Category Archives: Health

Some Context: Experts say bad situations can often be reversed with treatment. Both mental health and drug addiction crises have been roiling the country, and the effects of parental drug use and mental illness can quickly trickle down to their children. Public health experts say substance use disorders can incapacitate a previously diligent parent and […]

Mammograms can miss tumors in women with dense breast tissue. So for these patients, doctors often include a second scan — ultrasound, for example, or an M.R.I. — which are more likely to turn up cancers at early stages. But some older patients are running into an unexpected twist. Though many women see the extra […]

Last spring, Tia Washington, 52, a mother of three in Dublin, Calif., received a stern warning from her doctor: If she didn’t quickly gain control of her high blood pressure, she was likely to end up in the emergency room. He wrote a prescription for blood pressure medication and urged her to see a health […]

People do not typically think of themselves as at high risk of succumbing to heat or at greater risk than they once were, causing them to underestimate how a heat wave could lead them to the emergency room, said Kristie L. Ebi, a professor at the University of Washington who is an expert on the […]

Nearly 1.5 million teenage girls in some of the world’s poorest countries will miss the chance to be protected from cervical cancer because the drugmaker Merck has said it will not be able to deliver millions of promised doses of the HPV vaccine this year. Merck has notified Gavi, the international organization that helps low- […]

Navigating the health care system in the United States can often feel like being lost in a maze. What kind of doctor should I see? Who takes my insurance? What even is a co-pay, anyway? For that reason, Chris Hamby, an investigative reporter, has devoted much of his five-year career at The New York Times […]

A pill taken once a week. A shot administered at home once a month. Even a jab given at a clinic every six months. In the next five to 10 years, these options may be available to prevent or treat H.I.V. Instead of drugs that must be taken daily, scientists are closing in on longer-acting […]

The pharmaceutical manufacturer Eli Lilly announced on Wednesday that its obesity drug tirzepatide, or Zepbound, provided considerable relief to overweight or obese people who had obstructive sleep apnea, or episodes of stopped breathing during sleep. The results, from a pair of yearlong clinical trials, could offer a new treatment option for some 20 million Americans […]

“You don’t have to get technical about it,” said Ellie Phillips, a preventive dentist based in Austin. “But I would recommend noting if it’s something affecting your front teeth or the back of your mouth. Is it on the outside, which is the cheek side, or is it on the tongue side?” Visual aids like […]

Lindsey McNeil and her 7-year-old daughter, Noelle, who has cerebral palsy and epilepsy, were jolted by an alert they received from Florida’s Department of Children and Families late last month that Noelle would be losing her Medicaid coverage 10 days later. Their lives have since begun to unravel, Ms. McNeil said. Noelle has stopped seeing […]