National Institute

Pregnancy started out rough for Leslie Siu. Morning sickness and migraines had her reeling and barely able to function at a demanding New York marketing job, so like rising numbers of U.S. mothers-to-be, she turned to marijuana. “l was finally able to get out from under my work desk,” said Siu, who later started her own pot company and says...

The Florida clinics started in the 1990s and began proliferating in about 2003, their parking lots filled with vehicles sporting license plates from Ohio, Kentucky, West Virginia and elsewhere.

Illinois officials say heat kills more people each year than other weather-related hazards and are offering the public safety tips.

With temperatures this weekend set to be some of the highest the Chicago area has seen so far this year, and thousands expected to head outside for the city’s 50th annual Pride Parade, keeping safe in the heat will be important.

A bill seeking to preserve abortion protections in state law fails to pass a key committee. Lawmakers cite God, church and faith in proclaiming their opposition to it. Abortion-rights groups protest outside a gathering of lawmakers. What sounds like a legislative fight in a state controlled by anti-abortion Republicans is actually quite different. The bill seeking to protect abortion rights...

Five years after Colorado first legalized marijuana, a new study shows pot’s bad effects are sending more people to the emergency room. Inhaled marijuana caused the most severe problems at one large Denver area hospital. Marijuana-infused foods and candies, called edibles, also led to trouble. Patients came to the ER with symptoms such as repeated vomiting, racing hearts and psychotic...

President Donald Trump has donated his salary from the third-quarter of 2018 to the federal agency that researches alcoholism and alcohol-related problems. The White House says Trump donated $100,000 to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. Trump pledged as a candidate to not accept the $400,000 annual presidential salary if elected and has donated his quarterly payments to...

The nation’s top health authorities agree: Teen vaping is an epidemic that now affects some 3.6 million underage users of Juul and other e-cigarettes. But no one seems to know the best way to help teenagers who may be addicted to nicotine. E-cigarettes are now the top high-risk substance used by teenagers, according to the latest U.S. figures , which...

After a few years of being clean from heroin, Courtney Nunnally decided she wanted to use her own experience to help others. Under an innovative program in Virginia, she rides along with police to tell addicts: If I could recover, so can you.

The government’s top doctor is taking aim at the best-selling electronic cigarette brand in the U.S., urging swift action to prevent Juul and similar vaping brands from addicting millions of teenagers. In an advisory Tuesday, Surgeon General Jerome Adams said parents, teachers, health professionals and government officials must take “aggressive steps” to keep children from using e-cigarettes. Federal law bars...

Twice as many high school students used nicotine-tinged electronic cigarettes this year compared with last year, an unprecedented jump in a large annual survey of teen smoking, drinking and drug use. It was the largest single-year increase in the survey’s 44-year history, far surpassing a mid-1970s surge in marijuana smoking. The findings, released Monday, echo those of a government survey...

At an event for law enforcement officials, President Donald Trump boasted that his administration recently provided “historic levels of funding to improve school safety” and “hire more officers” through the newly created STOP School Violence Act. But the new law does not fund school safety at “historic levels.”

Lowering blood pressure more than usually recommended not only helps prevent heart problems, it also cuts the risk of mental decline that often leads to Alzheimer’s disease, a major study finds. It’s the first time a single step has been clearly shown to help prevent a dreaded condition that has had people trying crossword puzzles, diet supplements and a host...

Forensic experts worked Friday on the grim task of identifying dozens of bodies charred beyond recognition by the eruption of Guatemala’s Volcano of Fire, a disaster that has left at least 110 confirmed dead and nearly 200 still missing. Even as search and recovery efforts were suspended for a second day amid dangerous new volcanic flows and dwindling hopes of...

Government and other scientists are proposing a new way to define Alzheimer’s disease — basing it on biological signs, such as brain changes, rather than memory loss and other symptoms of dementia that are used today. The move is aimed at improving research, by using more objective criteria like brain scans to pick patients for studies and enroll them sooner...

Take two tablets and a selfie? Your doctor’s orders may one day include a smartphone video to make sure you took your medicine. Smartphone apps that monitor pill-taking are now available, and researchers are testing how well they work when medication matters. Experts praise the efficiency, but some say the technology raises privacy and data security concerns. Selfie medicine works...

It’s pretty extraordinary for people in their 80s and 90s to keep the same sharp memory as someone several decades younger, and now scientists are peeking into the brains of these “superagers” to uncover their secret. The work is the flip side of the disappointing hunt for new drugs to fight or prevent Alzheimer’s disease.

In perhaps an unexpected twist, historically conservative strongholds like Oklahoma and West Virginia are leading efforts to bring preschool to all. “They have in common a low-wage workforce, relatively low education levels and the desire to change that,” said Steven Barnett of the National Institute for Early Education Research. “Whatever they say, politicians in West Virginia know the future of...

Are poinsettias really poisonous? Are snowflakes really pure as the driven snow? Does feasting really put on the pounds? Sure as sugarplums, myths and misconceptions pop up every holiday season. Here’s what science says about some of them.

Last year’s influenza vaccine reduced the number of flu-related visits to the doctor by 42 percent, and the vacine reduced a specific strain of flu virus by even less, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. One important reason flu shots don’t usually work very well is because they’re grown in chicken eggs, a slow and tricky process...