MONDAY, June 30 (HealthDay News) -- The risk of rheumatoid arthritis is twice as high in women who had a heavy birth weight (more than 10 pounds) than those with an average birth weight (7 to 8.5 lbs), a new study finds.

Researchers at the Hospital for Special Surgery, New York City, analyzed data from more than 87,000 women who took part in the U.S. Nurses' Health Study between 1976 and 2002. The women were aged 30 to 55 at the start of the study.

THURSDAY, June 26 (HealthDay News) -- The latest data on HIV infection across 33 states finds new diagnoses jumping by 12 percent annually between 2001 and 2006 among young gay and bisexual men.

Researchers at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) say the rise is "especially concerning" for young black men aged 13 to 24 who have sex with men. For this group, the annual rate of new HIV diagnoses rose by 15 percent annually, compared to a 9 percent and an 8 percent annual rise among their white and Hispanic peers, respectively.

THURSDAY, June 26 (HealthDay News) -- New recommendations for the use of disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs (DMARDs) in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) have been developed by the American College of Rheumatology.

I have arthritis associated with lupus, and also rheumatoid arthritis and osteoarthritis. So, I'm accustomed to dealing with a variety of aches and pains due to these conditions. I'm currently on contract at a State agency and read a wonderful story in this week's newsletter about the agency's Arthritis Program Coordinator.

Looking for anyone who had an ankle fusion and now is having problems with severe pain agian (mine was done in 2000)?

FRIDAY, June 20 (HealthDay News) -- While CT screening may help reduce lung cancer deaths among current and former smokers, it won't reduce the risk of death from other smoking-related causes, a new study reports.

Researchers at Harvard Medical School and the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., entered data from 1,520 current and former smokers who took part in a CT screening study into a computer simulation model of lung cancer development.

Over the weekend, my mother casually stated that her arthritis has been bothering her. "What arthritis?" I asked her.

My mother is a very active woman just months away from her 80th birthday. She tries to walk 10,000 steps every day (we once calculated that to be a little over 2 miles for her). She has done 5-10Ks, knits lovely things for people and has beautiful hands with long tapered fingers. When she showed me her fingers, I was shocked that I had not noticed, before, that her knuckles were slightly deformed.

Here's a couple of tips from Harvard on how to keep your hands pain free. And let's face it, most of us don't think about them until they hurt...

It’s a good idea to have an ergonomic evaluation of your workspace to avoid repetitive strain injuries. If that’s not possible, the following tips may help:

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration wants an updated label for Amgen Inc.'s Enebrel to include warnings that the rheumatoid arthritis drug can be deadly when taken by children, and that the drug can cause serious infections in adults, the Wall Street Journal reported Monday.

In documents posted on its Web site, the FDA said infections, malignancies and neurological problems have been reported among children who have used the drug. These problems are similar to those experienced by some adults, the newspaper reported.

im average size but a little top heavy from breasts