Melissa Healy

Preventing breast cancer just got easier. Will more women give these drugs a try?

January 17, 2019 at 2:12 p.m.

Breast cancer will strike 1 in 8 women in her lifetime. But women who face an increased risk of being that one unlucky patient may improve their chances with three...

Marchers in Tampa, Fla., make their way across a street during a 2016 protest against police violence.

America’s psychologists want you to understand how racism holds our country back

January 4, 2019 at 2:52 p.m.

The nation’s psychologists want us to talk about race. Not in the hushed confines of a therapist’s office, but in classrooms, church basements and workplaces. If that feels like a...

Researchers tackle a question asked by many hoping to forestall mental decline as they age: Will taking up challenging mental activities help?

Your aging brain: Is it ‘use it or lose it’?

December 12, 2018 at 2:48 p.m.

Yes, your brain is like a muscle: If you don’t strengthen and stretch its capacities, it will not deliver high performance. But your brain is not like one of those...

Teens and young adults who are prescribed opioids for dental procedures may be at increased risk for subsequent opioid use and abuse, a new study suggests.

Surgery to remove wisdom teeth puts some teens and young adults on a path to opioid abuse

December 13, 2018 at 7:44 a.m.

For older teens and young adults, the extraction of so-called wisdom teeth is a painful rite of passage. A new study suggests it’s likely made more perilous by the package...

Taking the stairs instead of waiting for an elevator can help you meet the federal government's new targets for physical activity.

Here’s how you can meet the new U.S. exercise guidelines

August 19, 2019 at 9:01 a.m.

Listen up, Americans! The government has been recommending you get 150 minutes of exercise a week for a decade now. That’s just 20 minutes a day — and not even...

A gut bacterium as a fountain of youth? Well, let’s start with reversing insulin resistance

December 12, 2018 at 4:49 a.m.

Move over Bifidobacterium and Lactobacillus. There’s a new health-promoting gut bacterium in town, and it’s called Akkermansia muciniphila. You will not find its benefits at the bottom of a yogurt...

Praluent, a cholesterol-lowering drug sold by Sanofi and Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, is in the same class as Repatha. Cardiologists believe lower cholesterol targets will save lives.

With better drugs for high cholesterol, doctors become more ambitious with treatment goals

December 12, 2018 at 3:47 a.m.

In a new strategy for preventing heart attacks and strokes, leading cardiologists are urging their fellow physicians to focus on reducing the LDL cholesterol of patients at greatest risk of...

A visitor tries out an IQOS device at a store in Tokyo.

Heated tobacco product, touted as safer alternative to cigarettes, is no less dangerous than smoking, studies find

August 19, 2019 at 9:00 a.m.

In 30 countries around the world, consumers can slide a roll of dried tobacco into a sleek device, heat it to 350 degrees and inhale. The result is a hit...

Here's yet another reason to take care of your teeth: Periodontal disease may interfere with blood pressure control in people who have been diagnosed with hypertension, according to a new study.

To keep your blood pressure in check, don’t forget to brush and floss

August 19, 2019 at 9:00 a.m.

Struggling to bring your high blood pressure under control, even with the help of medications? Open your mouth and say “aha!” if you see tooth decay or gums that are...

Over four decades, an ‘inexorable’ epidemic of drug overdoses reveals its inner secrets

December 12, 2018 at 8:28 a.m.

Americans have long construed drugs of abuse as choices. Poor choices that can cost users their lives, to be sure, but choices nonetheless. But what if drugs of abuse are...

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