Health

Kelly Livingston/ABC News (NEW YORK) — For Belinda Mosby, the nightmares started in March. Mosby had been working at Carelon Behavioral Health, one of the new 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline hotline centers in New Hampshire, for two months. When Mosby started the job in January 2023, she said she was enthusiastic. After 25 years […]

ATU Images/Getty Images (NEW YORK) — For decades, doctors have encouraged patients to monitor their cholesterol levels, with studies showing that heart disease risk increases with high levels of low-density lipoprotein (LDL), also known as the “bad cholesterol,” and not enough high-density lipoprotein (HDL), also known as the “good cholesterol.” Diet, exercise and medications like […]

krisanapong detraphiphat/Getty Images (NEW YORK) — More than a decade after the Affordable Care Act was passed, more than 600,000 adults in North Carolina are now eligible to receive benefits through an expansion of Medicaid that the state, like 10 others, long resisted. The change in policy was bipartisan, since North Carolina, a perpetual battleground […]

In this photo illustration, ZYN nicotine cases and pouches are seen on a table, Jan. 29, 2024, in New York. (Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images) (NEW YORK) — A type of nicotine pouches designed for adults is facing scrutiny on Capitol Hill, while also exploding in popularity online and among young people. The pouches, sold under […]

Tetra Images/Getty Images (OREGON) — Oregon government officials have declared a 90-day state of emergency to address Portland’s growing fentanyl crisis. Gov. Tina Kotek, Multnomah County Chair Jessica Vega Pederson and Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler each issued an emergency declaration on Tuesday following a recommendation from the Portland Central City Task Force. Overdose deaths from […]

Tetra Images/Getty Images (NEW YORK) — A pharmaceutical company has presented new data for an experimental drug that they say can reduce acute pain, raising the possibility of an alternative to addictive opioids. In a press release, Vertex says two studies showed that the new drug, VX-548, showed a “clinically meaningful reduction” in pain over […]

Westend61/Getty Images (NEW YORK) — Elon Musk announced that his company Neuralink implanted a brain chip in a human in a preliminary clinical study. If research studies continue to look promising, devices like these could one day be a “game changer” for people with limited motor function, experts told ABC News. Neuralink says its goal […]

SERGII IAREMENKO/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY/Getty Images (PHILADELPHIA) — The Philadelphia Department of Public Health is warning that several people may have recently been exposed to hepatitis A at a grocery store. An employee at a ShopRite, located in the northeast part of the city, was confirmed to have “acute hepatitis A” and was working behind the […]

Bilanol/Getty Images/STOCK (NEW YORK) — The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is warning clinicians to remain on alert for measles cases due to a growing number of infections. Between Dec. 1, 2023, and Jan. 23, 2024, there have been 23 confirmed cases of measles including seven cases from international travelers and two outbreaks with […]

Darrin Klimek/Getty Images (ATMORE, Ala.) — An Alabama man has become the first ever person executed via a new method, nitrogen gas, on Thursday. Kenneth Eugene Smith, 58, was sentenced to death for his alleged role in the 1988 murder of Elizabeth Sennett. Her husband, Charles Sennett, allegedly hired someone — who, in turn, hired […]