The Food and Drug Administration will now allow women age 15 and older to buy the emergency contraceptive Plan B over the counter. Unfortunately, there is no “Plan B” for dogs and cats who find themselves in trouble — and that’s why it’s vital to have them spayed or neutered as soon as possible.

As many students are training for football, baseball, hockey, soccer, and other sports, this is also the time of year for sports-related injuries. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC), sports-related dental injuries send approximately 600,000 youths to the emergency room each year involving children as young as 5 years old. Prevention is a large aspect of oral health. Oral health prevention includes the prevention of injury to the mouth, teeth, neck, and jaws. In an attempt to promote awareness of facial injury prevention, five organizations have sponsored April as being the National Facial Protection Month: American Dental Association (ADA), American Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons, American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry, and the Academy for Sports Dentistry. Contact sports such as football, hockey, and basketball are common sources of oral injury; however, other sports such as gymnastics and volleyball pose a threat as well. Common head and neck injuries can include concussions, fractured teeth, oral lacerations, jaw joint sprains, and neck injuries.

Body by Design has moved to a new Ahwatukee Foothills location to offer more space, child care, and additional networking to its personal training clients.

Walking into an automotive garage on McDowell Road filled with scrap metal and rusted auto parts, in the center is a beautiful mint-green 1932 Ford sedan.

For eight years, the Fore Noah and Friends Charity Golf Tournament has stood as a symbol of hope for parents of children battling neuroblastoma, an aggressive pediatric cancer more common in infants than leukemia. Andy and Lara Nelson, whose son, Noah, has been disease-free for seven years, founded the event to fund neuroblastoma research, raising more than $500,000 for the Children’s Neuroblastoma Cancer Foundation (CNCF).

Gov. Jan Brewer rallied doctors and nurses at the Capitol on Tuesday in her bid to get the necessary votes to expand the state's Medicaid program.

Expanding Arizona’s Medicaid program is vital to the wellbeing of children and their parents — our state’s working poor. As Arizona’s leading professional pediatric organization, we strongly urge support for Gov. Jan Brewer’s proposal.

Jackson Dupps lived up to his nickname of “Action Jackson” last week as he chased his older brother, threw toy balls around his living room, connected about 12 Expo markers together and used them as a walking stick, and shot out a few coy smiles as he contentedly played during Wednesday’s stormy weather.

Director Kief Davidson’s journey through Rwanda and Sudan was not only a filmmaking venture, but a life-or-death trek for eight Rwandan children afflicted with rheumatic heart disease. A firsthand look into their lives and the high-risk surgical procedures they must endure, “Open Heart” is a powerful documentary bringing much-needed attention to a disease that affects nearly 18 million people worldwide.

Dr. Mary Jo Kutler

Dr. Kenneth L. Pettit

Sarah Neumann

Ahwatukee Skin and Laser

Local hospital emergency rooms “exploded” with patients in the last two weeks, health officials reported.

Please join us in welcoming our newest members to the Ahwatukee Foothills Chamber of Commerce:

Cardiovascular fitness is generally considered to be the most important component of health-related physical fitness. Other commonly used terms for cardiovascular fitness include cardiorespiratory endurance, aerobic fitness, and aerobic capacity. The national youth physical fitness test (FITNESSGRAM), developed at the Cooper Institute in Dallas, is now offered as a cooperative program with the President’s Council on Fitness, Sports, and Nutrition (PCFSN) and the American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation, and Dance (AAHPERD). The recommended test for youth in the FITNESSGRAM battery is called the Progressive Aerobic Cardiovascular Endurance Run (PACER).

Don’t tell anyone, but I am old enough to remember things like cooking before microwaves, and being excited about really, really slow video games. I remember people smoking on planes and a time before the term “designated driver.”

A major fundraiser to support cancer research and programs for the Center for Cancer and Blood Disorders at Phoenix Children’s Hospital is continuing to build on its holiday tradition.

Legislation with the potential to save young lives will be introduced in 2013 in our state. As a nurse I will support it wholeheartedly and will urge others to do the same. It will allow the stocking of epinephrine auto injectors in Arizona schools — similar to legislation passed in Virginia; pursued after the death of a 6-year-old student from anaphylactic shock while at school.

Legislation with the potential to save young lives will be introduced in 2013 in our state. As a nurse I will support it wholeheartedly and will urge others to do the same. It will allow the stocking of epinephrine auto injectors in Arizona schools — similar to legislation passed in Virginia; pursued after the death of a 6-year-old student from anaphylactic shock while at school.

Chandler Regional and Mercy Gilbert Medical Centers’ Community Outreach Immunization Program, in collaboration with Arizona’s Vaccine for Children Program, sponsors free immunization clinics for children, as well as low-cost immunizations for adults

Hey mom and dad: Halloween’s not really all that scary — except when it comes to traffic safety.

Contact: Matt Shuey

Teenage girls may prefer the pill, the patch or even wishful thinking, but their doctors should be recommending IUDs or hormonal implants — long-lasting and more effective birth control that you don’t have to remember to use every time, the nation’s leading gynecologists group said on Sept. 20.

For youth, national guidelines for physical activity call for 60 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity each day. The most recent survey indicates that less than 50 percent of youth get 60 minutes of activity five days a week and about one quarter get 60 minutes of activity on all days of the week. Fourteen percent are totally sedentary — have no days during the week when they get 60 minutes of activity. One third of youth spend three or more hours a day playing video or computer games that are not schoolwork related and one third spend three or more hours a day watching television.