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Ask the Pediatrician: Tips for safe and stress-free family travel

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

Traveling with children can be both a delight and a challenge. Whether traveling by car, plane or even internationally, unforeseen circumstances can throw a wrench into plans. Planning ahead can help you ensure the trip goes as smoothly as possible.

Here are some tips families can consider when planning for travel during spring break or any ...Read more

'The grit that you get from the Marine Corps' helps Pennsylvania man through recovery from rare condition

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

A decade ago, Doug Upton was the picture of strength as a U.S. Marine Corps officer stationed in Jordan.

But in 2016, subtle warning signs emerged, indicating something wasn’t quite right.

“My legs were numb a lot,” Upton, now 34, said. He couldn’t keep up during battalion runs, and he sometimes slipped from ladders that had previously...Read more

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Mayo Clinic Q&A: Can hand surgery be done without general anesthesia?

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

DEAR MAYO CLINIC: I have a hand issue that's affecting my work. I’ve heard some hand surgeries can be done in the clinic without anesthesia or an operating room. Can you tell me more about them?

ANSWER: Hand and wrist problems can make everyday tasks — typing, gripping tools, lifting, even opening a door — painful and ...Read more

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Lawmakers, health groups resist their states' rural health fund plans

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

In the final days of 2025, governors around the country trumpeted the hundreds of millions of federal dollars they won from a new, $50 billion rural health fund.

But plans to spend those nine-digit awards aren’t all warmly received.

At least one group of Republican state lawmakers appears to have scuttled an initiative preapproved by federal...Read more

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Bill of the Month: He needs an expensive drug. A copay card helped -- until it didn't

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

Over the course of 2025, Jayant Mishra of Mission Viejo, California, progressively developed scaly, itchy red patches on his skin. Then came the pain and swelling in the joints of his hands, making it difficult to do his work at a bank.

His primary care doctor referred him to a rheumatologist, who diagnosed psoriatic arthritis. She advised ...Read more

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Even patients are shocked by the prices their insurers will pay -- and it costs all of us

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

Samantha Smith of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, went into the operating room for emergency removal of an ectopic pregnancy. “I’m grateful I didn’t die,” she said, but she was shocked to see that the outpatient surgery was billed to her insurer for about $100,000.

Jamie Estrada of Albuquerque, New Mexico, twice received injections of ...Read more

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Medicaid is paying for more dental care. GOP cuts threaten to reverse the trend

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

Star Quinn moved to Kingsport, Tennessee, in 2023, the same year the state began covering dental costs for about 600,000 low-income adults enrolled in Medicaid.

But when Quinn chipped a tooth and it became infected, she could not find a dentist near her home who would accept her government health coverage and was taking new patients.

She went ...Read more

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FDA vaccine chief Vinay Prasad set to leave post next month

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

WASHINGTON — The head of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s division of vaccines and gene therapies is leaving the agency after a tumultuous tenure, sending biotech shares higher in late trading on Friday.

Vinay Prasad will depart the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research next month to return to his previous career in academia. ...Read more

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Federal officials say Baltimore ICE office safe amid Legionella concerns from lawmakers

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

BALTIMORE — Members of Maryland’s congressional delegation are pressing for “immediate remediation” as Legionella bacteria remains in the water at Baltimore’s federal building, which houses ICE and other agencies. Meanwhile, federal officials say safety measures are already in place and there is no threat.

In a letter sent Friday to ...Read more

Communities rely on vaccination clinics, restaurant inspections and disease surveillance systems run by local and state public health departments.  Sean Rayford/Stringer via Getty Images

Public health needs steady budgets – and federal funding uncertainty cause real harms, even if the money is later restored

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

Since early 2025, several large federal health grants to states have been suspended and then restored after legal challenges. On Feb. 13, 2026, for example, the federal government moved to suspend about US$600 million in public health grants to four states before a federal court temporarily blocked the action. Hundreds of millions of dollars ...Read more

Is the social media platform she's using, rather than the content she's viewing, a threat to her well-being? Fiordaliso/Moment via Getty Images

How Instagram addictiveness lawsuit could reshape social media – platform design meets product liability

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

A Los Angeles courtroom is hosting what may become the most consequential legal challenge Big Tech has ever faced.

This is an inflection point in the global debate over Big Tech liability: For the first time, an American jury is being asked to decide whether platform design itself can give rise to product liability – not because of ...Read more

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How a successful Colorado startup turned into a nearly $1 billion health care fraud scheme

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

Marian Houk was rehabbing from a major spinal surgery in 2022 when her physical therapist at UCHealth in Aurora, Colorado, recommended she try electrical stimulation to manage the pain.

Like many providers around the country, UCHealth sent Houk to Zynex Inc., an Englewood, Colorado-based medical device company that manufactures and sells ...Read more

The neuro disease rat lungworm has reached California

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

LOS ANGELES — A disease that can cause neurological illness and meningitis in people, rat lungworm, has been found in wild opposums, rats and a zoo animal in San Diego County, indicating its establishment in California for the first time.

Researchers reported their findings in the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases, published by the U.S. ...Read more

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Mayo Clinic expert highlights improved survival in muscle-invasive bladder cancer and kidney cancer

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

Cancers of the reproductive and urinary organs, known as genitourinary cancers, affect millions of people worldwide each year. At Mayo Clinic, Yousef Zakharia, M.D., a medical oncologist and chair of the Genitourinary Disease Group at the Mayo Clinic Comprehensive Cancer Center, leads clinical research aimed at improving outcomes for patients ...Read more

Pennsylvania legalized online gambling in 2017. Tatiana Maksimova/Moment Collection via Getty Images

Nearly a third of Pennsylvania gamblers are at risk of problem gambling − but few seek treatment

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

Nearly three times as many Pennsylvania adults gamble online today than just a few years ago.

And as online platforms make gambling easier and more convenient, some Pennsylvanians are gambling more often and may be more prone to developing problems.

We are researchers at Penn State’s Criminal Justice Research Center and the ...Read more

The parasites that cause river blindness and elephantitis have been afflicting people for centuries.  Alexis Huguet/AFP via Getty Images

Billions of dollars, decades of progress spent eliminating devastating diseases may be lost with undoing of USAID

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

In Greek mythology, King Sisyphus was condemned by the god Zeus to spend eternity rolling a boulder up a hill only to have it roll back down, having to start anew every day.

His story captured our attention as researchers studying neglected tropical diseases – a collection of conditions that primarily affect poor people in low-...Read more

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Measles exposure locations in Colorado: 2 schools, 3 restaurants and a grocery store

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

Colorado has its first measles outbreak of 2026, with three cases linked to students at Broomfield schools.

Measles symptoms can take up to three weeks to appear and initially are nonspecific: a fever, cough, runny nose and red eyes.

The rash, which typically starts at the hairline and moves down, appears about four days after someone becomes ...Read more

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LA County banned sales of kratom. Now some residents say they're losing a lifeline for pain and opioid withdrawal

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

LOS ANGELES — Los Angeles County banned sales of kratom and 7-OH in November following overdose deaths, but experts question whether the drugs alone caused the fatalities.

Residents who relied on kratom for chronic pain and opioid withdrawal now struggle to access the substance, turning to online orders and black markets.

The crackdown ...Read more

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Families defend disability services amid Medicaid cuts

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

Families of Idahoans with disabilities say their lives could be upended as lawmakers in the state’s Republican-dominated legislature mull sweeping cuts.

Services at risk include the 24/7 care that allows a 39-year-old with cerebral palsy to live independently; the in-home caregiving that lets a 26-year-old with brain damage from a hemorrhage ...Read more

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States try 'public option' Obamacare plans to reduce coverage costs

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

Nearly two decades ago, progressives fought to include a so-called public option — a government-run health plan — in the broad health care overhaul known as Obamacare. That effort failed, defeated by heavy lobbying from the insurance industry and opponents who decried it as a government takeover of health care.

But the final Affordable Care...Read more