Your Health

Which would you choose — a daily tablet or a trip to the doctor for an allergy shot?

Immunotherapy Tablets For Dust Mite Allergy Reduce Asthma Risk

4:20pm April 26, 2016

by Nancy Shute

Dust mite allergies are a common trigger for asthma. A new form of immunotherapy that relies on oral tablets rather than shots reduces the risk of a moderate or severe asthma attack, a study finds.

These two normal mammograms show the difference between a breast with dense tissue, left, and one that is less dense. The dense tissue reads as white, the same color as breast cancer on a mammogram.

Letters Telling Women About Breast Density Are Often Too Darn Dense

3:25pm April 26, 2016

by Patti Neighmond

Half of states require that women who get mammograms be notified if they have dense breasts because they increase cancer risk. But the letters are often jargony and hard to understand, a study finds.

One Silicon Valley startup that encouraged its employees to think about work 24/7 found they missed market signals, tanked deals and became too irritable to build crucial working relationships.

Many Grouchy, Error-Prone Workers Just Need More Sleep

11:31am April 26, 2016

by Yuki Noguchi

Sleep researchers say about 30 percent of employees at big firms are so tired they're making as many mistakes as if they were coming to work drunk. Some offices now have "napping pods."

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The unique medical program at the University of California, Berkeley is housed in its School of Public Health.

Students Rally To Save Program That Produces Primary Care Doctors

4:58pm April 25, 2016

by Lisa Aliferis

An unusual medical education program at the University of California, Berkeley is known for producing primary care doctors, unlike other schools. But it could be axed due to budget shortfalls.

Pastoral Medicine Credentials Raise Questions In Texas

8:22am April 25, 2016

by Lauren Silverman

They're called doctors of pastoral medicine and tout certificates to prove it. But they don't have real medical degrees, and critics worry that patients don't understand what those titles really mean.

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If you need to reach for a top-shelf medicine, some marketplace plans are making it more affordable.

Health & Safety

More Marketplace Health Plans Ease Access To Some Expensive Drugs

12:21pm April 22, 2016

by Michelle Andrews

Complaints from patient groups and increased regulatory oversight appear to be leading to changes in the way some marketplace health plans cover expensive drugs.

Teen mothers said they didn't follow advice to keep blankets and pillows out of the baby's crib, a study finds.

Teen Moms Trust Their Gut, Even When It Puts Their Babies At Risk

5:36pm April 21, 2016

by Laurel Dalrymple

Teenage mothers said they knew about safe-sleeping practices to prevent infant deaths. But they also said they weren't going to follow those rules because they knew what was best for the baby.

Watch the webcast April 20 at 12:30 p.m. ET about health care inequality from NPR, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

Webcast: Health Care Inequalities In America

4:32pm April 20, 2016

by Joe Neel

NPR polls found significant differences in the quality of health care experienced by Americans, depending on income. A webcast at 12:30 p.m. ET Wednesday will examine the disparities.

Members of Congress complained to the administration that hospitals needed more time to check the accuracy of quality ratings.

Health & Safety

Medicare Delays Plans For New Star Ratings Of Hospitals

2:19pm April 20, 2016

by Jordan Rau

Medicare's "overall hospital quality" rating aims to help consumers by boiling down a variety of measurements into a number star. But Congress asked the administration to hold off on the change.

Demographers can use average life expectancy of a population as a clue to underlying changes in health and culture.

Life Expectancy Drops For White Women, Increases For Black Men

9:50am April 20, 2016

by Alison Kodjak

Suicide, drug abuse and alcohol have started to shorten the lives of white women, a U.S. report on data from 2013 to 2014 suggests. Life-expectancy for many black men went up from 71.8 years to 72.2.

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