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Earlier 911 calls to Rob Reiner's home could loom large in legal battle over son's mental condition

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

LOS ANGELES — In the years before Rob and Michele Reiner were killed, Los Angeles police made at least two visits to their home in Brentwood.

On Feb. 25, 2019, officers conducted a welfare check after someone called 911 at 9:51 p.m. According to LAPD records reviewed by the Los Angeles Times, officers arrived at the address at 10:12 p.m., ...Read more

'Very high' levels of flu reported in Florida. What to know about what's spreading

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

MIAMI — South Florida doctors are seeing more people with cough, fever and other flu-like symptoms as a rapidly spreading influenza strain circulates across the country this winter.

Most states in the U.S. reported “high” or “very high” levels of influenza-like illness during the week of Christmas, with a record number of outpatient ...Read more

Eric Lutzens/The Denver Post/TNS

Children's Hospital Colorado, Denver Health pause gender-affirming care for minors again

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

DENVER — Children’s Hospital Colorado and Denver Health have suspended gender-affirming hormonal treatments for minors again, though transgender youth can still get care in Colorado from providers that don’t rely on federal funds.

Mardi Moore, CEO of Rocky Mountain Equality, said youth can still seek care from other providers, though ...Read more

Charles Fox/The Philadelphia Inquirer/TNS

RFK Jr. is upending US vaccine policy. This expert says child hospitalizations and deaths will rise as a result

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

PHILADELPHIA -- Sweeping changes to the United States’ childhood vaccine schedule announced Monday by federal officials will decrease the number of recommended childhood immunizations from 17 to 11.

Outraged pediatricians and infectious disease experts say the move will increase cases of preventable illnesses, hospitalizations, and deaths. ...Read more

Zoe Greenberg/The Philadelphia Inquirer/TNS

Recruiters flew people from Philly to California for what they described as free luxury rehab. Critics say it's a scam.

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

PHILADELPHIA — Christina Gallo and Daniel Zehnder came to McPherson Square in the Kensington neighborhood looking for a fix, as they did almost every day.

But on this day in late April, an SUV pulled up. A woman bounded out with an offer that sounded like a miracle: an all-expenses-paid trip for free treatment at a luxury rehab center in ...Read more

(Jason Ardan, Jim Vondruska, Jacob Langston, Scott Dalton, Sophie Park, Matt Kile, Parker Michels-Boyce, Rachel Woolf, Maddie McGarvey, Jeremy Wade Shockley for KFF Health News)/KFF HEALTH/TNS

Medical bills can be vexing and perplexing. Here's important advice for patients

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

A Texas boy’s second dose of the MMRV vaccine cost over $1,400. A Pennsylvania woman’s long-acting birth control cost more than $14,000.

Treatment for a Florida Medicaid enrollee’s heart attack cost nearly $78,000 — about as much as surgery for an uninsured Montana woman’s broken arm.

In 2025, these patients were among the hundreds ...Read more

K.C. Alfred/The San Diego Union-Tribune/TNS

Does AI belong in the exam room? Lawsuit alleges Sharp violated patient privacy

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

A recent lawsuit filed in San Diego Superior Court alleges that Sharp HealthCare recorded conversations between doctors and their patients without written consent, using the information to document visits with an artificial intelligence program developed by a private company in Pittsburgh.

While the lawsuit focuses on one particular medical ...Read more

TNS

Study finds sugar substitute could increase risk of stroke

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

Long thought safe, the sugar substitute erythritol could increase your risk of stroke. Researchers at the University of Colorado, Boulder found that the sweetener impairs certain functions of blood vessels that would otherwise help ease stroke risks.

When exposed to the amount of sweetener in a typical diet drink, the blood vessel cells reacted...Read more

DREAMSTIME/TNS

Aging-related weight gain in women: It may start earlier in life than you think

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Weight gain is common in women during perimenopause and after menopause, but the physical changes underlying it start much earlier in adulthood. Daniela Hurtado Andrade, M.D., Ph.D., an endocrinologist and obesity expert at Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, explains why it is important to start counteracting those changes ...Read more

Eileen T. Meslar/Chicago Tribune/TNS

Illinois moves to 'very high' flu levels, as federal government decides to no longer recommend flu vaccine for kids

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

Illinois is now at “very high” levels for flu activity – a designation that coincides with the federal government’s decision Monday to no longer recommend many vaccines for children, including the flu vaccine.

Flu activity has been increasing in Illinois and across the country in recent weeks. The “very high” designation for the ...Read more

FREDERIC J. BROWN/GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/TNS

Massachusetts reports three pediatric flu deaths: 'Devastating losses'

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

Three kids in the Bay State have died from the flu in recent weeks as influenza cases spike, according to health officials who are pleading with residents to get vaccinated.

The flu has already been tied to the deaths of three pediatric patients in Massachusetts, the Department of Public Health reported on Monday.

Also, 29 adult influenza ...Read more

Glen Stubbe/Minneapolis Star Tribune/TNS

Reductions in federally recommended childhood vaccines put Minnesota health officials in a bind

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

Federal health care officials on Monday cut the number of vaccines recommended for every child, reaffirming the need to immunize children against 11 infectious diseases such as measles but leaving families to decide whether to pursue flu shots and others.

Physician groups reacted negatively, calling the change a scientifically unsupported ...Read more

Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP/GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/TNS

RFK Jr., CDC drop 6 childhood vaccines from recommended list

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention removed six vaccines from the recommended list for American children on Monday, a sweeping decision that could have widespread consequences for U.S. public health.

Before Monday, the CDC had recommended vaccines against 17 different diseases for ...Read more

Liz Rymarev/The Dallas Morning News/TNS

Trump administration slashes number of diseases US children will be regularly vaccinated against

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced sweeping changes to the pediatric vaccine schedule on Monday, sharply cutting the number of diseases U.S. children will be regularly immunized against.

Under the new guidelines, the U.S. still recommends that all children be vaccinated against measles, mumps, rubella, polio, pertussis, ...Read more

Liz Rymarev/The Dallas Morning News/TNS

Trump administration slashes number of diseases US children will be regularly vaccinated against

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced sweeping changes to the pediatric vaccine schedule on Monday, sharply cutting the number of diseases U.S. children will be regularly immunized against.

Under the new guidelines, the U.S. still recommends that all children be vaccinated against measles, mumps, rubella, polio, pertussis, ...Read more

DREAMSTIME/TNS

Researchers regrow cartilage in mice with arthritis

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

Blocking a protein linked to aging helped older mice regrow knee cartilage without using stem cells, research from Stanford University in California shows.

Blocking the protein 15-PGDH also increased older animals’ muscle mass and endurance, they reported.

“This is a new way of regenerating adult tissue, and it has significant clinical ...Read more

David J. Neal/Miami Herald/TNS

After outpatient cosmetic surgery, they wound up in the hospital or alone at a recovery house

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

Lisa Farris worried that a nasty infection from recent liposuction and a tummy tuck was rapidly getting worse. So she phoned the cosmetic surgery center to ask if she should head to the emergency room, she alleges in a lawsuit.

The nurse who took the call at the Sono Bello center in Addison, Texas, told her she “absolutely should not” go to...Read more

Daniel Chetroni/Dreamstime/TNS

Ask the Pediatrician: Why do babies need the hepatitis B vaccine?

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

Hepatitis B is a virus that can damage the liver and lead to lifelong health problems. The hepatitis B vaccine prevents short-term illness (acute hepatitis) and a life-threatening infection called chronic hepatitis B.

The American Academy of Pediatrics believes that a federal advisory panel's decision to weaken hepatitis B vaccine ...Read more

DREAMSTIME/TNS

Mayo Clinic Q&A: What are prebiotics and probiotics?

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

DEAR MAYO CLINIC: I’m confused about prebiotics and probiotics. Could you help me understand what they are and how they could benefit my health?

ANSWER: You're not alone in wondering about the health benefits of prebiotics and probiotics. Even the names can be confusing.

The human gastrointestinal tract houses roughly 100 trillion ...Read more

Dreamstime/Dreamstime/TNS

Flu surge prompts masking mandates at Eastern Shore hospitals

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

BALTIMORE — Several Eastern Shore hospitals have reinstated masking mandates this week, joining a growing number of health care centers in Maryland reporting unusually high numbers of influenza cases.

On Friday, TidalHealth announced that protective masking is required at its locations, which include TidalHealth Peninsula Regional in ...Read more