SAN FRANCISCO — For years, Latinos represented the biggest share of new HIV cases in this city, but testing data suggests the tide may be turning.

The number of Latinos newly testing positive for HIV dropped 46% from 2022 to 2023, according to a preliminary report released in July by the San Francisco Department of Public Health.

The ...Read more

A federal lawsuit in Texas against Planned Parenthood has a web of ties to conservative activist Leonard Leo, whose decades-long effort to steer the U.S. court system to the right overturned Roe v. Wade, yielding the biggest rollback of reproductive health access in half a century.

Brought by an anonymous whistleblower and later joined by Texas...Read more

Severe weather conditions are enough to give anyone a headache, but temperature fluctuations are even more problematic for migraine sufferers.

Dr. Rashmi Halker Singh, a Mayo Clinic neurologist, says the weather can trigger some migraine patients.

For some people, migraines are debilitating. The intense, throbbing head pain is often so severe ...Read more

In the 18 months after Francine Milano was diagnosed with a recurrence of the ovarian cancer she thought she’d beaten 20 years ago, she traveled twice from her home in Pennsylvania to Vermont. She went not to ski, hike, or leaf-peep, but to arrange to die.

“I really wanted to take control over how I left this world,” said the 61-year-old ...Read more

Injectable weight-loss medications called semaglutides are helping people with obesity by reducing appetite. But could these drugs also be the next breakthrough in keeping your heart healthy?

The Food and Drug Administration recently approved Wegovy, a brand name of semaglutide, as a secondary prevention medication to reduce risk of serious ...Read more

Jamie-Lynn Sigler is celebrating her 10-year-old son’s discharge from the hospital after receiving a “nightmare” diagnosis and going through weeks of “trauma” earlier this summer.

In July, “The Sopranos” alum’s son Beau was diagnosed with acute disseminated encephalomyelitis, or ADEM — a rare inflammatory autoimmune response ...Read more

After many months of closely watched negotiations, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced the list of negotiated prices for 10 drugs. This marks the first set of negotiations between Medicare and drug makers taking place as part of the Inflation Reduction Act, which President Joe Biden signed into law in 2022.

“Americans...Read more

When you hear “heart-healthy diet,” you probably think of the Mediterranean or the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) diets or perhaps even the Blue Zone way of eating. To some degree, what all these diets have in common is an emphasis on eating a whole-food, plant-based diet.

However, there is one other heart health focused ...Read more

All of us have an internal clock that regulates our circadian rhythms, including when we sleep and when we are awake. And light is the single most important factor that helps establish when we should feel wakeful (generally during the day) and when we should feel sleepy (typically at night).

So, let me ask you a personal question: just how dark...Read more

Natural flavor is listed as an ingredient on all kinds of products such as sodas, breakfast cereals, trendy bubbly waters, and even plant-based meat. But what exactly goes into making these natural flavorings, and what does “natural flavors” mean?

The term natural flavor or natural flavoring is defined by the FDA as “a substance extracted...Read more

DEAR MAYO CLINIC: My 4-year-old son has had many episodes of painful sore throats, and his doctor recommended that his tonsils be removed. Why do kids have more trouble with their tonsils? Is there a right age to have the surgery done? I’ve heard that recovery from tonsil surgery is painful, so what can we expect?

ANSWER: Often when children ...Read more

PHILADELPHIA — Emily Becker-Haimes' son had just turned 5 years old when she and her husband began to realize his fear of bugs or his request specifically for "five hugs" felt different.

"Was this developmental normative behavior where kids benefit from routines and rituals? We tried not to overpathologize," said Becker-Haimes, a child ...Read more

SAN RAFAEL, Calif. — When Bobby Moske went to a community clinic a few years ago with a toothache, he couldn’t find a dentist in Marin County willing to take Medicaid to do a root canal.

Marin Community Clinics referred the 75-year-old to a dentist about 20 miles away in San Francisco, but his tooth decayed while he waited months for ...Read more

Six months after Gabriella Magers-Darger’s legs were burned by sparks from a ricocheted bullet at the Kansas City Chiefs Super Bowl parade in February, the 14-year-old is ready to leave the past behind.

She is dreading the pitfalls of being a high school freshman, even as she looks forward to being back with friends and at color guard, dance,...Read more

As someone who spends a lot of time outdoors, I’ve come across my fair share of natural hazards: lightning, poisonous snakes, unstable terrain. Nothing, though, fills me with more dread than the thought of a tick.

Depending on what life stage they’re at, they range from about the size of a poppy seed to an apple seed, though the adults can ...Read more

When it comes to back pain, there's good news and bad news.

The good news is that back pain is rarely a sign of something serious and is often relatively short-lived. The bad news is that it's a common ailment for many adults. About 80% of adults experience pain in their back at some point in their lives.

Nearly 90% of back pain cases are ...Read more

MIAMI — Should you get an mpox vaccine?

The World Health Organization this month declared a global health emergency for mpox, formerly known as monkeypox, as scientists monitor a more contagious form of the virus that is spreading across Africa, with at least one reported case in Sweden.

While mpox cases have been reported in Florida and ...Read more