Last Word

Central Oregon Pathology Consultants has been in business for nearly 60 years, offering molecular testing and other diagnostic services east of the Cascade Range. Beginning last winter, it operated for months without being paid, surviving on cash on hand, practice manager Julie Tracewell said. The practice is caught up in the aftermath of one of the most significant digital attacks in American...

Q&A — Health communications researcher Lucy Popova Regulatory hurdles, industry objections and legal fights have gone on for decades over traditional tobacco. What’s in store for the next generation of smoking? In 1966, the first warning label appeared on the side of cigarette packs in the United States. Stating “Caution: Cigarette Smoking May Be Hazardous to Your Health,” it was also the...

In a major shift, psychologists now view an out-of-control compulsion to work as an addiction with its own set of risk factors and consequences An accountant who fills out spreadsheets at the beach, a dog groomer who always has time for one more client, a basketball player who shoots free throws to the point of exhaustion. Every profession has its share of hard chargers and overachievers. But...

Insulin resistance links MASLD to several other metabolic diseases. Kateryna Kon/Science Photo Library via Getty Images ~~~~~ Liver disease is frighteningly common worldwide. Metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease, or MASLD, is an umbrella term describing conditions related to a buildup of fat in the liver. Formerly known as nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, this condition...

Pharmacist Mark Mikhael has lost 50 pounds over the past 12 months. He no longer has diabetes and finds himself “at my ideal body weight,” with his cholesterol below 200 for the first time in 20 years. “I feel fantastic,” he said. Like millions of others, Mikhael credits the new class of weight loss drugs. But he isn’t using brand-name Wegovy or Zepbound. Mikhael, CEO of Orlando, Florida-based...

Everyone is biased, she says; it's built into the way we experience the world. But that doesn't mean that we are slaves to our instincts. We all have a natural tendency to view the world in black and white—to the extent that it's hard not to hear "black" and immediately think "white." Fortunately, there are ways to activate the more subtle shadings in our minds. Kristin Pauker is a professor of...