By Deidre McPhillips, CNN (CNN) — In an abrupt reversal, the US Department of Health and Human Services said Thursday that it no longer plans to cut funding for the Women’s Health Initiative, a groundbreaking research project focused on preventing disease in older women. The move comes after a wave of concern and criticism about
Continue ReadingBy Jen Christensen, CNN (CNN) — Measles could become endemic in the United States if routine childhood vaccination rates continue to decline, with up to 51 million illnesses over a 25-year period, according to a new study. Although the disease is endemic in some other countries – meaning it happens regularly within an area or
Continue ReadingBy Meg Tirrell, CNN (CNN) — Concerned that the nation’s health leadership is casting unfounded doubt on the safety of well-studied vaccines and may take action to curb their use, a group of public health experts is working to put pieces in place to respond. The initiative, the Vaccine Integrity Project, will be funded by
Continue ReadingBy Jacqueline Howard, CNN (CNN) — Zahydie Burgos Ribot and her husband, Francisco Rios, are checking items off their travel bucket list and spending quality time together before Francisco will no longer be able to travel – and before his brain forgets. The Florida-based couple recently crossed Alaska off the list. Their next trip will
Continue Reading
By Eryn Mathewson, CNN (CNN) — When she was 3 weeks old, the left side of Addison McArthur’s heart stopped functioning, and she was put on the top of British Columbia’s transplant waiting list. Now, the Vancouver native just celebrated her 14th birthday in the middle of National Donate Life Month, which aims to raise
Continue ReadingBy Deidre McPhillips, CNN (CNN) — As a measles outbreak centered in West Texas continues to grow, a new poll finds that a growing share of adults in the United States have heard false claims about the disease and the vaccine to prevent it – and many aren’t completely confident in their conviction. Nearly two-thirds
Continue ReadingBy Jen Christensen, CNN (CNN) — Air pollution levels keep getting worse for more people in the US, according to a new report, and experts say the Trump administration’s proposed deregulation plans will make it even harder for people to get clean air. Almost half of everyone who lives in the United States breathes unhealthy
Continue ReadingBy Deidre McPhillips, CNN (CNN) — Women in the United States are less likely to have babies than ever before, but key figures in the Trump administration seem keen on changing that – even as federal programs focused on reproductive health face significant upheaval. About 3.6 million babies were born in the US in 2024,
Continue ReadingBy Jen Christensen, CNN (CNN) — The US Food and Drug Administration plans to phase out the use of petroleum-based synthetic dyes in the US food supply due to health concerns, Commissioner Dr. Marty Makary announced Tuesday. “For the last 50 years, American children have increasingly been living in a toxic soup of synthetic chemicals,”
Continue Reading
By Kameryn Griesser, CNN (CNN) — Legalization of cannabis products may be linked to growing use among teens, a new study found. Teen use of cannabis rose 26% in Canadian provinces that legalized the sale of edibles and extracts in October 2019, according to the study, which published Friday in the journal JAMA Network Open.
Continue ReadingBy Kristen Rogers, CNN (CNN) — At most places Melissa Valliant goes when dining out, she carries in her backpack a set of reusable flatware — prepared to refuse the disposable utensils she says are part of the plastic pollution crisis that’s inextricably linked with the climate crisis. Plastic is made from chemicals derived from
Continue ReadingBy Sandee LaMotte, CNN (CNN) — Unsupervised use of psilocybin, or “magic mushrooms,” has accelerated among all age groups in the United States, but especially among adolescents and people 30 and older, a new study found. “The prevalence of psilocybin use in 2023 rose dramatically over the prior five years since states began liberalizing policy
Continue Reading
By Deidre McPhillips, CNN (CNN) — The Trump administration plans to take action to remove artificial food dyes from the nation’s food supply, according to a media advisory sent by the US Department of Health and Human Services on Monday. HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and US Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Marty Makary
Continue Reading
By Katherine Dillinger, CNN (CNN) — A new report on cancer in the US shows a steady decline in overall deaths from 2001 through 2022. The rate of diagnoses among men fell from 2001 through 2013 and then stabilized through 2021 but these incidence rates among women increased slightly every year between 2003 and 2021.
Continue Reading
By Neha Mukherjee, CNN (CNN) — When Dr. Christina Johns, a pediatric emergency medicine physician, thinks about her time working at Children’s National Hospital in Washington, one case always comes rushing back: Two-year-old. Gunshot wound. Chest. ETA five minutes. The child was rushed to the emergency department after being accidentally shot by an older sibling
Continue Reading
By Riane Lumer, CNN (CNN) — For many parents, the idea of having “the talk” with their kids may be daunting, making them feel embarrassed or squeamish. But many parents are conflating the classic growing-up talk about sex with another crucial conversation they should be having, new research suggests. The talk in question should happen
Continue Reading
By Sandee LaMotte, CNN (CNN) — Sunday is 420 day, when lovers of marijuana get together to celebrate their fondness for weed. Yet research shows that regular users of marijuana are at risk for serious conditions, including strokes, heart attacks, cardiac arrhythmias, heart failure and myocarditis, which is an inflammation of the heart muscle. Now,
Continue ReadingBy Deidre McPhillips, CNN (CNN) — Alison Singer has a few people she’d like Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to meet. Singer’s brother and daughter are two of the millions living with autism in the United States, and part of a much larger community that has very publicly expressed feeling hurt and disrespected by the US
Continue Reading
By Taylor Nicioli, CNN (CNN) — “Everybody’s working for the weekend,” according to Canadian rock band Loverboy. If you work a traditional five-day workweek, you might relate to that feeling. But if someone is in a constant loop of dreading Monday through Friday and only looking forward to days off, it might not be the
Continue ReadingBy Sarah Owermohle, CNN (CNN) — US Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Dr. Marty Makary suggested in a new interview that autism is caused by a range of environmental and dietary exposures, echoing some comments made by US Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. but stopping short of referencing vaccines. “I think
Continue Reading
By Neha Mukherjee, CNN (CNN) — Half of states in the US are now reporting measles cases, with the national total surpassing 800 cases so far this year, according to a CNN tally. Most of the cases are concentrated in a multistate outbreak involving Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma and possibly Kansas that reached 709 cases
Continue ReadingBy Dana Santas, CNN (CNN) — If you’ve been hitting the gym regularly and feeling stronger — but also stiffer and more slouched — you may be overlooking key elements that create balance in your workouts. Despite good intentions, many people unknowingly reinforce poor posture with their strength-training workouts, leading to tight muscles, restricted mobility
Continue ReadingBy Neha Mukherjee, CNN (CNN) — Measles cases have surpassed 650 in an ongoing multistate outbreak, but federal funding cuts could threaten the response. “I think that we are scraping to find the resources and personnel needed to provide support to Texas and other jurisdictions,” Dr. David Sugerman, a senior scientist at the US Centers
Continue Reading
By Jen Christensen, CNN (CNN) — Drugmaker Eli Lilly said Thursday that an experimental pill form of popular GLP-1 medications helped people with type 2 diabetes lose an average of nearly 8% of their body weight after 40 weeks and lowered their A1C levels. Lilly, which makes the injectable drugs Zepbound to treat obesity and
Continue Reading
By Meg Tirrell, CNN (CNN) — When President Donald Trump named Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as his choice to lead the US Department of Health and Human Services, one group of health researchers was cautiously optimistic that their cause would finally have a champion at the highest levels of government: those focused on food and
Continue Reading
By Brenda Goodman, CNN (CNN) — The US Centers and Disease Control and Prevention is considering recommending annual Covid-19 shots to those who are older or who have compromised immune function, rather than the current blanket recommendation for everyone 6 months of age and older. The change would more closely align the US with guidance
Continue ReadingBy Deidre McPhillips, CNN (CNN) — In his first news conference as secretary of the US Department of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said Wednesday that rising rates of autism prevalence in the US reflect a “preventable” crisis-level epidemic that has been caused by an environmental toxin. Advocates for people with autism
Continue ReadingBy Deidre McPhillips and Jen Christensen, CNN (CNN) — Depression is becoming more common among adults and adolescents in the United States, but most are not getting therapy to help, according to a new report from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. More than 1 in 8 people ages 12 and up in
Continue Reading
By Deidre McPhillips, CNN (CNN) — A new study from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that the autism diagnosis rate has increased among US children, continuing a long-term trend that experts have largely attributed to better understanding of and screening for the condition. About 1 in every 31 children was diagnosed
Continue Reading
By Andrea Kane, CNN (CNN) — Editor’s note: The podcast Chasing Life With Dr. Sanjay Gupta explores the medical science behind some of life’s mysteries big and small. You can listen to episodes here. Americans are in the middle of a love-affair with protein. A stroll through almost any major supermarket — where food labels
Continue Reading