Health & Safety

It's not just kombucha and yogurt: Probiotics are now showing up in dozens of packaged foods. But what exactly do these designer foods with friendly flora actually offer — besides a high price tag?

Health & Safety

Do We Really Need Probiotics In Our Coffee, Granola And Nut Butter?

1:01pm April 19, 2016

by Jill Neimark

It's not just kombucha and yogurt: Probiotics are now showing up in dozens of packaged foods. But what exactly do these designer foods with friendly flora actually offer — besides a high price tag?

Siblings Sangeeta (from left), Sunil and Ravi Tripathi. Sunil went missing weeks before the Boston Marathon, and media outlets misidentified him as one of the bombing suspects.

How Social Media Smeared A Missing Student As A Terrorism Suspect

11:00pm April 18, 2016

by NPR Staff

The documentary Help Us Find Sunil Tripathi explores what happened after a tweet misidentified a Brown University student as one of the Boston Marathon bombing suspects.

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Photos: Why Everyone In Mali Wanted To Pose For The Late, Great Sidibe

6:56pm April 18, 2016

by Ofeibea Quist-Arcton

His death marks the end of a remarkable era in African and world photography.

Health & Safety

New Polio Vaccine Rollout Comes With A Big Risk

4:59pm April 18, 2016

by Michaeleen Doucleff

This week the world is attempting a first — the largest, quickest rollout of a vaccine in history. The goal is to make the polio vaccine safer, but it comes with a big risk.

Fanatic Studio/Collection Mix: Sub/Getty Images

Health & Safety

Secrets Of The Very Old And Healthy — Start When You're Young

4:50pm April 18, 2016

by Nancy Shute

What you do in your 20s and 30s and 40s can make it more likely that you'll be mobile and healthy in old age, scientists say. That's true even if your ancestors didn't fare so well.

When Erika Stallings was 22, she found out that she might have a genetic mutation that greatly increased her risk of cancer.

More People Seek Genetic Testing, But There Aren't Enough Counselors

4:03pm April 18, 2016

by Todd Bookman

After Angelina Jolie disclosed her genetic predisposition for breast cancer, demand for genetic tests went up. Counselors help interpret those tests, and demand for their services has increased, too.

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If UnitedHealth Group. based in Minnetonka, Minn., pulls back from the Obamacare exchanges, premiums nationwide would go up around 1 percent, a Kaiser Family Foundation reports finds.

Analysis: Modest Effect If UnitedHealth Withdraws From Exchanges

3:59pm April 18, 2016

by Alison Kodjak

If UnitedHealth stops selling insurance on marketplaces across the country (and isn't replaced by rivals), premiums for exchange plans could rise modestly — about 1 percent on average.

There's a growing body of evidence challenging the notion that low-fat dairy is best.

Health & Safety

The Full-Fat Paradox: Dairy Fat Linked To Lower Diabetes Risk

3:38pm April 18, 2016

by Allison Aubrey

The new findings add to the evidence suggesting that full-fat dairy may have protective effects — both in cutting the risk of diabetes and in helping people control body weight.

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The Epidemiologist Who Gave CNN Sass For Asking A Stupid Question

5:15pm April 17, 2016

by NPR Staff

In a new memoir, Dr. Mary Guinan reflects on 40 years as a disease detective for the CDC.

A Pakistani health worker gives a polio vaccine to students in Peshawar, Pakistan, in March. Polio remains endemic in Pakistan after the Taliban banned vaccinations, attacks targeted medical staffers and suspicions lingered about the inoculations.

New Polio Vaccine Rolled Out In Massive Synchronized Worldwide Switch

12:08pm April 17, 2016

by Merrit Kennedy

155 countries and territories are switching to a different polio vaccine, in what health officials say is the next step to completely eradicating the disease worldwide.