The federal Food and Drug Administration has agreed to review a long-delayed petition to fortify corn masa flour with folic acid, a move advocates say is crucial to preventing devastating birth defects like those seen in an ongoing cluster of cases in Washington state.
Government decisions affect health, but we often don't realize it. Even stories that do examine how our environments shape health and wellbeing don’t always zero in on the specific policies contributing to those conditions. ChangeLab Solutions' Rebecca Johnson explains.
Just in time for Halloween, a frightful new study lends further support to the idea that calories from sugar are more likely to worsen metabolic health. This comes close on the heels of news reports that Mexico's 2013 tax on soft drinks has lowered soda sales there.
A year after Thomas Eric Duncan died from Ebola after seeking care at a Texas hospital, what’s different about health preparedness in the U.S.? Reporter Anna Almendrala set out to answer that question, and found a series of heartbreaking stories of loss along the way.
We journalists name and often unwittingly frame debates, nudging our readers one way or another. As the recent passage of California's "End of Life Option Act" illustrated, sometimes there aren't any elegant escapes from politically loaded language.
The Cleveland Plain Dealer’s Brie Zeltner and Rachel Dissel are putting the issue of lead poisoning in children back on the map, publishing a deeply reported series of stories on the issue this week. The ambitious project is worth a closer look.
In a watershed development on Tuesday, the American Cancer Society announced it was backtracking on its aggressive breast cancer screening recommendations. The new guidelines are much more aligned with the practice of Slow Medicine, and they should change how we talk to patients about screening.
India-West’s examination of the impact of diabetes within the Indian population continues with a look at an attempt to legislate efforts to reduce sugar consumption, how one diabetic patient lived with the disease for nearly 25 years, and ways to manage the chronic condition.
Fresno County has some of the highest rates of STDs in the state. Public health officials say more needs to be done to reach all segments of the community.
As a journalist, both homelessness and mental illness are uniquely challenging topics to report on. When combined, the reporting challenges double, but so do the potential insights. Claudia Boyd-Barrett shares lessons from her experience reporting on the issue in California's Ventura County.
