and Dr. Joshua Koskowsky reveal what patients have long suspected: Doctors often tune out a patient’s story when seeking a diagnosis and simply clue in on specific symptoms, which may lead them to over-test and over-treat.

By Deborah Kotz, Globe Staff

The latest data appear to confirm that the seasonal flu is waning in Massachusetts and several other states, according to a weekly report issued Friday by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Massachusetts had low levels of flu activity during the week that ended January 19. Doctors have reported treating fewer patients with flu-like symptoms -- sore throat, fever, body aches, occasional vomiting -- for the third week in a row.

By Deborah Kotz, Globe Staff

Remember Gulf War Syndrome, the vague illness that struck one in three veterans of the 1991 war in the Persian Gulf? Well, 175,000 to 250,000 of them are still experiencing symptoms of overwhelming fatigue, memory loss, anxiety, depression, and joint and muscle pain with little relief and sometimes little compassion from doctors, according to a new report issued by the Institute of Medicine. The experts outlined the most effective treatments.

By Deborah Kotz, Globe Staff

With a flu season that arrived earlier and more harshly than usual, government health officials have been loudly sounding the call for everyone to be immunized, while more quietly encouraging efforts to develop a better flu vaccine. The vaccines in use today are only about 60 percent effective, only last for a single flu season, and take months to produce -- which left Americans initially unprotected in 2009 when the swine flu pandemic arose unexpectedly.

By Deborah Kotz, Globe Staff

I was relieved when I heard that Logan airport would be replacing its full body backscatter scanners -- which use small amounts of radiation -- with the millimeter wave scanners that don’t use any radiation. The official reason for replacing the security scanner is because of a failure to fulfill a Congressional mandate, which required the machines to have new software to produce less-revealing images by June of this year. But some speculate that safety was a consideration as well.

By Deborah Kotz, Globe Staff

You know you need to get more sleep if you’re not getting at least seven hours a night, but here’s one more reason: University of California Berkeley researchers studied sleep patterns in 60 couples and found what parents of newborns already know: Adequate sleep is a crucial component for a happy relationship.

By Deborah Kotz, Globe Staff

Tuesday will mark the 40th anniversary of the Supreme Court’s ruling on Roe v. Wade that struck down many state and federal restrictions on abortions, and it’s a perfect time to reflect on how much (and also how little) women’s reproductive health issues have changed since then.

By Deborah Kotz, Globe Staff

For those who are still seeking a seasonal flu vaccine, the South Boston Community Health Center will send out a van equipped with the vaccine and a medical team to administer free flu shots. The van will stop at three locations during the day on Friday, January 18.

By Deborah Kotz, Globe Staff

It seems crazy to blend a slice of apple pie into a milk shake -- wouldn’t you rather eat the pie than drink it? -- but that’s what the restaurant Johnny Rockets’ does with its Big Apple Shake. The Center for Science in the Public Interest, a nonprofit nutrition activist group based in Washington, DC, analyzed the calories in this shake and came up with a whopping 1,140.

By Beth Daley, Globe Staff

Researchers have discovered a new disease in the Northeast transmitted by the same deer tick that can infect people with Lyme disease. The bacterial illness causes flu-like symptoms, the researchers from Tufts, Yale, and other institutions reported Wednesday, but they also described the case of an 80-year-old woman who became confused and withdrawn, lost weight, and developed hearing difficulty and a wobbly gait. Researchers estimate that 1 percent of the population in areas where Lyme is widespread may be infected.

By Deborah Kotz, Globe Staff

How bad is sugar really? The Coca Cola company would have you believe in its new anti-obesity commercial that a calorie is just a calorie whether it’s from a sugar grain or sesame seed. But new research suggests otherwise. Why is sugar so bad for the body and what should we eat instead? A best-selling nutrition author and endocrinologist explains.

By Deborah Kotz, Globe Staff

Why now, Lance? That’s the question that popped into my head -- I’m sure I wasn’t alone -- when I read the news that cyclist Lance Armstrong was finally ‘fessing up to using performance enhancing drugs. We probably won’t know his motivations until we hear his upcoming interview with Oprah Winfrey, but I asked Sharon-based therapist Karen Ruskin to outline common reasons people choose to unburden themselves and confess to their deception.

By Deborah Kotz, Globe Staff

A federal health law provision that took effect last August or two weeks ago (depending on your insurance plan) requires insurance coverage for breast pumps for nursing mothers. Lactation Care in Newton has seen orders for breast pumps surge in recent weeks, with a few supply glitches.

By Deborah Kotz, Globe Staff

Nutrition researchers have known for some time that certain foods rich in nutrients called flavonoids -- including wine, tea, and a wide variety of fruits and vegetables -- might have heart-protective effects, helping to ward off hypertension. Now Harvard School of Public Health researchers have found that purple, red, and blue fruits provide the most protective benefits, at least in younger women.