News

An epidemic of chronic diseases continues to grow in the United States; half the population — an estimated 129 million Americans — have lifelong health conditions that need continuous medical attention and limit certain daily activities.

Whether your favorite summer activity is taking a long hike on a trail, catching waves at the beach or having fun at a backyard barbecue, the warmer temperatures generally mean more time spent outdoors in the sun. But because more exposure to sunlight means more exposure to the sun’s ultraviolet A and B rays, you need to take steps to protect yourself from cancer-causing ultraviolet radiation.

Asthma, a chronic condition that affects the airways in the lungs, can lead to a range of symptoms that interfere with daily life. While most people are familiar with the most common symptoms of asthma such as wheezing or whistling sounds, shortness of breath, chest tightness and frequent coughing, several others are not as widely recognized.

If you’re a social media user, you may have noticed a fun new micro-trend making its way across platforms including TikTok: the art of the “hurkle-durkle.”

Although it sounds like a noise a zoo animal might make, hurkle-durkle refers to a Scottish morning ritual of lounging in bed well after your alarm has gone off. As one content creator, Kira Kosarin, says in her viral TikTok video with 3.9 million views, “Once I’ve hurkled my last durkle in a given morning, I will get up.” Countless Instagram users have since posted pictures of themselves in bed along with #hurkledurkle.

Most people know that getting enough sleep is essential for good health. But what about getting too much sleep? Is oversleeping a thing?

The answer is yes, it is possible to get too much sleep. While sleep deprivation gets all the press, oversleeping can also be a problem. The ideal amount of sleep varies from person to person, but most experts agree adults should get 7-9 hours a night.

Guidelines on how much sleep is typical for your age group:

Like clockwork, two times a year — cold and flu season and allergy season — we get a tingle in our sinuses that can only mean one thing: The snot floodgates are about to open.

In a surgical suite at Barnes-Jewish Hospital, a robotic arm snakes an ultra-thin, ultra-flexible tube through a patient’s airway. Once the tube reaches the lungs, the surgeon operating the device remotely uses a tiny camera to search the area for an abnormal growth, or nodule, that might be cancerous. Once located, a needle pierces the nodule for biopsy.