Advice

Asthma sufferers have long relied on inhalers for relief from wheezing or coughing attacks. But as of Dec. 31, Primatene Mist -- the only available over-the-counter asthma inhaler -- was taken off shelves because of its adverse effect on the environment. Other inhalers are available, but these require a doctor's prescription. Some people with asthma aren't happy about the change, but lung doctors and asthma specialists agree that Primatene Mist wasn't the best option for patients anyway.

Is the routine PSA test to screen for prostate cancer going to fade away now that the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force has recommended against it for men of all ages? The signs are maybe not, according to a survey of primary care physicians done by Dr. Craig E. Pollack and colleagues at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. The survey was done in November, after the task force's draft recommendations had been released but before the final ones were published earlier this week in the Annals of Internal Medicine . In the survey, 125 primary care physicians and nurse practitioners affiliated with Johns Hopkins responded to a questionnaire about their approach to PSA screening.

The PSA test should be abandoned as a prostate cancer screening tool, a government advisory panel has concluded after determining that the side effects from needless biopsies and treatments hurt many more men than are potentially helped by early detection of cancers. At best, one life will be saved for every 1,000 men screened over a 10-year period, according to the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force. But 100 to 120 men will have suspicious results when there is no cancer, triggering biopsies that can carry complications such as pain, fever, bleeding, infection and hospitalization.

Justin Timberlake has taken to Twitter to scold some paparazzi after a run-in with photographers allegedly left his friend and business partner Trace Ayala's car door dented. According to Timberlake, a frustrated photographer kicked Ayala’s truck Tuesday afternoon after failing to snap photos of the singer and actor. In addition to reprimanding the paparazzi, Timberlake also offered some career advice, telling overzealous photographers to “get a real job.

Teas from across the globe are becoming more and more popular in the U.S. One relative newcomer, yerba mate, is attracting fans for its allegedly jitter-free caffeine boost and high antioxidant content. Lab research suggests some potential health benefits from drinking yerba mate, but studies of lifelong yerba mate drinkers in the tea's native South America suggest the brew increases the risk of some cancers -- a fact most marketing campaigns omit.

Auto leasing deals abound these days, with offers that often seem too good to be true. How about a well-equipped Honda Accord for $250 a month with no down payment or any other drive-off fees? Or better yet, $199 a month for a Chevrolet Malibu? So, what's the catch? There isn't any if you know what you're getting into. There are always details. You need top-tier credit to qualify. You pay a penalty if you turn that Honda in with more than 36,000 miles. And the payment is not $250 a month because of that little matter of tax. It is more like $275, depending on where you live.

A second-generation feud between the daughters of long-embattled twin advice columnists Ann Landers and Dear Abby heated up Thursday night as Landers' daughter castigated her cousin--who now writes Dear Abby--as a hypocrite for penning a mushy goodbye to her "Dear Aunt Eppie" this week and for criticizing Landers' decision to keep her fatal illness a secret. Margo Howard, daughter of Eppie Lederer, a.k.a.

There are simple ways to rate charities and keep a watch on your wallet when it's tugging at your heart this October. Here's some advice from the American Institute of Philanthropy: No news is bad news: Expect all products and charities to explain whom they donate to and where the money goes. Do not give in to pressure to donate on the spot if the charity can't offer you the information you request. The 60% rule: Any charity that steers less than $60 out of every $100 raised toward its mission is not being careful with your money.

Bill Clinton should ask the Kennedys for advice. SHELDON SCHAFFER Los Angeles

Advice on how to pick a therapist How do you know if your provider is right for you? Professionals from both sides of the debate offer some tips: Bruce Wampold, University of Wisconsin: "Get referrals from friends. Give your therapist a reasonable amount of time. If you feel connected and trust them, and they have a reasonable plan, stick with them. If not, get somebody else." John Norcross, the University of Scranton, Pa: "When selecting a therapist, by all means ask if they're familiar with the best available research to reach treatment goals.

At Home on the Range A Cookbook Margaret Yardley Potter with a forward by her great granddaughter Elizabeth Gilbert McSweeney's Books: 256 pp., $24 You've probably never seen the fine art of bread-making broken down quite like this in a recipe: "Now relax. Sit down, light a cigarette, write a letter or make your own plans for the next fifteen minutes while the dough 'tightens up' as we bakers say. "Is your cigarette finished? Let's go. This is fun. " So writes Margaret Yardley Potter in her cookbook "At Home on the Range.

WASHINGTON — Anxiety about the effect of a ban on political spending by federal contractors is prompting new caution by a company connected to such donations and a "super PAC" that accepted them. Restore Our Future — a super PAC that has spent more than $42 million on behalf of GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney — had previously solicited money from federal contractors. Now it is warning the contractors to get legal advice before giving. Meanwhile, Oxbow Carbon, a major coal and petroleum supplier that gave Restore Our Future $750,000 last year, now says its contracts to sell fuel to the federal government are through a sister company that is a separate legal entity — an arrangement that allows it to skirt the prohibition on federal contractors making political expenditures.

They laughed when Mitt Romney suggested that the solution to illegal immigration was "self-deportation. " Morally obtuse as the Romney approach might be, it may be working. According to an analysis of U.S. and Mexican census data conducted by the Pew Hispanic Center, roughly 6.1 million unauthorized Mexican immigrants were living in the United States last year, down from a peak of nearly 7 million in 2007.  According to the Associated Press, "It was the biggest sustained drop in modern history, believed to be surpassed in scale only by losses in the Mexican-born U.S. population during the Great Depression.

Moe, Larry and Curly couldn't do it. Neither could Snow White, an army of Greek gods or a baby-faced Leonardo DiCaprio. After four weeks, the film finally able to dethrone "The Hunger Games" at the box office was "Think Like a Man," an ensemble relationship comedy about five ethnically diverse couples. The movie's success surprised many in Hollywood over the weekend, because the picture came in more than $10 million ahead of industry projections with what distributor Sony Pictures estimated to be a $33-million debut.

Dear Liz: Last year I bought an electric vehicle, motivated in part by the $7,500 federal tax credit. I consulted with my tax preparer, a CPA, to ensure I would generate enough income to fully use the one-time, use-it-or-lose-it credit. In December 2011, I informed her of the exact type of that year's income (earned income, capital gains, dividends, interest and so on) and detailed all my deductions. She assured me that based on those numbers my tax burden was $8,600, more than sufficient to use the credit.

Any day now, I expect to see a crowd of substitute teachers marching around Los Angeles Unified School District headquarters, wearing signs that say "I AM PATRENA SHANKLING" and waving lists of dumb things that substitutes have been asked to do. Shankling is the substitute teacher fired by Supt. John Deasy last fall, after he scolded her for giving 12th-grade students what he considered busywork: copying class procedures from a sheet of paper into their composition books. Since a Times profile on Deasy and my column this week on the incident, teachers have rallied to Shankling's defense, describing in emails, letters and online comments the hard life of a substitute.

Dear Karen: You recently advised hiring professionals to build websites, but are there cheaper alternatives for start-ups? Answer: On a tight budget, try to barter services with a Web design firm. Or hire a freelancer to design the site and take that template to a developer, said Erin Presseau of SilverTech, a digital marketing agency in New Hampshire. "Although the company may charge a nominal fee for graphic production work, they won't pad the estimate for the initial design," she said.

For fliers on the go - seats, flights and real-time alerts Name: SeatGuru by TripAdvisor Available for: iPhone, iPod touch, iPad What it does: Provides more than 700 color-coded seat maps for nearly 100 airlines. You can get seat advice and recommendations (yes, some seats have drawbacks), search and book flights, and check your flight status with real-time alerts from FlightAware. Cost: Free What's hot: By using the app while I was in the air, I was able to find the terminal and gate of my connecting flight.

It's a ritual that's beginning to make me feel less responsibly health conscious and more reliably heading toward old age. Every Sunday, I count out seven days' worth of a dozen different pills and load them into the daily compartments in my plastic medication bin. That's "geezer status," my daughter jokes, as I slip an extra set inside my purse, in case my memory-enhancing gingko biloba fails and I forget to swallow them before I leave home....