Endoscopic sleeve gastroplasty or ESG, changes the stomach’s structure without surgery. It’s one of several newer or soon-to-be approved less-invasive ways to lose weight — including gastric balloons and capsules — that have expanded obesity treatments. Nearly 40% of U.S. adults are obese, putting them at a higher risk of earlier death, heart disease, stroke,…

Ultrasound to open the blood-brain barrier in Alzheimer’s disease is the latest in the growing field of focused ultrasound. Most people think of ultrasound as a way to take fuzzy black-and-white pictures of a fetus in the womb. But with focused ultrasound, doctors use the sound waves to actively treat a condition rather than passively…

The CDC for the first time will be monitoring the nation’s tick population and the diseases the pests may be carrying. The effort comes as the number of people diagnosed with serious diseases caused by things like ticks, fleas, and mosquitoes has more than doubled over the past few decades. Ticks caused the vast majority of those diseases.

Americans may not be drinking much more than they used to — but they’re drinking more potent stuff. And that trend toward higher-alcohol drinks may be part of what’s driving an increase in alcohol-related deaths and illnesses, according to new research.

Two mothers whose sons died after using the chemical solvent methylene chloride have sued the Environmental Protection Agency for failing to ban the chemical.

As the legalized cannabis industry in the United States grows with nearly every election, consumers interested in these products have more and more options. But they might also have more questions, given the different sources of the products, the difference in federal and state laws, and the difference between those that make you high and those that…

Nearly 8 out of 10 medications Americans take have some component made abroad, largely in developing industrial powers China and India. Globalization has helped keep the costs of those drugs down, but it’s also created a supply chain that’s difficult to police.

The route to weight loss has traditionally been to cut calories. Swap that regular soda for diet, grab an apple instead of a cookie, and you’ll trim pounds, the idea goes. But instead of going for such calorie cuts, many people are now taking more intense steps to lower their average daily calorie counts.

Americans living in adjacent counties and even census tracts are finding different health outcomes — meaning that where you live can determine how long you might live. Several counties with the largest declines are clustered in eastern Kentucky –– the nucleus of the national opioid epidemic, which has decimated many of those counties.

Caring for a sick parent can be overwhelming for siblings. Often, family dynamics beneath the surface “will basically be put on steroids and brought way out in the open because this process is so stressful,” says Anne Tumlinson, who runs a Washington D.C.-based research firm on aging and who writes a blog called “Daughterhood.”