DEAR MAYO CLINIC: My mom recently sat us down at the dinner table to talk about her wishes if something were to happen to her. She says we should all have advance directives made, but I feel like I'm too young to think about that. Who should have an advance directive? And what goes into it?

ANSWER: Kudos to your family for having those ...Read more

If you or someone you know may be experiencing a mental health crisis, contact the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline by dialing or texting “988.”

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Overcome by worries, Lynette Isbell dialed a mental health hotline in April 2022. She wanted to talk to someone about her midlife troubles: divorce, an empty nest, and the demands of caring for ...Read more

You're having chest pain, or you fear that your spouse is having a stroke – and you're thinking of just driving to a hospital instead of calling 911.

What do emergency department doctors think of that plan?

"I think it would be an extraordinarily rare situation where that's a good idea," said Dr. Eric Isaacs, director of the age-friendly ...Read more

In recent years, states across the Mountain West have passed laws that limit doctors from providing transgender children with certain kinds of gender-affirming care, from prohibitions on surgery to bans on puberty blockers and hormones. Colorado families say their state was a haven for those health services for a long time, but following ...Read more

As parents, we want to protect our children from all discomfort. At the same time, we know that preparing them to deal with challenges is important. It builds their resilience and offers the best lifelong protection.

When parents know precisely the problem to face, they can make an action plan to help their child learn about and manage it. ...Read more

The National Institutes of Health’s sweeping cuts of grants that fund scientific research are inflicting pain almost universally across the U.S., including in most states that backed President Donald Trump in the 2024 election.

A KFF Health News analysis underscores that the terminations are sparing no part of the country, politically or ...Read more

In 2023, Bret Hulick was in his second year of medical school at LECOM in Erie, analyzing the case of a 24-year-old colon cancer patient. The patient had to choose between an established therapy with a high likelihood of unwanted side effects or a newer experimental treatment.

For Hulick, though, it wasn't an academic exercise. He was the ...Read more

Michele Andrews had been seeing her internist in Northampton, Massachusetts, a small city two hours west of Boston, for about 10 years. She was happy with the care, though she started to notice it was becoming harder to get an appointment.

“You’d call and you’re talking about weeks to a month,” Andrews said.

That’s not surprising, as...Read more

After the Senate voted to confirm Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as Health and Human Services secretary, supporters of his “Make America Healthy Again” movement cheered at having a champion in the federal government.

Now the grumbling has begun. Some of Kennedy’s allies say he’s become almost inaccessible since his confirmation and complain that...Read more

BALTIMORE — At least two cases of listeria have been linked to ice cream in the Baltimore metro area, prompting health and safety concerns.

Listeria is a bacterium that can contaminate food and cause serious, sometimes fatal infections, particularly in pregnant women, newborns, the elderly and those with weakened immune systems, according to ...Read more

NEWPORT NEWS, Va. — The Virginia Department of Health confirmed the state’s first measles case of 2025 in a Saturday announcement.

The agency said a child 4 or under living in the state’s northwest health region contracted the disease after recent international travel.

“This first case of measles in Virginia this year is a reminder of ...Read more

DETROIT — Local and state health officials confirmed Thursday that Michigan is experiencing its first measles outbreak since 2019.

An outbreak is defined as three or more related cases, which has been confirmed in Montcalm County, according to the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services and the Mid-Michigan District Health Department...Read more

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court is set to hear oral arguments Monday about the legality of the process to mandate cost-free preventive care used by millions of Americans, in a case brought by a group of Texas businesses objecting to coverage for an HIV preventive drug.

The U.S. government has asked the justices to overturn a decision by the U....Read more

_Nearly a half-century after the Supreme Court ruled that school spankings are permissible and not “cruel and unusual punishment”, many U.S. states allow physical punishment for students who have misbehaved.

_Today, over a third of the states allow teachers to paddle or spank students. More than 100,000 students are paddled in U.S...Read more

At a swim meet just outside St. Louis, heads turned when a team of young swimmers walked through the rec center with their parents in tow.

A supportive mom kept her eye on the clock while the Makos Swim Team athletes tucked their natural curls, braids, and locs into yellow swimming caps. In the bleachers, spectators whispered about the team’s...Read more

DEAR MAYO CLINIC: My friend swears by intermittent fasting since her recent weight loss. I know it works for some people, but is it actually healthy?

ANSWER: Although it may appear to be a new trend, intermittent fasting has been popular for over 1,500 years. While we know that it works for some people to lose weight, the reality is that ...Read more

LOS ANGELES -- A major initiative at Children's Hospital Los Angeles aims to address a critical but much overlooked need: mental health care for families experiencing the complex flood of joy, fear and upheaval during the first few years of a child's life.

Myriad issues can emerge or become exacerbated in a family after a baby is born, ...Read more

The federal government covered up an outbreak of E. coli that killed one person and spread across at least 15 states, according to a report published Thursday.

A series of E. coli cases was first reported in November in St. Louis County, Mo., but the Food and Drug Administration never released any information about the outbreak, NBC News ...Read more

If you or someone you know may be experiencing a mental health crisis, contact the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline by dialing or texting “988.”

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In January, a teenager in suburban St. Louis informed his high school counselor that a classmate said he planned to kill himself later that day.

The 14-year-old classmate denied it, but his ...Read more

DULUTH, Minn. – When a Jeep cut me off and then slowed to several notches below the speed limit, I first gasped and then gestured wildly, swearing. These things I remember.

But a sensor I was wearing to capture my heart rate and electrical changes in my skin, along with a vehicle “black box,” revealed more: aggressive braking and ...Read more