FDA Warns Tobacco Companies Advertising 'Natural' Cigarettes
Unless a cigarette is safer than others, it can't be labeled "natural" or "additive-free," the Food and Drug Administration told three manufacturers.
Health & Safety
Poll Finds Most Women Believe Mammograms Should Be Done Annually
While the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force says most women should get screening mammograms every two years, an NPR-Truven Health Analytics poll finds women think they should go every year.
Ebola Flashback: Nancy Snyderman's Experience Was Different From Mine
The Today show medical editor gave a new interview about her controversial quarantine. It triggered powerful memories for an NPR journalist who was in Liberia around the same time.
As Heroin Addiction Grows, Maine Focuses On Drug Enforcement
A cap on the number of opiate addiction patients that doctors can treat means many who want to take Suboxone can't get access to it. In Maine, the governor has reduced funding for the treatment.
Italy, Land Of Pizza And Pasta, Is Gluten-Free Friendly
Only 1 percent of Italians have celiac disease, similar to the rest of the world. But since gluten is everywhere, there's high public awareness about it and more than 4,000 gluten-free eateries.
How The Prescription Painkiller Fentanyl Became A Street Drug
The synthetic opioid fentanyl is used for surgery and to treat severe pain. Abuse has always been a problem. Now that it's being used to cut heroin, the risk of overdose or death has soared.
Abortion Foes Scour Clinics' Trash For Discarded Records
Garbage has become an unlikely battleground in the abortion debate, as anti-abortion groups seek evidence of privacy violations in clinics' dumpsters.
A Man Shed Live Polio Virus In His Stool For 28 Years
That's the longest span for one individual to excrete the live virus in history. It's not the norm, that's for certain. But how much of a concern is it in the war to wipe out polio?
In The Search For The Perfect Sugar Substitute, Another Candidate Emerges
There's a new contender in the century-old quest for perfect, guiltless sweetness: allulose. It's sugar — but in a form that our bodies don't convert into calories. Perfect? Not quite.
Ill. Gov. Removes Medicaid Coverage From Heroin Treatment Bill
Gov. Bruce Rauner acknowledges his state is dealing with a serious heroin addiction crisis, but he is stripping a key provision from a measure aimed at tackling the problem.