WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court is set to hear oral arguments Monday about the legality of the process to mandate cost-free preventive care used by millions of Americans, in a case brought by a group of Texas businesses objecting to coverage for an HIV preventive drug.

The U.S. government has asked the justices to overturn a decision by the U....Read more

_Nearly a half-century after the Supreme Court ruled that school spankings are permissible and not “cruel and unusual punishment”, many U.S. states allow physical punishment for students who have misbehaved.

_Today, over a third of the states allow teachers to paddle or spank students. More than 100,000 students are paddled in U.S...Read more

At a swim meet just outside St. Louis, heads turned when a team of young swimmers walked through the rec center with their parents in tow.

A supportive mom kept her eye on the clock while the Makos Swim Team athletes tucked their natural curls, braids, and locs into yellow swimming caps. In the bleachers, spectators whispered about the team’s...Read more

DEAR MAYO CLINIC: My friend swears by intermittent fasting since her recent weight loss. I know it works for some people, but is it actually healthy?

ANSWER: Although it may appear to be a new trend, intermittent fasting has been popular for over 1,500 years. While we know that it works for some people to lose weight, the reality is that ...Read more

LOS ANGELES -- A major initiative at Children's Hospital Los Angeles aims to address a critical but much overlooked need: mental health care for families experiencing the complex flood of joy, fear and upheaval during the first few years of a child's life.

Myriad issues can emerge or become exacerbated in a family after a baby is born, ...Read more

The federal government covered up an outbreak of E. coli that killed one person and spread across at least 15 states, according to a report published Thursday.

A series of E. coli cases was first reported in November in St. Louis County, Mo., but the Food and Drug Administration never released any information about the outbreak, NBC News ...Read more

If you or someone you know may be experiencing a mental health crisis, contact the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline by dialing or texting “988.”

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In January, a teenager in suburban St. Louis informed his high school counselor that a classmate said he planned to kill himself later that day.

The 14-year-old classmate denied it, but his ...Read more

DULUTH, Minn. – When a Jeep cut me off and then slowed to several notches below the speed limit, I first gasped and then gestured wildly, swearing. These things I remember.

But a sensor I was wearing to capture my heart rate and electrical changes in my skin, along with a vehicle “black box,” revealed more: aggressive braking and ...Read more

SILVERTHORNE, Colo. — When Adolfo Román García-Ramírez walks home in the evening from his shift at a grocery store in this central Colorado mountain town, sometimes he thinks back on his childhood in Nicaragua. Adults, he recollects, would scare the kids with tales of the “Mona Bruja,” or “Monkey Witch.” Step too far into the dark, ...Read more

Fentanyl, the deadly synthetic opioid driving the nation’s high drug overdose rates, is also caught up in another increasingly serious problem: misinformation.

False and misleading narratives on social media, in news reports, and even in popular television dramas suggesting people can overdose from touching fentanyl — rather than ingesting ...Read more

Health officials in Hood River County, Oregon, are investigating three cases of a rare and fatal brain disease known as Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.

Two people have died and a third person is showing symptoms consistent with the disease. The disease has been confirmed in one of the deceased through an autopsy; the other two cases are considered ...Read more

Republicans in Congress are eyeing $880 billion in cuts to Medicaid, the joint federal-state government health care program for lower-income people.

Depending on how states respond, a Republican proposal that would slash the 90% federal contribution to states’ expanded Medicaid programs would end coverage for as many as 20 million of the 72 ...Read more

The measles outbreak in Kansas continued to grow over the past week, driven largely by unvaccinated children and teens, according to health officials.

The Kansas Department Health and Environment reported Wednesday that there have been 37 positive cases of measles, up from 32 cases a week ago, according to the 2025 Kansas Measles Outbreak ...Read more

STOCKHOLM — In both the United States and Europe, two public health agencies aim to fight the spread of infectious diseases.

But the Trump administration’s rapidly evolving approach to public health prevention has highlighted stark and growing differences in their approaches.

While the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was born ...Read more

BOISE, Idaho — It was a scene that doctors saw play out over and over during the COVID-19 pandemic, said David Pate, the former president and CEO of St. Luke’s Health System.

People brought critically ill family members to the hospital and were “in shock” when they learned that a family member had been infected by the coronavirus even ...Read more

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released new data this week showing that 1 in 31 children in the U.S. is autistic. As researchers and physicians, we welcome the growing national attention—and federal funding—this condition is receiving.

But we worry the money is being directed toward the wrong question.

For decades, the lion...Read more

Mass layoffs at the Department of Health and Human Services are continuing as the agency makes good on its intention, announced on March 27, 2025, to shrink its workforce by 20,000 people. Among workers dismissed in early April were several teams responsible for fulfilling requests for access to previously unreleased government data, ...Read more

As generative artificial intelligence gets better at interpreting images, the tech industry is setting its sights on health care. Cue the AI radiologist.

The futuristic vision includes AI providing an accurate analysis of multiple medical scans, combining it with an understanding of patient history, and delivering a personalized diagnosis and ...Read more

Sugar cravings are a challenge for many, especially in a world where sugary snacks and beverages are everywhere. While indulging in a sweet treat now and then can be part of a healthy lifestyle, frequent cravings can lead to overconsumption, increasing the risk of weight gain, Type 2 diabetes, and other health issues. Fortunately, there are ...Read more

Oftentimes, vegetables tend to assume the role of a side dish rather than the main course. However, according to a Gallup poll taken in September 2019, nearly one in four Americans said they had decreased their meat consumption, while nine in 10 people named health concerns as the reason they ate less meat (other factors were environmental ...Read more