The number of people in Pennsylvania who got health insurance from their employers dropped again this year for the ninth straight year, according to a recent report. "Most employers this year increased not only the amount but the share of the health insurance premiums that employees were asked to pay," said Thomas Getzen, professor of insurance and health management at Temple's Fox School of Business. "Everybody's tightening their belts. There are a couple of people that say I'll risk it for a year or two going bare."

As the FDA prepares to ban caffeinated energy drinks, the manufacturers of Four Loko say they will reformulate their drink without the caffeine. Thomas Gould, professor of psychology and neuroscience at Temple, says that would probably make the drink a bit safer: "It takes your body a while to figure out how much alcohol's in there, so if you’re consuming a lot quickly it's easier to get at a toxic level quicker." He says that when alcohol is combined with caffeine, people tend to consume more of it.

Navigating all of the high-calorie dinners and party foods during the holidays can be tricky for someone trying to eat healthy. To make it a bit easier, registered dietitian Nicole Patience, of Temple's Office of Student Health Services, participated in a live chat on Philly.com to answer questions about how to eat healthy during the holidays.

For some patients, chemotherapy can cause short-term memory woes. Ellen Walker of Temple's School of Pharmacy studies the phenomenon, which she calls "chemo-brain." She and her colleagues received a grant from the National Cancer Institute to research the effects that chemotherapy has on neurons in the brain. "I talked to professionals — they had to give up their jobs," she said, recalling conversations with doctors and an administrator who couldn't remember things after having chemotherapy.