WASHINGTON (AP) — As doctors scale back their use of opioid painkillers, a new option for difficult-to-treat pain is taking root: ketamine, the decades-old surgical drug that is now a trendy psychedelic therapy. Prescriptions for ketamine have soared in recent years, driven by for-profit clinics and telehealth services offering the medication as a treatment for [...]
NEW YORK (AP) — The nation’s infant mortality rate rose 3 percent last year — the largest increase in two decades, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The CDC's report, released earlier this week, noted larger increases for two of the leading causes of infant deaths — maternal complications and bacterial meningitis. [...]
About four decades ago, when the Environmental Protection Agency was first trying to figure out what to do about lead in drinking water, Ronnie Levin quantified its damage: Roughly 40 million people drank water with dangerous levels of lead, degrading the intelligence of thousands of kids. New regulations, however, were going to be costly and [...]
WASHINGTON (AP) — The number of suicides among military members and their families dipped slightly in 2022, compared with the previous year, as the Defense Department tries to build prevention and treatment programs to address what has been a steadily growing problem over the past decade, The Associated Press has learned. While the total number [...]
Powdered drink mixes that are widely promoted as "toddler milks" for older babies and children up to age 3 are unregulated, unnecessary and "nutritionally incomplete," according to an American Academy of Pediatrics report. The drinks, which are touted to parents on TikTok, in television ads and in other media, often contain added sugar and salt. [...]
BATON ROUGE, La. — For months, residents in the southeast corner of Louisiana have relied on bottled water for drinking and cooking, with the water from the faucet coming out salty. Plaquemines Parish Councilman Mark "Hobbo" Cognevich, who represents the affected area, said grocery stores are constantly having to restock plastic water bottles, neighbors have [...]
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — For months, Carlton Clemons endured crippling pain from a rotting wisdom tooth. He couldn't sleep, barely ate and relied on painkillers to get by. The 67-year-old from Nashville, Tenn., could not afford to see a dentist on the $1,300-a-month his family gets in Social Security and disability payments. So, he waited [...]
INDEPENDENCE, Mo. (AP) — It's a Monday in September, but with schools closed, the three children in the Pruente household have nowhere to be. Callahan, 13, contorts herself into a backbend as 7-year-old Hudson fiddles with a balloon and 10-year-old Keegan plays the piano. Like a growing number of students around the country, the Pruente [...]
MILWAUKEE (AP) — Some people seeking the newest COVID-19 vaccine are running into high demand, insurance headaches and supply delays coast to coast. Millions of the newly formulated vaccines have shipped out since the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention earlier this month approved them for ages 6 months and up. Cases started rising again [...]
When she prescribes the popular weight-loss drug Wegovy, Dr. Angela Fitch sends patients on a quest she likens to "The Hunger Games." They will have to call drugstores over several days to find one with the properly sized first dose. Then they'll do that again for their second dose, and probably the third and that's [...]