By Deborah Kotz, Globe Staff

For the first time, the government is urging all baby boomers to get a blood test to see if they’re infected with hepatitis C, according to draft recommendations issued on Friday by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. One in 30 Americans born from 1945 through 1965 has been infected with hepatitis C, but most don’t know whether they carry the virus, which can cause liver cancer. This week’s challenge: talk to you doctor about testing.

By Deborah Kotz, Globe Staff

Have you been to Starbucks yet today? Even if you’re not a coffee drinker, you may have been tempted to grab a cup of java this morning after hearing the news that drinking coffee may help you live longer. The study, conducted by government researchers and published in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine, found a very modest association between drinking coffee and a longer lifespan. But don’t change your coffee consumption based on these findings.

By Carolyn Y. Johnson and Deborah Kotz, Globe Staff

Raising levels of “good” cholesterol may not be so good for you after all. A study published Wednesday by Boston-area scientists challenges the long-held idea that HDL cholesterol actively protects against heart disease, finding that people with genes that boosted their HDL did not have a lowered risk of heart attacks. In the study appearing in the medical journal The Lancet, researchers examined the health of more than 100,000 people, some of them with genetic variations that elevated their levels of HDL, and found that these genetic variations did not protect against heart attacks.

By Deborah Kotz, Globe Staff

Consumers who purchased Skechers Shape-ups or other toning shoes made by the company will be eligible for a partial refund from a $40 million settlement that the company made with the Federal Trade Commission and 42 states with class action lawsuits. The settlement is being finalized Wednesday in a federal court in the Northern District of Ohio, according to the FTC.

By Deborah Kotz, Globe Staff

Two things amazed me about a new sleepwalking study published Monday in the journal Neurology. The first: just how common sleepwalking -- or nocturnal wandering as its known scientifically -- really is. The second: that no one ever bothered to do a large survey of Americans before this to determine the prevalence of sleepwalking, er, nocturnal wandering.

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.