By Deborah Kotz, Globe Staff

We’ve been hearing a lot about the terrifying case of Aimee Copeland -- a 24-year-old graduate student from Georgia who contracted flesh-eating bacteria several days ago and remains in critical condition after having her leg amputated. While the infection is very rare, the case underscores the importance of properly treating wounds to keep germs at bay.

By Deborah Kotz, Globe Staff

Obesity, once seen as a failure of personal responsibility and lack of willpower, has been repackaged in a four-part HBO documentary airing tonight through Thursday as a complicated phenomenon that’s largely resulting from societal pressures that make it far easier for us to commute by car rather than by bike and to eat McDonald’s rather than steamed vegetables with tofu.

By Deborah Kotz, Globe Staff

I reported previously on the increased risk of blood clots in certain forms of birth control pills -- such as Yasmin and Beyaz -- that contain the progesterone drospirenone. But it turns out non-oral hormonal contraceptives may pose even higher risks. A study published Thursday indicates that the skin patch and vaginal ring are the most likely to cause dangerous blood clots and that some women may benefit from switching to the pill or non-hormonal contraception.

By Deborah Kotz, Globe Staff

The rise of reusable grocery bags has raised concerns about the possibility of lurking germs from raw foods that then contaminate other items on the next shopping trip. While researchers have yet to document food-borne illnesses spread in this way, they have demonstrated that norovirus can spread from a contaminated reusable shopping bag in a study published Wednesday in the Journal of Infectious Diseases. What precautions should you take if you tote bags to the supermarket?

By Deborah Kotz, Globe Staff

Want to feel like you’re in the operating room during brain surgery? You can log on to a live twitter feed of a brain surgery being performed at Houston’s Memorial Hermann hospital. The surgeon performing the operation is none other than Dr. Dong Kim, a neurosurgeon who helped treat former congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords after she suffered a gunshot wound to the head.

By Deborah Kotz, Globe Staff

In order to reverse the American obesity epidemic that has left 1 out of 3 children and 2 out of 3 adults overweight, the nation needs to pool its resources to implement a number of key steps, according to 462-page report issued Tuesday by the influential Institute of Medicine.

While the report has earnest goals, the suggested measures -- exercise more, eat healthier, get schools involved in obesity prevention -- have been underscored and proclaimed by others time and time again.

By Carolyn Y. Johnson, Globe Staff

A pair of Harvard researchers have begun to pry open one of the most basic questions about everyday existence: why do we talk about ourselves so much? We spend more than a third of our conversations disclosing our views, our feelings, our experiences, to others. The psychologists found that disclosing facts about oneself seems to trigger brain circuits that respond to rewards -- such as food and money.

By Deborah Kotz, Globe Staff

The apparent suicide Wednesday of former Patriots linebacker Junior Seau has raised an important concern for parents with children involved in contact sports: Did repeat concussions through years of getting tackled lead to the depression that may have ultimately caused him to take his own life? While it’s easy to connect the dots, experts say more research is needed to determine the extent to which concussions lead to permanent brain injuries that then cause mental disorders down the road.

By Deborah Kotz, Globe Staff

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and his medical school girlfriend wondered whether the social media site could be used to help eliminate the shortage of organs for patients in need of transplants. Facebook users can now update their timelines to announce that they’ve registered as organ donors, a move that Zuckerberg said could increase awareness and bring more potential donors into the pool.

By Deborah Kotz, Globe Staff

What would you do if you had a healthy smiling baby one day and then received devastating news that the baby had a rare genetic disorder and would only live another 18 months at most? One Texas couple, confronted with their 6-month-old’s recent diagnosis of the fatal Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA) Type One, decided to create a blog -- written in their daughter’s voice -- with a bucket list of things she hopes to do before she dies.