Chronic fatigue syndrome is a real and serious disease that needs a new name to reflect that — and a straightforward way to diagnose the illness, a U.S. government advisory group declared Tuesday.

Patients flooded the prestigious Institute of Medicine with stories of years of misdiagnosis or even being dismissed by skeptical doctors. Tuesday, an IOM panel sought to redefine this long-controversial ailment, setting five main symptoms as simple criteria for doctors to use in making a diagnosis.

Dietary advice can be confusing. Is it OK to eat meat and eggs? Is fat in or out? What about grains? How much salt?

An advisory committee's recommendations for U.S. dietary patterns are due soon, and some advice may be changing. The committee is expected to downplay the importance of lowering cholesterol intake and may put less emphasis on eating lean meats. The panel could also tweak its recommendations on exactly how much salt is too much and put limits on sugar consumption for the first time.

Facebook? Of course. Books? Definitely not. Video games? For sure. Sport? No way. Speed? Yes. Patience? Not so much.

This, in a nutshell, is the life of the "Generation Z" -- independent, stubborn, pragmatic and always in a rush.

French charity Medecins du Monde (MdM) on Tuesday said it was contesting a European patent awarded to a hepatitis drug made by U.S. firm Gilead Sciences, arguing the treatment was too costly.

The organisation -- "Doctors of the World" -- said it had filed a "brief in opposition" with the European Patent Office (EPO), the Munich-based agency that awards patents covering 40 European countries.

Damage to the brain's outer layer caused by smoking may be reversible after quitting, but it could take years, a study said Tuesday.

Brain scans of 500 Scottish septuagenarians confirmed a link between smoking and an acceleration of age-related thinning of the cortex -- the outer layer of grey matter, researchers reported.

The head of the World Health Organization on Tuesday described universal healthcare as a powerful tool to fight inequality, hailing countries such as Singapore, which last month introduced a safety net for the poor and elderly.

According to the WHO, a lack of universal healthcare pushes 100 million people a year below the poverty line as a result of paying for the services they need, while countries such as the United States and China grapple with how to provide coverage to all their citizens.

High school girls in Japan spend an average of seven hours a day on their mobile phones, a new survey has found, with nearly 10 percent of them putting in at least 15 hours.

Boys of the same age average just over four hours mobile phone use a day, the survey by information security firm Digital Arts, published Monday, said.

DNA barcoding has exposed some infamous cases of food fraud, like cheap catfish sold as pricey grouper and expensive "sheep's milk" cheese that was really made from cow's milk.

But can it tell if a pill touted as an energy-booster contains ginseng or is just a mix of rice powder and pine?

An Indian "woman" who discovered she had mostly male chromosomes has given birth to healthy twins after intensive treatment in what doctors said Monday was the "rarest of rare cases".

The 32-year-old had an intersex condition in which she had the physical appearance of a woman but had more than 95 percent XY chromosomes, fertility specialist Sunil Jindal told Agence France Presse.

Colorado lawmakers rejected a proposal to give dying patients the option to seek doctors' help ending their lives, concluding a long day of emotional testimony from more than 100 people.

For one lawmaker who voted no, the issue was personal. Tearfully telling her colleagues she was a cancer survivor, Democratic Rep. Dianne Primavera recalled how a doctor told her she wouldn't live more than five years.