It has been known for decades that the vast majority of human biological differences aren’t between groups, they're from person to person. It’s weird that scientists and doctors still resort to sifting people into huge populations when trying to understand us: ethnicity, race, sex, and gender. 2024 will mark the …
Read More »My Parents’ Dementia Felt Like the End of Joy. Then Came the Robots
When my mom was finally, officially diagnosed with dementia in 2020, her geriatric psychiatrist told me that there was no effective treatment. The best thing to do was to keep her physically, intellectually, and socially engaged every day for the rest of her life. Oh, OK. No biggie. The doc …
Read More »Women in the US Are Now Stockpiling Abortion Pills
When access to reproductive health care is threatened in the United States, a growing number of women stock up on abortion medications to keep on hand in case they need the pills in the future, new research shows. A study analyzed 48,404 requests for “advance provision” abortion medications made to …
Read More »The Age of Crispr Medicine Is Here
Jimi Olaghere used to end up in the emergency room so often that the hospital reserved a bed for him. Sickle cell disease dominated his life. A genetic defect he was born with meant that instead of having flexible, round red blood cells like most people do, his were sticky …
Read More »This Pill Tracks Your Vitals From the Inside
Digital health company Celero Systems is developing an electronic pill that can measure heart rate, breathing rate, and core temperature—from inside the human stomach. As a first step, the company envisions people with ongoing conditions using the digital capsule to monitor their vital signs at home. But in the future, …
Read More »Dr. Paula Johnson Is Breaking Down the Barriers to Better Health
When she considers how far she’s come, Dr. Paula Johnson sees the path that brought her from being a public school kid in Brooklyn to being the first Black woman president of Wellesley College and a tireless advocate for equity in medicine. It’s a path that refined her life’s work …
Read More »Nearly Everyone With Mild Cognitive Impairment Goes Undiagnosed
Millions of people over the age of 65 likely have mild cognitive impairment, or MCI—minor problems with memory or decisionmaking that can, over time, turn into dementia. But a pair of recent studies both concluded that 92 percent of people experiencing MCI in the United States are not getting diagnosed …
Read More »Obamacare Call Center Staff Strike Over Steep Health Care Costs and Scarce Bathroom Breaks
Katherine Charles’ workdays are relentless. She’s one of thousands of call center workers who help Americans find suitable health insurance as part of the Affordable Care Act, or ACA. Charles spends all day on the phone, with only a six-minute daily allowance to use the bathroom. She also gets two …
Read More »Personalized Nutrition Programs Are Making People Feel Weird About Food
Chrissy Kinsella was looking for a more personalized approach to her health. “You know, what is good for you as an individual may not necessarily be good for the next person,” she says. So she reached for a subscription to Zoe—a personalized nutrition service cofounded by Tim Spector, a celebrity …
Read More »Palantir’s Reputation Stalks Its Bid for the UK’s National Health Data
Marianne was expecting the phone call to be quick. She had just moved house and what she needed was for her new doctor to issue the medications she usually received from her old doctor. But as she stood in her hallway, surrounded by boxes, the writer and mother of two …
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