DALLAS CENTER, Iowa — “COVID is not pretty in a nursing home,” said Deb Wityk, a 70-year-old retired massage therapist who lives in one called Spurgeon Manor, in rural Iowa. She twice contracted the disease and is eager to get the newly approved vaccine because she has chronic lymphocytic leukemia, which weakens her immune system.

The ...Read more

Kaiser Permanente and union representatives pledged to continue negotiating a new contract up until the last minute as the threat of the nation’s latest large-scale strike looms next month.

Unless a deal is struck, more than 75,000 health workers will walk out for three days from Oct. 4-7, disrupting care for KP patients in California, ...Read more

Q: What is coffeefruit and is it healthful to consume?

A: Coffee beans are one of the world’s most widely traded and most valuable crops, and the U.S. is the world’s largest consumer. The coffee bean is technically not a bean at all, but a seed. Like other seeds, it originates from a fruit; in this case the Coffea flowering plants in the ...Read more

If you feel run-down and exhausted, you may be tempted to turn to sugar and/or caffeine to bolster flagging energy reserves.

Bad idea, says Dina Aronson, RD: “Fatigue breaks us down physically and emotionally and wreaks havoc on the immune system, making us more susceptible to illness, depression and even chronic conditions like heart disease...Read more

Be honest: just how much television are you watching? One study has estimated that half of American adults spend two to three hours each day watching television, with some watching as much as eight hours per day.

Is time spent on TV a good thing or a bad thing? Let’s look at some of the data in relation to your risks for cognitive decline and...Read more

DEAR MAYO CLINIC: I was diagnosed with an acoustic neuroma last year after I went to the doctor due to more frequent headaches. I read that surgery often is needed for these tumors, but my physician said I did not need to be treated. He suggested we reevaluate after imaging in a few months. Why would I not need to be treated?

ANSWER: An ...Read more

I vividly remember that late Friday afternoon when my eye pressure spiked and I staggered on foot to my ophthalmologist’s office as the rapidly thickening fog in my field of vision shrouded passing cars and traffic lights.

The office was already closed, but the whole eye care team was there waiting for me. One of them pricked my eyeballs with...Read more

DEAR MAYO CLINIC: I recently heard about a type of skin cancer called Merkel cell carcinoma. I'm not familiar with this condition. Can you explain what it is? Do I need to do anything different to protect myself?

ANSWER: Skin cancer is the most common cancer in the U.S. The American Academy of Dermatology estimates that 1 in every 5 people will...Read more

Scoliosis is a condition that causes the spine to curve. It often is diagnosed in children — perhaps during a growth spurt or in and around the time of puberty. However, it can be associated with other conditions such as arthritis, osteoporosis, infection or injuries to the spine. There are also other conditions, including congenital or ...Read more

If you or someone you know is in crisis, please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 988 or contact the Crisis Text Line by texting HOME to 741741.

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Jason Lance thought Jan. 21, 2010, was a day like any other until the call came.

He had dropped off his 9-year-old son, Montana, at Stewart’s Creek Elementary School in The ...Read more

Facing the prospect of a trial neither side wanted, Los Angeles County and the plaintiffs in a lawsuit seeking more homeless services have proposed a settlement that appears to meet the demands of a federal judge who twice rejected earlier agreements.

In the new proposal, filed in federal court Monday, the county pledges to provide an ...Read more

Ever go to the movies or a rock concert and been blasted by the sound? You may not realize it while it’s happening, but ongoing exposure to loud sounds at these venues can damage your hearing.

Our ears are highly sensitive to loud noise. Even very short exposures to high-level sounds – that’s anything above 132 decibels – can ...Read more

Dr. Nicole Teal was working a night shift in September 2022, when a patient came into UNC Medical Center’s labor and delivery unit with a particularly dangerous set of symptoms.

Her blood pressure had suddenly spiked. Her platelets were decreasing. Liver enzymes in her blood were rising. She had the hallmarks of severe preeclampsia, one of ...Read more

September is Childhood Cancer Awareness Month. The most common type of childhood cancer is acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL), a blood and bone marrow cancer that creates immature white blood cells that can't perform their typical functions. Because of this, the disease worsens quickly.

Most likely to occur in early childhood, ALL is more common ...Read more

Rick Jaenisch went through treatment six times before his hepatitis C was cured in 2017. Each time his doctors recommended a different combination of drugs, his insurer denied the initial request before eventually approving it. This sometimes delayed his care for months, even after he developed end-stage liver disease and was awaiting a liver ...Read more

Pericarditis is a challenging illness that's often mistaken for a heart attack or other organ disease. In this Mayo Clinic Minute, Dr. Leslie Cooper Jr., a Mayo Clinic cardiologist, explains what pericarditis is and how it's treated.

"Pericarditis is simply inflammation of the lining of the heart tissue, or the pericardium," says Dr. Cooper.

...Read more

Porter County, Indiana, has expanded its problem-solving courts to include a mental health court for teens, the first of its kind in the state.

“You just see an explosion in anxiety and depression right now, and especially the social phobias,” said Alison Cox, the county’s director of juvenile detention services and the court’s ...Read more

Abby Madore covers a lot of ground each day at work.

A staffer at a community health center in Carson City, Nevada, Madore spends her days helping low-income residents understand their health insurance options, including Medicaid. Her phone is always ringing, she said, as she fields calls from clients who dial in from the state’s remote ...Read more

Patricia Tatum said she thinks about her son from the time she wakes up to the time she goes to sleep.

She feels helpless.

“There’s nothing I can do,” she said. “I have no information.”

Her son, 47-year-old Derrick Williams, sits in the Clay County Detention Center in Missouri — hundreds of miles away from her home in Alabama. He�...Read more