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Health officials are asking Americans to take precautions over reports that "crypto," a fecal parasite that can be transmitted via swimming pools, is on the rise. The parasite's full name is cryptosporidium. It causes cryptosporidiosis, which can leave healthy adults suffering from "profuse, watery diarrhea" for as long as three weeks. The effects can be worse for children, pregnant women and those with compromised immune systems." The number of treated recreational water-associated outbreaks caused by cryptosporidium drives the summer seasonal peak in both waterborne cryptosporidiosis outbreaks and cryptosporidiosis outbreaks overall," according to a statement from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (McLaughlin, 6/30)

Strange as it may seem, the massive stroke Ted Baxter suffered in 2005 at age 41, leaving him speechless and paralyzed on his right side, was a blessing in more ways than one. Had the clot, which started in his leg, lodged in his lungs instead of his brain, the doctors told him he would have died from a pulmonary embolism. And as difficult as it was for him to leave his high-powered professional life behind and replace it with a decade of painstaking recovery, the stroke gave his life a whole new and, in many ways, more rewarding purpose. (Brody, 7/1)

Doctors are taking a second look at the procedure known as shock therapy, saying the long-stigmatized treatment is safer than before and can be remarkably effective in patients with severe symptoms. Electroconvulsive therapy, its official name, is a brief electrical stimulation of the brain that causes about a minute-long seizure, helping to realign disrupted circuits. Although the treatment’s most serious potential side effect—memory loss—remains a meaningful risk, advances in technology and technique have reduced the severity. Experts say ECT is among the most effective treatments for serious depression when medications and talk therapy don’t work. (Reddy, 6/30)

The notion that you can smile your way to happiness is an enduring one. Back in the 1800s, Charles Darwin was among the first to come up with what modern scientists further developed into the "facial feedback hypothesis." That's the idea that smiling can make you happier and frowning can make you sadder or angrier — that changing your facial expression can intensify or even transform your mood. (Singh, 7/1)

The runny noses, coughing and headaches flared inside the students’ biology classroom at George Washington Middle School in Northern Virginia — subsiding once the children left. Bridget Baron said she watched splotches of mold colonize a wall to the right of her desk until, one day, “they all shriveled up and died.” It was a clear sign for the 13-year-old and her classmates at the Alexandria school that something was amiss. (Truong, 6/30)

Now, [Sydney] McLeod is joining lobbyists and other patients to fight to make sure other kids don’t have to go through what she’s gone through. She and her family visited several Capitol Hill offices this week as part of an advocacy day organized by the Children’s Hospital Association, an annual event created to give patients and their families a platform to raise awareness about children’s health care. ...Without many directed treatment options, many patients rely on opioids to manage episodes of pain known as pain crises, like the one McLeod experienced in New Jersey. Like her, many [sickle cell] patients experience skeptical hospital staff. In fact, at one hospital researchers found that sickle cell patients waited 60 percent longer to get pain medication than other patients who reported less severe pain. (Hailu, 7/1)

Do hand dryers pose a threat to children’s hearing? The answer may be yes, according to a new study published in the official journal of the Canadian Paediatric Society, which found that some of the devices can be as loud as a sporting event or an approaching subway train. To investigate that question, Nora Keegan, the study’s author, spent more than a year taking hundreds of measurements in public restrooms throughout Calgary, her hometown. (Chokshi, 7/1)

I would stare at my hands and think, “I’m not me.” No matter where I was, in the middle of a busy street or at my dining table at home, the condition would be the same. It was like looking at my hands through a plate of glass. Although I could feel the skin on my palms, it did not feel like my own. Half of myself would move through the day while the other half watched. I was split in two. Nothing I did would relieve the condition. I went to see an ophthalmologist, convinced I had cataracts. The verdict was near-perfect vision. (Dunne, 6/30)

Tiffany Harper, a 36-year-old attorney in Chicago, suffered in silence for five years. Expecting to get pregnant as soon as she got married, she was confused when her pregnancy tests continued to be negative. Harper knows her way around most issues. But, she said, “I didn’t know other black women who were getting (infertility) treatments — the only women who talked openly about it were white women,” Harper said. “There’s a silence about it that makes it really isolating.” (Braff, 6/29)

For postmenopausal women, being “pear-shaped” may be healthier than being “apple-shaped.” Even in women with normal body mass index, the location of fat varies. Apple-shaped women have more fat around the waist, pear-shaped more around the hips and legs. (Bakalar, 6/30)

Mushrooms remained a trendy party drug on college campuses through the ’80s and ’90s and beyond. More recently, micro-dosing, which involves taking small, precise amounts of psychedelics, has taken off among Silicon Valley techies who swear it increases their creativity. But even as niche groups have come and gone, the community of wellness users — people committed to psychedelics for physical, emotional or spiritual well-being — has remained. (Allday, 6/28)

According to new research from scientists with Emory University and the University of Rochester, teens who can describe negative emotions “in precise and nuanced ways” are more likely to stave off increased depressive symptoms after stressful life events compared to those who can’t. ...Describing emotions in such granular terms can help teens understand the meanings behind their negative emotions, including coping lessons that may help them regulate how they feel. (Pirani, 6/29)

Americans and others around the world have turned increasingly to dietary supplements to maintain or preserve their brain health. A recent study found that a quarter of adults over 50 take a supplement for brain-related health. But that same study, done by experts convened by AARP, suggests that seniors should spend their money elsewhere. The supplements don’t work. (DeKosky, 6/29)

The Harris-Stowe State University sophomore is one of a handful of biology students studying how CBD, a compound derived from cannabis plants, affects fruit flies. Most of the students had never worked in a research lab before taking the class and are learning the process from the ground up — while investigating cutting-edge scientific questions. (Farzan, 7/1)

About one-fifth of adults in the United States have experienced some form of harm due to someone else's behavior while drinking. That's according to a study published Monday in the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs, which found that in 2015, an estimated 53 million adults -- or nearly 1 in 5 -- said they had experienced at least one harm attributable to someone else's drinking in the past year. That harm ranged from property damage to physical injury. (Howard, 7/1)