There may be plenty of room for debate about whether some aspects of everyday life cause cancer — whether it’s drinking too much coffee, eating too much sugar or talking too much on a cell phone. But the opposite seems to be true regarding the causal link with obesity, according to a scientific review by […]

A surprising ingredient — infant gas relief drops — may be contributing to the contamination of medical scopes nationwide and putting more patients at risk of infection, according to a small but provocative study. Researchers in Minnesota unexpectedly found cloudy, white fluid inside several colonoscopes and gastroscopes after they had been disinfected and deemed ready […]

Some arrive on their own, worried about what was really in that bag of heroin. Some are carried in, slumped between two friends. Others are lifted off the sidewalk or asphalt of a nearby alley and rolled in a wheelchair to what’s known as SPOT, or the Supportive Place for Observation and Treatment, at the […]

Doctors describe 16-year-old Sebastian DeLeon as a walking miracle — he is only the fourth person in the U.S. to survive an infection from the so-called brain-eating amoeba. Infection from Naegleria fowleri is extremely rare but almost always fatal. Between 1962 and 2015, there were only 138 known infections due to the organism, according to […]

Did a law regulating drug-induced abortions keep women safe or block them from access to this procedure? A study published Tuesday in the journal PLOS Medicine suggests an Ohio law limiting how women can obtain medical abortions may have led to a higher rate of complications. But the law’s defenders said these conclusions should be […]

Baltimore officials presented a 10-year plan Tuesday that sharply highlights the poor health status of African-Americans and aims to bring black rates of lead poisoning, heart disease, obesity, smoking and overdoses more in line with those of whites. “We wanted to specifically call out disparities” in racial health, said Dr. Leana Wen, who became the […]

Teen pregnancy is way down. And a study suggests that the reason is increased, and increasingly effective, use of contraceptives. From 2007 to 2013, births to teens age 15 to 19 dropped by 36 percent; pregnancies fell by 25 percent from 2007 to 2011, according to federal data. But that wasn’t because teens were shunning […]

Racial minorities and lower-income people typically fare far worse when it comes to health outcomes. And figuring out why has long been one of health care’s black boxes. Forthcoming research may help shed light on what’s driving those inequities — and how the system can fix them. What is needed? Better bedside manner, so patients actually […]

As the Zika virus spreads both at home and abroad, new information is bringing to light how children — even those who at birth do not show obvious signs of impairment — are likely at a greater risk than previously believed. This possibility, experts say, is highlighting a need to better track the development and well-being of […]