Health
If Not Obamacare, Then What?
Trump supporters in southern Pennsylvania say the Affordable Care Act has been a letdown. Here’s what they’d like instead.
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Afolabi Sotunde / Reuters The CDC’s New Quarantine Rule Could Violate Civil Liberties
The proposed regulation could be used to detain people without due process, or examine them without informed consent.
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Jacob Harris / AP The Buried Story of Male Hysteria
When men actually began to be diagnosed as “hysterics,” doctors searched for a cause. They found a chemical that may be on the rise again today.
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Benoit Tessier / Reuters How Trump Could Slow Medical Progress
Several of Trump’s cabinet nominees have been outspoken critics of using embryonic stem cells and fetal tissue in research, and now some scientists fear the worst.
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Mike Blake / Reuters Can a Pill Replace Pot for Treating Concussions?
Researchers may have found a less-contentious way to deal with the NFL’s concussion epidemic than marijuana.
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Narathip Ruksa / Getty Second Helpings: 2016's Underappreciated Science, Tech, and Health Stories
Staff picks from the past year of coverage at The Atlantic
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When We Don't Value Psychiatric Care
A long-time reader experienced the harmful consequences of low funding for mental-health facilities: I have had major…
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Andrew Kelly / Reuters How a Pandemic Might Play Out Under Trump
It’s not clear that the next administration is ready to deal with an outbreak of Ebola, flu, or other emerging diseases.
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Joy in a Mental Hospital
Two readers emphasize the brighter sides of their time in psychiatric care: My experience after checking myself…
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Agence Photographique BSIP / Getty Evidence of the Superiority of Female Doctors
New research estimates that if all physicians were female, 32,000 fewer Americans would die every year.
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Preston Gannaway / GRAIN Americans at Work: Urban Farming in West Oakland
This week’s essay focuses on inner-city agriculture programs by photographer Preston Gannaway.
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‘I Helped My Boyfriend Commit Himself’
An especially heartbreaking story from a reader: In an airport I came across your writing prompt for…
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Making Friends in the Psych Ward
A reader writes: My name is Emily, and I’m writing in regarding your series on…
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Fabrizio Bensch / Reuters No Doctor Should Work 30 Straight Hours Without Sleep
The American medical system requires dangerous feats of sleep deprivation. It doesn’t have to.
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Eric Gaillard / Reuters One Patient, Two Cancer DNA Tests, Two Different Results
What happens when cutting-edge medicine offers up conflicting answers?
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Feeling Coerced Into Psychiatric Care
This next reader had a horrible time as an inpatient, and her feelings ranged from lonely boredom to the fear…
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When Your Partner Is the Reason You Want Kids
For our next few readers, one of the most important factors in the decision to have children was the person…
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Ilana Panich Linsman / Reuters A New Study Says Abortion Doesn't Harm Mental Health
A scientist’s findings suggest there’s no evidence to support mandatory abortion counseling that warns women about the negative mental-health impacts of abortion.
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‘I Felt I Was Not Worthy of Having Survived’
Out of the blue recently, a reader emailed hello@ with a simple note: “I would really love it if The…
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David Goldman / AP Why Are So Many Americans Dying Young?
A new pair of studies show why—and where—American life expectancy has grown worse in a generation.
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Kevin Van Aelst The Sugar Wars
Science can’t prove it and the industry denies it, but Gary Taubes is convinced that the sweet stuff kills.
