Health & Safety

The Justice Department says proposed deals between Aetna and Humana as well as Anthem and Cigna would increase the cost of medical care for Americans. The deals are worth a combined $91 billion.

Pence signed into law some of the tightest abortion rules in the U.S., and was slow to respond to Indiana's heroin and HIV crises, critics say. But he compromised with Obama to expand Medicaid.

One in 10 U.S. adults has tinnitus. Cognitive behavioral therapy is one of the few interventions that have been shown to help, but it's rarely prescribed by doctors, a study finds.

Being surrounded by noisy conversations, radio or TV can make it harder for toddlers to learn new words, researchers say. Quieter conversations didn't affect the learning process.

Patients sent to rehabilitation facilities to recover from medical crises or surgery too often suffer additional harm from the care they get there, according to research by U.S. health officials.

A study finds that the Anopheles arabiensis species of mosquitoes, a major carrier of malaria in sub-Saharan Africa, is repelled by the smell of chicken.

NPR's Alix Spiegel, co-host of the podcast and program Invisibilia, tells the story of a robbery that was halted when a woman decided to respond to the threat in an unexpected way — with kindness.

A terrible drought hit Ghana in the 1400s, far worse than today's conditions. Yet people had enough to eat, while today they go hungry. What changed? In a word, colonialism, a new study suggests.