A healthy dose of knowledge could go a long way toward preventing heart disease--the No. 1 cause of death in American women. However, many women still do not take their risk of heart disease personally and seriously. To help increase awareness and educate women ...

Each year, influenza and its related complications cause thousands of children to get sick, become hospitalized and miss school--and some even die. To help protect children from this serious disease, the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases' (NFID) Childhood Influenza Immunization Coalition (CIIC) is urging parents to schedule an influenza vaccination ...

Here's eye-opening news: Better sleep yields a higher quality of life, according to the Better Sleep Council (BSC), a nonprofit organization. Like eating right and exercising, sleeping well is essential to being at your best during the day. It affects how you feel, your relationships, your productivity and your quality of life. Quality sleep leads to sharper decision making and increased productivity while decreasing the risk of heart disease, obesity and other dangers.

More Americans are realizing the connection between better sleep and overall wellness, yet a BSC survey shows that 32 percent of Americans lose sleep at least one night per week.

To help, the BSC and the National Sleep Foundation (an independent nonprofit organization involved with sleep-related education, research and advocacy) suggest:

A diagnosis of diabetes is often equated with having to make drastic changes to your diet and giving up many of the foods you love. But simple ingredient replacements will allow diabetics to still enjoy their favorite recipes while keeping blood sugar levels stable. Christiane Rivard, Registered Dietitian, member of the Vitamin Shoppe Health Advisory Board, offers the following helpful cooking "tricks" for modifying recipes without losing their great taste:

• Slashing Sugar: It's common knowledge that diabetics should drastically reduce their sugar intake. However, that doesn't have to mean cutting out sweets entirely. For baking recipes, a simple trick is to decrease sugar by 1/3 and increase sweet-tasting spices and flavorings, such as cinnamon, nutmeg or vanilla. For example, if a recipe calls for 11/2 cups of sugar and 1 teaspoon of cinnamon, decrease the sugar to 1 cup and increase cinnamon to 2 teaspoons.

As diabetes rates soar nationwide, foot and ankle surgeons say more patients are developing a rare complication.

The condition is called Charcot foot (pronounced SHAR-co). It involves a sudden softening of the foot's bones. This can trigger an avalanche of problems, including joint loss, fractures, collapse of the arch, massive deformity, ulcers, amputation and even death.

"As the foot's structure collapses, the bottom of the foot can become convex, bulging like the hull of a ship," says Keith Jacobson, DPM, FACFAS, a Houston foot and ankle surgeon. "Since most people with Charcot cannot feel pain in their lower extremities, they continue walking on the foot, causing further injury."