BOSTON — The state Department of Public Health is “in communication” with Newton-Wellesley Hospital after a reported group of nurses were diagnosed with brain tumors.

The diagnosed nurses have worked at some point in the maternal care labor/delivery unit on the hospital’s fifth floor, according to hospital officials.

As of last week, ...Read more

Public access to government records that document the handling of illnesses, faulty products, and safety lapses at health facilities will slow after mass firings at the federal Department of Health and Human Services swept out staff members responsible for releasing records, according to transparency advocates and health experts.

HHS Secretary ...Read more

Alcohol, whether consumed regularly or only on special occasions, takes a toll on your body. From your brain and heart, to your lungs and muscles, to your gastrointestinal and immune systems, alcohol has broad harmful effects on your health – including causing cancer.

Alcohol is the third-leading preventable cause of cancer in the U...Read more

The animal tranquilizers xylazine and medetomidine are in approximately one-third of the illegal opioids available in the U.S., including fentanyl, heroin and oxycodone. Animal tranquilizers enhance the user’s euphoric high from opioids, particularly in those who have developed a tolerance to the opioid. But adding the tranquilizers to ...Read more

Research estimates that one-third or more of the unhoused population in the U.S. is age 50 or older.

Unhoused people of all ages face high rates of chronic and serious illness. They also die at younger ages compared with people who are not unhoused.

Yet, there are few options for palliative and end-of-life care for unhoused ...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS — Those who enter Ellen Kingren’s office get the choice of a chair or a small sofa.

Like each therapist’s room at Nystrom & Associates’ Apple Valley clinic, Kingren’s reflects her personality and intentions — like the piles of board games, knickknacks from her grandparents lining the windowsill and the art piece, painted...Read more

CHICAGO -- A new, tiny pacemaker — smaller than a grain of rice — developed at Northwestern University could play a sizable role in the future of medicine, according to the engineers who developed it.

Researchers unveiled the device, which they say is the smallest pacemaker in the world, in a study published in the peer-reviewed journal ...Read more

School breaks give children and parents a much-needed pause, but breaks can also bring stress. Routines change for your child and family, and time spent together in close settings can cause patience to run short. With a little planning, though, a school break can be a time to relax, have fun and focus on mental health.

When school is not in ...Read more

Tina Ewing-Wilson remembers the last time major Medicaid cuts slashed her budget.

In the late 2000s, during the Great Recession, the pot of money she and other Medi-Cal recipients depend on to keep them out of costly residential care homes shrank.

The only way she could afford help was to offer room and board to a series of live-in caregivers ...Read more

With cannabis and hallucinogen use on the rise, the Michigan Society of Anesthesiologists is trying to educate the public on the importance of disclosing the use of the substances to physicians, particularly before going into surgery.

Use of cannabis and hallucinogens remains at an all time high in recent years, according to a University of ...Read more

Legislators on both sides of the aisle outraged over drastic cuts to the agency that oversees the World Trade Center Health Program have fired off a letter to President Donald Trump and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr. demanding the pivotal services be restored.

In their letter, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., Senate ...Read more

​​WASHINGTON — As a measles outbreak spreads across the country, 23 states are embroiled in a legal battle over $12 billion in federal dollars that have been used for vaccine clinics and other public health measures.

The states filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration after it clawed back the money last week, arguing the funding, ...Read more

ATLANTA – Georgia lawmakers are hoping to pass a bill before the legislative session ends Friday that would allow pharmacists to distribute HIV prevention medicines without a prescription, a policy change that would allow quicker access for people who lack insurance or who live in rural Georgia.

The goal is to help bring down Georgia’s high...Read more

Over the past few years, experts have been sounding the alarm over how much time Americans spend alone.

Statistics show that we’re choosing to be solitary for more of our waking hours than ever before, tucked away at home rather than mingling in public. Increasing numbers of us are dining alone and traveling solo, and rates of ...Read more

Dr. Adam Ratner has heard a lot of myths and misunderstandings about measles in his decades as a New York City pediatric infectious disease specialist.

A troubling untruth he's seen circulating on social media during the current outbreak is that being infected with the virus instead of getting vaccinated confers benefits on the immune system �...Read more

Each year, nearly half a million people worldwide die from brain aneurysms. In the U.S., an estimated 6.7 million people have an unruptured brain aneurysm, which means about 1 in 50 people might have one.

A brain aneurysm, also called a cerebral aneurysm, is a bulge or ballooning in a blood vessel in the brain. Dr. Chris Fox, a Mayo Clinic ...Read more

ATLANTA -- Polio ravaged human bodies for hundreds of years, but the misery began to wane 70 years ago when two polio vaccines developed in the U.S. halted the virus’ spread.

Many Georgians who caught polio in the 1950s as children survived and led fulfilling lives despite their injuries. But in their later years, they experience a return of ...Read more

Sue Sheridan’s baby boy, Cal, suffered brain damage from undetected jaundice in 1995. Helen Haskell’s 15-year-old son, Lewis, died after surgery in 2000 because weekend hospital staffers didn’t realize he was in shock. The episodes turned both women into advocates for patients and spurred research that made American health care safer.

On ...Read more