TimeMagazine

While death is inevitable, knowing when it will come isn’t necessarily, and scientists have been trying to develop a test that could reliably and easily predict how long a person will live — or, more technically, how healthy they are and therefore how vulnerable they might be to major mortality risk factors. Blood tests are … Read more

A study published in JAMA Pediatrics has given new life to a long-running debate: whether adding fluoride to drinking water is a prudent way to prevent tooth decay, or a potentially toxic mistake. The research, which focused on mother-child pairs from six Canadian cities, found that high fluoride exposure during pregnancy was correlated with lower … Read more

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is investigating a growing number of “severe” lung disease cases that appear to be related to vaping. Since late June, according to the CDC, 94 people in 14 states have come down with serious lung illnesses that may be linked to use of e-cigarettes, which heat substances … Read more

Most non-electric motor vehicles emit multiple airborne pollutants, including nitrogen dioxide, hydrocarbons, and ultrafine chemical particles. Breathing in these pollutants can cause or contribute to a wide range of health problems, from heart and lung disease to neurological, reproductive and immune system dysfunction. Studies have repeatedly found that people who live near busy roadways are … Read more

Millions of patients may struggle to get the family-planning care they need after Planned Parenthood on Monday decided to leave the federal Title X program, which annually provides $286 million in grants to groups across the country for services including cancer screenings, STD testing and birth control consultations. “We’re trying to do all we can … Read more

It’s now the fifth straight day that residents in around 15,000 Newark, N.J. homes are being given bottled water for drinking and cooking, as city authorities and federal officials grapple with high levels of lead in their water supply. A federal judge is now determining whether or not the city has to expand the distribution … Read more

A third of U.S. adults are so stressed by the prospect of mass shootings that they avoid visiting certain places or attending certain events, according to a new survey from the American Psychological Association (APA) and the Harris Poll. The survey, released shortly after a pair of mass shootings in Dayton, Ohio and El Paso, … Read more

For its first few years on the market, the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine was approved only for young girls. Over time, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has broadened its approval to include boys, as well as adults up to age 45—allowing more people to get the cancer-preventing vaccine, but also breeding confusion about … Read more

For many of Dr. Google’s most anxious patients–the ones who consult WebMD’s Symptom Checker more often than the weather report–Lisa Sanders is a household name. A physician and author based at the Yale School of Medicine, Dr. Sanders has been writing a column called “Diagnosis” for the New York Times Magazine since 2002. Each edition … Read more

For families with food allergies, micro-managing daily life to avoid accidentally consuming the wrong food can be a huge burden. They scour labels. They avoid restaurants. They ban their kids from birthday parties, or refuse to enter sports stadiums, worrying that peanut shells littering the ground could trigger life-ending anaphylaxis. The resulting angst has driven … Read more