The National Football League is at the center of a legal case being brought by 4,000 former football players and their wives. The claim? That the N.F.L. covered up life-altering brain injuries. Paul Barrett is covering the case, and the attorney who's arguing it, for Bloomberg Businessweek.

Why do so many end-of-life patients get care that is ineffective? Radiolab Jad Abumrad on the show's recent story.

Dr. Leana Wen examines the doctor-patient relationship and argues that diagnosis, once the cornerstone of medicine, is becoming a lost art, with grave consequences. When Doctors Don’t Listen: How to Avoid Misdiagnoses and Unnecessary Tests, written with Joshua Kosowsky, uses real-life stories of bad diagnoses to show how active patient participation can prevent these mistakes. They offer follow-up questions patients can incorporate into every visit to the doctor’s to get the best medical care.

Public health expert Derek Yach surprised nutrition advocates when he joined PepsiCo six years ago. He got the company to cut salt, sugar and fat from some popular products like chips and soda. But critics say he did more harm than good.

Gretchen Reynolds, writer of the New York Times Phys Ed column and author of The First 20 Minutes, answers questions and debunks myths about exercise.

The stunning results of a new study have put fecal transplants in the limelight for the past few days. Lulu Miller explains the procedure, and puts out a call to rename it.

The earliest flu outbreak in years continues to claim victims. Businesses are taking a hit, too. They're faced with an unsolvable problem: If they tell too many sick employees to stay home, the work doesn't get done; those who do come to the office can spread germs.

We turn to doctors to save our lives -- to heal us, repair us, and keep us healthy. But when it comes to the critical question of what to do when death is at hand, there seems to be a gap between what we want doctors to do for us, and what doctors want done for themselves.

Last night, Coca-Cola aired a new 2-minute anti-obesity ad that looks more like a public service announcement than a commercial. Is anyone buying the mega-corporation's attempts at rebranding itself as a health-focused company? Cindy Gallop, an advertising consultant who focuses on brand reinvention, has been watching the new Coca-Cola campaign closely.

Robert Lustig, pediatric endocrinologist and obesity expert, author of Fat Chance: Beating the Odds Against Sugar, Processed Food, Obesity, and Disease, offers his take on the link between sugar and the public health obesity crisis and what to do about it.

The case of a teenage girl gang-raped at a party in Steubenville, Ohio shocked much of America, but national attention directed toward Steubenville won't solve America's sexual assault problem in a day. How can the culture around sexual violence in this country change? And how can we better educate the youth in order to change it? Vicki Banyard, professor of psychology at the University of New Hampshire, says the first step toward any real change has to be a commitment to talk about sexual behavior openly.

The fiscal deal that the President and Congress struck last night averts tax increases for millions of Americans. But it also means major cuts could be coming to hospitals — especially those that rely largely on Medicaid and other public dollars.

Chemist and industrial hygienist Monona Rossol talks about theater safety. She's the author of Pick Your Poison: How Our Mad Dash to Chemical Utopia is Making Lab Rats of Us All.

In another installment of "experimental living," A.J. Jacobs, the author of The Year of Living Biblically, follows ALL the advice for healthy living for his new book, Drop Dead Healthy: One Man's Humble Quest for Bodily Perfection.

 

A New York City hospital that evacuated hundreds of patients after losing power during Sandy has partially reopened.