Caregiving Archive

It's not unusual for women to feel down or depressed after giving birth, but if the feelings persist or become debilitating, it's cause for concern. Many of the symptoms overlap between postpartum depression and postpartum anxiety, but some women do not respond as well to some treatments for depression, so it's important to establish the correct diagnosis.

Before the pandemic did you schedule a routine, in-person health checkup every year? Is this necessary or can you safely skip a year or consider a telehealth visit or a combination of in-person and virtual care? There are pros and cons to these options and no single solution will work for everyone.

Addiction is now understood to be a neurological disorder that results from changes to the brain's reward center caused by addictive substances. Ideally, treatment for nicotine addiction combines medication to suppress cravings with counseling to help patients reprogram their behavior.

For people who are transgender or nonbinary, being misgendered may be a daily occurrence. When this happens, people feel invalidated and unseen, and the burden can negatively affect their mental health. Making the effort to use the right names, pronouns, and honorifics when addressing a person shows respect and support for those around you and how they identify themselves.

Researchers have increasingly found links between poor mental health and higher heart disease risk. Stress, childhood trauma, and other issues may affect behavior and trigger physical changes that elevate heart risk. Taking steps to support mental health can potentially improve heart health as well.

News stories frequently tout "breakthrough" drugs, but how often does this turn out to be true? When you read or hear about the results of a study for a new medication, these steps can help you ask questions to get the full story and a better sense of what it might mean for your health.

The US healthcare system is expensive, complicated, dysfunctional — and broken. The system needs a major overhaul, and the arguments for this fall into a few broad categories: high costs, uneven access, and undue emphasis on areas of spending that do not directly benefit patients

It has been known for many years that type 2 diabetes increases a person’s risk for stroke and heart disease, and more recent studies have shown that diabetes also increases risk of dementia. But new research examined the association between when a person first is diagnosed with diabetes and their risk of developing dementia later.