Your Health

Uzuri Pease-Greene, right, leads a walk through the public housing complex in the Potrero Hill neighborhood of San Francisco where her family lives. She is working to have the old buildings replaced.

Improving Housing Can Pay Dividends In Better Health

5:20pm March 03, 2015

by Patti Neighmond

Living in substandard housing can make health problems like asthma much worse. Two mothers tell of their families' struggles to stay healthy in poor housing and their efforts to improve their lot.

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Three types of adversity that make for a tough childhood.

Take The ACE Quiz — And Learn What It Does And Doesn't Mean

4:23pm March 03, 2015

by Laura Starecheski

First developed in the 1990s, the 10 questions of the Adverse Childhood Experiences test are designed to take a rough measure of a difficult childhood. Finding out your score is easy. Now what?

People With Low Incomes Say They Pay A Price In Poor Health

7:39am March 03, 2015

by Patti Neighmond

People with household incomes of less than $25,000 a year say in a new poll that the lack of cash really hurts their health. Low-quality food and dangerous housing are two reasons why.

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Poll Explores Our Perception Of How Factors Large And Small Shape People's Health

7:38am March 03, 2015

by Joe Neel

Health is not just about trips to the doctor, according to a poll by NPR, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health. Housing, stress and abuse are factors.

Government guidelines say exercising 2.5 hours a week will keep you healthy, but a study says you can get the job done in less time if you rev it up.

Walk A Little Faster To Get The Most Out of Your Exercise Time

5:50pm March 02, 2015

by Katherine Hobson

People who walked briskly for 40 minutes five days a week saw more health improvements than those who walked for an hour a day but were more leisurely about it. Both groups lost weight.

Before and after photos of an ear shaped with the EarWell device.

Parents Choose A Simple Device To Reshape A Baby's Ear

3:09pm March 02, 2015

by Poncie Rutsch

Sometimes a baby's outer ear may be a tad misshapen. Surgery can help later on, but a plastic mold makes the most of the fact that a newborn's ears are pliable. They can reshape within weeks.

Chris Newman, seen at her home in Los Molinos, Calif., calls the change she helped get made to lung cancer treatment guidelines a "small, but very important victory."

Health & Safety

How A Group Of Lung Cancer Survivors Got Doctors To Listen

3:09pm March 02, 2015

by Katherine Hobson

Lung cancer survivors who met online banded together to get an option they credited with helping them added to treatment guidelines used by cancer specialists.

Eyelashes Grow To Just The Right Length To Shield Eyes

4:04pm February 27, 2015

by Poncie Rutsch

Eyelashes keep dust out and fend off drying breezes, a study finds. To do that they need to be a very precise length. Extra-long fake eyelashes hurt more than they help.

From Naked Mole Rats To Dog Testicles: A Writer Explores The Longevity Quest

4:03pm February 27, 2015

"Nature knows how to let animals live a very long time," says Bill Gifford, whose latest book is Spring Chicken, a look at the history of anti-aging schemes and current ways people try to live longer.

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Patient data breaches have become increasingly common, but enforcement actions against the responsible organizations are relatively rare.

Health & Safety

Fines Remain Rare Even As Health Data Breaches Multiply

2:25pm February 27, 2015

by Charles Ornstein

Since 2009, a federal watchdog has levied only 22 penalties against health care organizations for failing to safeguard information about patients.