When the idea of price transparency first took hold outside purely academic circles, the pitch was simple: Coloradans would save themselves and the system money by shopping for health care the way they do for TVs or cars.

But shopping for health care has proven more difficult than buying consumer goods. A poll released in August found about 69%...Read more

Tom Contos is an avid runner. When he started experiencing rectal bleeding in March, he thought exercise could be the cause and tried to ignore it. But he became increasingly worried when the bleeding continued for weeks.

The Chicago health care consultant contacted his physician at Northwestern Medicine, who referred him for a diagnostic ...Read more

New Year's resolutions are typically sweeping and grand. But you can often reap the biggest rewards by building off strengths already in place. Helping to make your family safer, stronger and more harmonious in the coming year may not require a complete overhaul, but rather a few strategic tweaks.

The start of a new year is a great time to take...Read more

Imagine a world where food on grocery store shelves is ranked by its healthiness, with simple, research-backed scores. In some countries, that world already exists.

Nutrient profiling systems, or NPSs, support clear front-of-package labels that assess food quality based on nutrient content. Nutri-Score in France is a rainbow-colored ...Read more

SEATTLE — Starting this spring, the University of Washington will try a new approach to helping students and employees in mental health crises, based on a philosophy that's become increasingly mainstream: Mental health professionals are better equipped than police to respond to some emergencies.

In emergencies that don't involve a safety risk...Read more

As Mark McAfee — the maverick leader of California’s largest raw milk dairy — works on getting his Fresno County dairy out of bird flu quarantine, his name has surfaced as a possible advisor for the Food and Drug Administration on shaping raw milk policy in the United States.

The founder of Raw Farm credits a celebrity customer, Robert F....Read more

LOS ANGELES — President-elect Donald Trump’s promise of mass deportations and tougher immigration restrictions is deepening mistrust of the health care system among California’s immigrants and clouding the future for providers serving the state’s most impoverished residents.

At the same time, immigrants living illegally in Southern ...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS -- On a recent cloudy winter Sunday, Peg McCormick, 72, was picking up a pair of sunglasses at the Warby Parker in the North Loop neighborhood of Minneapolis for an upcoming snow-escaping trip to Mexico.

Though she has purchased glasses from the retail chain for years, her resounding review of the process in general: “I hate ...Read more

Tescha Hawley learned that hospital bills from her son’s birth had been sent to debt collectors only when she checked her credit score while attending a home-buying class. The new mom’s plans to buy a house stalled.

Hawley said she didn’t owe those thousands of dollars in debts. The federal government did.

Hawley, a citizen of the Gros ...Read more

The question of nature vs nurture usually refers to a person’s personality and character and asks which one is most likely to determine who you will be as an adult. But the question of nature vs nurture is also relevant to your risk of developing certain diseases.

Your genetic makeup, passed onto you from your parents, determines everything ...Read more

Pomegranates are a vibrant, ruby-red fruit with an unusual composition. Although beautiful, the skin is tough and leathery, and the white pith thick and bitter. When eating a pomegranate, what you’re after is actually the seeds (also called arils), which are juicy, sweet, and tart. If you don’t know what you’re doing, it can be challenging...Read more

Do you ever read the notes written by your doctor or health practitioner during a medical visit? If not, you might want to check them out. Usually, these medical notes are full of helpful insights about your health and reminders of recommendations discussed. And there’s medicalese, of course: hard-to-pronounce illnesses, medications, and ...Read more

DEAR MAYO CLINIC: I’ ve heard about several people who have experienced sudden cardiac arrest. What is cardiac arrest? And how is it different from a heart attack? What do you do for someone who has this condition?

ANSWER: Cardiac arrest, or sudden cardiac arrest as it is more formally known, is a medical emergency. Think of it as a problem ...Read more

Four cougars. Four bobcats. Two lynx. Even a Bengal tiger.

Bird flu has taken a terrible toll at the Wild Felid Advocacy Center, a sanctuary for wildcats and their hybrids on Harstine Island, Washington, killing 20 cats — half the animals in its care.

"The only thing I can compare it to, as a veteran, is being in a war zone," director Mark ...Read more

It’s that time of year, when families and friends come together to share their holiday cheer and a few circulating pathogens.

Peter Chin-Hong, an infectious disease specialist at UC San Francisco, said people should be on the lookout for the “Big Four”: three respiratory viruses currently moving through the U.S. — influenza, COVID-19 ...Read more

BOSTON — Boston will have four vending machines and eight indoor kiosks distributing life-saving Narcan and other harm reduction supplies in another step toward preventing overdose deaths, Mayor Michelle Wu and the Boston Public Health Commission announced.

“Unfortunately, many people living with substance use disorder don’t use harm ...Read more

ERWIN, Tenn. — April Boyd texted her husband before she boarded the helicopter.

“So, I don’t want to be dramatic,” she wrote on Sept. 27, “but we are gonna fly and rescue patients from the rooftop of Unicoi hospital.”

Earlier that day, Hurricane Helene roared into the Southern Appalachian Mountains after moving north through ...Read more

DEAR MAYO CLINIC: Finding the time to exercise with my busy work schedule seems impossible. How much exercise do I need to benefit my heart, and what kind? If I like to play pickleball, is that a better form of exercise than say, weightlifting?

ANSWER: Finding time within busy schedules can feel difficult, but if you dedicate at least 30 ...Read more