Despite concerns by some parents childhood vaccination rates are AT or NEAR record highs. The CDC announced most parents are vaccinating their kids, with less than 1 percent of children not getting any vaccines by the time they are between 19 and 35 months. The results are based on telephone interviews conducted last year with parents of about 17 thousand kids.

Obesity may make asthma worse. A new study finds obese people who have asthma are nearly 5 times more likely to be hospitalized for the condition compared with non-obese people with asthma. Researchers hope the study will convince doctors to monitor obese people with asthma more carefully since it's harder to control their condition.

Tobacco use caused 2.4 million cases of cancer in the US from 1994 to 2004 according to a new report. Lung and bronchial cancers accounted for nearly half of the cases. The research team looked at cancer surveys and registries covering 92 percent of the US population.

A troubling study raises new concerns about kids committing suicide in this country. After a dramatic 15-year decline suicides amongh US children appear to be on the rise. The analysis found that while youth suicide rates fell about 5 percent in 2005 after a large increase in 2004, they still were far higher than expected based on historical trends.

A new study suggests taller men are at greater risk for prostate cancer and more likely to have cancer that progresses quickly. The researchers doubt that height itself is the reason for the increased risk, but it may serve as a marker for something biological associated with developing cancer.

Researchers report children born extremely premature considered before 25 weeks are at significantly higher risk for behavior problems by age 6, with boys particularly vulnerable. Experts aren't sure why but think it may be because the brain hasn't had enough time to develop. They say greater contact between parents and babies in the first few days after delivery may help.

Congress wants more information from the drug company Merck on a possible link between the popular cholesterol drug Vytorin and cancer. Data from the company's own research showed more patients given the drug were diagnosed with the disease compared with those taking a placebo. Of nearly 19-hundred patients, there were 105 cancer cases among Vytorin-users and 70 among those taking a sugar pill. Company officials maintain the increase is due to chance.

Exercise may help prevent age-related memory loss. As Australian study's found people age 50 and over at risk for dementia made modest improvements in brain function after increasing their physical activity. And the longer they stuck with the exercise, the more their test scores improved.

The battle over blood pressure may start earlier than we thought. Researchers say babies who gain weight quickly in their first, few months may be at higher danger of suffering from hyper-tension as adults. Experts have been trying to understand more of the causes of high blood pressure. Low birth weights have also been associated with hypertension later in life.

Walking past the elevator and taking the stairs instead could be a life-saver. A small Swiss study found that banning elevators and escalators at work led to better fitness, trimmer waistlines, and a drop in blood pressure. Translating to a 15-percent cut in risk of dying prematurely from any cause. The findings still need to be confirmed with larger studies.

Researchers say babies who are heavy at birth weighing more than 8 pounds 8 ounces may be at increased risk for two of the most common type of brain tumors among children. Experts are carefully watching follow-up research for links between high birth weight and childhood cancers. Some believe they can cut the risk by somehow managing the weight of infants as they develop in the womb.

According to a new study, patients with hard-to-treat clogged arteries are better off getting by-pass syrgery than drug stents. The long-awaited research results showed nearly 18-percent of patients recieving stents - tiny tubes used to prop open clogged arteries - either died, suffered a heart attack or stroke, or needed a repeat procedure. That figure compares to 12-percent of patients who went under the knife.

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