Tagged: health

Voters in Portland, Oregon have decide not to add fluoride to their municipal drinking water. Seattle and most other large cities in the US added the chemical decades ago to prevent cavities in children.

A Pierce County Superior Court judge said Monday that temporarily boarding the mentally ill in hospital emergency rooms without treatment violates state and federal law. County and state attorneys have asked for the ruling to be put on hold while they appeal.

  Experts are increasingly concerned about pro-eating disorder content, which is proliferating on the Internet, including Twitter hashtags like #thinspiration and #pro-ana.

KUOW’s Ross Reynolds talks with Dr. Jillian Lampert, senior director at The Emily Program, about the role of the Internet and other factors that contribute to the problem of eating disorders, including anorexia, bulimia, and binge eating.

Medical debt is one of the leading causes of bankruptcy, according to a study published online today in the journal Health Affairs. There are plenty of anecdotes of people who have used up their savings, borrowed from friends or filed for bankruptcy following a serious illness like cancer. Now researchers at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle have documented exactly how great the risk of bankruptcy is for cancer patients.