There’s a version of the GLP-1 weight loss story that most patients hear, and then there’s the one orthopedic surgeons are quietly telling each other at conferences. Both are true. Neither one is complete without the other. Millions of Americans are now using semaglutide (sold as Ozempic and Wegovy) or tirzepatide (sold as Mounjaro and...

Every summer, tens of millions of Americans throw chicken on the grill without giving a second thought to how it got from the farm to the package in their fridge. The familiar smell of a roasting bird, the satisfying sizzle on a hot pan – it all feels completely routine. But somewhere between the farm...

There is a small organ sitting behind your breastbone, roughly the size of a walnut in adults, that most physicians have spent decades barely thinking about. Medical students learn that it matters intensely in childhood, training the immune system’s T cells, and then gradually fades into irrelevance as the body matures. By the time most...

There is a moment most of us recognize but rarely discuss: the slow shuffle of a parent crossing a parking lot, or the way an older friend hesitates before stepping off a curb. We tend to file it under “getting older” and move on. But a growing body of research is asking whether that ordinary...

Three people dead on a cruise ship in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. A rodent-borne virus spreading, perhaps, between human beings in close quarters. The World Health Organization is scrambling to contain a cluster of cases spanning multiple continents in a matter of days. For anyone who lived through the early, unnerving months of...

Many people reach for a bottle of herbal supplements the same way they’d reach for a glass of water. It feels like a small, harmless act. You’ve heard the names on podcasts, seen the bright labels at the pharmacy, and maybe even received a recommendation from a friend who swears by it. These are “natural”...

There are artists who go quiet when life gets hard, and there are artists who pick up a camera and talk straight to the people who love them. Dolly Parton, at 80 years old and in the middle of one of the most difficult stretches of her life, is firmly in the second category. On...

Most people think they have a decent handle on their cholesterol. They skip the egg yolks, they read labels now and then, and they try not to eat too much red meat. But a surprising number of adults with high cholesterol are genuinely confused about where the real damage is coming from. The foods doing...

Most people know stroke as something that happens suddenly, dramatically, with a face that droops and a body that stops working. But the reality is often far messier, far quieter, and far easier to explain away. A hot flash. End-of-day fatigue. Trouble swallowing some soup. These are the kinds of feelings most adults brush off...

Something remarkable happens to the body of a person with celiac disease when they eat a piece of bread. Within hours, a chain reaction begins deep in the gut – an immune assault so potent it strips the intestinal lining of the tiny finger-like projections needed to absorb nutrients. For decades, researchers have understood the...

Think about how much personal data you carry around in your head without effort. Your childhood phone number. The street address you grew up on. Your best friend’s birthday. These are pieces of trivia that exist in your memory simply because you’ve repeated them, heard them, or cared about them enough to retain them. Now...

Millions of people have used Ozempic, Wegovy, or Mounjaro to lose significant weight or manage their blood sugar. And for many, the medication has worked remarkably well. But here’s what most people never get told when they start: stopping is a completely different challenge from starting. Whether you’re thinking about coming off because of cost,...