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Steady improvements in American life expectancy have stalled, and more Americans are dying younger. But for companies straining under the burden of their pension obligations, the distressing trend could have a grim upside: If people don’t end up living as long as they were projected to just a few years ago, their employers ultimately won’t have to pay them as much in pension and other lifelong retirement benefits. [For more of this story, written by John Tozzi, go to ...

Lead author, psychiatrist Daniel G. Amen, MD, founder of Amen Clinics, Inc., commented, "This is a very important study to help understand gender-based brain differences. The quantifiable differences we identified between men and women are important for understanding gender-based risk for brain disorders such as Alzheimer's disease. Using functional neuroimaging tools, such as SPECT, are essential to developing precision medicine brain treatments in the future." The brains of women in the...

America is in the grip of a massive health crisis that has nothing to do with Washington. With one simple question, we could unlock the surprising underlying issues that lead to some of our greatest public health issues. In any public space, a lot of us look around and see obesity and lifestyle diseases everywhere. Whether we see an extremely obese person or an extremely underweight person, it’s easy to make a quick judgment. How did he get to be so huge? Does she not know how to eat? Our...

I want to share a video of three women who survived childhood sexual abuse. Rythea Lee brought me and Aishah Shahidah Simmons into her 19 th Episode of Advice from a Loving Bitch. What a privilege and delight to be included in Rythea's groundbreaking work. We all spoke to the same questions about healing and activism. The experience was a great one for me – to join with two sister survivors in breaking the silence. The months long process of making the video was a lesson in collaborative...

After the 2014 Vermont legislative session, Rep. George Till was picking himself up, dusting himself off and reflecting on what he called an “ALE or Adverse Legislative Experience” when his ambitious legislative vision fizzled and became a tiny bubble of hope along the path to a trauma-informed state. Policymakers in Vermont are now preparing to implement the most recent ACEs-related legislation ( No. 43, H. 508 , signed by Republican Gov. Phil Scott on May 22) and while the law calls for...

Together with the staff, they decided that handing out awards neither aligned with their beliefs nor brought out the best in their students—even for the sliver of kids who received awards. “Winners” got the message that product rather than process is what matters in education, Wejr said. “Learning should be the reward,” he added. And the far more plentiful “losers” heard that they weren’t good enough to be spotlighted on stage, or that their unique combination of attributes didn’t truly...

Despite an ongoing national movement toward banning solitary confinement for youth, which has been revealed to be counterproductive and harmful, isolation is still a common fixture in juvenile facilities, and it disproportionately affects kids of color and LGBTQ youth, according to research laid out in a Juvenile Law Center (JLC) report . JLC is a public interest law firm focused on improving the juvenile and foster care systems. The report, released Wednesday, includes information from...

The teenage years can be tough, marked with physical and emotional changes, new choices and responsibilities, and evolving relationships with the people who surround us. But a recent report shows that hormones aren’t the only thing troubling the teen years; young people are increasingly showing a general inability to identify the source of their angst and pain. These results have serious implications for those who care for kids. A review of more than 830,000 calls, text messages, emails and...

We hear the word “needy” thrown around in conversation all the time. Usually it’s brought up with contempt. Ughhh, she’s so needy. She calls all the time, and wants to know where I am. It’s ridiculous. His neediness is just too much. He wants to spend every single moment together. The details of the conversations might be different. But that doesn’t matter. The message is the same: Needy is not something we want to be. Needy is one of the worst things we can be in a relationship. In our...

With addiction such a prominent problem, experts say it's time to use words that don't carry judgment. Studies show that saying "addiction" instead of "substance abuse," and "person with substance abuse disorder" instead of "junkie," affects the treatment patients receive, as well as public policy. Michael Botticelli was director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy under former President Obama when he issued a memorandum specifying how federal agencies should refer to addiction.

When a receptionist hands out a form to fill out at a doctor’s office, the questions are usually about medical issues: What’s the visit for? Are you allergic to anything? Up to date on vaccines? But some health organizations are now asking much more general questions: Do you have trouble paying your bills? Do you feel safe at home? Do you have enough to eat? Research shows these factors can be as important to health as exercise habits or whether you get enough sleep. Research has begun to...

In response to Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg visiting the Blackfeet Nation in Montana, Dr. Cheryl Crazy Bull, president and CEO of the American Indian College Fund has a message. “In his Facebook post it was clear that the social and economic issues they [Zuckerberg and his wife] saw made a powerful impression on them,” Crazy Bull said in a blog post . “The Blackfeet have been on this land for 10,000 years, and for most of that time they followed the buffalo — for food, shelter...