Health & Safety

Health & Safety

Diet Foods Are Tanking. So The Diet Industry Is Now Selling 'Health'

4:48pm January 20, 2016

by Angus Chen

Consumers are increasingly disillusioned with diet products and programs. But they're also confused by new terms like gluten-free and non-GMO, industry analysts and nutritionists say.

Students at Doherty Middle School in Andover, Mass., choose items from the salad bar in the school cafeteria, June 2012. Among other things, a Senate compromise on school nutrition standards calls for the USDA and the CDC to establish new guidance that wo

Food Fight Fizzles As Senate Nears Compromise on School Nutrition Rules

4:18pm January 20, 2016

by Allison Aubrey

The deal OK'd by a key Senate panel preserves stricter school nutrition standards enacted since 2010, but it gives schools more leeway in implementing them. It also calls for encouraging salad bars.

Dr. Hans Asperger with a young boy at the Children's Clinic at the University of Vienna in the 1930s.

Was Dr. Asperger A Nazi? The Question Still Haunts Autism

2:43pm January 20, 2016

by Steve Silberman

Hans Asperger identified autism as a spectrum of disorders in the 1930s, but his work was ignored for decades because he went on to work under the Nazis. Research and treatment suffered as a result.

Marilla Lima had Zika virus while pregnant. Her 2 1/2-month-old son, Arthur, has microcephaly — a birth defect characterized by a small head and severe brain damage.

Health & Safety

Zika Virus Likely Affected Her Baby, And She Feels Brazil Doesn't Care

2:35pm January 20, 2016

by Lourdes Garcia-Navarro

The government is trying to wipe out Zika virus, which has been linked to a severe birth defect. But is it doing enough to help families whose children have been affected?

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In researching their book, Caren Zucker and John Donvan tracked down Donald Gray Triplett (center), the first person officially diagnosed with autism. Now in his 80s, Triplett has had a long, happy life, Donvan says, maybe partly because his hometown embr

'In A Different Key' Traces History And Politics Of Autism

2:13pm January 20, 2016

by NPR Staff

Authors John Donvan and Caren Zucker say parents have been "unsung heroes" in spurring more research on autism, and in getting many more kids out of institutions and into schools.

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The effects of opioid abuse can go unnoticed at work.

Opioid Abuse Takes A Toll On Workers And Their Employers

1:50pm January 20, 2016

by Yuki Noguchi

Many employers who test for drugs don't screen employees for opioids. Yet opioid abuse is linked to problems with workplace productivity and safety.

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People wait to leave the besieged town of Madaya, northwest of Damascus, Syria, on Jan. 11.

Beyond Madaya, 1 in 3 Syrians Doesn't Have Adequate Access To Food

6:51pm January 19, 2016

by Merrit Kennedy

Starvation has been a weapon of war for multiple parties in the conflict. Even in areas not under siege, it's harder for civilians to afford basic food items, with prices dramatically inflated.

Small Alabama County Offers Cash Amid Struggle To Stop Tuberculosis Spread

5:12pm January 19, 2016

by Gigi Douban

There's only one health department in Alabama where people can go to be tested for tuberculosis. That's in Perry County, where an outbreak claimed three lives in 2015. For every 100,000 people there, 253 would be infected; normally in Alabama it's only 2.5. Now, health officials are trying to get handle on the disease. But it hasn't been easy, so officials there decided to take a new approach.

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When a country is declared Ebola-free â like Sierra Leone last November â the mood is upbeat. But that doesn't mean the virus is vanquished, as Sierra Leone learned this month.

Has The World Learned The Wrong Lessons From The Ebola Outbreak?

3:34pm January 19, 2016

by Nahid Bhadelia

By focusing on the end of the epidemic, writes infectious disease specialist Nahid Bhadelia, we miss the larger point.

Neck strain might not feel like a CT-worthy injury to you, but it's increasingly getting advanced imaging.

People With Minor Injuries Are Increasingly Getting CT Scans

2:47pm January 19, 2016

by Nancy Shute

The number of people with injuries like neck strain who get CT scans in emergency rooms is on the rise. This despite efforts to reduce use of the scans, which increase cancer risk.