Gun-related suicides in the U.S. reached record highs for the third straight year in 2023, a new report on gun violence says.

About 27,300 gun-related deaths — 58% of all gun deaths — were suicides in 2023, according to research from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

That means an American used a gun to kil... Full Page

Fasting is a well-known hassle associated with surgery.

Patients are required to go without food or liquid for hours because of fears they’ll vomit while under anesthesia, potentially causing pneumonia if stomach contents are inhaled.

But this long-standing practice might not be necessary, a new evidence review says.

Ther... Full Page

Many kids are spending a lot of unnecessary time under observation in a hospital following a sudden allergic emergency, a new study concludes.

About 17% of kids are admitted for overnight observation following a scary allergic reaction to food, medicine or insect bites, researchers reported. 

But 95% of children treated for alle... Full Page

Noshing on veggies, grains, beans and other high-fiber foods can help your heart as well as your gut health, a new study says.

People with low-fiber diets are more likely to have narrowed arteries caused by the buildup of plaque, researchers reported recently in the journal Cardiovascular Research.

CT scans also revealed tha... Full Page

The federal Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) has been soberly and deliberately helping set U.S. vaccination policy for more than 60 years.

During that time, its members have been thoroughly vetted through a grueling nomination process, before they take up the work of protecting the nation against infectious diseases.

THURSDAY, June 26, 2025 (HealthDay News) —  The woman tapped to lead the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says she supports science, vaccines and public health programs — but she dodged key questions about recent cuts to the agency during a Senate hearing on Wednesday.

Susan Monarez, 50, told senators ... Full Page

A presentation scheduled for a U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) vaccine meeting today claimed that a vaccine preservative could cause long-term brain effects — but the study it cited doesn’t appear to exist.

The slide, posted online Tuesday, cited a 2008 paper titled "Low-level neonatal thimerosal exposure:... Full Page

Illinois has confirmed its first human case of West Nile virus this year, health officials say.

The person, who lives in southern Illinois, was hospitalized with complications from the mosquito-borne virus, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

This is the earliest West Nile virus case reported in Il... Full Page

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has stopped canceling biomedical research grants after a federal judge said hundreds of those cuts were illegal.

This decision comes just days after U.S. District Judge William Young ordered the NIH to restore more than 900 canceled grants. The ruling stemmed from a Boston case, in which researchers ... Full Page

Kids watching YouTube videos are being hammered with messages promoting junk food like candy, sugary drinks, fast food and sweet or salty snacks, a new study says.

About 75% of 6- to 8-year-olds and 36% of 3- to 5-year-olds were fed promotions for junk food while watching YouTube or YouTube Kids videos they chose on their own mobile device... Full Page

Common human typing errors can trip up artificial intelligence (AI) programs designed to aid health care workers by reviewing health records, a new MIT study says.

Typos and extra white spaces can interfere with AI’s ability to properly analyze patient records, researchers reported this week at an Association for Computing Machinery ... Full Page

Keeping tabs on COVID-19 outbreaks is as easy as tracking a city’s wastewater, a new study says.

Levels of the COVID virus, SARS-CoV-2, found in wastewater samples accurately predicted by a week the rise and fall of case counts in a community, researchers reported June 23 in the The Journal of Infectious Diseases.

&ldq... Full Page

Updated COVID-19 vaccines are keeping up with new coronavirus strains and remain effective for keeping people out of the hospital, a new study says.

The study, which examined the effectiveness of the 2023-2024 COVID vaccines against the XBB and JN.1 Omicron variant waves, found that the updated shots caused:

• A 24% lower risk ... Full Page

Violence, addiction and abuse can keep children a step behind other kids when it comes to their education, a new study says.

Children who’ve experienced only a single traumatic event are more than twice as likely to be chronically absent from school due to health problems, researchers reported in the journal Academic PediatricsFull Page