NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Childhood asthma is less common in neighborhoods with high economic potential and strong community vitality, new research shows. "It's nice to be able to look at some positive characteristics of neighborhoods that may protect against asthma," Dr. Ruchi S. Gupta, of Children's Memorial Hospital in Chicago, one of the researchers on the study, told Reuters Health. "We're always looking at negative characteristics." While the role of economic and environmental factors in childhood asthma have been studied extensively, there has been very little investigation ...

A spokesman for country star Ferlin Husky says the singer has been hospitalized in Tennessee. Tracy Pitcox, president of Heart of Texas Records, said the 83-year-old was admitted to the critical care unit of Summit Medical Center in Hermitage on Thursday. Pitcox said he had an accelerated heart rate and possible pneumonia and doctors were treating him for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Pitcox said he was very weak and tests would be performed on Friday and through the weekend ...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Swine flu patients in Mexico were young and many were healthy before developing severe infections, doctors reported on Monday. The first detailed studies of the outbreak of a new strain of H1N1 influenza show the epidemic in Mexico resembled the early stages of other pandemics, and showed there is no way yet to predict who will become severely ill from the virus. The World Health Organization has confirmed 70,893 cases in the new H1N1 swine flu pandemic, with 311 deaths. However, U.S. health officials last week ...

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Children who are overweight at age 6 to 7 years are at increased risk for having symptoms of asthma like shortness of breath and "twitchy" airways when they are 8 years old, results of a study conducted in the Netherlands show. However, children who are overweight at a younger age but reach a normal weight by age 6 to 7 do not appear to have an increased risk for asthma symptoms, according to the study. "These findings suggest that being overweight may affect a child's ...