he infection can cause a painful rash and, for some, long-lasting pain that can affect their quality of life for months. Yet shingles cases are also largely preventable through vaccination.
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Strongest evidence yet that vaping likely causes cancer
As early as the 1880s, there was evidence that smoking tobacco damaged your lungs. But it took almost 100 years to definitively show that smoking causes lung cancer. So, what about vapes?
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Should I take vitamin C to ward off colds, lower blood pressure or reduce cancer risk?
Vitamin C is one of the most iconic nutrients in popular health culture, often credited with preventing colds, boosting immunity and even fighting serious diseases.
But while it’s essential for our bodies to function, its benefits are often misunderstood or overstated. Before you stock up on supplements, here’s what to consider.
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What does the appendix do, anyway?
Biologists explain the complicated evolution of this inconvenient organ
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Report: Loss of Hospital-Based Obstetrics Care Prevalent in Rural Counties
The less populated a rural county is, the more likely it is to lose obstetrics services, especially “noncore” counties that have no towns with more than 10,000 residents. Among those noncore counties, 148 (or 11%) lost all hospital-based obstetrics services, 15 of those between 2022 and 2023.
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GLP‑1 drugs may fight addiction across every major substance, according to a study of 600,000 people
In the group already struggling with addiction, there were 50% fewer deaths due to substance use among those taking GLP-1 drugs compared with those who were not. We also found 39% fewer overdoses, 26% fewer drug-related hospitalizations and 25% fewer suicide attempts. Over three years, this translated to roughly 12 fewer serious events in total per 1,000 people using GLP-1 drugs – including two fewer deaths.
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Americans More Confident in Career Scientists at U.S. Health Agencies Than Leaders
People have greater trust in major health and science associations outside government – such as the American Heart Association, American Academy of Pediatrics, American Medical Association, and National Academy of Sciences – than in U.S. health agencies.
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Measles remains a growing concern in Washington as U.S. surpasses 1,100 cases in 2026
Measles is highly contagious and spreads through the air when an infected person coughs, sneezes, breathes, or talks. The virus can stay in the air for up to two hours, meaning people can get infected even after a sick person has left the area.
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Rural Healthcare Is in the Red as Trump Withholds Medicaid Payments to Minnesota
Cuts to public payer programs, like Medicare or Medicaid, disproportionately threaten these hospitals by increasing the rate of uncompensated care, or services for which hospitals receive no payment.
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How to live a long and healthy life, according to the ancients
They ate just a few times a day; their diet was of wild meats, whole grains, bread and honey; and they kept active every day.
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States try ‘public option’ Obamacare plans to reduce coverage costs
The results so far have been mixed, however. It’s still too early to say whether the states’ public option plans, which are public-private partnerships rather than purely government-run, will significantly lower costs for consumers or pay enough to providers to ensure their continued participation.
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Chlorine Dioxide, Raw Camel Milk: The FDA No Longer Warns Against These and Other Ineffective Autism Treatments
The FDA has taken down a webpage warning about therapies and products making “false claims” of treating autism. It’s part of a series of actions the agency has taken under Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to discredit long-established science.
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Can a psychedelic-induced mystical experience really improve your mental health?
Mystics once spent years meditating in caves in search of transcendence. Today, a growing number of people believe something similar can be reached in a single afternoon with the help of a psychedelic drug. Swallow a capsule of psilocybin or take a carefully supervised dose of LSD and you may encounter what many describe as one of the most meaningful experiences of their lives. Modern clinical trials appear to support this.
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Colorectal cancer is increasing among young people, as James Van Der Beek’s death reminds us – cancer experts explain ways to decrease your risk
Researchers have identified a number of factors associated with increasing numbers of young people developing colorectal cancer, but there is no one clear answer that explains this trend.
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How a Croatian Lab Spawned a Buzzy Peptide Now Popular With MAHA
BPC-157 is a kind of chemical called a peptide, and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration treats it and some other peptides as unapproved drugs — going so far in 2023 as to explicitly prohibit compounding pharmacies from supplying BPC-157 to patients. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has more recently signaled a desire to loosen restrictions on experimental medical treatments, including unapproved peptides like BPC-157.
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