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+Public Health | November 16, 2011

Study: Another Reason to Keep the Drinking Age at 21

By Meredith Melnick

Young women who came of age in the late 1960s and ’70s, when many states had lowered their legal drinking ages to under 21, remained at higher risk of suicide and homicide into adulthood, a new study finds.

+Safety | September 9, 2011

Why Our Public Health System Isn’t Ready for Another 9/11

By Bryan Walsh
Rescue workers at Ground Zero after 9/11 Credit: Lynn Johnson / National Geographic

As we look back over the decade since 9/11, perhaps the most pressing question is this: are we ready for another one?

+'Mind Reading' | September 2, 2011

Q&A: Why Bad Math Can Ruin Your Health

By Maia Szalavitz
courtesy Viking Adult

How do we know which numbers to trust and which health studies are sound? Healthland faces this dilemma every day, so we spoke with Charles Seife, the rare journalist with an undergraduate degree in mathematics, from Princeton no less.

+Nutrition | June 2, 2011

The USDA Ditches the Food Pyramid for a Plate

By Meredith Melnick
Courtesy of USDA

So long, pyramid. Welcome, MyPlate! First Lady Michelle Obama unveiled on Thursday the government’s new symbol for healthy eating, a colorful plate divided into the basic food groups, which will officially replace the well-recognized but perplexing food pyramid.

+Autism | May 23, 2011

Developmental Disabilities, Including Autism and ADHD, Are on the Rise

By Meredith Melnick
Victoria Yee / Photographer's Choice via Getty Imges

One in six American children now has a developmental disability — a 17% increase over the past decade, driven largely by increases in autism and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), according to government researchers.

+Environmental Health | May 3, 2011

Why Frequent Business Travelers Are Fatter and Less Healthy

By Bryan Walsh
Image Source/Corbis

Like a lot of reporters, I spare a fair amount of a time on the road, maybe eight to 10 days a month on average. I like traveling — I wouldn’t have gotten into this line of work if I didn’t — and as TIME’s environment reporter, I’ve gotten to visit places I especially like: [...]

+Photos Public Health | March 2, 2011

5 Reasons Climate Change Is Bad for Your Health

By Bryan Walsh

Climate change is what the people at the Pentagon like to call a “threat multiplier.” Warming takes existing dangers like political instability in developing nations, and amplifies them in ways that can be hard to predict — but which are rarely positive. That goes for human health too.

+Safety | February 7, 2011

NYC Bans Smoking in Parks, Beaches and Pedestrian Plazas

By Meredith Melnick
Michael Burnett/Blixah/Getty Images

New York’s City Council voted last week to pass a law extending the city’s smoking ban to parks, beaches and public plazas where pedestrians congregate like in Times Square and Union Square.

+Heart Disease | February 2, 2011

System Failure: Countries Too Slow to Identify and Treat High Cholesterol

By Catherine Mayer
Smith Collection/Getty Images

We know cardiovascular disease is a global killer but the numbers still have the power to shock. Heart and circulatory illnesses claim more than 17 million lives every year, almost half under the age of 60.

+Numbers | December 7, 2010

50.1%

Percentage of adults in the European Union who are overweight or obese, according to a report released by the European Commission and the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development on Dec. 7. The rate of obesity has more than doubled over the past 20 years in most E.U. countries [via CBC]