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Military veterans are disproportionately affected by suicide, but targeted prevention can help reverse the tide

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

America’s military veterans make up about 6% of the adult population but account for about 20% of all suicides. That means that each day, about 18 veterans will die by suicide.

In the U.S., the overall rate of suicide has largely increased since the start of the millennium, but veterans are disproportionately represented among this ...Read more

(Jana Duey)/KFF HEALTH NEWS/TNS

A quick return to school and light exercise may help kids recover from concussions

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

During cheerleading practice in April, Jana Duey’s sixth-grade daughter, Karter, sustained a concussion when she fell several feet headfirst onto a gym floor mat. Days after, Karter still had a headache, dizziness, and sensitivity to light and noise.

Karter rested for a week and a half at home in Centennial, Colorado, then returned to school ...Read more

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Chaplain celebrates 4 birthdays: The day he was born, plus 3 more when his life began again

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

When Richard A. Thompson III walks through hospital corridors or on their grounds with families of loved ones who are injured or sick or dying; when he sits at the bedside, often holding the hands of patients; when he talks and listens to people whose pain is physical, emotional or both, he empathizes with what they're going through.

"My job is...Read more

KFF HEALTH NEWS/TNS

Bill of the Month: Toddler's backyard snakebite bills totaled more than a quarter million dollars

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

This spring, a few days after his 2nd birthday, Brigland Pfeffer was playing with his siblings in their San Diego backyard.

His mother, Lindsay Pfeffer, was a few feet away when Brigland made a noise and came running from the stone firepit, holding his right hand. She noticed a pinprick of blood between his thumb and forefinger when her older ...Read more

Oona Zenda/KFF Health News/TNS

As nuns disappear, many Catholic hospitals look more like megacorporations

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

ST. LOUIS — Inside the more than 600 Catholic hospitals across the country, not a single nun can be found occupying a chief executive suite, according to the Catholic Health Association.

Nuns founded and led those hospitals in a mission to treat sick and poor people, but some were also shrewd business leaders. Sister Irene Kraus, a former ...Read more

Michael Blackshire/Los Angeles Times/TNS

At this Hollywood clubhouse, people with mental illness find purpose and belonging

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

LOS ANGELES — When Georgette Darby has one of her bad days, she knows what will rouse her from her Hollywood apartment.

"Get your butt up and go to the clubhouse," Darby tells herself.

At Fountain House Hollywood, the 61-year-old has a job to do. Lunch is served Monday through Friday, and Darby, who has strong opinions about making a meal, ...Read more

Rebecca Noble/Getty Images North America/TNS

Trump victory gives RFK Jr. free rein to shape public health

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

Donald Trump’s election win opens the door for vaccine denier Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to play a significant role in the administration and drastically change the nation’s public health practices.

The former presidential candidate emerged as one of the leading voices in the anti-vaccine movement during the COVID-19 pandemic, when he ...Read more

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How key results could influence health policy

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

The results of some congressional races may foreshadow who will have outsize health policy influence in Congress next year.

Congress will face decisions over whether to renew premium marketplace subsidies, how to pay for federal health policy programs and whether and how to address pharmacy benefit manager practices, drug pricing and other key ...Read more

Kent Nishimura/Getty Images North America/TNS

How key results could influence health policy

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

WASHINGTON — The results of some congressional races may foreshadow who will have outsize health policy influence in Congress next year.

Congress will face decisions over whether to renew premium marketplace subsidies, how to pay for federal health policy programs and whether and how to address pharmacy benefit manager practices, drug pricing...Read more

Rebecca Noble/Getty Images North America/TNS

Trump victory highlights distrust in public health institutions

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

WASHINGTON -- In his victory speech Tuesday night, President-elect Donald Trump foreshadowed his health care agenda by giving a shoutout to a key supporter who has suggested pulling approved vaccines from the market, removing fluoride from the water supply and vastly overhauling the federal health agencies.

“We can add a few names, like ...Read more

Trump's White House return poised to tangle health care safety net

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

Former President Donald Trump’s election victory and looming return to the White House will likely bring changes that scale back the nation’s public health insurance programs — increasing the uninsured rate, while imposing new barriers to abortion and other reproductive care.

The reverberations will be felt far beyond Washington, D.C., ...Read more

Medicare drug plans are getting better next year. Some will also cost more.

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

When Pam McClure learned she’d save nearly $4,000 on her prescription drugs next year, she said, “it sounded too good to be true.” She and her husband are both retired and live on a “very strict” budget in central North Dakota.

By the end of this year, she will have spent almost $6,000 for her medications, including a drug to control ...Read more

Environmental Nutrition: Wild for wild rice

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

A great alternative to rice, wild rice has more protein than most other whole grains and is a good source of nutrients like fiber, B vitamins, and magnesium.

The folklore

Wild rice looks like rice and is eaten like rice, but this crunchy, chewy whole grain is actually an aquatic grass that grows wild in lakes and rivers mainly in North America...Read more

5 types of food to avoid when you have anxiety

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

Between regular workloads, busy school semesters, financial stress, and just trying to get dinner on the table, it’s easy to feel stressed on the regular — and avoid doing anything to get it back under control.

While there are several things you can do to try to manage stress on a regular basis, you might not realize the foods you eat — ...Read more

Mayo Clinic Q&A: Avoid risk of strains, sprains and tears of the upper arms while working out

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

DEAR MAYO CLINIC: I am trying to get into shape for summer, and one area that has always been challenging has been my upper arms. Recently, though, I began a workout routine, but a friend warned me about the risk of injuries. Do you have any advice to avoid problems?

ANSWER: Having well-defined, muscular upper arms often is the goal of anyone ...Read more

Salmonella is sneaky

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

Pop quiz: what is salmonella? If you’ve ever had a run-in with this bacteria, you know it can cause a food-borne illness called salmonellosis, a form of food poisoning. But you may not know that salmonella bacteria sicken an estimated 1.35 million people and hospitalize 26,500 every year in the United States. What’s more, it kills more total...Read more

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Avian flu detected in flock of Sacramento County turkeys. What officials are saying

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

Health officials have detected highly pathogenic avian influenza in a flock of commercial turkeys in Sacramento County, the latest outbreak to hit the Central Valley’s poultry industry.

U.S. public health officials have been tracking sporadic cases of the avian influenza in wild birds, commercial poultry and backyard or hobbyist flocks for ...Read more

Nhat V. Meyer/Bay Area News Group/TNS

Commentary: Today's potent marijuana is spawning public health dangers that we shouldn't ignore

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

In 1964, Bob Dylan reportedly introduced the Beatles to cannabis, a seminal moment in the 60-year campaign to legalize marijuana. Before that, marijuana was hardly a part of mainstream American society, its use primarily associated with artists, bohemians and the so-called urban underclass.

Dylan sang, “Everybody must get stoned,” and the ...Read more

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She had an emergency C-section and heart surgery the same day

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

The moment Kirsten Dorsey realized she would deliver her second child and have open-heart surgery on the same day, her heart raced and her breath quickened.

But then, a sense of calm overtook her as she lay in her hospital bed in Connecticut. After weeks of uncertainty about her own health and her baby boy's well-being, Dorsey knew she was ...Read more

(Oona Zenda/KFF Health News)/KFF Health News/TNS

Dentists are pulling 'healthy' and treatable teeth to profit from implants, experts warn

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

Becky Carroll was missing a few teeth, and others were stained or crooked. Ashamed, she smiled with lips pressed closed. Her dentist offered to fix most of her teeth with root canals and crowns, Carroll said, but she was wary of traveling a long road of dental work.

Then Carroll saw a TV commercial for another path: ClearChoice Dental Implant ...Read more