When it comes to health care, President Donald Trump has promised far more than he has delivered. But that doesn't mean his administration has had no impact on health issues - including the operation of the Affordable Care Act, prescription drug prices and women's access to reproductive health services.

In a last-ditch effort to raise his ...Read more

Local and world events have brought out strong emotions and stressors this year, often one right after another. They include COVID-19, social distancing, quarantines, stay-at-home orders, furloughs, job loss, masking, racial injustice, protests and demonstrations. There's no question 2020 has been a year full of change and trauma.

In addition ...Read more

The diagnosis of "bipolar disorder" is tossed around these days with alarming regularity. Declaring with great seriousness that someone is bipolar now means that because their moods change rapidly they will be treated for a serious mental illness they likely do not have.

The truth may be more complex, but is usually much simpler. Unfortunately,...Read more

Yes, it's safe to get a flu shot during pregnancy. In fact, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists recommends that all women who are pregnant during flu season get a flu shot, regardless of their trimester.

A flu shot during pregnancy can help:

Prevent the flu and maternal complications. The flu is more likely to cause severe ...Read more

DEAR MAYO CLINIC: I'm a 49-year-old man, and I've played tennis for many years without any injuries. But a few weeks ago, I developed pain in my shoulder during a match and was diagnosed with a rotator cuff tear. My doctor recommended rest and ice. That doesn't seem to be helping much, and the pain is keeping me awake at night. What other ...Read more

LOS ANGELES - During the second week of distance learning, 6-year-old Ezra Karpf clicked the "unmute" button on his computer screen so he could ask his teacher a question. It didn't work.

Ezra's frustration simmered. Then it peaked. Then it exploded.

"I can't unmute myself! I can't unmute myself!" he shouted repeatedly until his mother rushed ...Read more

As a painter, I like to think I have something in common with Picasso, mainly because we both had blue periods, mine coming several years ago when I used that color to paint the bathroom.

But I pale (my beige period, when I did the soffits in the kitchen) compared to my granddaughters Chloe and Lilly, who not only deserve to have a brush with ...Read more

The prospect of having a COVID-19 vaccine raises expectations and plenty of questions. While no one can pinpoint the elusive question of when there will be a vaccine, there are some questions that can be answered now.

Dr. Andrew Badley, head of Mayo Clinic's COVID Research Task Force, recently shared his expertise in this Q&A, starting with ...Read more

With some gyms closed and a number of people working from home, the COVID-19 pandemic has made it more difficult for many people to get in their daily workout. Sedentary behavior, including sitting for long periods of time, can contribute to adverse health effects, including something referred to as "sitting disease."

In this Mayo Clinic Minute...Read more

PHILADELPHIA - News articles containing misinformation about fentanyl - falsely suggesting that people can overdose and die from simply touching the synthetic opioid - are shared and spread far more widely on social media than stories that attempt to correct such myths, a new study from researchers at Northeastern University finds.

Fentanyl has...Read more

As the United States surpassed 200,000 coronavirus deaths recently, many are asking one simple question: When will it end?

Politicians and public health experts have touted herd immunity as one way to stop COVID-19 without a vaccine. The scientific concept explains that a virus will die out after a high percentage of a population is infected ...Read more

The coronavirus pandemic, health-care costs, and insurance protections for preexisting conditions are top health-care concerns for voters in Pennsylvania and other battleground states - and ones they believe Vice President Joe Biden is more likely to address, according to a new survey by the Commonwealth Fund.

Health care is consistently a top ...Read more

ST. LOUIS - Stephen Phelps calls it the "family bible," the "holy grail" that has survived 116 years and three generations of family members. But now the family bible, a 132-page diary of the 1904 World's Fair written by Phelps' grandmother, Adele Quinette, has found a new home.

Last Monday, the Phelps family parted ways with the keepsake ...Read more

CHICAGO - On a hazy September afternoon near a willow tree, a boy with a bright red backpack spotted something slimy on the ground.

"Hello, all the mushrooms," he said, gently tapping the fungus, trying not to crush any as his small feet moved through the grass.

A teacher asked why they might be growing in that spot. The boy thought for a ...Read more

CHICAGO - Anne Marie Calligas was born fighting.

She arrived two months early, after a complicated pregnancy, and spent her first months of life battling congenital heart defects, hypertension, problems with her kidneys and bleeding in her young brain.

Her parents, Catherine and Louis Calligas, and her older sister, Isabel, grew quickly ...Read more

WASHINGTON - For almost four years, Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa., had told anyone who will listen - sometimes smaller audiences than he would prefer - that he believes the Affordable Care Act faces existential threats. President Donald Trump and Republicans in Congress, he warned, have attempted to repeal the decade-old health law and chipped away at ...Read more

WASHINGTON - A job in home-based health care, America's quickest-growing industry, felt like a step up the ladder for Shawanna Ferguson when she left her fast-food job a decade ago. But in terms of pay and security, it didn't turn out to be much of an advance.

It's taken a public-health emergency to shine a spotlight on the precarious ...Read more

WASHINGTON - As Dr. Mark Wilson prepared to release advice in July that middle schools and high schools in Birmingham, Alabama, should not open for in-person learning this fall, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention changed its position and issued the opposite recommendation.

Wilson, chief health officer for Birmingham and the ...Read more

LOS ANGELES - Kathy Griffin is staging a sale in Bel-Air, putting her gated Mediterranean mansion on the market for $15.995 million. That's about $5.5 million more than she paid for it four years ago.

The Emmy-winning comedian kept things mostly the same during her stay, as the 13,377-square-foot home features grand living spaces with dramatic ...Read more

The presidential candidates and their supporters will likely keep belittling the other guy as a doddering old fool, but a group of geriatric experts say in a new paper that both President Trump and challenger Joe Biden appear to have the physical and cognitive tools to make it through four years in the White House.

In fact, the two candidates' ...Read more