Q: Over the years, I occasionally experience a streak of light across my vision, which goes away quickly. However, I have recently noticed a persistent small black spot when looking out of my right eye. Otherwise, my vision seems fine. Do I need to worry?

A: What you describe sounds like flashes and floaters. Both commonly happen as we get ...Read more

DEAR MAYO CLINIC: Is breathing from your belly beneficial? If so, can you explain why and how to do it?

ANSWER: From the day you’re born, you know how to breathe correctly. That means letting the diaphragm — the large, thin muscle just below the rib cage — do the work of drawing air into the lungs and letting it out. It’s known as ...Read more

One family in Virginia Beach, Virginia, just found out their health plan’s deductible will jump from $800 to $20,000 next year. About 200 miles north, in Maryland, another household learned they’ll pay $500 more monthly to insure their brood in 2026. And thousands of people in Idaho were greeted with insurance rates that’ll cost, on ...Read more

I’m old enough to remember when there was no annual open enrollment. You got health insurance through your employer, and unless you changed jobs or had a major life event, you kept the same plan. Year after year. Simple. Stable. Sane.

Today, we’ve built a multibillion-dollar theater production called “open enrollment” that costs more to...Read more

Radiation therapy is a common component of breast cancer treatment for patients. The high-powered beams of intense energy kill cancer cells and reduce the risk of the cancer recurring.

Dr. Laura Vallow, chair of the Radiation Oncology Department at Mayo Clinic in Florida, explains how innovation is transforming radiation treatments.

Patients ...Read more

PHILADELPHIA — Gov. Josh Shapiro has entered the legal fight between Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and President Donald Trump’s administration over a federal subpoena seeking the private medical records of transgender youth.

In a new court filing, Shapiro argues that states — not the federal government — are legally empowered to...Read more

Kitty Grutzmacher had contended with poor hearing for a decade, but the problem had worsened over the past year. Even with her hearing aids, “there was little or no sound,” she said.

“I was avoiding going out in groups. I stopped playing cards, stopped going to Bible study, even going to church.”

Her audiologist was unable to offer ...Read more

Just as the political health of a nation requires trust in elected officials, the physical and mental health of Americans depends on the trust embedded in the doctor-patient relationship.

For most of the past century, that bond was ironclad. Now, that relationship is fraying.

Gallup polling shows just 44% of Americans rate the quality of care ...Read more

DENVER -- Everything in moderation. Including moderation.

That’s the idea behind the Colorado sober movement, an unofficial yet growing trend away from alcohol, and toward plant-based and psychedelic drugs.

But how can one be considered sober while, for example, smoking pot and taking LSD?

Because “Colorado sober” — a spin-off of the ...Read more

FLORENCE, Ala. — Sometimes, in a quiet moment between appointments, Dr. Carson Cruise runs the financial numbers through his head. They make a cold but compelling case: If he dropped all of the Medicaid patients from his small-town pediatric dental practice, he could make the same money while working far fewer hours.

Cruise, 36, owns a dental...Read more

DENVER — Premiums will double next year for Coloradans who buy their health insurance on the state’s individual market, with higher-income families facing increases of $10,000 or more, the Colorado Division of Insurance announced Monday.

Marketplace customers face a double hit this year. The monthly “sticker price” of health insurance ...Read more

CHICAGO — Illinois residents will pay an average of 78% more across the state for health insurance through the Affordable Care Act exchange if Congress does not extend enhanced premium tax credits — the issue at the heart of the current government shutdown — state regulators said Monday.

Illinois residents who have health insurance ...Read more

This summer, the state of Louisiana texted just over 13,000 people enrolled in its Medicaid program with a link to a website where they could confirm their incomes.

The texts were part of a pilot run to test technology the Trump administration says will make it easier for some Medicaid enrollees to prove they meet new requirements — working, ...Read more

PHOENIX — Medication has long been the cornerstone of treatment for people with epilepsy, but it doesn't stop seizures for everyone and may come with significant side effects. New options in use or under development include devices and gene and cell therapies aimed at resetting or rehabilitating the brain circuits that cause seizures, explains...Read more

After any crisis or disaster, families often struggle with what they should say to children and how to help them cope.

The American Academy of Pediatrics encourages parents, teachers, child care providers and others who work closely with children to review information about the event and present it in a way that their child can understand, ...Read more

A team co-led by a Pitt professor was able to restore sight to blind patients with advanced macular degeneration, according to a report published last week in the New England Journal of Medicine.

The study was conducted in Europe by a team of researchers including senior author José-Alain Sahel, who moved from his native France to join ...Read more

Mary Catherine Johnson is a retired small-business owner from outside Rochester, New York. She voted for Donald Trump three times.

Lexy Mealing, who used to work in a physician’s office, is from Long Island. She’s a Democrat.

But the women share a common bond. They both survived breast cancer.

And when the American Cancer Society Cancer ...Read more

For people whose autumn agenda includes getting vaccinated against respiratory diseases — COVID, flu, and, for some, RSV — this year may be surprisingly routine.

Following several confusing months this summer when federal officials announced and then retreated from changes to COVID vaccine recommendations, the Centers for Disease Control ...Read more

The idea that Affordable Care Act marketplaces are riddled with fraud has become a major talking point among Republicans, as lawmakers in Congress argue about whether to extend the enhanced tax credits that are helping offset the cost of health care marketplace coverage for low- and middle-income people. Those ACA subsidies expire at the end of ...Read more

There's been a long-standing belief that urinary tract infections are largely caused by poor personal hygiene. New research, however, suggests that many cases may actually be caused by infections of E. coli bacteria from contaminated meat purchased in grocery stores.

UTIs are common — globally there are 400 million cases a year — and can ...Read more