I have insomniac friends who swear that taking prescription sleeping pills is the only way they can get to sleep. But a new study suggests that their good night's rest might be coming at a really high price.

According to this study, adults who take sleeping pills may be nearly four times more likely to die earlier compared to those who are not prescribed sleeping pills. Even those who only take a small number of pills are at risk. And, that's not all of the bad news: People who take prescribed sleeping pills may also be more likely to be diagnosed with cancer. Now, if that's not scary enough to keep you up at night, I don't know what is ...

If you're a frequent sinus infection sufferer, it's likely you at times depend on antibiotics to make you feel better -- I know I do! It's not that I drop everything and hightail it to my doctor at the first sign of sniffles; but if I have severe cold-like symptoms that last for days and days, I'll ask him for a prescription (hopefully instead of missing work). But now a new study suggests this line of defense may not be as effective as we assume: It says that antibiotics, specifically amoxicillin, do not fight sinus infections any more effectively than taking an inactive placebo pill.

What? Waaaaa!

Wow, I never thought I'd see the day: Special K is about to get a makeover! Remember the drug's sleazy clubbing days in the '90s? The highly-addictive drug, called ketamine, started off as a humble animal tranquilizer but worked its ways into the hottest night spots, sending users into an ecstasy that made time stand still -- or, more accurately, into a "dissociative anesthesia" that could lead to a psychotic breakdown.

But here's the latest twist in ketamine's history: It could revolutionize the way depression is treated. I'm not talking your garden-variety blues. This is for real, serious, deep, clinical depression. How could something so toxic for club kids be so helpful for people who are ill?

We've long known that overuse of antibiotics is causing problems. It can lead to antibiotic resistance, which is both a personal and global health issue: An increase in drug-resistant bacteria may result in the spread of infections that are very difficult to treat, making them highly dangerous, even deadly.

But these dangers, no matter how dire and how much we hear about them, may still seem hazy and remote to many of us. It can be hard to grasp how taking that round of penicillin for what may be an infection (or may be only a virus) just to be "on the safe side" is really putting ourselves and our society at serious risk, even though, on a larger level, we understand that's true.

Now, however, comes news that may finally cause us to stop overusing antibiotics -- a danger that hits us right in the gut, literally. There's growing evidence that antibiotics may be making us ... fat.

Exciting news on the women's health front this week: a vaccine that shows promise in halting the progress of breast and ovarian cancer and increasing the survival rates of women with advanced cases of the disease.

Hooray!

Although the study exploring the effects of the PANVAC vaccine, conducted at the Laboratory of Tumor Immunology and Biology at the U.S. National Cancer Institute, was small, the effects were dramatic. Twenty-six women were treated (all of them with breast or ovarian cancer that had already spread to other organs) with the vaccine. In four women, the disease was brought to a halt. One woman experienced what sounds like a miracle: Her cancer just totally disappeared.

And now, another one for the "wish I didn't know that" files. You know those latex gloves doctors wear? They're not as helpful as we'd like them to be. Allow me to introduce you to the hideous phrase "back spray." It's what can happen when doctors remove their gloves and bio-hazards splash off the gloves and back onto their hands.

I'll let you sit with that horror image for a moment or two before I drop the next info bomb. (OMG NOOOOO!!! Etc. etc.) Okay, ready? When doctors wear gloves, they wash their hands less often. A new study on hospital hygiene shows that the usual hand-washing rate in hospitals is around 47.7 percent, but when doctors are using gloves, it slips to 41 percent. Oh no, why doctors, why?

Every year you probably ask yourself the same thing: Should I get a flu shot this year, or should I pass it by?

It's understandable that you might feel uncertain. There's a lot of confusing information floating around out there about flu vaccines, which are available either as a shot or as a nasal spray. For instance, a recent study indicated that flu vaccines offer you only "moderate protection" from catching this season's flu. That's hardly inspiring. On the other hand, "moderate protection" is better than no protection at all, right?

What should you do? The CDC recommends that everyone over the age of 6 months receive the flu vaccine each year, unless you are allergic to the vaccine. But even still, there's no one-size-fits-all answer.

Here are a few flu shot pros and cons to consider as you weigh what's right for you:

Dr. Oz is such a good listener.You know a doctor is something special when you feel better after merely shaking his hand. That's what happened to me yesterday when I had the pleasure of meeting medical superstar Dr. Mehmet Oz at a roundtable interview on the set of The Dr. Oz Show: A little eye contact, a warm handshake -- and the dull headache and nagging neck pain that were plaguing me all morning disappeared like magic.

Okay, perhaps my miraculous healing had something to do with the fact that Dr. Oz is even more handsome and charming in person than you'd expect. But only a little something.

Because in all seriousness, it was the good doc's words of wisdom that really got me buzzed. No matter what we bloggers asked, Dr. Oz had an instant, remarkably informative response. Previously mystifying physical ailments (one writer asked about psoriasis, others asked about weight loss) suddenly seemed simple, easily solved.