Sometimes health care means being able to go out and watch a wrestling match, according to Dr. Clarissa Kripke. She's pioneering a new kind of care for people with disabilities.
According to the CDC, about one in four adults has a fear of needles. Many of those people say the phobia started when they were kids. For some people, the fear of needles is strong enough that they avoid getting important treatments, vaccines or tests. That poses a serious problem for public health. Researchers have helped develop a five step plan to help prevent what they call "needless pain" for kids getting injections or their blood drawn. Guest host Tom Dreisbach talks with Dr. Stefan Friedrichsdorf of UCSF Benioff Children's Hospitals, who works with a team to implement the plan at his own hospital. Friedrichsdorf told us some of the most important research on eliminating pain has come from researchers in Canada. Learn more about their work here.
This episode was inspired by the reporting of our colleague April Dembosky, a journalist at member station KQED and KFF Health News. Read her digital story here.
The case could affect not just abortion access but oversight of the drug industry and the authority of federal agencies. The court hears arguments Tuesday.
For a decade, Florida lawmakers have debated whether to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act. Advocates are trying to circumvent the legislature and take the issue directly to voters.
Yes, as Oprah enthused, the drugs help people shrink their bodies. But the psychological damage of weight stigma can't be so easily cured, a doctor writes.
Surgeons at Massachusetts General Hospital said they transplanted a genetically edited pig kidney into a living human for the first time. The 62-year-old recipient has end-stage kidney disease.
Rates are so bad in Native American communities that public health experts have asked the federal government to declare an emergency. Inadequate prenatal care may be partly to blame.
Scientists are optimistic that gene-edited animals could provide a new source of organs for transplantation. Pig organs modified to minimize rejection are now being tested in humans.
The National Institutes of Health is sunsetting its influential COVID-19 treatment guidelines, used by millions of doctors to guide care during the pandemic.
We've probably said it a hundred times on Code Switch — biological race is not a real thing. So why is race still used to help diagnose certain conditions, like keloids or cystic fibrosis? On this episode, Dr. Andrea Deyrup breaks it down for us, and unpacks the problems she sees with practicing race-based medicine.
This week marks four years since the outbreak of Covid-19 was officially declared a pandemic. One of the most vexing legacies — one that science still hasn't solved — is long Covid. That's the debilitating condition that can develop in the aftermath of an infection.
Millions of Americans are living with the often debilitating symptoms that can include brain fog, shortness of breath, and low energy. Some struggle with simple daily living tasks like laundry and cooking.
Four years since the pandemic hit, patients with long Covid are still fighting for answers.
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Kate Manne tried to shrink her body for years before embracing her size as part of a "natural, normal human variation." She says the fight against fat phobia must start in the doctor's office.
