BUCKINGHAM TOWNSHIP, Pa., -- After she broke her neck in a car accident at age 28, Renee Tucker's doctors told her that her newly repaired spine would never be as strong as it was before. Another accident could paralyze her.

She's not allowed to run or ride on roller coasters, but the Buckingham Township mother of two has mostly been able to ...Read more

When is the best time to get your flu shot? Ideally, it's before flu season becomes active in your community.

Flu activity across the U.S. is low, making it the perfect time to roll up your sleeve for your annual flu shot. "The general advice is get the vaccine as soon as you can," says Dr. Gregory Poland, director of Mayo Clinic's Vaccine ...Read more

WASHINGTON -- Down in the Louisiana bayou, Dr. Gary Wiltz is wondering how he's supposed to run 14 community health centers and treat 30,000 patients without a large chunk of federal money. Again.

As happened in 2017, Congress is on the precipice of failing to meet the Sept. 30 deadline for reauthorizing the Community Health Center Fund that ...Read more

Elise Wakeland works with trauma survivors every day. The therapist's work is difficult, she said, but it's rewarding, too.

She wishes that everyone could see the resilience of patients who walk into her Center City practice, Wakeland Psychotherapy. If they did, she said, perhaps they would "show up" for the trauma survivors in their own lives,...Read more

NEW YORK -- The cost of family health coverage in the U.S. now tops $20,000, an annual survey of employers found, a record high that has pushed an increasing number of American workers into plans that cover less or cost more, or force them out of the insurance market entirely.

"It's as much as buying a basic economy car," said Drew Altman, ...Read more

OWINGS MILLS, Md. -- The "two super fantastic ladies" -- as one resident calls them -- at the Weinberg Villages senior housing complex are operating quasi-undercover. Sure, they serve up smiles, friendly chit-chat and treats for four-legged visitors. But while they're smiling and talking to the residents here, they've really got an ulterior ...Read more

Earlier this month, the US Centers for Disease Control (CDC) released a National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) Brief that outlines the latest data on causes of death in the United States. In particular, the Brief highlights a number of important health disparities between American males and females. Three of its findings were especially ...Read more

Dear Mayo Clinic: I'm five months pregnant and was just diagnosed with hypothyroidism. I've never had thyroid problems before. Could this diagnosis be connected to my pregnancy? Will the hypothyroidism go away after I have my baby?

A: It's likely that the hypothyroidism was triggered by your pregnancy, but the underlying cause of the condition ...Read more

Dear Mayo Clinic: I have osteoarthritis in my knee that continues to worsen. Would a steroid injection help my knee pain? How long does the treatment last, and how often can it be repeated, if necessary?

A: Corticosteroid medications are powerful drugs that can be useful in decreasing pain and inflammation in various musculoskeletal conditions,...Read more

Dr. Wesley Boyd, an associate professor of psychiatry at Harvard, has spent years working with state programs that help doctors, nurses and other health care workers who have become addicted to opioids get back on their feet professionally.

He supports these non-disciplinary programs, in which doctors and nurses enroll for a number of years and...Read more

Dear Healthy Men: There seems to be an awareness month for just about every health condition. Why isn't there one for prostate cancer?

A: Actually, there is: September is Prostate Cancer Awareness Month (ProstateCancerAwarenessMonth.com). In the U.S., around three million men are living with prostate cancer. And every year, more than 175,000 ...Read more

Thirteen years after the HPV vaccine was hailed as a revolution in cancer prevention, most Americans still don't know the virus causes oral and genital cancers, and most doctors still aren't recommending the vaccine to patients, according to a new study in JAMA Pediatrics.

Part of the problem is that the Merck vaccine, Gardasil, was initially ...Read more

DETROIT -- Within 36 hours of the UAW strike against General Motors, the Detroit automaker announced a decision to shift worker health care payments to the union immediately -- a strategy that risks dragging out the strike, labor negotiators say.

"They're pouring gasoline on the fire," said Harry Katz, the Jack Sheinkman Professor of Collective...Read more

ROCHESTER, Minn. -- Though research shows that medication-assisted treatment can help people who are addicted to opioids, the three drugs approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) are underused, according to a review of current medical data on opioid addiction in the U.S. This review appears in the October issue of Mayo Clinic ...Read more

Dear Mayo Clinic: I recently was diagnosed with mild hypothyroidism that isn't causing symptoms. My doctor says I don't need treatment now, but she wants me to come back for regular checkups. Does hypothyroidism usually get worse over time? If it does, how is it treated?

A: For mild cases of hypothyroidism, not all patients need treatment. ...Read more

A new Penn Medicine study of data from the national transplant registry found that kidneys from donors with the hepatitis C virus functioned just as well as uninfected kidneys during the year after transplant.

The analysis of data from between April 2015 and March 2019 was published recently in the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology....Read more

Want to maintain a good memory? Learning multiple languages could help, according to a recent report.

Researchers from the University of Waterloo recently conducted a study, published in the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease, to explore the association between multilingualism and dementia risk.

To do so, they examined 325 Roman Catholic nuns who ...Read more