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The number of deaths from alcohol, drugs and suicide in 2017 hit the highest level since federal data collection started in 1999, according to an analysis of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data by two public health nonprofits. The national rate for deaths from alcohol, drugs, and suicide rose from 43.9 to 46.6 deaths per 100,000 people in 2017, a 6 percent increase, the Trust for America's Health and the Well Being Trust reported Tuesday. That was a slower increase than in the previous two years, but it was greater than the 4 percent average annual increase since 1999. (O'Donnell, 3/5)

At first, she just forgot a name or two. Then, a few meetings on her schedule. A few months later, LuPita Gutierrez-Parker found herself struggling at work to use computer software she knew intimately. "In the beginning, when I wasn't sure what was happening to me, I just figured it must be stress because I was doing a lot of work and had too much on my mind," Gutierrez-Parker said. (LaMotte, 3/5)

The executives at Alkahest have heard plenty of vampire jokes. They are, after all, turning to blood from young donors in search of an elixir for diseases associated with aging. And yes, they’re in Silicon Valley. But this five-year-old biotech company led by Genentech alums is doing serious science. It just happens to be working in a field that the Food and Drug Administration rebuked last month with a stern warning, noting that plasma infusions from young people provide “no proven clinical benefit” against diseases including Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. (Robbins, 3/4)

A tougher strain of influenza is now responsible for nearly half of all new cases, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. This new strain, called the influenza A H3N2 variant virus, could sicken more people and extend the flu season until spring. (Washington, 3/4)

It was nearly 9 p.m., hours after the makeshift clinic for newly arrived migrants near the Mexican border in Texas was supposed to close, but the patients would not stop coming: A feverish teenager with a vile-smelling wound on his foot. A man with a head injury and bright red eyes. Children with fevers, coughs and colds. Earlier in the day, a little girl named Nancy had been brought into the clinic with a cough and shaking chills. She had been vomiting, she said, and her spine hurt. An assistant took her temperature. “She’s got 104, almost 105,” she said. (Fink and Dickerson, 3/5)

The Food and Drug Administration is expected to approve a new type of drug for depression. It is esketamine, a chemical cousin of the anesthetic and party drug ketamine. (Hamilton, 3/4)

The All of Us Research Program wants to know where you live, what you eat, how long you sleep and how often you exercise. This data – added to information from 1 million other Americans – will allow researchers to explore the intersection of behavior, genetics, environment and biology. (Washington, 3/4)

Dr. Thomas Boyce, an emeritus professor of pediatrics and psychiatry at the University of California, San Francisco, has treated children who seem to be completely unflappable and unfazed by their surroundings — as well as those who are extremely sensitive to their environments. Over the years, he began to liken these two types of children to two very different flowers: dandelions and orchids. (Davies, 3/4)

House Democrats say their increasingly visible alliance with politically active physicians helped them pass legislation mandating federal background checks on all gun sales. But they so far haven’t broken through the wall of opposition in the GOP-majority Senate. Surgeons and other health workers with experience treating firearm wounds lobbied hard for the universal background check bill the House passed last week, adding a sober, public health perspective to a debate long stuck in partisan stalemate. (Roubein AND Ollstein, 3/4)

A new study finds even moderate heat sends Northerners to the hospital, suggesting that government warnings of dangerously high temperatures are coming too late in some parts of the U.S. The research shows an uptick in hospital admissions for heat problems long before alerts go out in northern, generally cooler states. And that's happening at lower temperatures than in the toastier South, where people are more accustomed to the heat. (3/4)