(HealthDay News) -- Making a few small changes to your diet can help you trim the calories, which can add up to real weight loss.

(HealthDay News) -- Repeated exposure to loud noise can permanently damage your hearing.

TUESDAY, Dec. 14 (HealthDay News) -- Attending Alcoholics Anonymous meetings appears to increase participants' spirituality, which may help reduce their alcohol use, a new study suggests.

TUESDAY, Dec. 14 (HealthDay News) -- People who consume moderate amounts of alcohol may be at increased risk for amphetamine abuse, according to a new study.

TUESDAY, Dec. 14 (HealthDay News) -- Babies born to mothers who are depressed during pregnancy have higher levels of stress hormones, decreased muscle tone and other neurological and behavioral differences, a new study finds.

TUESDAY, Dec. 14 (HealthDay News) -- Elderly hospital patients who survive being on a mechanical ventilator are more likely to suffer long-term disabilities after being discharged from hospital than those who aren't put on the ventilator, even if the levels of disability before being hospitalized are about the same, says a new study.

TUESDAY, Dec. 14 (HealthDay News) -- Most of the human embryonic stem cell research conducted in the United States is funded by states, not the federal government, a new study reveals.

TUESDAY, Dec. 14 (HealthDay News) -- Scientists report that they have advanced their knowledge of genetic mutations associated with adrenal gland tumors by identifying 13 new potential variations.

TUESDAY, Dec. 14 (HealthDay News) -- Prayer can help victims of domestic violence deal with their situation and emotions by using coping methods such as venting, a small new study suggests.

TUESDAY, Dec. 14 (HealthDay News) -- Two reports from the U.S. National Center for Health Statistics show that the obesity epidemic is hitting young and older Americans across the economic spectrum.

TUESDAY, Dec. 14 (HealthDay News) -- America's Baby Boomers may be poised to benefit the most from health-care reform, a new report shows.

TUESDAY, Dec. 14 (HealthDay News) -- By outfitting students and teachers with wireless sensors, researchers simulated how the flu might spread through a typical American high school and found more than three-quarters of a million opportunities for infection daily.

Here are some of the latest health and medical news developments, compiled by the editors of HealthDay:

TUESDAY, Dec. 14 (HealthDay News) -- A federal judge's ruling Monday that struck down a key component of the new U.S. health-care reform law -- that nearly all Americans carry health insurance -- marks the first successful challenge to the controversial legislation.

TUESDAY, Dec. 14 (HealthDay News) -- A change in medical procedures could greatly reduce and possibly eliminate the shortage of lungs available for transplant, U.S. experts and an Italian study suggest.

TUESDAY, Dec. 14 (HealthDay News) -- The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved a new once-daily dose for Prezista (darunavir), combined with ritonavir to treat people infected with HIV-1, a strain of the virus that causes AIDS.

(HealthDay News) -- Here are the latest clinical trials, courtesy of ClinicalConnection.com:

TUESDAY, Dec. 14 (HealthDay News) -- More American eighth graders are now using marijuana and, perhaps as a result, more illicit drugs in general, a new government report reveals.

TUESDAY, Dec. 14 (HealthDay News) -- People who consistently exercise during their younger years, especially women, are less likely to face the battle of the bulge that less-consistent types struggle with, researchers say.