Health

Climate change is making air quality worse in many parts of the world. Rising temperatures increase ground-level ozone and more frequent wildfires release harmful smoke and particulates into the air. These shifts, together with ongoing pollution from vehicle exhaust and industrial emissions, are leading to longer and more intense episodes of unhealthy air.

Black grief and Black death are among the most important forces in contemporary American politics. As Shatema Threadcraft argues in "The Labors of Resurrection," spectacular death—experienced publicly and violently—has given rise to global political movements, but it has also had an important gendered effect that has complicated Black women's relationship to the Black people.Shatema Threadcraft is an Associate Professor of Gender and Sexuality Studies at Vanderbilt University.

On this week's 51%, we speak with Dr. Elizabeth Boham about her new book Breast Wellness, and the various lifestyle factors that can contribute to breast cancer risk. Dr. Boham is a board-certified physician and dietitian who also practices functional medicine. In Breast Wellness, she discusses her own experience battling breast cancer in her thirties, and how a healthy lifestyle can support you before and after a diagnosis.

Healthier meatballs may soon be on the menu - and you can thank New York state apple trees for that.

Dr. Marc Berman, the pioneering creator of the field of environmental neuroscience, has written a new book, “Nature and the Mind."

Dr. Katie Takayasu is an Integrative Medicine physician, author, and speaker in the holistic health space, bridging the gap between traditional Western medicine and the evidenced-based complementary health tools of nutrition, acupuncture, meditation, botanicals and lifestyle optimization. She is an Assistant Professor of Clinical Medicine at Columbia University/New York Presbyterian and teaches the next generation of doctors about healing the whole patient mind, body and spirit. Joe Donahue spoke with her at a CulinaryArts@SPAC event on March 25, 2023. Dr. Katie Takayasu’s book is “Plants First: A Physician’s Guide to Wellness Through a Plant-Forward Diet.”

30 million Americans lack formal health insurance. Many of the rest live in constant danger of losing their coverage if they lose their jobs, give birth, get older, get healthier, get richer, or move. Even with insurance, most Americans live with the risk of enormous medical bills for their “covered” care.

From Dr. Rosanne M. Leipzig, a top doctor with more than 35 years of experience caring for older people, "Honest Aging" is an indispensable guide to the second half of life, describing what to expect physically, psychologically, functionally, and emotionally as you age.

Where does one go without health insurance, when turned away by hospitals, clinics, and doctors? "The People’s Hospital," physician Ricardo Nuila’s debut, follows the lives of five uninsured Houstonians as their struggle for survival leads them to a hospital where insurance comes second to genuine care. Each patient eventually lands at Ben Taub, the county hospital where Dr. Nuila has worked for over a decade.

Teenagers are overloaded, strapped for time, and often asked to wake far earlier than they should because of school start times. It’s no surprise they’re sleep-deprived as a result, with far-reaching consequences.