For the first time ever, white births in the United States are no longer in the majority, according to U.S. Census Bureau estimates Thursday that underscored the growth of the Hispanic population.

Hispanics, blacks, Asians, indigenous peoples and those of mixed ethnicity or race accounted for 50.4 percent of births in the 12 months to July 2011, the federal agency said in a statement.

One of life's simple pleasures just got a little sweeter. After years of waffling research on coffee and health, even some fear that java might raise the risk of heart disease, a big study finds the opposite: Coffee drinkers are a little more likely to live longer. Regular or decaf doesn't matter.

The study of 400,000 people is the largest ever done on the issue, and the results should reassure any coffee lovers who think it's a guilty pleasure that may do harm.

Nearly half of transgender people in the Asia-Pacific region could have HIV as poor healthcare and high-risk lifestyles push infection rates to "critical levels", a U.N. report said Thursday.

The region's estimated 9-9.5 million transgender population is "bearing the brunt of the HIV epidemic", the U.N. Development Program study said, adding that figures suggest 49 percent of the community could be infected.

A popular antibiotic used for treating bronchitis, pneumonia, ear infections and sexually transmitted diseases may boost the risk of death, a U.S. study said Wednesday.

Azithromycin has been on the worldwide market since the 1980s, but the study in the New England Journal of Medicine is the first to document serious heart risks -- up to a 2.5-fold higher chance of cardiovascular fatalities -- in the first five days of treatment compared to another or no antibiotic.

Researchers on Thursday challenged a tenet of modern medicine that higher levels of "good" cholesterol automatically boost cardiovascular health.

In a study published in The Lancet, investigators said they found no evidence to back the belief that higher levels of high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol routinely reduce the risk of a heart attack.

For the first time, U.S. surgeons have used a new type of operation called nerve transfer to restore hand function in a patient who was paralyzed by a neck injury, said a study published Tuesday.

The breakthrough surgery worked by taking a non-functional nerve that controls pinching the forefinger and thumb and plugging it into a functioning nerve in the man's upper arm which had been used for bending his elbow.

One in three adults suffers from high blood pressure, a key cause of strokes and heart disease, according to World Health Organization figures released on Wednesday.

Canada and the United States have the fewest patients, at less than 20 percent of adults, but in poorer countries like Niger the estimated figure is closer to 50 percent, the U.N. body said.

Eating too much sugar can eat away at your brainpower, according to U.S. scientists who published a study Tuesday showing how a steady diet of high-fructose corn syrup sapped lab rats' memories.

Researchers at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) fed two groups of rats a solution containing high-fructose corn syrup -- a common ingredient in processed foods -- as drinking water for six weeks.

A panel of experts on Tuesday urged U.S. regulators to allow an over-the-counter version of a test that could allow people to test themselves at home for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV).

The Blood Products Advisory Committee voted unanimously, 17-0, that the OraQuick In-Home Test was safe and effective and that any benefits outweighed the potential risks of use.

The Obama administration is adopting a landmark national strategy to fight Alzheimer's disease, with an ambitious goal of finding some effective treatments by 2025.

For families suffering today, the first National Alzheimer's Plan offers some help too. Starting Tuesday, families can turn to a one-stop website, www.alzheimers.gov , for easy-to-understand information about where to get help. Doctors also will get a chance to receive training on how to better care for people with Alzheimer's.