In the wooded highlands of northern Arkansas, where small towns have few dentists, water officials who serve more than 20,000 people have for more than a decade openly defied state law by refusing to add fluoride to the drinking water.

For its refusal, the Ozark Mountain Regional Public Water Authority has received hundreds of state fines ...Read more

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Sitting in a recliner in her south Kansas City home, wearing a bright pink sweater, matching lipstick, and with her nails neatly manicured, Shantell Williams recalls the months she spent recovering and rehabbing from the effects of long COVID.

Her vivid outfit stands in contrast to the dark story she shares about her ...Read more

People with a complex heart, kidney and metabolic-related condition who got better quality sleep were less likely to have an advanced stage of the illness than those getting poor sleep, according to a new study.

The investigation looked at the link between sleep quality and advanced cardiovascular-kidney-metabolic, or CKM, syndrome. It was ...Read more

Tim Winard knew he needed to buy health insurance when he left his management job in manufacturing to launch his own business.

It was the first time he had shopped around for coverage, searching for a plan that would cover him and his wife, who was also between jobs at the time.

“We were so nervous about not being on a company-provided plan,...Read more

When Stephanie Russo Carroll, a citizen of the Native Village of Kluti-Kaah in Alaska, set out to earn her doctorate in tribal health 15 years ago, she focused her research on tribal cultural and health programs within six tribes.

She needed vital statistics data, such as birth and death rates, for each of them. But getting that data from the ...Read more

Does your child suddenly have diarrhea and vomiting? The cause might be norovirus.

Norovirus is a common illness that spreads quickly--especially during winter--but it can make people sick anytime. Norovirus is the leading cause of vomiting and diarrhea from acute gastroenteritis in the United States and is also the leading cause of foodborne ...Read more

The Research Brief is a short take about interesting academic work.

Children actively meditating experience lower activity in parts of the brain involved in rumination, mind-wandering and depression, our team found in the first brain-imaging study of young people under 18 years old, published in 2022. Over-activity in this collection ...Read more

PLEASANTVILLE, Iowa — Zach Mecham has heard politicians demand that Medicaid recipients work or lose their benefits. He also has run into a jumble of Medicaid rules that effectively prevent many people with disabilities from holding full-time jobs.

“Which is it? Do you want us to work or not?” he said.

Mecham, 31, relies on the public ...Read more

The National Institutes of Health employee said she knew things would be difficult for federal workers after Donald Trump was elected. But she never imagined it would be like this.

Focused on Alzheimer’s and other dementia research, the worker is among thousands who abruptly lost their jobs in the Trump administration’s federal workforce ...Read more

BALTIMORE — Offices, courthouses, a jail and a psychiatric facility throughout Maryland — most in downtown Baltimore — all found Legionella bacteria in their water systems last year, but state law doesn’t have any regulations to address it on a large scale. One group hopes to change that next legislative session.

Legionella is the ...Read more

People who most frequently encounter everyday discrimination – those subtle snubs and slights of everyday life – are more likely to suffer from anxiety and depression.

What’s more, that finding remains true no matter the person’s race, gender, age, education, income, weight, language, immigration status or where they live.

...Read more

ATLANTA — Legislation regulating the prescription of puberty blockers for transgender minors and banning use of the State Health Benefits Plan for gender-affirming care were approved by House panels this week.

Both bills were approved on party-line votes, with Republicans supporting the measures, putting them in position to reach the floor ...Read more

For a disease afflicting 35.5 million people in the U.S., chronic kidney disease flies under the radar. Only half the people who have it are formally diagnosed.

The consequences of advanced chronic kidney disease are severe. When these essential organs can no longer do their job of filtering waste products from the blood, patients ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — In November, Bob Bryar, the 44-year-old former drummer for the emo band My Chemical Romance, was found dead in his Tennessee home.

Months later, Bryar's autopsy raised a possible contributing factor in his death — three canisters of nitrous oxide found next to his corpse, with tubing for inhalation still attached.

Nitrous ...Read more

The number of measles cases reported in Kansas more than doubled in the past week, and the outbreak may have a possible link to the outbreaks in Texas and New Mexico, a state health official spokesperson said Thursday.

As of Wednesday, the Kansas Department of Health and Environment is reporting 23 positive cases of measles, up from 10 they ...Read more

The North Carolina Senate passed a comprehensive bill Thursday aimed at increasing transparency in healthcare billing, lowering costs, and speeding up the process of prior authorization for medical services.

Senators gave the Republican proposal overwhelmingly bipartisan approval in a 44-2 vote, sending it to the House.

Republicans in both ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — The immediate risks faced by the firefighters who were on the front lines battling the Palisades and Eaton fires that tore through Los Angeles County may have abated, but long-term health concerns remain.

A team of researchers tested the blood of a group of 20 firefighters who were called to duty when the wildfires hit Los ...Read more

The Trump administration’s firing and furloughing of tens of thousands of federal workers and contractors have obviously caused economic hardship for Americans employed in national parks, research labs and dozens of government agencies.

As a professor of social work who studies how people’s finances affect their physical and ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — A deadly, drug-resistant fungus that preys on the sick and old is continuing to spread in hospitals and senior care facilities across the country, killing more than 1 in 3 infected.

Candida auris, a type of yeast that can cause life-threatening illness, was first identified in the U.S. in 2016 with 52 infections reported across ...Read more

MIAMI — The U.S. is on alert for dengue fever during the busy spring break season as cases of the mosquito-borne illness continue to rise globally.

Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Cuba, Colombia, and Mexico are some of the places that have seen a rise in dengue cases, an illness that is known to cause flu-like symptoms, including fever,...Read more