ArcaMax

Brooke Green thought she needed a mammogram.

Green, a Democratic state representative in Idaho, knew that breast cancer ran in her family and she “just had an inkling” that she should be tested.

She was two weeks shy of the day her last remaining embryo would be implanted through in vitro fertilization. It was the one shot she had left to ...Read more

LAGUNA BEACH, Calif. — While rescue crews spent nearly two days searching for a 5-year-old girl swept out in a rip current off Treasure Island, Laguna Beach Fire Capt. Pat Cary spent dozens of hours with the grieving family, acting as their liaison, caring for them, and keeping them updated.

A safety officer with 15 years at the department, ...Read more

MACY, Neb. — Erica Carter is passionate about her job, and she has seven acres of flowers and vegetables to show for it.

Carter’s specialty is reeling in grants to support students in the Omaha Nation school district, where she is a finance manager. One paid for the garden that sits next to the district’s campus. Another allowed the ...Read more

The number of U.S. kindergartners starting school without being fully immunized continues to rise, as more families forgo the protective shots despite outbreaks of vaccine-preventable illnesses.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Monday that the number of children who were fully up-to-date on their immunizations when ...Read more

Curious Kids is a series for children of all ages. If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, send it to curiouskidsus@theconversation.com.

How is deli meat made? – Arabelle, 17, Brooklyn, New York

If you’ve ever eaten a ham or turkey sandwich for lunch, then you’ve probably eaten deli meat. Sometimes ...Read more

You notice someone close to you has lost a lot of weight. You also notice that they’re skipping meals and talking more pessimistically about food and their body. You feel concerned but worry that commenting on their body might do more harm than good.

So what should you do? Where is the line between showing concern and being harmful?...Read more

Smoking and vaping continued to decline among middle school and high school students in 2025, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s 2025 National Youth Tobacco Survey, released in July 2026. This annual, school-based survey has been tracking smoking and other nicotine product use in American youth ages 11 to 18 since 1999....Read more

A child left in a hot car — or who gets into an unlocked vehicle unnoticed — can die of heat stroke very quickly. Tragically, dozens of U.S. children lose their lives this way each year. These deaths are preventable with some simple actions by parents and caregivers.

Here's what the American Academy of Pediatrics says about the danger of ...Read more

HOT SPRINGS, S.D. — Two of the nation’s most powerful health officials predict artificial intelligence will play a key role in solving rural America’s health challenges.

Health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. told a panel of U.S. senators that AI nurses can provide “concierge care” to rural patients. Mehmet Oz, who leads the Centers ...Read more

Last year, Baltimore had three mass overdose incidents in the span of three months in its Penn North neighborhood.

In one incident, more than two dozen people were hospitalized after many were found unresponsive, lying in the streets or on sidewalks. No one died, but some came close.

Follow-up testing found that the street drugs contained high...Read more

LOS ANGELES — Health officials in California are defending the traditional childhood vaccination schedule against efforts by the Trump administration to weaken it.

The long-standing childhood vaccine schedule is safe, California's top health official said, and continues to be recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics — the nation's ...Read more

Parents are all too familiar with the ongoing battle to get their kids to eat a vegetable or two.

This summer, they’ve been fighting it themselves.

Just weeks ago, every bite of greens came with the fear of exposure to cyclosporiasis, a parasite many of us were blissfully unaware of until it began triggering stomach problems that leave no ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — Six years after the COVID-19 pandemic upended the world, experts in California say the disease appears to be becoming more of a summer rather than a winter phenomenon.

The shift was noted over the past couple of years and has become even clearer in 2026, prompting health officials to refocus their prevention efforts. The U.S. ...Read more

“It’s all in your head.”

By the time many people with functional neurological disorder arrive in our clinic, they have heard these five words more times than they can count. They are told their brain scan was normal. Their electroencephalogram, a test that measures the brain’s electrical activity, is reassuring. “The good ...Read more