Imagine an ordinary Tuesday. You wash your hair, put on deodorant, drink coffee, pack lunch in a plastic container and commute through traffic to get to work. At work, the custodial staff wipes down a shared table with disinfectant. At home, you cook dinner, clean the kitchen and run the dishwasher.

Each of these ordinary moments can ...Read more

Curious Kids is a series for children of all ages. If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, send it to curiouskidsus@theconversation.com.

Why are our fingers different lengths? – Betty, age 8, California

It was one of those rushed mornings when I was already running late for work. In my hurry to grab my keys ...Read more

Swollen glands or lymph nodes are a frequent concern for parents, since they're so common in children. Young children often have swollen glands because their bodies' defenses are constantly at work trying to protect them from new germs they encounter every day. In most cases, the swelling goes down once the body fights off the offending germ.

...Read more

LADUE, Mo. — Over four consecutive days in January, Margaret Hvatum ran a 5K, a 10K, a half-marathon, and a full marathon. The 70-year-old covered a combined distance that’s nearly equivalent to running the length of Manhattan four times.

By the end of the month, she was in a hospital bed.

Hvatum, a part-time computer science professor, ...Read more

It's tick season, possibly the worst in a decade.

More and more Americans are being exposed to these parasites as climate change expands the range where they can survive. That means more people are also exposed to the bevy of health conditions they can cause, such as Rocky Mountain spotted fever, the alpha-gal-triggered red meat allergy, and, ...Read more

On a small Lancaster County farm last month, five of the eight King siblings sprawled on the living room floor, sucking on ice pops and listening to calming music, trying not to scratch their itchy skin.

The next county over, in Hershey, children were lying in hospital beds as their immune systems battled an infection damaging their organs.

...Read more

The number of New Yorkers diagnosed with Legionnaires’ Disease on the Upper East Side has jumped to 10, officials said Saturday.

Council Speaker Julie Menin and other city officials were alerted to the significant increase as the city continues to check cooling towers in the affected areas to see if the potentially deadly bacteria has spread....Read more

FORT WORTH, Texas — Swimming is one of the best ways to cool off during a Texas summer.

But before you head to the pool, health officials are warning about a stomach illness that spreads in recreational water this time of year.

The illness is caused by a parasite called Cryptosporidium and can leave people sick for days or even weeks.

...Read more

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Sacramento County reported its first human infection of West Nile virus this year, county health officials announced Thursday.

According to Sacramento County Public Health officials, a woman in her 60s tested positive for the disease and is still recovering. The announcement marks the second case of the mosquito-...Read more

Sen. Mitch McConnell is continuing his recovery in the hospital and working closely with his staff, according to a new statement from a McConnell spokesperson.

“Sen. McConnell appreciates the outpouring of support he’s receiving while he continues his recovery in the hospital,” the spokesperson said in a July 2 statement. “The Senator ...Read more

U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell’s recent hospitalization is the latest in a string of recent significant health incidents for the 84-year-old lawmaker.

McConnell was hospitalized June 14, but his staff did not give details about his health at the time, other than to say he was receiving “excellent care.” The public has since received few ...Read more

The Democrat vying to replace Mitch McConnell in the U.S. Senate says Kentuckians deserve to know “if our senator is alert, conscious, or capable of serving” more than two weeks after the 84-year-old was hospitalized for an unspecified reason.

Charles Booker, the Democrat facing off against Republican nominee Andy Barr, released a lengthy ...Read more

Florence Corcoran, an employee of South Central Bell Telephone Company, was eight months into a high-risk pregnancy when her obstetrician recommended she spend the final month on bed rest in the hospital, for close monitoring. Despite the recommendation, her health insurer determined that it would only cover partial-day at-home nursing care.<...Read more

Trade the tricorn hats, bonnets and homespun shirts for flip flops, sneakers and soccer jerseys, and the intrepid revolutionaries of 1776 would have looked a lot like the people of 2026. But their sense of embodiment and experience of health was markedly different from Americans today.

It goes deeper than not having aspirin, ...Read more

Few substances are as deeply woven into everyday life as alcohol. It is a fixture at holiday celebrations, work-related social gatherings, sporting events, airports, and brunch or dinner tables. A raised glass for a toast, the ubiquitous wedding open bar or drinks shared during a Fourth of July celebration all demonstrate how deeply alcohol ...Read more

WASHINGTON — A decade after Congress first allowed federal funding to support clean needle programs, the Trump administration is backing off that policy, potentially risking progress made against hepatitis C, a deadly but curable virus mostly spread by people who inject drugs.

The administration now says funding can no longer support the ...Read more

HARTFORD, Conn. -- A recent trend on TikTok, Instagram and other social media platforms touting “tanmaxxing” have health experts concerned about the skin of young people, in particular Generation Z.

“Tanfluencers” widely share popular videos of extreme tanning methods and media monitor weather reports for maximum ultraviolet exposure to...Read more

LANSING, Mich. — The state of Michigan is working to identify the cause of a "sudden and large" increase in an infection that causes gastrointestinal issues.

State health officials have identified 174 cases of cyclosporiasis across southern Michigan since June 22. Typically, the state averages about 50 such cases a year.

The cases have ...Read more

New technologies can potentially save lives by helping identify prostate cancer earlier, and transforming the way doctors detect and track cancerous cells.

Prostate cancer is the most common cancer among men after skin cancer, according to the American Cancer Society. More than 300,000 new cases of prostate cancer have been diagnosed this year,...Read more