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Birth of a story: How new parents find meaning after childbirth hints at how they will adjust

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

Gather a group of new parents and the conversation will likely turn to their childbirth stories – ranging from the joyful to the gnarly to the positively traumatic. Birth story podcasts and websites feature a curated range of birth experiences, and you can buy embossed leather “birth story” journals as a baby shower gift. People are ...Read more

Dirk Shadd/Tampa Bay Times/TNS

Mood-altering mushroom sales bloom despite safety concerns

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

TAMPA, Fla. — When a hemp dispensary in this Florida city started to stock edibles with certain mushroom extracts last year, state regulators quickly ordered it to stop selling the items.

The shop had been advertising fruit-flavored gummies and other products containing tiny doses of mood-altering chemicals from the mushroom Amanita muscaria....Read more

Dreamstime/Dreamstime/TNS

Cardiovascular disease is primed to kill more older adults, especially Blacks and Hispanics

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

Cardiovascular disease — the No. 1 cause of death among people 65 and older — is poised to become more prevalent in the years ahead, disproportionately affecting Black and Hispanic communities and exacting an enormous toll on the health and quality of life of older Americans.

The estimates are sobering: By 2060, the prevalence of ischemic ...Read more

Brian Stukes/Getty Images North America/TNS

As Medicaid purge begins, 'staggering numbers' of Americans Lose Coverage

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

More than 600,000 Americans have lost Medicaid coverage since pandemic protections ended on April 1. And a KFF Health News analysis of state data shows the vast majority were removed from state rolls for not completing paperwork.

Under normal circumstances, states review their Medicaid enrollment lists regularly to ensure every recipient ...Read more

Helen H. Richardson/The Denver Post/TNS

These ambulance crews can't avoid violence, they're trying to change the culture of ignoring it

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

DENVER -- For as long as emergency medicine has existed, being physically assaulted has been part of the job.

Talking about feelings that come after an assault, though? Not so much.

That’s something that paramedics and others working in emergency medicine are trying to change, said Crystal Eastman, a paramedic instructor and “peer ...Read more

KFF Health News/Getty Images/KFF Health News/Getty Images/TNS

Health care coalition jockeys over Medi-Cal spending, eyes ballot initiative

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Influential health care interests are jockeying over a potential infusion of $19.4 billion into Medi-Cal, California’s Medicaid program, while also angling for a 2024 ballot initiative to permanently lock in that funding, California Healthline has learned.

The Coalition to Protect Access to Care, which includes groups ...Read more

Dreamstime/Dreamstime/TNS

Ask the Pediatrician: What do parents need to know about naloxone for opioid overdose?

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

An overdose crisis is affecting children, adolescents and adults across the United States. Most drug overdoses in young people are caused by opioids, and specifically, fentanyl.

Opioids have long been used medically to treat pain. But highly potent opioids like fentanyl, which is rampant throughout the illicit drug market, are now the leading ...Read more

Servier's experimental drug slows deadly brain tumor in trial

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

A French drug developer’s experimental therapy slowed the progression of a type of brain cancer by more than 16 months on average, results that could lead to one of the first targeted therapies for the most common form of the tumor in adults younger than age 50.

Closely held Servier Group’s drug held up growth of the tumor, called low-grade...Read more

Astra drug improves survival by half in early stage lung cancer

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

A blockbuster lung cancer drug from AstraZeneca Plc was found to improve survival by more than half in a subset of patients, boosting the company’s ambitions to widen its oncology portfolio across as many groups and indications as possible.

Tagrisso, Astra’s best-selling drug, reduced the risk of death in patients with an early-stage type ...Read more

Servier's experimental drug slows deadly brain tumor in trial

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

A French drug developer’s experimental therapy slowed the progression of a type of brain cancer by more than 16 months on average, results that could lead to one of the first targeted therapies for the most common form of the tumor in adults younger than age 50.

Closely held Servier Group’s drug held up growth of the tumor, called low-grade...Read more

Emily Curiel/Kansas City Star/TNS

Kansas City homeless program could be model for mental illness treatment, advocates say

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- After leaving prison, where he’d been incarcerated for nearly three decades, a man in his 60s took up residence in the woods of Kansas City, where he stayed for five years.

He eventually found his way to City Union Mission’s emergency homeless shelter, where staff learned he’d been panhandling to pay for his eyesight ...Read more

BLAKE FARMER/Kaiser Health News/TNS

A Catch-22 for clinics: State bans limit abortion counseling. Federal Title X rules require it

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

State abortion bans in Tennessee and beyond, which constrain women’s health care, have put family planning clinics at risk of losing their federal funding.

The conflict involves the Title X family planning program, which provides services to low-income people, including minors. As of 2021, more than 3,200 clinics used federal grants to supply...Read more

Antonio Perez/Chicago Tribune/TNS

The debt ceiling deal takes a bite out of health programs. It could have been much worse

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

WASHINGTON — Policy analysts, Democrats, and Republicans dissatisfied with the deal agree: Federal health programs have dodged a budgetary bullet in the Washington showdown over raising the nation’s debt ceiling.

A compromise bill, approved late Thursday by the Senate, includes some trims and caps on health spending for the next two years. ...Read more

Paul Morigi/Getty Images North America/TNS

Florida not doing enough to keep children on Medicaid, health advocates warn

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

Health care advocates are sounding the alarm over how Florida is handling last month’s end of emergency Medicaid, which they warn could force thousands of eligible children to lose medical coverage because their parents don’t know they must reapply to the federal program.

One reason they don’t know, according to advocates, is that Florida...Read more

Jim Watson/GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/TNS

Millions skipping doses, not filling prescriptions to save money, study finds

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

ATLANTA — A new report from the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has shed some new light on the health habits of Americans. According to the report, 8.2% of adults between the ages of 18 and 64 taking prescription medications reported not taking their drugs as prescribed in order to cut costs – adding up to 9.2 ...Read more

Angela Rowlings/Boston Herald/TNS

Type 2 diabetes study: Afternoon exercise tied to blood sugar improvements, researchers find

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

Those with type 2 diabetes who are planning out their exercise schedule should consider getting in a workout after lunch, according to a new study from Boston researchers.

Type 2 diabetes patients who were physically active in the afternoon saw greater improvements in blood sugar levels than those who were most active at other times of day, the...Read more

Dreamstime/Dreamstime/TNS

Dobbs decision now a factor in med school residency picks

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

When Rose Al Abosy began weighing which obstetrics and gynecology residencies to apply to, she spoke to advisers, considered programs’ academics and evaluated how state laws would affect her ability to train in providing abortions.

The Boston University Medical School graduate narrowed down the options to 80 programs in states that had not ...Read more

JOSEPH PREZIOSO/AFP/Getty Images North America/TNS

Little-known lung infection grabs limelight from COVID-19, RSV

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

A little-known respiratory virus is grabbing the limelight from COVID-19 and RSV after cases surged earlier this year, spurring companies to prepare their vaccines for a waiting market.

About one in five U.S. lung patients who were tested in March for the illness, called human metapneumovirus, or hMPV, showed signs of the disease, according to ...Read more

Sarah A. Miller/Idaho Statesman/TNS

'This law specifically targets us': Idaho families sue to block trans health care ban

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

BOISE, Idaho — Two Idaho families are suing to block a law that makes it a crime to provide gender-affirming care for transgender youth.

House Bill 71, passed by the Legislature this year and signed into law by Idaho Gov. Brad Little, makes it a felony for physicians to provide transition-related surgeries and medication, such as puberty ...Read more

Drugs that melt away pounds present more questions than answers, but they could be a key tool in reducing the obesity epidemic

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

In the past five years, several new drugs have been brought to market that could lead to a profound, if not revolutionary, change in how health care providers – and the public – view weight loss.

Three drugs in particular – sold under the brand names Wegovy, Ozempic and Mounjaro – have shown remarkable effects on weight loss ...Read more