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Ultraprocessed foods make up a huge part of the global diet.   beats3/iStock via Getty Images Plus

The science and politics behind the panic over ultraprocessed foods

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

Ultraprocessed foods have a terrible reputation.

Studies have linked them with multiple chronic diseases. Journalists and health influencers characterize them as poison. Some public health experts call for a global halt to producing and consuming them.

But the debate around ultraprocessed foods is not nearly as settled as it ...Read more

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Fears about kids' online safety unite Democrats and Republicans

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

The U.S. Senate candidates in Texas could hardly be more different: James Talarico, a former seminarian turned Democratic state lawmaker who speaks in calm cadences about love and empathy, and Ken Paxton, the pugnacious Republican state attorney general who speaks about a refusal to compromise.

They share an enemy, though. They dislike social ...Read more

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Ask the Pediatrician: What is a medical home?

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

Medical health professions use the term “medical home” to describe the partnership between you, your child and your child’s medical team. It is not a house, an office or a hospital, but a plan to care for a child, keeping in mind all aspects of their health, including their family’s wellness.

The American Academy of Pediatrics ...Read more

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People say these peptides hurt them. Their stories are muffled in MAHA's push for medical freedom

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

After the third day of squirting an experimental drug up his nose, Dylan Meetze felt horrible.

“It was like I was underwater, like it took the most to do anything,” he said.

Meetze stopped taking the drug but endured fatigue and anxiety for months afterward, and his eyes and muscles twitched, he said.

He had taken BPC-157, a peptide drug ...Read more

Karl Merton Ferron/Baltimore Sun/TNS

Maryland medical school study trains clinicians on keto diet for mental illness

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

BALTIMORE -- Studies have shown that converting the body’s metabolism from burning sugars and starches to proteins and fats can relieve certain neurological and mental illnesses that have not responded well to standard therapies, but most doctors have limited experience with using diets for therapy or partnering with nutritionists.

...Read more

Angelica Edwards/Tampa Bay Times/TNS

Why early detection for Alzheimer's is crucial -- and how a proposed state bill might help

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

When Victoria Bayle was diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer’s disease at the age of 46, her neurologist gave her a prognosis of 10 years.

She didn’t know anyone in her family with the condition, nor were there medications she could take to slow the disease’s progression.

The resident of Edinboro, in Erie County, went on a road trip with...Read more

Africa CDC says over $700 million in Ebola funds unaccounted for

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

More than $700 million in funding for the response to an Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo remains unaccounted for by national authorities, according to the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention.

Africa CDC is working with the Congolese government to reconcile the funding and establish how much was received by ...Read more

Research has found that high-sugar, ultraprocessed foods can be addictive for some people. Doucefleur/iStock via Getty Images Plus

Can you really be addicted to food? Researchers are uncovering convincing similarities to drug addiction

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

People often joke that their favorite snack is “like crack” or call themselves “chocoholics” in jest.

But can someone really be addicted to food in the same way they could be hooked on substances such as alcohol or nicotine?

As an addiction psychiatrist and researcher with experience in treating eating disorders and ...Read more

Countries are banning social media in hopes of helping with the youth mental health crisis. Anna Barclay/Getty Images News via Getty Images

Can social media bans protect young people’s mental health? Early research suggests that bans aren’t the answer

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

The year 2026 has been an expensive one for social media platforms.

Since March, YouTube and Meta, the parent company of Instagram and Facebook, have settled or paid out in multiple lawsuits to the tune of more than US$17 billion for allegedly acting negligently, deliberately designing their platforms to hook kids and misleading the ...Read more

Depression affects 1 in 5 women during pregnancy.  SDI Productions/E+ via Getty Images

Treating depression during pregnancy may benefit baby’s brain development – new research

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

Treating pregnant women’s depression with a short course of talk therapy doesn’t just improve their health – it can also shape how their babies’ brains develop before birth. That’s the finding of a new study we co-authored, published in the journal Nature Communications.

The study is part of an ongoing research project that ...Read more

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Billy Joel can't drive or perform following brain disorder diagnosis

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

LOS ANGELES — It is unclear when Billy Joel will perform again.

The 77-year-old singer has to take "a series of tests" before being able to tour again, he told the Hollywood Reporter in a health update following his 2025 brain disorder diagnosis.

"I'm not allowed to drive," Joel said in the interview published Thursday. "And I can't do ...Read more

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Billy Joel gives health update, says he can't drive or perform yet

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

NEW YORK — Songmaster and avid motorcycle lover Billy Joel is unable to drive and needs to undergo further tests to gauge if or when he can perform again, the legendary performer said in a recent interview.

“I have to take a series of tests before I know,” he told The Hollywood Reporter as he prepared to auction off more than 70 ...Read more

Amy Beth Bennett/South Florida Sun-Sentinel/TNS

Florida is losing more Medicare Advantage plans in 2027 than any other state

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Medicare Advantage plans are shrinking their footprint across the Sunshine State in 2027, forcing returning enrollees to re-examine their coverage before the Dec. 7 deadline.

Florida leads the nation in total Medicare Advantage plan discontinuations for 2027, dropping 8.7% from 611 plan offerings to 560 as insurers ...Read more

Jose Luis Villegas/The Sacramento Bee/TNS

Commentary: Vote to protect public health

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

It’s election season, and we’re all awash in political ads, some dealing with issues like high grocery prices, others seeking to distract us from those issues. But one topic deserves voters’ attention, whether or not you see it in commercials: the impact that the upcoming elections will have on our health.

When the Trump administration ...Read more

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Is your gut biome causing a vaccine fever reaction? Healthier diet may help

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

What’s living in your gut determines whether you have a fever reaction to a vaccination, new research shows.

Fever is the most common reaction to a vaccination and could lead some people to delay or forego future shots, especially for modern vaccines such as the mRNA vaccine developed to fight COVID-19.

“The fear of vaccine-induced adverse...Read more

Antonio Perez/Chicago Tribune/TNS

Measles cases reach 42 in rural Minnesota amid outbreaks

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

MINNEAPOLIS — Minnesota has confirmed another 18 cases of measles in the past week — one of its highest single-week totals in decades — amid two ongoing outbreaks in the state’s least-vaccinated counties.

“The case count will very likely grow in the days and weeks ahead,” the Minnesota Department of Health warned in a written ...Read more

Allison Joyce/Getty Images North America/TNS

NC congressman has ties to health system he's promoting. Are they disclosed?

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

RALEIGH, N.C. — Dr. Greg Murphy is a urologist who has worked in healthcare for decades, including with East Carolina University’s medical school and healthcare system.

Rep. Greg Murphy is a congressman who has represented North Carolina’s 3rd Congressional District since 2019, in a part of the state where ECU is a dominant employer and ...Read more

Alan Budman/Dreamstime/TNS

Trump administration bars states from using federal funds on transgender youth care

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

Prominent children’s hospitals and other providers of care to transgender youth are facing a new threat to funding from President Donald Trump’s administration.

A federal rule that took effect this week bars states from seeking U.S. funds for transgender youth medical care, including puberty blockers, hormones, or rare surgical ...Read more

Ketamine and many other psychoactive substances can't be detected by most standard drug screens, so it's unclear how often they play a role in sexual assault. D-Keine/iStock via Getty Images Plus

Ketamine’s role in alleged Cornell rape highlights flood of psychoactive drugs on campus

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

Former Cornell student Jane Doe, who filed a civil lawsuit in September 2026 alleging that seven fraternity members raped her at a party, said the young men who assaulted her pressured her into taking the drug ketamine.

As an emergency room physician, medical toxicologist and the head of student health services at the University of ...Read more

Jackie Fortiér/KFF Health News/TNS

California's billionaire tax promises healthcare relief. The fine print is murkier

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

The pitch behind California’s billionaire tax proposal is simple: Tax the richest residents in the nation’s wealthiest state to offset steep federal cuts to healthcare, food assistance, and education.

But if approved by voters in November, it’s unclear how much money the ballot initiative would raise, how quickly the funding would become ...Read more