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Seasonal illnesses like the cold and COVID-19 have many overlapping symptoms.   Jose Luis Pelaez Inc/DigitalVision via Getty Images

Does my kid have COVID-19 or just a cold? A pediatric nurse explains how to tell – and why it matters

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

Fall and winter mark the peak season for common respiratory infections such as COVID-19; respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV; influenza, better known as the flu; and the common cold. These illnesses often begin with symptoms that look very similar, so telling them apart can be tricky – especially when the beginning of cold and flu season in...Read more

Black moms and pregnant women forced out of their homes in metro Detroit face health and safety threats

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

Is everyone entitled to a fair process before being forced out of their home?

The state of Michigan says “yes,” but the reality is often very different and the consequences are severe. In Michigan, landlords need a court order to evict a tenant.

The formal eviction process includes several steps and concludes only when a ...Read more

Unused medications can become a hazard when not disposed of safely. mediaphotos/iStock via Getty Images Plus

At-home drug disposal products can play an important role in keeping rural Coloradans safe

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

Some Coloradans have a drug problem: old prescription medications clogging their medicine cabinets.

Disposing of unused prescription and over-the-counter drugs is important to protect children and teens from accidental or unintentional exposure. Eliminating medications properly is also important to prevent contamination of vegetation,...Read more

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Can disease be identified before symptoms begin? Mayo Clinic researchers are looking for answers

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

By the time doctors diagnose Alzheimer's disease, heart failure or cancer, the biological processes behind the illness may have been unfolding silently for years or even decades.

Mayo Clinic wants to make those invisible years a new target for medicine.

The healthcare organization is undertaking a sweeping research effort, called Precure ...Read more

Marilyn Gould/Dreamstime.com/TNS

On Nutrition: Chia seeds

Health Advice / Nutrition /

I was happy to hear from Sheri, who was my neighbor and friend in a community I moved from several years ago. I was also relieved to hear she is doing well.

At a young age, Sheri was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes—formerly known as “insulin-dependent” or “juvenile diabetes.” This disease destroys a key hormone called insulin that the ...Read more

(Kyla Hailstone)/KFF HEALTH/TNS

A cancer survivor hoped to work -- then she lost her Medicaid disability coverage

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

Taya Hailstone has been in remission from childhood Hodgkin lymphoma for five years. But the cancer’s lasting damage to her organs and nerves can make basic tasks, like loading a dishwasher, hard.

Still, Montana’s health department decided last year that Hailstone is no longer eligible for low-cost disability health coverage through ...Read more

Know The Difference Between A Pacemaker And A Defibrillator

Health Advice / Keith Roach /

DEAR DR. ROACH: What's the difference between a pacemaker and a defibrillator? -- T.S.B.

ANSWER: Both are implantable devices to treat electrical problems of the heart. A pacemaker is a much older device; the first implantable pacemaker was made in 1958.

The heart has an electrical system, which coordinates the mechanical activity of the ...Read more

Testing your knowledge of test results

In 2021, the 21st Century Cures Act required your medical test results to be posted in your online medical records as soon as they're available. Not as helpful as you might think. Those medical-speak pronouncements are often there for you to read before your doctor has seen them and long before any medical professional reaches out to you to ...Read more

Jose F. Moreno/The Philadelphia Inquirer/TNS

Pennsylvania is asking CDC for more emergency aid, but only if measles deaths are reported

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

PHILADELPHIA — Pennsylvania is seeking more emergency aid from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to respond to the state’s largest measles outbreak in more than 30 years, but only if the federal agency acknowledges the four measles-associated deaths Pennsylvania has reported.

The CDC has so far declined to publicly report ...Read more

Liz Rymarev/The Dallas Morning News/TNS

Minnesota's 18th measles case of 2026 emerges near Wisconsin hotspot

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

Minnesota’s streak of almost six months without a new measles case ended this week when an infection was confirmed in an unvaccinated adult in one of the state’s least-vaccinated counties.

The state’s 18th measles case of 2026 was reported Thursday in Fillmore County — not far from the southwestern Wisconsin region that has reported ...Read more

Alex Wong/Getty Images North America/TNS

Outcome of suit against Department of Labor could boost skimpy employer health plans

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

A long-running lawsuit challenging what it means to be an employee and therefore have access to work-based health plans is being closely watched by health policy analysts. Its outcome could spur the availability of lower-cost but potentially skimpier health coverage that skirts some consumer protections.

Court papers indicate a settlement in ...Read more

Many Colorado families want to exercise choice over the pace of their children's vaccines. Cavan Images/Cavan via Getty Images

Separating the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine could decrease access for Colorado parents

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

Some parents in Colorado are uncertain about the safety and necessity of vaccines given to their children. They also question how the vaccines are timed.

I am a sociologist who has spent nearly two decades studying how parents make vaccine decisions for themselves and their families.

I have interviewed dozens of Colorado ...Read more

Brandon Bell/Getty Images North America/TNS

Maryland warns of possible measles exposure at 3 Ocean City locations

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

BALTIMORE — Maryland health officials are warning residents about possible measles exposure after a person from another state who had the disease visited three Ocean City businesses this month.

The Maryland Department of Health said the person visited the Casablanca Oceanside Inn, 2408 Baltimore Ave., from 4 p.m. Sept. 3 through noon Sept. 6;...Read more

DREAMSTIME/TNS

Mayo Clinic Q&A: Prostate cancer: Are you at risk, and should you get screened?

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

DEAR MAYO CLINIC: I know prostate cancer is common, but I’m not sure who is most at risk or whether there are symptoms to watch for. When should men consider screening? And if cancer is found, what treatments are available, and what side effects should patients expect?

ANSWER: About 1 in 8 men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer during ...Read more

Chase Johnson/Chase Johnson/TNS

Misinformation, hesitancy could blunt impact of new cancer vaccines

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

Nearly five years ago, Chase Johnson was cured of breast cancer — but not of the profound anxiety that it would return.

When Johnson was originally diagnosed in 2021, the resident of Cary, North Carolina, was only 31 — nearly a decade away from the age at which regular mammograms are recommended — and she had no history of breast cancer ...Read more

Briah Lumpkins/KFF Health News/TNS

Rising healthcare costs have hit Georgia's most conservative district. But its politics are unlikely to change

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

Amber Bates of Cohutta, Georgia, is one of thousands of people without health insurance in the 14th Congressional District, home to about 765,000 people in the northwestern corner of the state.

She and her husband have not had health coverage for the past two years, Bates said, because their employment is unsteady and they earn too much to ...Read more

A Pinched Ulnar Nerve Causes Intense Pain And Tingling

Health Advice / Keith Roach /

DEAR DR. ROACH: I'm an active 76-year-old retired accountant who likely spent too many hours at a computer. Now I'm paying for it with a painful condition. My general physician says that I have a pinched or compressed ulnar nerve, which likely starts in the neck shoulder area but shoots pain down my right arm and elbow, all the way to my ...Read more

Managing sleep-disturbing micro-awakenings

Almost everyone experiences multiple micro-awakenings as they sleep. They can be caused by street noise, a restless bed partner, changes in bedroom temperature, and anxiety, stress or even sleep apnea. Your brain allows such arousal so that it can scan your environment to check for danger without fully waking you up.

But in middle-age, these ...Read more

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Dengue fever and other mosquito-borne illnesses surging in Florida

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

Mosquito bites can be more than a nuisance this summer — they can make you sick.

Florida has become a hotbed for mosquito-borne dieases, reporting hundreds of cases of dengue fever, chikungunya fever, and even West Nile virus.

The state leads the nation in dengue cases this year with 270 reported. Increasingly, residents aren’t just ...Read more

Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images North America/TNS

HHS plans new research into autism development, treatment

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services plans to launch a new research initiative related to autism, using AI and other technology to map how the condition develops and identify opportunities for early intervention.

The initiative, called SPECTRA, will analyze available data and then fill in the gaps on “the missing biology needed to...Read more