Anyone who watched Olympic bronze medalist Ilona Maher giving her rugby opponents the stiff arm knows she is tough as nails. Yet she recently posted a video on social media exhaling deeply, clutching her stomach and leaning into a tree with the caption, “Connecting with nature before getting my IUD replaced.”

Yes, even a world-class athlete...Read more

As a wave of gene therapies with multimillion-dollar price tags hit the market, many employers are dropping coverage and leaving families in a bind.

For Amanda Reed, the blows came one after another, a gut-punch introduction to motherhood.

Newborn screening this spring revealed her twin boys had a rare inherited condition called spinal ...Read more

Christina Kashiwada was traveling for work during the summer of 2018 when she noticed a small, itchy lump in her left breast.

She thought little of it at first. She did routine self-checks and kept up with medical appointments. But a relative urged her to get a mammogram. She took the advice and learned she had stage 3 breast cancer, a ...Read more

Prime Minister Keir Starmer blamed his Conservative predecessors for leaving England’s health service in a “broken” state, in his latest effort to frame the political narrative ahead of what’s expected to be a difficult budget proposal next month.

Successive Tory-led governments dealt “unforgiveable” damage to the National Health ...Read more

DENVER — Laboratory mice with cognitive issues including Alzheimer’s disease showed improved memory skills within a couple of weeks of treatment with a new medicine tested at Colorado State University.

The combination of drugs targets two brain proteins critical in neuroinflammation, which is involved in brain aging and Alzheimer’s, ...Read more

The 2024 outbreak of eastern equine encephalitis – known as triple E or EEE – has caused six reported and confirmed human disease cases in five states, including one death, as of Sept. 4, 2024.

EEE surfaces nearly every year in the U.S., but with another outbreak of West Nile virus also spreading across the country, health ...Read more

WASHINGTON — State and federal health agencies are gearing up to respond to a new strain of mpox — the virus formerly known as monkeypox — if the new strain spreads to the United States.

But this time, they are doing so with fewer resources.

Both an mpox public health emergency declaration and federal pandemic preparedness law were still...Read more

Another EEE case has been reported in the Bay State, raising the risk levels in several communities as health officials remind people to keep using bug spray and reschedule outdoor evening events.

The Massachusetts Department of Public Health on Thursday announced an additional human case of Eastern Equine Encephalitis (EEE) and one more human ...Read more

When pediatrician Eric Ball opened a refrigerator full of childhood vaccines, all the expected shots were there — DTaP, polio, pneumococcal vaccine — except one.

“This is where we usually store our COVID vaccines, but we don’t have any right now because they all expired at the end of last year and we had to dispose of them,” said Ball...Read more

One of California’s two programs for training nurse-midwives has stopped admitting students while it revamps its curriculum to offer only doctoral degrees, a move that’s drawn howls of protest from alumni, health policy experts, and faculty who accuse the University of California of putting profits above public health needs.

UC-San ...Read more

An Alabama man died last month when a surgeon in Florida mistakenly removed his liver instead of his spleen during an emergency procedure, his family said.

William Bryan, 70, and his wife Beverly, of Muscle Shoals, Alabama, were visiting their property in Okaloosa County, Florida, when he started feeling pain on the left side of his abdomen, ...Read more

It’s all too common to feel nagging hunger pangs in the hours between dinner and bedtime. But night time snack foods and drinks are notorious for being less-than-healthy. And while certainly delicious, certain options can also negatively impact sleep and leave you wanting more.

Here are some great food choices that are satisfying, nutritious,...Read more

A health food darling of the ’70s, carob fell out of favor and virtually vanished from the mainstream. The good news is, it’s back!

The folklore

Carob dates back about 4,000 years to the Mediterranean region. Carob pods were used by ancient Egyptians to feed livestock (a practice still used today), and the gum made from the seeds is ...Read more

DEAR MAYO CLINIC: My niece is living in my home while she is attending college. I've invited her to eat meals with our family, but she typically declines, desiring to eat alone in her room. I'm concerned because she often seems to eat a lot of food at one time, like two sandwiches with two bags of chips or a quart of ice cream. Could this be a ...Read more

As students head off to college, close quarters in new spaces could put them at risk for contagious illnesses, including bacterial meningitis. Dr. Tina Ardon, a Mayo Clinic family medicine physician, explains the common ways meningitis spreads and the best way to prevent an infection.

Meningitis is a condition that inflames the membranes around...Read more

DEAR MAYO CLINIC: My friend was just diagnosed with Graves' disease, but I don’t know much about it. I want to be supportive and educate myself. What is Graves' disease, and how does it affect the body? How is it treated?

ANSWER: Graves' disease is a condition of the immune system that leads to an overactive thyroid. It is caused by ...Read more

Approximately 244 million Americans will have the opportunity to vote in the 2024 elections. In the 2020 election, an unprecedented 67 percent of those eligible turned out to vote. If turnout reaches that level again, it will result in over 162 million ballots being cast by November, reports the Bipartisan Policy Center.

Over the past two ...Read more

DEAR MAYO CLINIC: I have high blood pressure and was just diagnosed as having chronic kidney disease. I am disheartened by this news, but I also am determined to do more to improve my health. I know I may not be able to reverse my condition, but I am hoping to avoid dialysis or a kidney transplant for as long as possible.

ANSWER: Your ...Read more

Editors note: September is National Suicide Prevention Month

In 2021, suicide was the 11th leading cause of death in the U.S., claiming the lives of more than 48,000 people — nearly double the number of homicides. People of all ages, ethnicities and backgrounds choose to end their own lives. That means that people of all ages, ethnicities and...Read more

LEXINGTON, Ky. — Researchers at the University of Kentucky are testing the effectiveness of a vaccine that may be able to treat pancreatic cancer.

As one of 15 research institutions across the nation taking part in the new clinical trial, UK HealthCare will test a vaccine, made with the same sequencing technology as the COVID vaccine, to try ...Read more