CHARLOTTE, N.C. — A bill limiting when minors can consent to medical treatment without parental involvement passed the North Carolina House, with every Republican who voted supporting it and all but four Democrats who voted opposing it.

Rep. Jennifer Balkcom, a Hendersonville Republican, said the bill upheld the “essential role of parents ...Read more

RALEIGH, N.C. — A drug that gained international attention for its controversial off-label use during the COVID-19 pandemic could soon be available in North Carolina without a prescription.

House Bill 618, titled the “Ivermectin Access Act,” would require the state to issue a standing order by Oct. 1 allowing licensed pharmacists to ...Read more

Reproductive rights groups in Alabama wasted no time resuming their work after a federal judge ruled in early April that the state’s attorney general can’t prosecute — or threaten to prosecute — people or organizations who help Alabama residents seek an abortion by traveling to another state.

One of the plaintiffs, the reproductive ...Read more

SAN FRANCISCO — By age 46, Bob Williams had spent more than half his life in isolation, waiting to die on San Quentin's death row.

Williams was 18 when he raped and murdered 40-year-old Mary Breck at her Kern County home in October 1994. The day before, he had broken into Breck's home and stolen her credit cards. He returned — initially ...Read more

Sumana Reddy, a primary care physician, struggles on thin financial margins to run Acacia Family Medical Group, the small independent practice she founded 27 years ago in Salinas, California, a predominantly Latino city in an agricultural valley often called “the salad bowl of the world.”

Reddy can’t match the salaries offered by larger ...Read more

LAS VEGAS — A UNLV-led study has discovered a new molecular path that leads to autism, potentially opening the way for more intervention in the future.

The study by Łukasz Sznajder, a UNLV chemistry and biochemistry professor, was published on April 21 in the journal Nature Neuroscience.

It found that a gene that causes myotonic dystrophy �...Read more

Los Angeles County has declared a communitywide outbreak of hepatitis A, a highly contagious viral disease that can lead to lasting liver damage or even death.

Although cases of hepatitis A are nothing new in the region, health officials are now expressing alarm both at the prevalence of the disease and who is becoming infected.

The total of ...Read more

More than one in five people prescribed extended-release painkillers such as OxyContin developed an addiction within a year, according to a newly released study mandated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

The study, repeatedly delayed by more than a decade and released Monday, revealed a far higher percentage of pain patients addicted ...Read more

The Trump administration’s unprecedented $500 million grant for a broadly protective flu shot has confounded vaccine and pandemic preparedness experts, who said the project was in early stages, relied on old technology and was just one of more than 200 such efforts.

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. shifted the money ...Read more

Carmen Aiken of Chicago made an appointment for an annual physical exam in July 2023, planning to get checked out and complete some blood work.

The appointment was at a family medicine practice run by University of Illinois Health. Aiken said the doctor recommended they undergo a Pap smear, which they hadn’t had in more than a year, and ...Read more

Spending time outside, especially in green spaces like parks, is important for children's development and well-being. Connecting with nature can even help manage some physical and mental conditions.

Art also supports a child's development in meaningful ways. Art projects and other forms of play let them explore, interact with and make sense of ...Read more

The Trump administration quietly restored federal family planning money to Tennessee and Oklahoma, despite court rulings that the states weren’t entitled to funds because they refused to provide women information about terminating pregnancies or abortion referrals on request.

The decision by the Department of Health and Human Services to ...Read more

Paige DeVriendt, a 32-year-old living in Columbus, Ohio, has spent most of her life associating money with shame and anxiety.

Today, DeVriendt and her husband both work, bringing in a combined annual salary of around $225,000. With that, they’ve been able to pay their bills, save and invest, all while chipping away at six figures of combined...Read more

DEAR MAYO CLINIC: My husband and son are constantly coming home with an energy drink in hand. I tell them that they are bad for you, but I don't know enough to make a strong case. What are the effects of energy drinks on the body?

ANSWER: Energy drinks are a multibillion-dollar industry and are the most consumed supplement not under the control...Read more

While the risk of contracting and dying from the H5N1 avian flu remains low for humans, researchers continue to hunt for vaccines and treatments in case the virus mutates to spread more easily between animals and humans — or among humans themselves.

A team that includes researchers from the University of Pittsburgh and the National Institutes...Read more