By Brian Resnick
Science & Health | Vox

Chronic pain often has no physical cause. Psychotherapy can reduce the suffering.
When pain settled into Blair Golson’s hands, it didn’t let go. What started off as light throbbing in one wrist 10 years ago quickly engulfed the other. The discomfort then spread…
Read at Vox

By Jenny Gold
Morning Edition, KHN

Despite the growing epidemic of Americans misusing opioids and overdosing on the job, many employers turn a blind eye to addiction within their workforce — ill-equipped or unwilling to confront an issue they are at a loss to handle. Jimmy Sullivan prepared for his job as a bricklayer the same way every morning for years…
Read at KHN

By Michael Hobbes
HuffPost

For decades, the medical community has ignored mountains of evidence to wage a cruel and futile war on fat people, poisoning public perception and ruining millions of lives. It’s time for a new paradigm. From the 16th century to the 19th, scurvy killed around 2 million sailors, more than warfare, shipwrecks and syphilis combined. It was an ugly, smelly death, too…
Read at The HuffPost

By Julie Appleby
News | KHN

Workplace wellness programs that offer employees a financial carrot for undergoing health screenings, sticking to exercise regimens or improving their cholesterol levels have long been controversial. Next year, they may become even more contentious. Two recent court rulings have cast uncertainty over what is the appropriate limit for financial incentives that employers can offer…
Read at KHN

By Malin Fezehai
World, New York Times

“I never lock my door; if people show up at night, I will wake up,” said I Gusti Mangku Sasak, a holistic Usada Bali healer. I Gusti Mangku Sasak, a 76-year-old Balinese healer, begins and ends each day by meditating: He focuses on his third eye, the tip of his nose, the tip of his tongue and his throat. He then goes to the rice fields, where he works with his son. When he returns home, around dusk, patients come from his village…
Read at NYTimes

By Daniel Morgan
Feature, The Washington Post

Doctors are surprisingly bad at reading lab results. It’s putting us all at risk.
The man was 66 when he came to the hospital with a serious skin infection. He had a fever and low blood pressure, as well as a headache. His doctors gave him a brain scan just to be safe. They found a very small bulge in one of his cranial arteries, which probably had nothing to do…
Read at The Washington Post