Архив рубрики: Здоровье Америка

When you’re trying to comfort someone trapped in an avalanche of anxious thoughts, it’s best to prioritize “presence over advice,” says Jaime Fleischer, director of therapy at Headspace, “and connection over correction.”

Too often, people try to rush their friend into feeling better, dismiss or minimize their concerns, or offer unsolicited advice, all of which can exacerbate the person’s already heightened emotions. It’s better to focus on being calm, compassionate, and nonjudgmental, and brainstorming ways to support your anxious friend.

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We asked experts to share the worst things you can say to someone with anxiety—plus what actually helps them.

“Just calm down.”

If you want to stay on an anxious person’s good side, don’t tell them to calm down. It’s infuriating in part because it minimizes their experience and implies they have control over something that’s largely involuntary. “I’ve never met an anxious person who hasn’t tried every trick in the..

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) said on Tuesday that it will start winding down mRNA vaccine development efforts under a federal health agency focused on developing medical countermeasures to address public health emergencies.

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mRNA vaccines have been credited by public health experts with saving millions of lives during the COVID-19 pandemic, and many infectious disease experts have stressed that years of research have shown the shots are both safe and effective. But HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a prominent vaccine skeptic, claimed in a statement accompanying HHS’s announcement that “data show these vaccines fail to protect effectively against upper respiratory infections like COVID and flu.”

The move, which HHS said comes after “a comprehensive review of mRNA-related investments initiated during the COVID-19 public health emergency,” will involve canceling and de-scoping various contracts under the Biomedical Advanced ..

Nearly 60 people have become sick and two have died in an outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease in New York City. Health officials there issued an alert on July 30 warning residents of Central Harlem who have flu-like symptoms to see a health care provider immediately.

Legionnaires’ disease is a form of pneumonia caused by the bacteria Legionella. (The bacteria and the disease get their name from the first outbreak at an American Legion convention in Philadelphia in 1976.) The bacteria tend to grow in water, including cooling towers that service buildings in the summer, as well as air conditioning systems, hot tubs, and decorative water displays like fountains. About 6,000 cases are reported in the U.S. each year, and about 200 to 800 of these occur in New York City.

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The likely sources of the current outbreak are cooling towers, the New York City Health Department said on Aug. 4, which helps to control the temperature of cooling systems like refrigerati..

AI chatbots have become a ubiquitous part of life. People turn to tools like ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and Copilot not just for help with emails, work, or code, but for relationship advice, emotional support, and even friendship or love.

But for a minority of users, these conversations appear to have disturbing effects. A growing number of reports suggest that extended chatbot use may trigger or amplify psychotic symptoms in some people. The fallout can be devastating and potentially lethal. Users have linked their breakdowns to lost jobs, fractured relationships, involuntary psychiatric holds, and even arrests and jail time. At least one support group has emerged for people who say their lives began to spiral after interacting with AI.

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The phenomenon—sometimes colloquially called “ChatGPT psychosis” or “AI psychosis”—isn’t well understood. There’s no formal diagnosis, data are scarce, and no clear protocols for treatment exist. Psychiatrists and re..

AI chatbots have become a ubiquitous part of life. People turn to tools like ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and Copilot not just for help with emails, work, or code, but for relationship advice, emotional support, and even friendship or love.

But for a minority of users, these conversations appear to have disturbing effects. A growing number of reports suggest that extended chatbot use may trigger or amplify psychotic symptoms in some people. The fallout can be devastating and potentially lethal. Users have linked their breakdowns to lost jobs, fractured relationships, involuntary psychiatric holds, and even arrests and jail time. At least one support group has emerged for people who say their lives began to spiral after interacting with AI.

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The phenomenon—sometimes colloquially called “ChatGPT psychosis” or “AI psychosis”—isn’t well understood. There’s no formal diagnosis, data are scarce, and no clear protocols for treatment exist. Psychiatrists and re..

Thousands in southern China have been infected with a mosquito-borne illness in the past few weeks, in what’s considered one of the most notable outbreaks of the disease since it was first detected in the country nearly two decades ago.

The latest outbreak of chikungunya has infected more than 7,000 in the southern Chinese city of Foshan, with sporadic cases in other neighboring cities and municipalities in Guangdong province.

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So severe is the outbreak that a vice premier visited a massively affected district in the city last week and “urged efforts to curb imported cases and prevent the spread of Chikungunya both within and outside affected regions,” according to state-run news organization Xinhua. The rapid rise of infections in the province also prompted the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to issue a travel warning to caution visitors earlier this month.

Read More: Why Mosquitoes Are So Dangerous Right Now

Local officials are no..

At least eight people along the Gulf Coast have died and 22 others have been infected in what local health officials are warning is a rise in cases involving “flesh-eating” bacteria.

The Louisiana Department of Health issued an alert last week saying that there had been 17 cases of Vibrio vulnificus in the state so far this year. All of those patients were hospitalized, and four died.

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“This represents a higher number of Vibrio vulnificus cases and deaths than are typically reported,” the department said. “During the same time period over the previous 10 years, an average of seven Vibrio vulnificus cases and one death were reported each year.”

Meanwhile, health officials in Florida have reported 13 cases this year, as of July 24. Four of those cases have resulted in death.

Public health experts have generally attributed the rise in cases to climate change.

Here’s what to know about the bacteria.

What is Vibrio vulnificus?

Vibrio vulnificus is a t..

A few years back, Marie Gluesenkamp Perez started noticing the extreme brightness of car headlights in rural Washington, where she lives—and felt bombarded. “You come around a curve and get these headlights smack in your face,” she says. “They make you lose reaction time. It’s a real safety risk.”

As a U.S. Representative, she’s working to change federal regulations to limit how bright headlights can be. Rep. Gluesenkamp Perez—who is also co-founder of an auto repair shop in addition to her political service—points out that even though vehicle safety has improved in the past decade, total road fatalities have gone up. Deadly accidents occur disproportionately at night, as headlight brightness has increased.

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It’s not just headlights. Our eyes are increasingly assailed by ultra-bright billboard ads, dazzling street lights, and glowing personal screens. The resulting glare could affect long-term vision. “High-intensity lights are potentially harmful bec..

Emergency room doctors see the worst-case scenarios, the weird fluke accidents, the mysterious ailments and miraculous recoveries. They’re also no strangers to the symptoms that patients didn’t take seriously until it was almost too late.

Here, ER docs share 10 red flags that patients often ignore—but which should be addressed urgently.

Sudden confusion or personality change

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One minute, your mom is lucid and chatty—the same as every other day. The next, she can’t remember where she is or who you are, her words are garbled, and she can’t summon the name of the vegetable she just started slicing. “You might think, well, maybe she’s just tired,” says Dr. Yanina Purim-Shem-Tov, executive vice chair of emergency medicine with the Rush University System for Health at Rush University Medical Center. “But this is absolutely an emergency, and we should see these people right away.”

Sudden confusion or a personality change could indicate a stroke, an infect..

It’s a stark number: 212,000. That’s how many women ages 20 and over have left the workforce since January, according to the most recent jobs numbers released Aug. 1 by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. (By contrast, 44,000 men have entered the workforce since January.) The numbers show a reversal of recent trends that saw more women, especially women with children, finding and keeping full-time jobs.

Data show that between January and June, labor force participation rate of women ages 25 to 44 living with a child under five fell nearly three percentage points, from 69.7% to 66.9%, says Misty Lee Heggeness, an associate professor of economics and public affairs at the University of Kansas. It’s a big reversal. The participation of those women had soared in 2022, 2023, and 2024, peaking in January 2025, as flexible work policies helped women join the workforce and generate much-needed income for their families.

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Workers have seen flexibility revoked in..