As a wealth manager, I often guide clients through unexpected financial and health care challenges, including receiving a life-altering medical diagnosis.

According to the National Institutes of Health, 85% of Americans over 65 years of age have at least one chronic health condition, and 60% have at least two chronic conditions.

Receiving a ...Read more

Chewing gum in one form or another has been around for thousands of years. For centuries, gum consisted of the latex, called chicle, of the sapodilla tree. After World War II, a variety of waxes, plastics, and synthetic rubber mostly replaced chicle in chewing gum. Today, chewing gum is made of a few basic ingredients: a gum base, flavorings and...Read more

The delicious date, otherwise known as nature’s candy, is changing its reputation. Usually seen as solely a dessert add-in or party appetizer, it’s becoming easier and easier to find them in grocery aisles in snack form. Here’s what you need to know about the different varieties, their benefits, and how you can add them to your regular ...Read more

It used to be that radiation therapy for prostate cancer involved weeks or months of repeat visits to a clinic for treatment. Today that’s not necessarily true. Instead of giving small doses (called fractions) per session until the full plan is completed, radiation delivery is moving toward high-dose fractions that can be given with fewer ...Read more

DEAR MAYO CLINIC: My friend had a stoma created after years of managing Crohn’s disease. She recently had surgery to repair a hernia. What is a stoma, and are these types of hernias common? What is the typical treatment?

ANSWER: Occasionally, the surgical treatment of Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis and other gastrointestinal, ...Read more

The Trump administration this month scrapped a Biden-era proposal that would have required state Medicaid programs and allowed federal Medicare to pay for some GLP-1s for obesity treatment. Instead, state Medicaid programs will retain the choice of whether to cover the high-priced medications for their residents.

The drugs, which have ...Read more

For several years, Fred Neary had been seeing five doctors at the Baylor Scott & White Health system, whose 52 hospitals serve central and northern Texas, including Neary’s home in Dallas. But in October, his Humana Medicare Advantage plan — an alternative to government-run Medicare — warned that Baylor and the insurer were fighting over a...Read more

ATLANTA — The U.S. Department of Justice has pulled its support for a transgender Georgia prisoner to receive state-funded gender-affirming surgery, criticizing former President Joe Biden’s administration for what it says was favoring politics over the law.

On Friday, the DOJ withdrew its statement of interest in the prisoner’s lawsuit ...Read more

WASHINGTON — About 44% of U.S. adults say they expect to lose trust in government health recommendations over the next four years because of federal leadership changes, according to a poll published Tuesday from Harvard University and the de Beaumont Foundation.

Researchers asked 3,343 adults online and on the phone about their reaction to ...Read more

The Social Security Administration is backing off a plan it announced in March to withhold 100% of many beneficiaries’ monthly payments to claw back money the government had allegedly overpaid them.

Instead, the agency will default to withholding 50% of old-age, survivors, and disability insurance benefits, the agency said in an “emergency ...Read more

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. attracted notice — and in some quarters, outrage — for remarks about autism, a topic he’s clashed with scientists about for years.

Kennedy held an April 16 press conference pegged to a new Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report that found the prevalence of autism ...Read more

CHICAGO — Almost exactly a year after he was diagnosed with colorectal cancer, WGN-TV reporter Mike Lowe’s cell phone pinged as he drove to work early last week.

It was a message from his doctor — the results of his latest colonoscopy, a test meant to show whether six weeks of radiation and four months of chemotherapy had worked. The ...Read more

The personal information of more than 9,300 people may have been exposed in a recent data breach at health insurer Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Illinois, according to the company.

Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Illinois became aware of the problem in February, according to a notice posted on the health insurer’s website. An unauthorized ...Read more

For nearly three agonizing years, Mariah Freschi and her husband have been trying to have a second baby. The California mother recently underwent surgery to remove her blocked fallopian tubes, leaving in vitro fertilization as her only option to get pregnant. But the cost quoted by her Sacramento-area clinic was $25,000 — out of reach for ...Read more

Los Angeles pediatrician and urgent care specialist Dr. Ilan Shapiro worries for his chronically ill patients as he watches Congress weigh significant cuts to Medicaid.

He thinks of a boy who, before finding Shapiro’s clinic, was in and out of emergency rooms and intensive care units because of severe asthma attacks, instead of competing in ...Read more

Christine and Joey Gibson are trying everything to get their infant son a new liver: traveling to three different states to list him with transplant centers, begging on social media and even offering a piece of Joey’s liver in a swap if a compatible donor has someone in their life who needs an organ.

The waitlist for a liver from a deceased ...Read more

Not long ago, teens had only a handful of ways to be exposed to gambling. Some might see a caregiver buy lottery tickets, others might watch a family member join fantasy sports leagues and some might encounter gambling on a family trip. Gambling was a behavior that had clear boundaries around it as "adults only."

But online gambling has ...Read more

He’s 17 and lives in the Chicago suburbs. He loves theater and recently helped direct a play at his high school. He takes competitive AP courses and is working on his Eagle Scout project.

And he’s been on a journey for four years.

Once a week, the transgender teen injects testosterone into his body. He’s had his eggs frozen in case he ...Read more

Tiny pieces of plastic are infiltrating the large arteries in the neck that carry blood from the heart to the head, with the highest amounts found in fatty buildup in the arteries of stroke survivors, a small study suggests.

The concentration of so-called micronanoplastics in carotid arteries was 51 times higher in plaque from people who'd had ...Read more

ATLANTA — Advocates for transgender children worried a recent decision by Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta to stop offering gender-affirming care may start a trend among the state’s providers, while advocates on the other side say they hope it does.

Children’s Healthcare is no longer allowing their providers to prescribe treatments to ...Read more