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WASHINGTON — Republicans won a significant political victory this month when moderate Senate Democrats joined them to end the longest government shutdown in U.S. history, relenting from a showdown over the rising costs of health care.

But the fight is already back on, with mere weeks to spare before the Trump administration faces a potential...Read more

As misinformation about women’s health spreads faster than ever, doctors say new research on the risks of hormonal birth control underscores the challenge of communicating nuance in the social media age.

The massive study, which was conducted in Sweden and tracked more than 2 million teenage girls and women under age 50 for more than a decade...Read more

The Trump administration has made deep cuts to the main federal agency focused on fighting opioid addiction, potentially jeopardizing the nation’s recent progress on reducing overdose deaths, some public health officials and providers say.

Created in 1992, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, known as SAMHSA, hands ...Read more

While the FDA is streamlining regulation of copycat versions of the expensive drugs that millions take for arthritis, cancer, and other diseases, the U.S. patent office is making it harder for the cheaper medicines to get on the market, industry officials say.

These officials were thrilled Oct. 29 when FDA Commissioner Marty Makary announced ...Read more

MIAMI – Preparing for surgery can be scary.

In addition to the medical issues, having surgery involves a lot of prep. You may need to coordinate childcare, transportation, finances and time off work. Designate a caregiver. Stop taking certain medications and fast a certain set of hours ahead of surgery.

While most scheduled surgeries do ...Read more

The Health and Human Services Department is proposing new initiatives for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, including a program to increase hepatitis B screening for pregnant women, as part of a broader push to restructure the agency, according to an internal document viewed by Bloomberg News.

Leading five of the 16 initiatives is...Read more

WASHINGTON — GOP health panel leaders in the Senate on Wednesday seemed intent on quickly implementing a health savings account proposal to replace expiring health care tax credits that subsidize insurance plans used by millions of Americans, despite increased skepticism from Democrats and even some House Republicans.

During a Senate Finance ...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS — Minnesota has seen one of the nation’s sharpest drops in measles herd immunity among kindergartners, falling well below the threshold needed to prevent outbreaks. A rise in nonmedical exemptions, especially at private schools, is one factor behind the decline.

New measles cases have been reported in Dakota and Olmsted counties...Read more

Why do I always make sweet potato casserole for Thanksgiving dinner? And why do grocery stores highlight all the ingredients for green bean casserole every November? Traditions are a big part of the holidays, for sure. And some of them go way back in time.

For instance, there’s a good chance that turkey was on the table in 1621 when the ...Read more

The White House recently announced a landmark deal with pharmaceutical companies Eli Lilly and Nordisk that will impact Medicare beneficiaries and others in the coming months. The agreement cuts prices for GLP-1 receptor agonists, such as Ozempic and Wegovy, while expanding Medicare coverage for these weight-loss medications. The news is a ...Read more

Food poisoning happens when you eat food or drink water that’s been contaminated with harmful bacteria, viruses or toxins. It’s more common than you might think — millions of people get it every year. Most cases are mild and go away on their own, but it’s important to recognize the signs so you can take care of yourself.

Symptoms

The ...Read more

Food recalls can be alarming, especially when they make the news. A food recall occurs when a company identifies that a food product may be contaminated or mislabeled and removes it from the market. One of the most serious reasons for a recall is the risk of foodborne illness caused by contamination with bacteria or viruses. Others include ...Read more

Chronic pelvic pain — a condition also known as chronic prostatitis/chronic pelvic pain syndrome, or CP/CPPS — is one of the more common and challenging conditions older men face. “CP/CPPS is often regarded as an ‘orphan disease,’ as it has no definitive cause or proven treatments,” says Dr. Michael O’Leary, a urologist and ...Read more

DEAR MAYO CLINIC: My 86-year-old father was recently hospitalized with a severe infection. We were told he’s at an increased risk for sepsis because of his age and medical history. What are the signs of sepsis to watch for now that he’s returned home?

ANSWER: Nearly 270,000 people in the U.S. die annually because of sepsis — more than the...Read more

Artificial intelligence is upon us, and just as other historical breakthrough technologies have proved, it is not a matter of how it will accommodate us but how we must accommodate it. Education, finance, law, transportation and energy are all sectors that are being dramatically transformed by AI, and medicine will be no exception. What will the...Read more

In the early 1980s, men and women in the prime of their lives began arriving at Walter Reed Medical Center, wrecked by a disease for which we had no name, no cause and no hope. As an infectious disease doctor there, I saw patient after patient bedridden and dying by the time they reached my care.

Those early stages of the AIDS epidemic were ...Read more

HARTFORD, Conn. -- Jeremy Goldsmith is a guitarist, and a session musician who has written and produced music for TV shows and programming over the years such as the Tokyo Olympics, Fox NFL Sunday and “ Say Yes to the Dress.”

So when Goldsmith, who lives in Fairfield, Connecticut, started noticing his left hand and arm were not functioning ...Read more