Caroline Hopkins Legaspi

Another study is raising concern about the safety of the widely used sugar alcohol sweetener erythritol, a low-calorie sugar substitute found in “keto-friendly” foods, baked goods and candies. Researchers from the Cleveland Clinic compared erythritol…

There’s mounting evidence that artificial sweeteners may be linked to heart disease and other possible health risks. Scientists say the findings are far from definitive, however, with some leading researchers calling for better-designed clinical…

Every morning for a year and a half, Logan Whitehead, 24, rubbed a clear gel on his shoulders, waited for it to dry, then went about his day as usual. “It was basically like a hand sanitizer solution,” said Whitehead, who lives in Torrance,…

Every morning, Jeni Gutke swallows 12 pills. In the evening, she takes 15 more, then another before bed. She also takes an injectable medication once weekly, and two other medications as needed. Gutke, of Joliet, Illinois, has polycystic ovary…

The U.S. government has sold the Federal Helium Reserve, a massive underground stockpile based in Texas, that supplies up to 30% of the country’s helium. NBC’s Caroline Hopkins spoke with KXAN about why the health community is concerned and how…

MRI machines need thousands of liters of liquid helium to function. Health care workers say they can’t afford any disruptions to the helium supply chain. The Federal Helium Reserve includes over 400 miles of pipeline — stretching from Amarillo,…

Jennifer Benton’s daughter was just 5 years old when her kindergarten teacher pointed out something unusual: the young girl was developing breasts. “It was really alarming,” said Benton, 39. “She may have been a tall little girl, but she was still a…

Almost a year into the nationwide shortage of ADHD medications, federal agencies and drugmakers are blaming each other for empty pharmacy shelves. The Drug Enforcement Administration, which sets limits on the types of amphetamines that pharmaceutical…

It took 12 years for Allison Tuckman to get an accurate diagnosis of polycystic ovary syndrome, then another 10 to find a treatment to help keep her most severe symptoms in check. Now that she’s finally found a drug that works, the 44-year-old from…

Why some people recover from Lyme disease, while others experience months, years or even decades of chronic symptoms has long puzzled doctors. New research offers some clues to an immune system marker in the blood that is elevated among people with…

Teen eating disorders have never been this rampant — or this severe. Hospitalizations for eating disorders spiked during the pandemic, doubling among adolescent girls, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. While most teens have…

Late last year, one of Dr. Vance Fowler’s patients — a man in his 60s who’d returned to North Carolina from visiting his family in Nepal — died of a bacterial infection. He’d been treated at a top U.S. hospital with access to the strongest…

Runners often hear the warning “Keep pounding the pavement and you’ll destroy your knees.” A new study found that runners were not more likely to develop hip or knee osteoarthritis the longer, faster and more frequently they ran. Osteoarthritis, a…

As the nationwide Adderall shortage enters its fifth month, people who rely on medication to help manage attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder are finding few, if any, available alternatives. There’s no sign of relief yet, and no easy solution to…

A growing number of adult women in the United States have been diagnosed with and are seeking treatment for ADHD, a development experts attribute to a long history of psychologists, parents and teachers overlooking symptoms in young girls. The…

On March 3, 2020, the head of the World Health Organization began a daily press briefing exhorting countries around the world to do more to stop the spread of Covid. Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus’ plea had become a common refrain in the…

A global helium shortage has doctors worried about one of the natural gas’s most essential, and perhaps unexpected, uses: MRIs. Strange as it sounds, the lighter-than-air element that gives balloons their buoyancy also powers the vital medical…

Doctors are urging more research into a little-known sexually transmitted infection that may be more common than thought. Scientists have known for decades about mycoplasma genitalium, or M. genitalium or M. gen., a sexually-transmitted infection…

The overturn of Roe v. Wade has put a spotlight on the availability of affordable, highly effective birth control in the U.S. Many younger women, however, don’t want their mothers’ contraceptives. Even before the Supreme Court decision, more wom

Dr. Nancy Klimas has spent the better part of her three-decade research career trying to find a cure for Gulf War illness. Military veterans with the unusual, unexplained illness — which affects some 300,000 U.S. service members who fought in the…