Health Advice

/

Health

The financial costs of cancer screening and treatment can make accessing care feel impossible. Thai Noipho/iStock via Getty Images Plus

How long young cancer patients survive often depends on the insurance they have

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

Cancer is becoming increasingly common among young people, with cases slowly and steadily rising every year for the past decade. And what type of insurance adolescents and young adults have affects at what stage of cancer they’re diagnosed and how long they survive.

As researchers who study cancer disparities in young adults, we ...Read more

Environmental Nutrition: Spotlight on supplements: MCT Oil

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

MCT is a type of fat called medium chain triglycerides found naturally in coconut oil and palm kernel oil and offered as supplements. MCTs were developed in the 1950s from coconut and palm kernel oil, and were first used medically for mal- absorption disorders, and more recently they have been promoted for weight loss and enhanced athletic ...Read more

Does exercising in the evening affect sleep?

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

Q: I’ve heard that you shouldn’t exercise in the evening because it can interfere with restful sleep. Is this true?

A: Traditional sleep hygiene guidelines include the recommendation to avoid exercising late in the day. However, research suggests that many people can exercise in the evening without it affecting their sleep as long as it’s...Read more

Mayo Clinic Q&A: Do children with scoliosis need treatment?

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

DEAR MAYO CLINIC: My 10-year-old daughter was just diagnosed with scoliosis. The curve is 19 degrees, and I have read that it could worsen with time. Will she need to wear a brace? Or is surgery in her future?

ANSWER: While scoliosis is often stable in adults, it’s important that children and teenagers with scoliosis be followed closely, ...Read more

How to choose the healthiest plant-based meat

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

Whether you’re trying to eat less meat or you’re a vegetarian or vegan, having a plant-based meal once (or a few times) a week is always a good thing. Research shows that eating a mostly plant-based diet can help reduce inflammation, boost immunity, and benefit your overall health in so many ways, including lowering your risk of heart ...Read more

KFF HEALTH NEWS/TNS

Demoralized CDC workforce reels from year of firings, funding cuts, and a shooting

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

On the coffee table at her home in Atlanta, Sarah Boim has a pile of documents from her old job at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. They are printouts of her employment records.

Boim lost her job in the first big wave of CDC firings — more than 1,000 people were suddenly let go last February.

“This is the termination letter....Read more

Karl Hille/Baltimore Sun/TNS

Revolutionary toe-to-thumb surgery restores hand function after devastating injuries

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

BALTIMORE — Scott Price was working with a wood splitter when it kicked out a fragment of a log, pinning his left hand against a metal plate and severing his thumb and forefinger. After his local hospital in Poconos, Pennsylvania, failed to reattach the digits, Price came to MedStar Health’s Curtis National Hand Center at Union Memorial ...Read more

Pennsylvania consistently ranks among the top three states in the country for reported Lyme disease cases each year. Ladislav Kubeš/istock via Getty Images Plus

Ticks are the backyard threat southwestern Pennsylvania homeowners keep ignoring

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

As spring unfolds, new research highlights an issue for southwestern Pennsylvania residents: Most people know ticks are in their backyard, but few believe they’re actually at risk of contracting tick-borne illnesses.

Every year in the United States, an estimated 500,000 people are diagnosed with Lyme disease. The illness, caused by ...Read more

Mindfulness meditation is a process of noticing difficult thoughts and feelings rather than shutting them out. Marco VDM/E+ via Getty Images

Benefits of mindfulness meditation go far beyond relaxation – here’s what it is and how to practice it

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

Imagine being asked to sit alone in a quiet room for 15 minutes with nothing to do – no phone, no music, no external distraction. In a well-known 2014 study, many participants found that task so challenging that they chose to press a button to give themselves an unpleasant electric shock instead of continuing to sit with their thoughts and ...Read more

Dreamstime/Dreamstime/TNS

Mayo Clinic study demonstrates safety, feasibility of delivering chemotherapy at home

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — In a study published in NEJM Catalyst, Mayo Clinic researchers have demonstrated that chemotherapy can be safely delivered in patients' homes.

The study evaluated Mayo Clinic's Cancer CARE Beyond Walls (Connected Access and Remote Expertise), a model that combines virtual care, remote patient monitoring and in-home ...Read more

Katy Kildee/The Detroit News/TNS

Nightmares, flashbacks, addiction: What human trafficking survivors face

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

PONTIAC, Mich. — By the time women arrive at the doorstep of Hope Against Trafficking, a nonprofit long-term recovery program for victims of human trafficking in Oakland County, their needs are extreme.

Some have not seen doctors for years and suffer from internal injuries, dental neglect and physical ailments, including sexually transmitted ...Read more

Leila Navidi/The Minnesota Star Tribune/TNS

Minnesota risks rankling Trump by prioritizing diversity in federal health grants

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

MINNEAPOLIS — Minnesota risked irking President Donald Trump’s administration this month by prioritizing diversity in the use of nearly $200 million in new federal rural health grants

Hospitals applying for the funding were urged in the state’s application to “intentionally identify how the grant serves diverse populations, especially ...Read more

PATRICK T. FALLON/Getty Images North America/TNS

Scientific review finds e-cigarettes likely cause lung and oral cancer

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

E-cigarettes are likely to cause cancer, including in the lungs and mouth, according to a sweeping review of scientific evidence that challenges their positioning as a safer alternative to smoking.

Published Monday in the journal Carcinogenesis, the review concludes that nicotine-based vapes are “likely to be carcinogenic to humans,” even ...Read more

Dreamstime/Dreamstime/TNS

Mayo Clinic Q&A: What are the different types of pacemakers?

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

DEAR MAYO CLINIC: I have a slow heart rate, and my cardiologist has recommended that I have a pacemaker implanted. Can you tell me what a pacemaker does and what I should consider when I make this decision?

ANSWER: A heart rate slower than 50 beats per minute is called bradycardia. When the heart beats too slowly, it may not pump ...Read more

Dreamstime/Dreamstime/TNS

Ask the Pediatrician: Sports nutrition for busy families and busy lifestyles

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

Hectic schedules, especially as spring sports season begins, can throw a wrench into family meal planning and can encourage families to rely on quick, less nutritious options.

The American Academy of Pediatrics offers guidance to help busy families eat and drink better before, during and after game time.

Preparing nutritious food ahead of time...Read more

Samuel Corum/Getty Images North America/TNS

Medicaid cuts could add pressure to already-stressed psychiatric units

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

Federal Medicaid cuts could exact a heavy toll on psychiatric units at hospitals across the country, many of which are already struggling to keep their doors open but provide essential mental health care to people who need it.

Psychiatric units are costly and, like labor and delivery services, typically lose money for hospitals and tend to be ...Read more

The BA.3.2 variant of SARS-COV-2, nicknamed Cicada, is gaining ground across the U.S. and globally.  Grafissimo/iStock via Getty Images Plus

COVID-19 variant BA.3.2 is spreading quickly across US – a doctor explains what you need to know

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

A variant of COVID-19 called BA.3.2, which has circulated under the radar since late 2024, is now spreading quickly across the United States.

As a pulmonary and critical care doctor, I see many patients who are at high risk for severe COVID-19 due to chronic lung disease, as well as patients living with long COVID. All of them ask me ...Read more

Judge Bryan Biedscheid of New Mexico could order significant changes to how Instagram and Facebook operate. Nathan Burton/Santa Fe New Mexican via AP, Pool

Two verdicts in two days: How American courts are rewriting the rules for Big Tech and children

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

Within 48 hours, the legal landscape governing social media and children shifted in ways that will take years to fully understand and verify.

On March 24, 2026, a Santa Fe jury ordered Meta to pay US$375 million for violating New Mexico’s consumer protection laws. The next day, a Los Angeles jury found Meta and Google’s YouTube ...Read more

Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images North America/TNS

Editorial: What's essential: Hochul must reduce the pain with Essential Plan changes

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

Gov. Kathy Hochul said that she had no choice from a hostile federal government and had to change the state’s Essential Plan health coverage and thus potentially remove nearly a half-million New Yorkers from this zero-premium plan. The request to alter the program received preliminary approval from Dr. Mehmet Oz, administrator of the Centers ...Read more

John Galvin/John Galvin/TNS

Rising health costs push some middle-aged adults to skip the doc until Medicare

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

John Galvin knows he needs a colonoscopy. But he’s waiting to schedule the procedure until December, when he turns 65 and qualifies for Medicare.

He was already thinking about delaying it — then his monthly Obamacare insurance premium payment tripled this year to $2,460, about a third of his income, he said. And with a $2,700 deductible, he...Read more