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Not to be a downer at the start of the new year, but might it be that all the headlines, news reports, and tweets this week about a decline in cancer death rates in 2017 were just a little too exuberant? “U.S. Cancer Death Rate Lowest In Recorded History! A lot of good news coming out of this Administration,” President Trump tweeted Thursday morning after reading the headlines. (Weintraub, 1/10)

A class of industrial chemicals linked to a range of health effects, including reproductive and developmental issues, has become a hot-button issue on Capitol Hill, on the presidential campaign trail and in state legislatures across the country. The U.S. House of Representatives approved a bill Friday that would set a deadline for the Environmental Protection Agency to implement a national drinking water standard for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, commonly known as PFAS. (Isaacs-Thomas, 1/10)

Racial discrimination has shaped so many American institutions that perhaps it should be no surprise that health care is among them. Put simply, people of color receive less care — and often worse care — than white Americans. Reasons includes lower rates of health coverage; communication barriers; and racial stereotyping based on false beliefs. Predictably, their health outcomes are worse than those of whites. (Frakt, 1/13)

In the 10th century, Persian physician Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Zakariya al-Razi wrote about patients with fever, anxiety and full-body rashes — the first clear medical descriptions of measles. But scientists have never been able to pinpoint when the virus came into being. Now, genetic sequencing of measles found in a pair of ­century-old lungs suggests the virus existed 1,500 years earlier than previously thought. (Blakemore, 1/11)

Helen Obando, a shy slip of a girl, lay curled in a hospital bed in June waiting for a bag of stem cells from her bone marrow, modified by gene therapy, to start dripping into her chest. The hope was that the treatment would cure her of sickle cell disease, an inherited blood disorder that can cause excruciating pain, organ damage and early death. (Kolata, 1/11)

Pregnancy-related deaths among American women have risen markedly over the past 30 years, despite an overall downward trend worldwide. Many of these deaths are preventable, and the risk remains three to four times higher for black women than white women at all levels of income or education. Maternal mortality—a key measure of health care quality—is typically defined as the death of a woman during or after a pregnancy from any cause related to or aggravated by the pregnancy or its management. Research reveals that more than 60 percent of these deaths are preventable. It also shows that racial disparities exist for multiple reasons, but many of those factors can be addressed if health care systems improve care quality and access and partner with other societal sectors, such as educational and community organizations. (Millett, 1/6)

If you've ever considered training for a marathon, but you're a bit intimidated by the idea of 26.2 miles, here's some motivation. A slow and steady 6-month training program designed to gradually build up endurance and mileage gave a group of novice runners, aged 21 to 69, an impressive boost to their heart health. (Aubrey, 1/12)

The number of women drinking dangerous amounts of alcohol is rising sharply in the United States. That finding was among several troubling conclusions in an analysis of death certificates published Friday by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. The analysis looked at deaths nationwide each year from 1999 through 2017 that were reported as being caused at least partly by alcohol, including acute overdose, its chronic use, or in combination with other drugs. (Richtel, 1/10)

Climate change is often framed as a scientific or technical issue. But for many, it’s an emotional one too. It can be almost unbearable to witness entire towns obliterated by wildfires and islands leveled by storms. To see photos of koala bears singed by flames and dead seabirds washing ashore by the thousands. Or to read the latest confirmation that nations are woefully underperforming on their pledges to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. (Rosen, 1/11)

Drinking tea may be good for your heart, researchers report. Chinese scientists analyzed data from a continuing health study conducted in 15 provinces since 1998. The data included a wide range of health and behavioral information on 100,109 adults, including self-reports of tea consumption. (Bakalar, 1/13)

Sleep has a public relations problem in the U.S. "We really view it as a luxury; we view people who like to sleep or get a lot of sleep as lazy, and that’s just not true," said ABC News Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Jennifer Ashton. "We, in fact, can be referred to as a sleep-deprived society." (Smith, 1/13)

If you purchased Infants’ Tylenol in the last several years, you may be entitled to part of a $6.3 million class action settlement with Johnson & Johnson. The company agreed to the settlement after plaintiffs sued claiming Infants’ Tylenol packaging was misleading, according to a news release from the plaintiffs’ attorneys. Plaintiffs said both the name and image on the packaging — a photo of a mother holding her baby — led consumers to believe the Tylenol was specifically formulated for infants even though the bottle contains the same concentration of liquid acetaminophen as Children’s Tylenol, causing consumers to overpay, the release said. (White, 1/10)

The Meys face a quandary shared by hundreds of other Massachusetts families whose loved ones suffer from ALS, a fatal disease that gradually destroys the nerve cells that control muscles: It’s hard to find workers able and willing to care for ALS patients at home, and it’s even harder to find a facility willing to take them, especially if they need devices to help them breathe. (Freyer, 1/11)

Tom Finn, a 57-year-old baby boomer, celebrated his 50th birthday with a raucous trip to Las Vegas: He and his friends went ziplining, nightclubbing and played blackjack at swim-up tables in a pool at Caesars Palace. “I was a frat boy wanting to relive my college youth,” he says. But when his wife, Debbie Finn, a 50-year-old Generation Xer, hit the milestone birthday, she marked it by hiking four to six hours a day in Portugal and Spain. “I knew I wanted to be hiking and to be outside,” she says. “I’m much more aware of my health now.” (Peterson, 1/12)