A spreading epidemic of obesity threatens the well-being of countless American children.

On July 8, I visited the gravesite of Army Sgt. Daniel Tallouzi in Santa Fe’s National Cemetery to pay my respects and to place flowers at his headstone.

Add pesticides to the list of suspected causes of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder in children.

Sometimes scientific discovery outpaces our ability to comprehend its implications and to construct safeguards and ethical boundaries around it. Such is the case in recent work in which the genome (the genetic blueprint) of a bacterium was created in a research laboratory.

As we approach Memorial Day, the United States is in its ninth year of combat in Afghanistan and seventh year of fighting in Iraq. As of last week, 4,226 American servicemen and women had died in combat and 1,056 in non-hostile circumstances. Almost 38,000 had been wounded. Psychological casualties cannot be computed.

The challenge of controlling costs of health care is sharply illustrated by Tennessee's overuse of prescription drugs.

Research focused upon effectiveness of new drugs could save billions of dollars in health care costs each year. Antidepressant medications are a prime example.

Last weekend's historic vote by Congress for health care reform is a beginning. Access to affordable health care will be substantially expanded. Financial projections by the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office indicate that savings will be realized while care is extended. Substantial challenges remain if we are to offer opportunities for improved health to all Americans.

One sad headline follows another: murders at Fort Hood, Texas; faculty shootings at the University of Alabama at Huntsville; a deliberate crash of a private airplane into an office building in Austin, Texas.

In a little publicized update in January, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) advised mothers to breastfeed their infants during their first year of life if possible.

In 1980, Dr. Arnold Relman, then editor of The New England Journal of Medicine, warned of the growing hazard of a "medical-industrial complex."

Despite what Congress does regarding health care reform, we must provide relief for up to 50 million non-elderly Americans who have no health insurance. Their numbers have steadily grown in this economic downturn. They represent 17 percent of our population.

Our current health care system is unjust, unaffordable and inefficient. Efforts to improve this system have failed previously, coming within a hairbreadth of failing today. Even with the passage of a health care reform bill by the U.S. Senate on Christmas Eve, uncertainty remains as work begins on reconciling Senate and House bills.

Books provide special landmarks for our childhoods. We recall a title, a setting, the comfort of a warm bed or the lap of a parent or grandparent. Sometimes, the reader might try a different voice for each character. Some of those books we eventually learn by heart so that we can correct a careless narrator. After the first time thorough, we often say, "Read it again."

Assuming that Congress will soon enact health reform legislation, let us consider the roles that regulation, redesign, and restraint could play in reducing costs.