Highlights from Wellness Wednesday: Looking at hearing loss, tackling addictions
Every Wednesday on MPR News with Angela Davis, you can listen to in depth conversations on wellness topics. This week, Angela shares highlights from two favorite Wellness Wednesday shows. Nearly 30 million Americans suffer from hearing loss but only about one-fifth use hearing aids, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. In the first […]
Minnesota hospitals put the heat on lawmakers to back away from health care package
[MUSIC PLAYING] CATHY WURZER: Minnesota hospitals and the Mayo Clinic are pressuring lawmakers to back away from two proposals in both the House and Senate versions of a health care package. One provision would create a health care affordability board that would make recommendations to address rising costs, and another would give nurses more say […]
If you’re 40, it’s time to start mammograms, according to new guidelines
New recommendations from the USPSTF advise that women get biannual mammograms starting at age 40 to detect breast cancers. andresr/Getty Images Breast cancer is very treatable when caught early, and mammograms, which are X-ray images of breasts, are a reliable screening test to detect it. Now, new draft recommendations released Tuesday from the U.S. Preventive […]
The COVID public health emergency ends this week. Here’s what’s changing
The U.S. public health emergency declaration helped marshal resources during the worst of the COVID crisis, when the virus was spreading rampantly. This week, the declaring expires. FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP via Getty Images On January 31, 2020, with six confirmed cases of a new coronavirus in the U.S., a group of federal health officials gathered […]
The FDA considers first birth control pill without a prescription
Advisers to the Food and Drug Administration will make a recommendation about whether the agency should approve the first over-the-counter birth control pill in the U.S. Sarah Silbiger/Getty Images For the first time, the Food and Drug Administration is considering allowing women to get birth control pills in the U.S. without a prescription. “It’s a […]
Cyberattacks on health care are increasing. Inside one hospital’s fight to recover
Matt Ashley, a senior technologist at Johnson Memorial Health in Franklin, Indiana, is part of a small IT team that spent months helping the hospital recover after a crippling cyberattack in 2021. Farah Yousry/WFYI It was October 2021 and the staff at Johnson Memorial Health were hoping they could finally catch their breaths. They were […]
Back pain shouldn’t stop you from cooking at home. Here’s how to adapt
Kobus Louw/Getty Images Cooking a simple meal involves a lot of movements that could strain the back. Lifting a pot filled with water to boil pasta. Standing at the counter chopping vegetables. Bending forward to put pans in the oven. “When you’re making soup, you’re doing all kinds of gymnastics to get different batches of […]
Future of Us: The pandemic offered workers a golden opportunity – but inequities to navigate
This story is part of a series called “The Future of Us,” exploring how a pandemic, a murder and a city on fire have changed us and our path forward. In March 2020, many Minnesotans began working under a stay-at-home order. Seemingly overnight, businesses scrambled to find new ways of doing things and make it […]
Mayo Clinic pressures lawmakers over health budget bill
Updated 5:41 p.m. Officials at Mayo Clinic are threatening to pull their investments from the state if lawmakers don’t make significant changes to key provisions of a health omnibus bill at the Capitol — exempting Mayo from one possible requirement, and eliminating another proposal entirely. According to emails obtained by MPR News, and first reported […]
Anti-overdose drug naloxone could soon be standard in Minnesota schools
Colleen Ronnei didn’t know what naloxone was when her 20-year-old son fatally overdosed on opioids in 2016. Since then she’s formed a nonprofit called Change the Outcome. And one of its major missions is to make the overdose antidote nasal spray readily available in as many places as possible, especially schools. “We’re seeing firsthand every […]