DEAR MAYO CLINIC: I just had a mammogram, and I was told that I have dense breast tissue. What does that mean?

ANSWER: About half of women are considered to have dense breasts, based on the appearance of their breast tissue on a mammogram. The main concerns about dense breast tissue are that it makes breast cancer screening more complex and ...Read more

A 65-year-old retiring in 2026 can expect to spend $185,000 on healthcare costs. That’s a 130% increase since 2002.

Those figures come from a new report from Fidelity, and they don’t include long-term care, such as at-home caretakers or retirement homes.

You may have mapped out your retirement destination and legacy plans, but have you ...Read more

Power outages can be more than just an inconvenience. They may be risky for your health, even life-threatening. Because of severe weather and aging electrical infrastructure, blackouts in the U.S. occur more often now and last longer — the national average was 11 hours in 2024, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Longer ...Read more

Q: What is fenugreek used for?

A: Certain foods that we use in the preparation of our meals not only provide flavor but often have health-promoting benefits. An example of this is fenugreek, a plant that is used in Middle Eastern and Indian cooking.

Fenugreek is found within commercially available blends of curry power and can also be found in...Read more

In Minnesota, an elementary schooler has gone without surgery to treat a rare, life-threatening neck infection that isn’t responding to antibiotics.

Another young child can’t use their hearing aids because the family ran out of batteries and hasn’t come to get replacements.

Yet another child’s cochlear implant surgery was delayed by ...Read more

By the time Democrat Xavier Becerra left Washington, D.C., more Americans than ever had health insurance, owing partly to his work over the years to pass, defend, and expand the Affordable Care Act.

It’s an achievement the former congressman and former U.S. secretary of Health and Human Services often touts as he campaigns for California ...Read more

Rising costs for health insurance premiums offered to Starbucks workers are sparking tension.

With the fiscal year set to kick off for the Seattle-based coffee giant next month, benefits enrollment recently opened, and some workers have been caught off guard with nearly double the price tag for health insurance and lower share of employer ...Read more

Rep. Doris Matsui, D-Calif., joined mental health services leaders Tuesday to announce legislation that seeks to provide hundreds of millions in federal funding for the infrastructure of a national suicide and crisis line.

The bill, unveiled earlier this month, is intended to build on the nationwide rollout of 988 — a three-digit suicide and ...Read more

DENVER — Colorado is seeing either a later-than-usual COVID-19 bump or an earlier-than-expected start to the fall and winter respiratory-illness season, complicating decisions for people trying to time their vaccinations.

The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment’s most recent data showed 20 hospitalizations for COVID-19, ...Read more

PHILADELPHIA — A contagious airborne disease spreads. The tally of cases climbs higher as a vaccine debate rages among the public and their elected officials. Politicians point fingers at each other, arguing over the release of information and the steps that some consider “draconian.”

The measles outbreak this year represents a far ...Read more

A Novartis AG drug billed as a potential blockbuster failed to reduce the risk of heart attacks and strokes in a final-stage trial, marking a major setback for a new approach to prevent cardiovascular disease.

The drug, called pelacarsen, did lower levels of lipoprotein(a), a largely genetic risk factor for cardiovascular disease that affects ...Read more

Social media challenges can be intriguing to teens, who can be both impulsive and drawn to behavior that gets attention. Some social media challenges, like the ALS ice bucket challenge, can be fun and positive activities. But other viral challenges that pop up on the internet are dangerous and can lead to lasting harm.

Examples of risky trends ...Read more

In the thick of his competitive reelection race in Michigan, Republican Rep. Tom Barrett joined Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. at a sprawling 400-acre apple orchard, farm, and winery. They touted Trump administration efforts to improve the American diet, including the removal of some artificial dyes from processed ...Read more

Jalapenos. Frozen berries. Beef. Alfalfa sprouts.

A summer of food recalls, including the record-shattering cyclosporiasis outbreak tied to iceberg lettuce that has sickened thousands, has raised many Americans’ fears of contracting a foodborne illness.

The recalls have focused attention on the Trump administration’s decision to cut ...Read more

Imagine you’re getting out of the shower one morning and you notice a mole on your thigh that you’ve never seen before. It’s reddish brown, bumpy and surprisingly large. Is it a benign mole, or is it melanoma?

A slew of new artificial intelligence tools claim they can help you figure it out. Some are smartphone apps that anyone ...Read more

PHILADELPHIA -- As a former psychiatric hospital nurse, Justinna Dixon knows what it’s like to feel passionate for a job and overwhelmed by it at the same time.

Dixon graduated from nursing school at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, and threw herself into her work, caring for people struggling with mental health and addiction issues. But ...Read more

WILMINGTON, Ohio — From her recliner in her tidy townhouse, Donna Logan offers advice to the first baby boomers to hit the big ‘8-0’ this year: Life can be good, especially with someone like Helen Aponte helping with laundry and housekeeping and the drive to the doctor’s office.

“I do most things on my own,” said Logan, 81, a native...Read more

Illinois health officials announced an outbreak of measles Wednesday in Douglas County in east central Illinois – news that comes amid a national resurgence of the illness.

There have been at least four confirmed, linked cases of measles in Douglas County, according to the Illinois Department of Public Health. An outbreak is defined as three ...Read more

Pennsylvania officials reported two deaths associated with measles last week, amid a growing outbreak that has already sickened more than 500 people in the state this year.

Gov. Josh Shapiro, a Democrat, has clashed over the state’s characterization of the deaths with President Donald Trump’s head of the Department of Health and Human ...Read more