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Understanding The Part That The Spleen Plays In Leukemia

Health Advice / Keith Roach /

DEAR DR. ROACH: I'm 80. Over the past 26 years, I've had low blood platelet counts. (In 1998, one reading was 168,000, and in 2026, the reading was 117,000.) I have an enlarged spleen (16.1 centimeters), and I understand that this could account for my low platelet count. I do have tiny red dots on my chest. However, my doctor thinks that I ...Read more

Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times/TNS

Colorado has 6th-lowest rate of kindergarteners vaccinated against measles

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

DENVER — Colorado had one of the lowest measles vaccination rates in the country for kindergarteners during the last school year, but that appears to reflect a large number of kids arriving at school without records, rather than an unusually high opt-out rate.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated about 87.7% of ...Read more

Changes that often accompany later life can raise questions and concerns that people may explore in counseling or therapy.  Space_Cat/iStock via Getty Images

Why so few older Americans get counseling – and how it could help

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

People are living longer, reshaping what it means to grow old.

By the late 2060s, an estimated 2.5 billion people worldwide will be age 60 or older – more than the number of people under 18. The population age 80 and older is expected to grow even faster, more than tripling between 2023 and 2060 to about 545 million.

Living ...Read more

Providing drug users with clean syringes is part of Portugal's harm-reduction approach to substance use. Horacio Villalobos/Corbis News via Getty Images

Portugal decriminalized drugs 25 years ago, but the real lesson is what it built around this policy

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

Nearly 70,000 Americans died of a drug overdose in 2025. While that is a decline from the nearly 108,000 deaths recorded in 2022, these grim figures distinguish the U.S. from other high-income countries. At the peak of the opioid crisis, the U.S. overdose death rate was 68% higher than Canada’s and nearly five times that of Australia.

...Read more

Varicella zoster virus, also known as human herpesvirus 3, causes chickenpox and shingles. BSIP/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

Shingles can cause severe chronic pain – new research on how exosomes alter neurons offers pathways to treatment

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

Shingles can cause pain that is notoriously difficult to manage and can last for months to years for some people. The pain can be so severe that it causes a significant decline in quality of life and can be accompanied by suicidal thoughts and emotional distress.

If the pain lasts longer than three months, doctors call the condition ...Read more

Dreamstime/Dreamstime/TNS

Ask the Pediatrician: Healthy relationship tips for teens

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

A relationship is a social connection we share with others. Our relationships can include friends, family, dating partners, classmates, teammates and more. Relationships of any type can occur on a spectrum, from healthy to unhealthy to abusive. Knowing how to recognize healthy, unhealthy and abusive relationships is an important skill.

What ...Read more

Do you have cannabis use disorder?

In the pot-loving late 1960s, a Gallup poll found that only around 4% of Americans over age 18 had ever tried smoking marijuana. Things have changed. In 2024, 26% of men and 21% of women said they used cannabis sometime that year. And that number jumps to 30% of guys and gals who are 21 to 34 years old. One survey even revealed that more than 30...Read more

Explaining Autoimmune Hemolytic Anemia And Its Treatments

Health Advice / Keith Roach /

DEAR DR. ROACH: I'm about to turn 70. A month ago, I was diagnosed with autoimmune hemolytic anemia (AIHA) that's idiopathic. Two CT scans and many blood tests have cleared me of all tumors; however, my spleen's enlarged. My hematologist put me on prednisone, which is working very well. I don't know how long I'll have to take prednisone, which...Read more

Jarun011/Dreamstime/TNS

H. pylori linked to 1 in 5 bowel cancer cases, study finds

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

A new report found that Helicobacter pylori, the bacterium best known for causing stomach ulcers, may be associated with one in five cases of bowel cancer worldwide.

Although H. pylori infects nearly half of adults, the authors cautioned that their findings do not prove the bacterium causes bowel cancer. Also known as colorectal cancer, the ...Read more

Another Pennsylvanian has died from measles-related complications, officials say

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

As the measles outbreak continues to spread across Pennsylvania, a 40-year-old Jefferson County woman died on Saturday from complications of the disease, officials said.

The woman, whose identity has not been released by the Jefferson County coroner, is the third person to die in the state this year after contracting the illness in what’s now...Read more

Dreamstime/Dreamstime/TNS

Penn trial tests ultrafast form of radiation aimed at reducing cancer treatment side effects

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

Penn Medicine researchers are testing whether an ultrafast form of radiation therapy can treat cancers in the head and neck with fewer side effects.

The clinical trial marks the first time the technology, conformal FLASH proton therapy, is being used in humans.

Radiation therapy, one of the most commonly used cancer treatments, works by aiming...Read more

Nonprofits are helping musicians pay for insurance in Austin, Texas, and beyond

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

AUSTIN, Texas — Musician Zack Morgan jokes that when he lost his corporate job in 2015, it was like being pushed off a cliff. For years, he said, he'd been playing both sides of the Austin coin: tech worker by day, funk keyboardist by night.

"Maybe this is my sign to try the full-time music thing," Morgan recalled thinking. "Step one in that ...Read more

Hannah Norman/KFF Health News/TNS

A NY hospital tried to close its birthing center. This city united to fight back

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

TROY, N.Y. — Like many residents of this aging industrial city on the Hudson River, Starletta Washington was stunned when she heard Troy’s last remaining hospital planned to close its birthing center.

“It was devastating,” said Washington, who heads the local YWCA. Washington was born at the hospital and had her children there. She ...Read more

Dreamstime/Dreamstime/TNS

Cyclosporiasis outbreak that sickened tens of thousands officially over, CDC says

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

The massive diarrhea-causing parasitic outbreak that sickened tens of thousands of people across 21 states over the summer has ended, though officials continue to investigate the cause of contamination.

On Friday, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention declared the cyclosporiasis outbreak officially over, saying the number of ...Read more

Jose F. Moreno/The Philadelphia Inquirer/TNS

Pennsylvania reports measles cases in 4 vaccinated residents. These rare cases account for less than 1% of the spreading outbreak

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

PHILADELPHIA — Four Pennsylvanians who were vaccinated against measles have contracted the highly contagious illness, state officials announced Friday.

Called “breakthrough cases,” such infections in vaccinated people are rare, but sometimes occur if someone’s immune system “did not respond as well” as most patients’ to the ...Read more

Robin Buckson, The Detroit News/The Detroit News/TNS

Gladys Knight is still touring. Her son fears it will end with her death

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

DETROIT — Gladys Knight's husband had no interest in cutting back the 82-year-old star's touring schedule despite assertions to the contrary, her son contends.

Knight, the early Motown star known as the "Empress of Soul" for tracks such as "Midnight Train to Georgia," has continued touring after she announced on Aug. 27 that she would cut ...Read more

Tom Gralish/The Philadelphia Inquirer/TNS

Philly 9/11 responders inhaled a 'witch's brew' of toxic dust. Now they're sick with deadly diseases

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

PHILADELPHIA — Retired Philadelphia Police Capt. Mark Fisher gets winded and lightheaded while emptying the dishwasher or pushing his gas-powered lawnmower, his lungs forever scarred by the ankle-deep ash that he trudged through at ground zero.

When Fisher arrived at the nation’s worst crime scene, two days after the Sept. 11, 2001, ...Read more

Pennsylvania has seen more than 600 cases of measles in 2026. Science Photo Library via Getty Images

CDC vs. Pennsylvania: Why conflicting public health messages jeopardize public safety

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

If you’ve been following the dispute between Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., you probably know that it centers on the deaths of two infants in Lancaster County in late August 2026.

And you may be aware that despite the county coroner’s confirmation that one infant died ...Read more

Skypixel/Dreamstime/TNS

Mayo Clinic Q&A: What do DNA changes in Alzheimer's disease mean for patients and families?

Health Advice / Health & Fitness /

DEAR MAYO CLINIC: I recently read that Mayo Clinic researchers discovered DNA changes linked to Alzheimer's disease. Does this mean scientists are getting closer to preventing or curing Alzheimer's disease?

ANSWER: Research advances are helping scientists better understand Alzheimer's disease, but no single study has found a cure or identified ...Read more

Uti Issues Might Be Due To A Conglomerate Of Kidney Stones

Health Advice / Keith Roach /

DEAR DR. ROACH: Five years ago, I was diagnosed with a kidney stone while getting an ultrasound for a different reason. A CT scan was ordered, which showed that I had a conglomerate of small stones within a calyceal diverticulum in the posterior mid-pole of my left kidney. My urologist at the time said it wasn't in an area that was amenable to...Read more

 

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