Too often we read a story that breaks our hearts: a story about the death of a promising student or the burden one person will carry for a lifetime because of causing a traffic accident due to being distracted. Sometimes survivors like Jacy Wood share their burden…

For the first time since 1993, life expectancy for a newborn baby in the U.S. declined in 2015. It is a small decline, but if this trend continues, our children and grandchildren will, on average, live shorter lives than us. There are several reasons to explain this…

Dr. Lester Breslow, a former dean of the UCLA Jonathan and Karin Fielding School of Public Health, professor emeritus of health services, and one of the leading figures in public health for seven decades, died Monday. He was 97.

Breslow was a visionary public…

Gun violence is a public health crisis. According to the American Public Health Association, last year gun violence took the lives of almost 33,000 Americans. Another 85,000 Americans sustained injuries from guns, many of them life-shattering. The price tag for gun…

Dietary supplements are big business. Last year, the U.S. market for dietary supplements was $27.6 billion, almost $10 billion more than we spend on athletic foot ware. According to a report by Grand View Research, the global market for dietary…

Can you hear me now? For too many Americans with hearing loss, the answer to this question is, "what did you say?" Hearing aids can help most Americans with hearing loss, but a shocking number do not use them. For many, the high cost of hearing aids is a major obstacle.…

The opioid crisis is getting worse, and rapidly. In 2015, 33,000 Americans died from opioids. According to the Centers for Disease Control, almost half of those deaths were from prescription opioids. The New York Times reports that in 2016, overdoses from…

Jerome Adams, the Indiana health commissioner and an anesthesiologist, is on track to become the next U.S. surgeon general. His nomination by President Donald Trump has received both Democratic and Republican support, thanks to his handling of an HIV/AIDS…

Does behavior have a significant impact on your risk of developing dementia? That's what a wealth of new data is suggesting, and the evidence, gathered from different research teams around the globe, is pointing in the same intriguing direction.

A suite of new…

The news that eight elderly residents died in a Florida nursing home when the air conditioning failed during Hurricane Irma outraged their families and shocked the public. Although the story is still developing, Gov. Rick Scott promised to "aggressively demand answers on…

Everyone has their Thanksgiving favorite. For some, it's turkey. For most, it's fixings and desserts – sweet and rich – that appeal. As we gear up for Thanksgiving, planning whether we'll serve pecan pie or pumpkin, stop for a moment to consider that too many Americans…

During an election year when voters and candidates from both parties registered outrage at high drug prices, the pharmaceutical industry's most powerful trade group boosted revenues by nearly 25 percent, paying out millions to lobbyists and politicians, according to an…

As Congress and the administration barely recover from the government shutdown and move to address challenging policy issues in a short-term funding extension, the importance of re-establishing strong, across-the-aisle relationships, which have historically allowed…

The Centers for Disease Control have announced that there are signs the flu epidemic may be peaking. But a sharp increase in the number of children’s flu deaths – and thousands of deaths due to flu each week – should remind us of the urgent need to press forward with all…

We are in the midst of a tooth decay epidemic across the U.S. The implications of that epidemic to children’s health throughout their lives are bad enough that the federal government needs to get involved to secure the future health of America’s children.

Tooth…

The number of deaths from gun violence should erase any doubt that a real epidemic is underway. In 2016, more than 38,000 Americans died — 4,000 deaths more than 2015 — and an additional 80,000 were injured in gun violence, according to the Centers for Disease…

Weeks into the COVID-19 crisis, the U.S. population needs accurate information on the virus, but we are still struggling to get it right. The way that officials, leaders, and experts talk with the public during this crisis matters because it could mean the…

XHANA THOMPSON SAYS SHE KNEW LITTLE ABOUT PUBLIC HEALTH when one of her professors at Tougaloo College informed her of an opportunity to participate in a new summer program offered by the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health in partnership with Tougaloo, a…