Nearly 1 in 20 Americans older than 50 have artificial knees, or more than 4 million people, according to the first national estimate showing how common these replacement joints have become in an aging population. Doctors know the number of knee replacement operations has surged in the past decade, especially in baby boomers.

Most days, Brandon Steiper felt like he was living the teenage life of Jimmy Winterpock, the main character in the book, “The Fat Boy Chronicles.” Piggy. Fat boy. You cause an earthquake every time you walk. They weren’t only pages in a book. They were Brandon’s daily life.

There’s almost as much hype about Super Bowl party food as there is about the big game. Many restaurants, bars and food markets have their flags flying high with special football-focused menus to attract hungry fans. Super Bowl Sunday is a big day for food.

The Carter Center has received $40 million in new donations to help its campaign to eradicate the Guinea worm disease by 2015. The Atlanta-based center said Monday the donations come from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Children's Investment Fund Foundation and President Sheik Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan of the United Arab Emirates.

Allison Batson gives a pep talk to the recent Auburn University graduate, new to her floor at the hospital. Clay Taber faces a rare illness ravaging his kidneys. He’s just 22 years old. “How are you feeling?” the nurse asks. “Can I do anything for you? If you ever want to talk, let me know.

Gov. Nathan Deal has taken aim at cancer deaths in Georgia with a plan to help Georgia Health Sciences University in Augusta join an elite group of cancer centers. The Winship Cancer Institute of Emory University is the only National Cancer Institute-designated Cancer Center in Georgia, a state where the disease causes more than 15,000 deaths annually.

It started slowly. Karen Meyer's already thin hair seemed to be getting more and more sparse each year. By the time she graduated high school in 1966, she knew what was happening. She was barely 18 years old, and she was going bald. "I alternated between a hairpiece and a wig," said Meyer, 63, of North Cumming.

By age 43, Bob Germon had run in 25 Peachtree Road Races and played more touch football and volleyball games than he could count. They were some of his favorite pastimes, but an injury to his right hip in 2000 sidelined the Decatur father of two. “It felt like a pulled muscle that just never seemed to heal,” Germon said the other day.

Naomi Tsu battles high levels of stress every day at work. And increasingly, the Atlanta attorney, doesn’t always cut it off when she goes home. “It’s hard to put down that BlackBerry,” laments Tsu. Tsu carves out time every day to rest her busy mind and ease her stress levels.

Sam Talbot, a New York City chef and former contestant on the “Top Chef” reality TV show, has been a type 1 diabetic since the age of 12. And, as a Charlotte native, he has consumed his fair share of delicious Southern fatty, carb-laden foods.

For a quarter-century, Catherine Ange has worked as a seller of high-end furniture at the Atlanta Decorative Arts Center. Before computers became a mainstay of the job, a typical day could find Ange bending down, standing on tiptoe or moving furniture across 22,000 square feet of showroom space — all while wearing shoes with a 3- to 4-inch heel.

The idea came to him one day while passing the time away in his self-described man cave. Keith Clemens, a Merrill Lynch senior financial advisor from Alpharetta, was nearing his 50th birthday and during a moment of self inventory wondered if he'd been able to fulfill some of the promises of his youth and particularly had he been able to avoid becoming the middle-aged fat guy.

Rebecca Nelson took precautions to protect her severely food-allergic son at day care. He had a warning bracelet on his wrist, and supervisors were told about his condition. But the bracelet wasn’t always visible, and the Alpharetta mother worried a harried caregiver might not see him eating something dangerous, or simply forget.

In the 1960s, singer David Ruffin asked the question, “What becomes of the broken-hearted?” The answer, according to the American Heart Association, may be troubling. In a new study, the AMA reported the risk of heart attack may drastically increase after the loss of a close loved one, especially if the survivor has pre-existing heart problems.

Chick-fil-A is making some menu changes to offer a little healthier options for children. The Atlanta-based chain said on Monday it will introduce Grilled Chicken Nuggets and Buddy Fruits applesauce for kids meals and eliminate Hi-C from its children's beverage line.

If it’s dry and cold where you live, work or play, it’s winter skin season, but the fixes may not be as obvious as they seem. Rather than bide your time until April, we asked dermatologists for tips on seasonal care and protection to stave off itchy, flaky and cracked skin.

Dean Douglas was skeptical at first about a doctor diagnosing his 10-year-old great-nephew from hundreds of miles away via a large flat-screen video monitor — unable to touch him or even be in the same room. A small-business owner and single parent to his great-nephew, Douglas knew taking time off to drive to an Atlanta specialist would cost him hundreds of dollars in lost work, gas and motel expenses.

"A fool's mouth is his destruction, and his lips are the snare of his soul." -- Proverbs 18:7. In the comedy world, being fat can be a portal to humor. Scott Davis made a living using self-deprecating jokes about his weight for much of his 25-year career.

Researchers from the University of Georgia have developed a vaccine that has shown promising results against cancer, the UGA News Service is reporting. The vaccine dramatically reduced the size of tumors in laboratory mice and was particularly successful against breast and pancreatic tumors, two of the deadliest forms of cancer, the researchers reported.

Well aware of the aging brain, Celaya tries to keeps her body — and mind — active, hopefully delaying, even preventing dementia. “When I do the chair yoga class, it always makes me feel good,” said Celaya. “And I also know I am giving my brain a workout, too.

Nagged by a persistent cough for the past three weeks, Kara Ramos headed to a small clinic inside a local CVS drugstore in the Virginia-Highland neighborhood on a recent afternoon. Ramos, a self-employed makeup artist without insurance, is one of a growing number of Americans with colds, strep throat and other minor ailments visiting walk-in retail clinics that offer medical care at a lower cost than doctors’ offices.

A professor and a student gathered around a diagram of a brain during a recent class at Georgia Health Sciences University. The professor pointed out lobes, arteries and nerves as the student followed along. Then they looked at the student's sketch of the brain.

Alzheimer’s disease was first described in 1906. In the century since then, scientists have made remarkable strides in understanding how the disease affects the brain and are learning how to make life better for patients and their families. Below are some key milestones.

It being Sunday, Henry and Liz Lorber head down the hill from their Ponce de Leon Manor home and hang a right toward, well, who knows? For the past 12 years, this has been their singular habit, a kind of obsession born the moment Liz decided she wanted to participate in Atlanta’s first Avon Walk for Breast Cancer.

If things get any worse, and they most likely will, Ken and Robin Hulse may have to sell their home. It's hard to say what might happen. Every day since Ken was diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s disease has brought with it a new set of problems and more uncertainty.