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In Montana, a Crow community works to rebuild from meth's destruction
LODGE GRASS, Mont. — Brothers Lonny and Teyon Fritzler walked amid the tall grass and cottonwood trees surrounding their boarded-up childhood home near the Little Bighorn River and daydreamed about ways to rebuild.
The rolling prairie outside the single-story clapboard home is where Lonny learned from their grandfather how to break horses. It...Read more
California ends Medicaid coverage of weight loss drugs despite Trump plan
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Many low-income Californians prescribed wildly popular weight loss drugs lost their coverage for the medications at the start of the new year.
Health officials are recommending diet and exercise as alternatives to heavily advertised weight loss drugs like Wegovy and Zepbound, advice experts say is unrealistic.
“Of ...Read more
Mayo Clinic Q&A: What heart-healthy habits should I consider starting in the new year?
DEAR MAYO CLINIC: Heart disease runs in my family, and I really want to avoid developing it myself if I can. What heart-health habits should I consider starting in the new year?
ANSWER: When it comes to heart health, prevention still delivers the greatest return. Taking steps now — no matter how small — provides far greater benefits than ...Read more
Skip tanning beds this winter -- heck, all the time!
You're stuck under cold, gray skies, dreaming of lying on a beach somewhere feeling the sun's warming rays. But in lieu of that, you figure why not get an indoor tan from a salon? Well, here's why not.
According to a study in Science Advances, tanning bed users develop twice as many genetic mutations (alternations in their DNA) as folks who don...Read more
Why Meningococcal Vaccines Aren't Recommend For Everyone
DEAR DR. ROACH: Why aren't meningococcal vaccines recommended for people over the age of 23? Are they assuming (wrongly) that most people have already received them or that most won't (again, probably wrongly) be exposed?
When I worked in the emergency room long ago before there was a vaccine, we had two patients in a row die from ...Read more
Michigan flu cases surge; some kids on ventilators, health officials say
DETROIT — Flu cases are surging in Michigan, state health experts say, as the flu season has hit harder and earlier than it typically does, according to several local health systems.
The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services has recorded 2,110 influenza-related hospitalizations this flu season, including 306 among children ages 4 ...Read more
Inside the battle for the future of addiction medicine
NEW ORLEANS — Elyse Stevens had a reputation for taking on complex medical cases. People who’d been battling addiction for decades. Chronic-pain patients on high doses of opioids. Sex workers and people living on the street.
“Many of my patients are messy, the ones that don’t know if they want to stop using drugs or not,” said Stevens...Read more
Ask the Pediatrician: How to talk with your teen about drugs an alcohol: What I tell every parent
After years of talking with teens and their parents about substance use, here's the single most important thing I've learned: Connection matters more than control.
I hear it from parents all the time: "I'm scared my teen might be using drugs, but I don't know how to bring it up." These fears are valid.
Although most teens don’t use drugs or...Read more
5 tips -- and dishes -- to get your new year off to a healthy start
A new year is often challenging. Despite knowing we should throw out old, bad habits along with the New Year's Eve party favors, change is hard.
Many of us eat more than we should. Yet nothing changes for the better — especially in terms of health — when we keep eating those bad-for-us-but-tasty processed junk foods that are high in sugar, ...Read more
Protecting your child from the repercussions of concussions
About 70% of emergency department visits for sports and recreation-related traumatic brain injuries (TBIs) and concussions are among children ages 17 and younger! The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says that the sports with the most concussions are (ranked 1-10): boys tackle football, girls soccer, boys lacrosse, boys ice hockey, ...Read more
Understanding The Relationship Between HRT And UTIs
DEAR DR ROACH: In a recent column, you wrote that hormone replacement therapy should be considered in elderly women to prevent urinary tract infections (UTIs) by stopping bacteria from getting into the bladder in the first place. How does this work? Which is better: pills or vaginal creams? Isn't hormone replacement in postmenopausal women ...Read more
Colorado's getting $1 billion to 'transform' rural health care. But hospitals aren't thrilled with the state's plan.
Colorado will receive about $1 billion in federal funding to reshape rural health care over the next five years, but hospital CEOs aren’t happy with the state’s plan to spend the money.
Last year’s H.R. 1 — also known as the “big beautiful bill” — allocated $50 billion for the federal Rural Health Transformation Program over five ...Read more
Iowa doesn't have enough OB-GYNs. The state's abortion ban might be making it worse
Jonna Quinn was initially thrilled when she got her first job after her medical residency, working as an OB-GYN in Mason City, Iowa. It was less than two hours down the road from West Bend, where she grew up on a farm.
But the hospital started restricting certain birth control options and fertility treatments based on its affiliation with the ...Read more
Bird flu confirmed in Massachusetts, as backyard chickens killed
BOSTON — The circulating bird flu has been confirmed in the Bay State, as agricultural officials report that backyard chickens tested positive for the disease and were killed.
The Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources and its partner agencies “safely depopulated and disposed” of a backyard flock of chickens due to the ...Read more
Judge finds illegal language in Michigan health department's proposal to restructure state mental health services
DETROIT — A Michigan Court of Claims judge has found that the language in the state health department's attempt to possibly privatize community health agencies violates Michigan's mental health code.
Two lawsuits were filed in August by three regional entities that manage mental health, substance abuse and disability care — called Prepaid ...Read more
To knock down health-system hurdles between you and HIV prevention, try these 6 things
When Matthew Hurley was looking to take PrEP to prevent HIV, the doctor hadn’t heard of the medicine, and when he finally did prescribe PrEP, the bills sent to Hurley were expensive … and wrong. “I decided to write in because the process was really super frustrating.” At one point, Hurley asked, “Am I just going to stop this medication...Read more
Eating Whole Fruits Is Healthier Than Drinking Juice
DEAR DR. ROACH: I am a generally healthy 70-year-old man, and I like to drink orange juice -- the kind that is freshly squeezed with no additives but is pasteurized. I also like to eat strawberries almost every day. My recent A1C and glucose levels were 6% and 110 mg/dL, respectively. My prior year readings were 5.5% and 100 mg/dL.
I've read ...Read more
The lowdown on the high risks of saturated fats
Almost 64% of Americans are at risk for cardiovascular disease -- and many more are headed in that direction. Overall, around 35% of folks are living with one risk factor, such as high blood pressure, atherosclerosis, Type 2 diabetes, inactivity, overweight or obesity, poor nutrition, and excessive alcohol intake. And another 29% have two or ...Read more
House votes to renew Obamacare subsidies in blow to GOP leaders
WASHINGTON — A band of House Republicans bucked party leaders to join Democrats in passing a measure to restore expired Obamacare subsidies through the end of President Donald Trump’s term, as rising health care costs drive midterm election anxieties.
The House voted 230-196 Thursday to send a three-year extension of the expired tax credits...Read more
Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick criticizes Speaker Johnson as Pa. swing district Republicans join Democrats in ACA subsidies vote
U.S. Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick accused some of his Republican colleagues of being “intellectually dishonest” about the Affordable Care Act, hours before he and other Republicans broke party lines to pass a bill to restore recently expired healthcare subsidies.
The Democratic-led bill passed the House by a vote of 230 to 196 after Fitzpatrick ...Read more
Inside Health Advice
Popular Stories
- Mayo Clinic Q&A: What heart-healthy habits should I consider starting in the new year?
- Michigan flu cases surge; some kids on ventilators, health officials say
- 5 tips -- and dishes -- to get your new year off to a healthy start
- Inside the battle for the future of addiction medicine
- California ends Medicaid coverage of weight loss drugs despite Trump plan






















