Health & Safety

Patients taking diabetes drug Ozempic or the weight-loss drug Wegovy are reporting a curious, beneficial side effect. The drugs seem to reduce people's cravings for alcohol, nicotine and even opioids.

An artillery shell should have killed Andrii Smolenskyi in May. Instead, the blast tore off both of his arms above the elbow and destroyed his eyes. Now he's fighting to put his life back together.

Since their round of fame, the brothers, who dedicated themselves to rehabbing birds injured by kite strings in the Delhi sky, are gaining worldwide support — and an infusion of donations.

In elementary school, NPR's Malaka Gharib visited her dad in Cairo each summer. It was hot, there was no AC — but she coped. In this age of global warming, she wonders: How are Egyptians getting by?

NPR's Ayesha Rascoe asks Dr. Carlos del Rio of the Emory University School of Medicine about updated recommendations for prescribing and insuring drugs that prevent HIV.

Readers are curious about the new variant, currently known a BA.2.86. Also: Lots of questions about boosters. Can you get it at the same time as a flu shot? And how long does protection last?

Centers for Disease Control studies increased asthma-related ER visits by 17% nationwide during 19 of the smokiest days. On the worst air quality day in New York state, those visits spiked 82%.