Radio Health Journal
The latest in health, science, technology, and the intersection of medicine and public policy.
Grief is unfortunately more common during the Covid-19 pandemic. But many people don’t know what to do when their pain does not follow the road map they expect--the well-known five stages of grief. Two experts on grief discuss what can happen under various scenarios when a loved one dies, and what people can do to make it through their pain.
Loneliness has been increasing across all ages even before the pandemic. It’s especially noteworthy among seniors, and it can dramatically affect health. An expert geriatrician who has studied the effects of loneliness and the leader of an organization that provides friendly visitors to the isolated elderly discuss.
Government reports say more than 265 million healthcare records have been stolen, lost, or improperly disclosed in the last decade. It may create a financial risk, but it could also mean your health conditions and secrets are all over the internet. One of the nation’s top health data experts discusses.
Entertainer Britney Spears claims in court that her conservator father won’t let her remove birth control. It’s merely the most celebrated recent case of something most people find surprising: forced sterilization still exists in the US, usually in cases of guardianship. Experts explain its legality, history & use.
Schools that just a couple of months ago imagined opening free of great pandemic worry are now facing a Delta variant that’s even more contagious than the original. Yet last year’s experience is telling experts and administrators that school can be held safely if masking and other protocols are followed. Two pediatricians who are experts in how infectious disease affects schools discuss reopening …
Many people in prison have a mental illness that keeps them from following the rules of society. Prison, its rules, and often its punitive intent may be the worst place for them, especially since treatment is often lacking there. A noted prison psychiatrist and behavioral scientist discusses this, and alternatives that may produce less recidivism when these inmates are released back into society.
A new CDC report shows that suicide among veterinarians is much higher than in the general population. Experts discuss the unique stresses that affect these professionals, including financial, compassion fatigue, euthanasia, and online harassment. They also discuss measures being taken to prevent mental health struggles and suicide.
Birth mothers have historically been shunned and stigmatized, and often still do not receive the grief counseling and mental health services they need. Open vs. closed adoptions also differ. An expert psychologist and birth mother-author discuss.
The recent rash of extreme weather worldwide, which has killed hundreds, is making scientists wonder if we have reached a turning point more quickly than we thought. Experts explain how climate change results in droughts, floods, and other severe weather and the signals it provides of danger immediately ahead.
Hospitals are now required to post prices for many procedures on their websites, including cash prices and what insurers pay. The intent of the federal rule is to allow patients to shop around, putting pressure on hospitals to compete on price. However, many hospitals have yet to follow the rule. Experts discuss the rule, its likely outcome, and how patients can use it to their advantage.
Where Covid-19 vaccination is high, it’s a getting-back-to-normal world after the pandemic. But even some vaccinated people won’t return to normal for months or years because of the psychological effects. Experts discuss why this occurs and how people can help themselves return to mental health.
More people die of lung cancer than breast, prostate, and colon cancer combined. A decade ago, a lung cancer diagnosis was often a death sentence. But now treatments are being developed that mean it can often be treated, especially if screening detects it early. A patient/advocate and researcher discuss.
Traffic engineers are learning that they can increase road efficiency and safety by eliminating left turns at many busy intersections, even those that have left turn arrows. This increases distance traveled for some people--some may have to make three right turns instead--but virtually everyone benefits in travel time, as package carrier UPS has learned. A traffic engineer and UPS official discuss …
Many patients arrive in the emergency room as a result of violence or car crashes—events in which police have an investigative interest. Sometimes, police needs clash with trauma care, and priorities are hashed out case by case. Experts discuss which priorities come first and when, and the procedures needed to smooth out sometimes contentious interaction.
Thousands of parents take their children to doctors each year seeking synthetic growth hormone to cure their relatively short stature, even though most of these children are merely late bloomers. Plus, studies show that short stature generally does not create psychological damage. Experts weigh in.
Each year, some 400 U.S. children over age one, most of them toddlers, die for no known reason. Families, longing for answers, often find that their families, friends, and even pediatricians are unfamiliar with this classification of death, or that they even occur. Family members who have lost a child, a medical examiner, and a research expert who has lost a child discuss SUDC.
Infants, toddlers, and grade school children use many cues to learn language. Some of them are visual, involving seeing the mouth move. Some depend on clearly hearing speech. Both have been impacted by mask wearing during the pandemic. Experts now studying how far behind children are as a result discuss how language develops in children and how it’s been affected in the pandemic.
Hundreds of patients nationally have diseases that have confounded doctors and yielded no diagnosis and no reliable treatment. Today the Undiagnosed Diseases Network helps these patients, but its funding is uncertain beyond 2022. Patients and a physician leader of the UDN discuss the lonely plight of these patients and hopes for the future.
Since the Covid-19 pandemic began, public health experts have looked to vaccines with the goal of creating “herd immunity.” Now it is clear we will not reach that goal. One of the nation’s leading infectious disease experts discusses how we are missing the target and what it means.
Since the 1980’s, almost all production of generic drugs has moved overseas, where FDA inspectors have a much tougher time making sure they’re following rules for safety. An investigative journalist describes the ways she’s found that many drugmakers cut corners, putting safety at risk, and details what consumers can do to protect themselves.
The US birth rate has been declining since the Crash of 2008, but it took an even larger decline during the pandemic to levels unseen since the Great Depression. Today fertility rates are below replacement levels, which could have big impacts on education, employment, and the tax base years down the road.
Many of those who’ve had Covid-19 have suffered from a temporary loss of their sense of smell, but some have had what seems to be an even worse symptom weeks or months later—a distorted sense of smell, where everything, from coffee to flowers, smells sickeningly awful. An expert and a former sufferer discuss how disruptive to life this can be and what people can do to make it through to recovery.
Bottled water sales have skyrocketed, in part because many people believe it is safer than tap water. Actually, bottled water faces few of the safety regulations that tap water does. The disconnect, according to a new study, comes from society’s pervasive distrust in all governmental institutions. The lead researcher discusses how restoring faith in water could begin to restore faith in all …
Millions of Americans cannot afford the medications they’ve been prescribed. Many skip doses, split pills or don’t fill prescriptions at all as a result, with sometimes even fatal consequences. Experts discuss the problem and what patients can do to save.
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