Kindergarten Vaccine Exemptions Hit Record High, New CDC Data Shows

A record share of U.S. kindergartners started school last year without at least one required vaccine, new federal data show.

Exemptions rose to 4.2% during the 2025-2026 school year, up from 3.6% a year earlier, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). That amounts to roughly 155,000 children.

Most of t...

Loneliness Is A Health Crisis, But Doctors Alone Can't Cure It, Analysis Argues

Loneliness is contributing to illness, but it’s a fool’s errand to expect doctors alone to cure this particular ailment, a new study says.

Social isolation — whether it be from loss, health problems or other factors that keep people apart — has been shown to dramatically affect health, researchers reported recently ...

Constipation In Space: A New Study Provides Answers

Constipation is a well-known problem for astronauts in space, and researchers now think they know why it occurs. 

Weightlessness appears to affect the gut microbiome, the billions of healthy bacteria that reside in a person’s digestive tract, researchers reported recently in Nature Communications.

"We see changes ...

Social Media Beauty Trends May Up Teens' Exposure To Hormone-Disrupting Chemicals

That beauty tutorial on social media might influence more than what your teen buys.

It may also increase their exposure to hormone-disrupting chemicals, a new study warns.

"We often hear that social media may hurt kids' mental health and socio-emotional development," said lead author Emily Barrett of Rutgers School of Public Health i...

Waist Size Is Accurate Way To Gauge Unhealthy Excess Weight, Study Says

Are you worried that extra pounds might be harming your health?

Check the notches on your belt, a new study suggests.

Waist size might be one of the simplest and most effective measures to detect health risks associated with obesity, researchers reported recently in JAMA Network Open.

“Pay attention to the need t...

Panel Offers First Guidelines For Using E-Cigarettes To Help Smokers Quit

A panel of experts has issued the first clinical guidelines for using e-cigarettes to help adults quit smoking.

E-cigarettes should be offered alongside other smoking cessation strategies like nicotine replacement therapies or medications like varenicline and bupropion, a panel from the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco said. It...

Jalapeño Recalls Keep Growing As Salmonella Outbreak Investigation Continues

The list of foods pulled from store shelves because they contain Salmonella-linked jalapeño peppers keeps getting longer.

Two more companies announced recalls in the past week, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said in an advisory updated Aug. 14.

NatureBest Precut & Produce LLC recalled NatureBest-brand...

Music Streaming Linked To Rise In Traffic Deaths

When a blockbuster album drops, streaming numbers may not be the only thing that spikes.

A new study, published today in JAMA Network Open, finds traffic deaths also rise significantly.

Dr. Vishal Patel of Harvard Medical School and colleagues compared U.S. traffic fatalities on the release dates of 10 of the most-streamed a...

Quartz Countertop Workers Are Falling Prey To Lung Disease

There’s a rapidly growing epidemic of lung disease among craftspeople working with quartz countertops, a new study says.

More and more quartz workers are developing silicosis, an incurable and progressive lung disease caused by inhaling silica dust, researchers reported Aug. 12 in the New England Journal of Medicine Evidence...

Many Smokers Unaware Of Heart, Brain Risks Of Smoking

Many smokers still haven’t absorbed the fact that smoking and secondhand smoke cause heart attacks and strokes, despite decades of messaging around tobacco’s health risks, a new study says.

More than 90% know that smoking causes lung cancer, but fewer know about its links to other fatal conditions, researchers report in the jou...

Tylenol, Other Medications Fuel Spike In Liver Damage Cases, Poison Center Data Says

MONDAY, Aug. 17, 2026 (HealthDay News) — There’s been a nearly 400% increase in calls to U.S. poison centers related to liver injuries, mostly related to Tylenol and other medications, a new study says.

Liver injuries caused by foreign substances skyrocketed from an estimated 11 cases per million people to nearly 53 cases ...

ED Drug Might Increase Glaucoma Risk, Study Says

The erectile dysfunction drug Cialis might increase the risk of glaucoma among men taking it to treat urinary incontinence, a new study says.

Men taking tadalafil (Cialis) to treat side effects from an enlarged prostate wound up with higher odds of glaucoma and high fluid pressure in their eyes, researchers report in the British Journa...