Health & Safety

"Our health care systems need to adjust a little to try to get knowledge about cancer prevention to everybody," says Dr. Otis Brawley, chief medical and scientific officer of the American Cancer Society.

Health & Safety

Q&A: Wider Knowledge About Cancer Prevention Would Reduce U.S. Deaths

3:44pm July 10, 2018

by Paul Chisholm

Cancer death rates remain high for some groups of people, including African-Americans, despite general gains made in recent decades. The American Cancer Society has ideas about reducing the gaps.

By some accounts, almost half of the incarcerated population in the U.S. suffers from mental illness.

Behind Bars, Mentally Ill Inmates Are Often Punished For Their Symptoms

2:19pm July 10, 2018

by Dave Davies

While visiting jails and prisons across the country, author Alisa Roth witnessed mentally ill inmates in solitary confinement, wearing restrictive jumpsuits and receiving very limited therapy.

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A laborer arranges sacks of rice at a market in Jakarta.

Health & Safety

How Postcards Solved The Problem Of Disappearing Rice

12:42pm July 10, 2018

by Jason Beaubien

Indonesia had a program to provide subsidized rice to the poor. But thousands of kilos didn't make it to the recipients.

Juan Lopez Aguilar (left), a Maya man who fled violence in Guatemala three years ago, tells Dr. Nick Nelson he fears returning to the land of his birth. "There are a lot of gangs," he tells the doctor. "They want to kill people in my community."

Medical Clinics That Treat Refugees Help Determine The Case For Asylum

8:30am July 10, 2018

by Anna Gorman

It often falls to health care providers to discern whether the asylum-seekers who say they've been tortured or persecuted in their homeland bear physical and psychological evidence of that harm.

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Piestawa Peak in Phoenix. Hiking trails and desert areas are a common location for heat related deaths, which have been on the rise in recent years.

Phoenix Tries To Reverse Its 'Silent Storm' Of Heat Deaths

6:40pm July 09, 2018

by Will Stone

By 2100, Phoenix summers could resemble the 114-degree averages found in Kuwait. The city wants to become a model for coping in a warming world.

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What's Behind The U.S. Opposition To Pro-Breastfeeding Language

5:31pm July 09, 2018

At a World Health Assembly summit in Geneva in May, the U.S. led a charge against pro-breastfeeding language. NPR's Ailsa Chang speaks with New York Times reporter Andrew Jacobs about what's happening and why.

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Lipitor, a best-seller as a cholesterol treatment, is being tested as a remedy for the flu.

Health & Safety

Scientists Find New Tricks For Old Drugs

5:31pm July 09, 2018

by Richard Harris

Researchers are looking to redeploy drugs used for years to treat cholesterol and high blood pressure as remedies for influenza and Ebola.

Health & Safety

Why Health Insurance Premiums May Rise Next Year

5:00pm July 09, 2018

by Alison Kodjak

Heath insurance premiums could rise again next year after the Trump administration suspended part of the Affordable Care Act that's designed to stabilize insurance markets.

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Mumbai's Juhu beach is strewn with trash at low tide during monsoon season. Floodwaters flush garbage out of the city and into the Arabian Sea. As tides ebb, beaches are blanketed in trash, much of it plastic.

An Indian State Bans Plastic Bags, Straws And More. Will It Work?

3:35pm July 09, 2018

by Lauren Frayer

In Mumbai, beaches are strewn with plastic trash, so now there's a ban on plastics — and penalties for violators. But there are some exceptions.

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Alan Dambach developed tremors that caused his hands to shake uncontrollably. His condition made it difficult to work on his family's tree farm in Fombell, Pa.

Health & Safety

How Highly Focused Sound Waves Steadied A Farmer's Trembling Hand

3:25pm July 09, 2018

by Jon Hamilton

Tree farmer Alan Dambach's tremor got so bad he couldn't read his own signature. Then he tried a new procedure that uses sound waves to destroy specific brain cells.

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