Your Health

About 13 percent of U.S. women go on drinking binges each month, say officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The damage from binge drinking runs the gamut from death to unintended pregnancy. Public health officials say binge drinking can be curbed with greater awareness and thoughtful interventions.

Over the past decade, colleges and universities across the country have seen an influx of students with mental health needs. Some campus health centers are exploring new systems to help meet the growing demand for services.

Vaccination is still the best way to avoid getting sick, but it's not 100 percent protective. Some people may get infected with a strain of flu that isn't covered by this year's vaccine. For others, the shots just don't work.

People generally fail to appreciate how much their personality and values will change in the years ahead — even though they recognize that they have changed in the past, according to fresh research.

An analysis from the Centers For Disease Control and Research finds that being overweight, but not obese, is associated with lower risk of death. But no one is suggesting you ditch your exercise or diet goals.

For years, researchers have struggled to understand the mental fog that envelops some patients getting chemotherapy. Now a study has found that the cancer treatment significantly decreases brain activity in regions responsible for memory, attention, planning and prioritizing.

The 2012 mammography debate was a continuation of a controversy touched off three years ago when a government task force said women under 50 don't need regular mammograms. And one recent analysis found that regular screenings haven't reduced the rate of advanced breast cancers.

The year saw some disappointments in the development of drugs to treat Alzheimer's. But the setbacks were offset by progress in other areas. The upshot from this year's mixed results, some scientists say, is that treatment for Alzheimer's needs to start long before forgetfulness and muddled thinking are apparent.

The short supply of a key drug to treat lymphoma forced doctors to switch to another medicine. Now researchers have documented that the fallback drug wasn't as good a choice as many doctors thought.

Food manufacturers have been quietly reducing sodium by tiny amounts in popular foods like crackers for years now. That's because if products are marked "low sodium," consumers won't buy them. But companies are also working on ways to deliver more salt taste with less sodium.