Some pills can be helpful in maintaining health. But long-term use of pharmaceutical drugs, including oral contraceptives, can lead to nutritional deficiencies with big fallout for heart health, depression, sexuality and other areas of life, according to Ashland pharmacist, author and health educator Ross Pelton in his new book, "The Pill Problem."

The pain Shara Baack experiences every day defies description as a headache.

The days of a heart-surgery patient leaving the hospital pumped full of someone else's blood are over at Rogue Regional Medical Center.

At 70 years old, Ashland resident Angie Thusius is her own best example of the benefits of Kentro Body Balance, a system of movements she developed for the most practical of reasons: to heal herself and improve her own quality of life.

Natural-foods chef and nutrition counselor Roanne Lewis confesses that she loves to eat. And who doesn't?

It's cool to nap.

Motherhood for Erin Cox began on a California military base 40 miles from the nearest Mojave Desert town.

Edie Gilder stepped onto a medical scale and promptly smacked her head into a height rod in the "Body Fat Analysis" booth at Saturday's Rogue Valley Health Fair.

Viewers of the London Olympic Games got used to seeing brightly colored Kinesio tape on the legs, arms and shoulders of elite athletes. This versatile medical tape, however, is used right here in Southern Oregon for people who are unlikely to make the Olympic team.

Ah, January, the time when you pack away the holiday lights, put away the presents — and get ready for the flu season.

There are plenty of negative, bitter thoughts to go around — even, or maybe especially, during the holidays.

Going to regular sessions of Laugh Yoga may sound ridiculous, even laughable. But that's the whole idea: Participants get in a circle, maintain eye contact, become playful and childlike — and through a series of goofy, nonsensical games, they at first force themselves to laugh, and soon they are laughing for real.

When you think of plastic surgeons, images of wealthy Beverly Hills yuppies receiving high-dollar facelifts and tummy tucks spring to mind.

Near the Greensprings summit, in the shadow of Hobart Bluff, an experiment called TerraVita Springs is taking shape. The evidence is everywhere: a geodesic greenhouse, fresh wood chips covering a series of footpaths; a terraced slope with artfully arranged rocks and medicinal plants; criss-crossing stacks of oak logs inoculated with mushroom spores. And around it, one ambitious deer fence, all 4,700 feet of it tied together with cedar posts harvested from the land itself.

It took just a chance encounter in a local grocery store to dramatically change Kathy Offutt's shopping, cooking, eating and overall health.

Local Soroptimists say it's time to lace up your tennies, grab your wine glass and sign up for the sixth annual Soroptimist Wine Walk for Women's Health.

When Ashley Rejcek and Barbara Houck mount their bicycles next Saturday in Monmouth for a 103-mile ride to Silver Falls State Park — followed by a 55-miler Sunday — they won't be following doctors' orders.

A new outdoor obstacle course on Medford's Roxy Ann Peak isn't just another way for thrill-seekers to tackle a physical challenge.

It's an affliction not just of the elderly, infirm and women weathering postpartum complications.

Practiced regularly, any yoga will tone muscles, increase flexibility, promote inner peace and provide a "feeling of being put together." Anna K. Rose tries to take it further with Triadic Heart Yoga, an ancient mode that blends the physical with the contemplative to "open powerful energy in the heart."

It didn't take a chiropractor to convince Christy Taylor that sitting all day is bad for her health. She could feel it in every creak of her neck and cramp in her shoulders.

We humans are fragile creatures, and no part of our anatomy bespeaks our frailty quite like the lower back.

Adults planning for their next 50 years typically think in terms of financial investments. Author and yoga instructor Max Strom preaches a different kind of investment — in one's health and longevity. His plan calls for learning to breathe mindfully, following up with balance and then integrating the two for at least 10 minutes a day.

Erin Daugherty walks all over her clients, but they keep coming back.

Acupuncture treatments often cost in the neighborhood of $100 for the first visit and $60 to $70 after that, which might not seem like much if you have a good health-insurance plan that covers it.

The fruits of honeybees' labors add to a wholesome human diet and augment our natural pharmacopeia.

Dietary change is an age-old technique for purifying the body. Add nutritional supplements, elimination methods and mental imagery, and you have a powerful combination for detoxification.

So, you've made a New Year's resolution to get healthy. No doubt you've banished all cookies and chips from the house and have been hitting the gym every single day since Sunday.

Maybe you had a granny whose raspy voice you still hear rattling around your head every time you feel a cold coming on. "Feed a cold, starve a fever." Or, wait, is it the other way around?

The yoga poses that Mona Therese Winston displays on her new 2012 calendar — interspersed with the poetry of Sylvia Chatroux — are keys to a toned and vibrant body, as well as a place to find inner peace and happiness.

ASTORIA — When Elsa Nethercot first stepped through the entrance of Jesse Smith's Colorado ranch last winter, she wasn't sure what to expect. Self-confidence wasn't her strong suit, and she was about to start five weeks of intensive classes in saddle-making — a difficult, technical craft requiring steady hands, patience and a willingness to fail.

Until she had a horrendous bicycle crash six years ago, Kelly Cruser of Ashland was an orthodontist and No. 2 in Oregon bike racing for women older than 35.

During meditation one night, Dr. Leonard Laskow had a vision that love is the key to healing.

In a perfect world, we'd all be in shape and stay there. But working out too hard can be almost as hurtful as being the couch potato who gets exercise by walking to the fridge.

The first modern-day cooperative grocery store in Medford isn't just a boon to local shoppers. It's part of a nationwide resurgence in co-ops that looks to keep growing.

Conventional wisdom used to be that rubbing sunblock on exposed skin offers protection from ultraviolet radiation. Clothing, on the other hand, only partially blocks sunlight, leaving a lot of skin at risk.

Like many newcomers to Southern Oregon, Cathy Edwards couldn’t wait to spend days hiking around the Greensprings uncovering the Cascade foothills’ secluded wonders.

Professional musicians play to impress audiences and build a fan base, but not harpists Elizabeth Markell and James Excell.

When people head into the Oregon outback looking for pristine natural beauty, they are often surprised at how much evidence remains from previous visitors.

Jim Collier grew up in Iowa with the message that a good boy cleans his plate, gets rewarded with a big dessert and makes mom happy.

It's affectionately known in creamery circles as "missionary cheese."

Struck by a van while walking in a Medford parking lot, Valerie Austermann suffered head injuries that led to permanent brain damage.

If you've ever known anyone who has suffered a serious stroke, you understand how devastating a "brain attack" can be.

Mind-body exercises employed by Chinese warriors millennia ago can poise modern people for the "battle of daily life."

Mike and Merry Vediner think a new massage course in Ashland should be a "prerequisite for couples."

Her ministrations don't look like much to the casual observer, but for Bruce Kellogg, Janet Rueger is a "miracle worker."

From foot doctors to acupuncturists to massage therapists, health care treatments tend to be solitary affairs, with one practitioner treating one patient in one small room.

A licensed massage therapist has created a unique way of using a golf ball as a massage tool, and her patented inventions have created a new niche business.

Sheree Boyer chose her salon because of the products it uses.

When Ginny Auer's husband, Troy Hemmerling, was diagnosed with a deadly form of cancer on Nov. 9, 2009, life shifted dramatically for Hemmerling, Auer and their 5-year-old daughter, Tess.

The Chinese healing practice of Qigong is thousands of years old, yet you might be more familiar with its younger cousin, Tai Chi.

Traveling last winter when she started "coming down with something," Connie Crow resigned herself to being "miserable" for at least a week.

Plans to educate a school district's employees about wellness have grown into the Rogue Valley's first full-fledged health fair.

The thought of having another person's stool injected into your body might reach 10 on the yuck-o-meter for most people.

Despite ongoing public battles over the health care overhaul signed into law earlier this year, health care remains a deeply personal matter.

The late-summer rise of ragweed once constituted Larry Marshall's allergy season.

As one year turns to the next, we're often inclined to evaluate how we've fared in the past year and think about ways to advance our happiness, well-being and impact on the world. Resolving to shrink our environmental footprint is a triple-win because many ecological practices improve our health, contentment and finances, and help build community.

Like a ritual cup of coffee, songs of yoga "set the tone" for Amber Houska's day.

It's no exaggeration when Scott Draper says members can spend an entire day at his Club Northwest in Grants Pass.

Meditation is a brain-boosting, stress-busting activity that is now embraced by people ranging from the U.S. military to corporate executives. And if you're living a busy, hectic life — and can't fathom finding time to sit cross-legged in a quiet room — you're an ideal candidate, too.

The National Retail Federation estimates that Americans will spend an average of nearly $700 each this season. Though this should be a joyous opportunity to share gratitude, it can stress finances, time — and the environment.

A lifetime with muscular dystrophy has made Eileen Pierce intimately familiar with pain.

Sixty percent of the people who sit in dental chairs say they are afraid and, the joke goes, the rest are lying.

Chronic migraines are like a huge bear gnawing on your head, day after day, often responding to painkillers as if you were shooting him with a popgun.

Maybe you don't need glasses. Maybe it's all in your head, and your visual map of the world just isn't matching the real world.

Perhaps the next prescription from your doctor will be for something a little different: contact with nature.