BBC News

Children as young as five will be encouraged to be more active through community sport investment

Cancer is overwhelmingly a result of environmental factors and not largely down to bad luck, a study by doctors in New York suggests.

Cancer is overwhelmingly a result of environmental factors and not largely down to bad luck, a study suggests.

Pupils are challenged to give up fizzy drinks

School pupils in Blackpool, Lancashire, have been seeing if they could give up sugar-laden fizzy drinks for 21 days.

Fewer patients die after emergency surgery in hospitals that have more doctors and nurses, a study suggests.

A man plays the saxophone as surgeons remove a tumour from his brain.

The Taliban attack on the army-run school in Peshawar a year ago was a watershed moment for Pakistan where the military vowed to root out home grown militants but it's frontline soldiers who are paying the price.

Around two million people who need a hearing aid do not even realise they have problems, the annual health survey for England suggests.

The NHS trust that ran Stafford Hospital is fined £500,000 for "basic" blunders linked to the deaths of four patients, a court hears.

Doctors and nurses are being urged to move away from a "tick-box approach" to end-of-life care, in new NICE guidelines for England.

Doctors and nurses are being urged to treat dying patients as individuals rather than making "snap decisions" about their care by health watchdog NICE.

Women who are heavy or habitual smokers are likely to experience the menopause 21 months earlier than those who have never smoked, a study suggests.

Money problems in the NHS in England are becoming "endemic" - and despite extra money promised by government, there is no guarantee the service will get back on track, auditors say.

A neurological rehabilitation centre where poor care of a brain-damaged patient was filmed secretly by worried relatives is to close.

Why do people buy expensive painkillers?

The UK's advertising watchdog probes claims made by Nurofen Express - a day after Australia took products off its shelves for stating they worked for specific pains when they were identical.

An under-pressure ambulance service boss says his staff are "pushed to the limit" every day as the trust fails to hit performance targets.

A mother who gave birth to her daughter 12 weeks early in order to be treated for cancer says she "can't wait to start chemo".

Nurses in Northern Ireland are set to vote on whether or not they will take industrial action, short of walking out on strike, in a dispute over pay.

More space to treat premature babies will be created at Wales' biggest hospital in a £7.5m modernisation plan.

Caring for a loved one with dementia can be isolating

Ambulance staff say alcohol is a factor in more than half of all the incidents they attend on evenings and at weekends.

Two nurses are jailed and a third given a community sentence for faking blood glucose test results on patients.

A doctor and nurse who "seriously neglected" a six-year-old boy who died in hospital are given suspended sentences for his manslaughter.

A computer project for the NHS 24 telephone helpline which is currently running £41m over budget was praised in a Scottish government report, it has emerged.

The UK maker of the Nurofen specific pain range of products defends their packaging, after an Australian court orders the products off shelves there.

How to pick the best painkiller

There has been a "huge increase" in the number of newborn babies who are subject to care proceedings in England, newly-compiled figures show.

The UK's health service is working with Tinder to persuade more young people to donate organs after death.

The companies paying to have their staff shut in coffins

but you can't hide from a Cuban doctor

Scientists in the United States are studying lemurs to see if a better understanding of hibernation could help with some serious medical conditions in humans.

The future of adult social care services in England "looks bleak", despite government attempts to protect budgets, a think tank warns.

A coroner has warned teenagers and young people about the dangers of taking a diet pill which contains the banned substance DNP.

Northern Ireland's lifetime ban on gay men donating blood should be lifted if a government advisory group says it is safe, the health minister says.

Five ways women can lose weight and prevent obesity

The head of an NHS body that failed to investigate the unexpected deaths of more than 1,000 people has apologised.

A man with HIV who "recklessly" infected two women with the virus is jailed for five years.

A report warning that obesity is the biggest threat to women's health is "nonsense", a size acceptance campaigner claims.

Obesity is the biggest threat to women's health and must be tackled as a national priority, England's chief medical officer warns.

Children needing cancer treatment in England and Wales will be able to have their fertility preserved after a £250,000 donation creates a national service.

The Care Quality Commission, the health watchdog in England, is "not yet an effective regulator", MPs say.

The government is "profoundly shocked" by the findings of a report which said the NHS failed to investigate the unexpected deaths of more than 1,000 people, Jeremy Hunt says.

Four of the world's biggest tobacco firms begin a legal challenge to the government's new packaging rules, due to come into force in May.

A leading research group says the NHS will struggle this winter unless there are more beds in care homes.

Vulnerable patients are getting stuck in hospital in England as delays discharging people hit record levels, figures show.

Hospitals are under more pressure than ever. But why? And why is winter so difficult?