Several million tourists a year travel to Cancun on Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula for sun, fun and pleasure. Their tourist experience is rooted in the indigenous Mayan people and their culture of service, according to Servando Acuna Braun, president of Medical Travel Mexico. "The origin of the tourism success in Cancun has a lot to do with the people there," he said. "We are used to helping those in need." City leaders have decided to add personal health to pleasure as a key reason for Americans to drop in and stay a week or two in one of the sun and surf resort's 60,000 hotel rooms. 

South Korean hospitals are, by law, non-profit institutions and banned from seeking investment. That will change if an ordinance amendment goes through, allowing hospitals in the nation’s six free economic zones to become profit making and seek outside investment, according to Medical Tourism News on October 27. As non-profits, hospitals currently must comply with health authorities’ guidelines governing their operations as well as what they can charge.

Five years ago, most Chinese citizens stayed in their own country for medical care or to give birth. The figure today has risen from 5,000 to nearly 60,000, as the lure of health rejuvenation therapies, high-end health screening, and childbirth opportunities draw them increasingly to foreign lands, according to Yan Jian, CEO of the Shanghai Medical Tourism Products and Promotion Platform as reported in China Daily on November 7.

Decades of research have produced a simple, clear message: Being active is healthy, and physical inactivity is not. Exercise is necessary to stay fit and to stave off America's biggest killers – heart disease, diabetes and cancer.

The Ministry of Health will roll out an extensive HIV/AIDS awareness program later this month to address the worryingly low number of youths who don’t know about how the disease spreads or its dangers. Lily Sulistyowati, head of the ministry’s health promotion unit, said on Friday that only 11.4 percent of the country’s youth had “comprehensive knowledge” of the disease and ways to prevent it — far less than the Millennium Development Goal of achieving 95 percent awareness by 2015.

An experimental prostate cancer drug from Medivation Inc helped patients live longer in a late-stage study, sending the company's shares soaring on hopes that it will become a strong contender in an estimated $9 billion market. Medivation said on Thursday that an independent monitoring committee even recommended stopping the clinical trial of MDV3100 after seeing interim results, arguing that they showed enough benefit to warrant giving the experimental drug to patients who were taking placebo. Shares of Medivation more than doubled to $36.26 in heavy trading, which would give the company a market value of about $1.3 billion. It is developing MDV3100 with Japanese partner Astellas Pharma Inc.

Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine looked at sleep and birth outcomes in 166 pregnant women. After controlling for other risk factors that contribute to preterm birth, they found that poor sleep quality in the first trimester and the third trimester was linked to an increased risk of preterm birth with the  largest effects from poor sleep in early pregnancy. It's unclear why there was no connection between sleep problems in the second trimester and preterm birth risk.

In part, doctors say, the change reflects the fact that many Americans are working longer than they anticipated, because of depleted nest eggs, and believe that physical enhancements will make them more competitive with younger co-workers. Other patients simply "have the attitude: 'With people living longer, I want to do everything I can to enjoy the years I have left,' " says David Sarwer, associate professor of psychology at the University of Pennsylvania, who researches cosmetic procedures at the school's Center for Human Appearance.

A few years ago, Father Tomasz Trafny was brainstorming with other Vatican officials about what technologies would shape society, and how the Vatican could have an impact. And it hit them: Adult stem cells, which hold the promise of curing the most difficult diseases, are the technology to watch. "They have not only strong potentiality," says Trafny, "but also they can change our vision of human being[s], and we want to be part of the discussion. "In a rare move, the Vatican decided to collaborate with a private company, NeoStem, to do education and eventually research. The Catholic Church is investing $1 million to form a joint foundation, and next week, scientists from around the world will meet at the Vatican to discuss the future of stem cell therapies. Trafny, who is chairman of the science and faith department at the Pontifical Council for Culture, says they believe there's a superior alternative to embryonic stem cell research.

Statistics Canada says 2008 was the first year on record that cancer was the leading cause of death in every Canadian province and territory. The statistics agency said Tuesday that cancer caused 30 per cent of all deaths in Canada that year, followed by heart disease (21 per cent) and strokes (6 per cent). Rounding out the top ten causes of mortality were chronic lower respiratory diseases, accidents (unintentional injuries), diabetes, Alzheimer's disease, influenza and pneumonia, kidney disease and suicide.