Insights

<p>Parents will tell you early diagnosis is just the beginning of a struggle for intervention, that's much harder if you don't speak a country's dominant language.</p>

<p>Rising insurance costs for smokers, falling birth rates for teens, and hard times ahead for rural hospitals, plus more from our Daily Briefing.</p>

<p>Global health and international development blogger Alanna Shaikh gives tips for translating and working with translators to talk about health more clearly.</p>

<p>Many of us might not think twice when making an appointment to see our doctor for whatever is ailing us, but millions of Americans don't have that luxury.&nbsp;Last year's census revealed that close to 50 million of&nbsp;Americans are uninsured, according to a recent Kaiser Health News article. While in 2008, Medscape News used census data to report a hike in the number of Americans living without health insurance for six straight years.&nbsp;</p>

<p>Theoretically, Imperial Valley should be one of the healthiest areas of the nation if you look at food production. With a more than $1 billion agriculture industry growing almost anything under the sun, including artichokes, bamboo shoots, citrus, hay, leafy greens, broccoli, cauliflower, and more than 100 other types of crops, residents should have a nearly unlimited supply of fresh fruit, vegetables and meat, leading to a health community.</p>

<p>Trauma and loss, even experienced via narratives, are powerful and can return with new effects in the most unexpected moments. They have direct impact on the lives and mental health of the people who lived them. Employing oral history and community participation, I aim to bring awareness about mental health issues connected to traumatic experiences of Vietnamese Americans.</p>

<p>Atul Gawande, surgeon and staff writer for The New Yorker, is one of the most prominent voices speaking about patient safety in the United States.&nbsp;But in his latest <em>New Yorker</em> contribution, "Personal Best: Should everyone have a coach?," the "everyone" in question here is, not surprisingly, just the physician.</p>

<p>"Appetite for Profit" author Michele Simon unpacks what journalists got right — and wrong — about this week's school lunch nutritition controversy, and how to add more context to your reporting on the issue.</p>

<p>On a clear night in the southern Valley towns of Tulare, Huron and Tranquillity, you sometimes can see a full moon over the thousands of miles of agriculture. On a warm, summer evening, these harvest moons are brilliant to see.&nbsp;However, disturbing to&nbsp;this brilliant scenery is the stench of spray drift from pesticides that linger at night and the choking thickness of particulate matter, the smog considered one of the worst in the nation, that engulfs the Valley on warm days.</p>

<p>Stress has always been a part of college life – moving away from home, living with roommates and cramming for tests. But college counselors are worried as new and serious stressors, many financial are hurting students' health and hindering their academic success.</p>