Health

People everywhere need access to pads, tampons, and other feminine hygiene products, but throughout Michigan, some women and people in the transgender community are forced to go without. It’s a global phenomenon known as “period poverty.”

Christine Mwangi is founder of Be a Rose, an organization working to fight period poverty in the Grand Rapids area. She joined Stateside to talk about her organization is expanding access to resources and information related to women’s health. 

Today on Stateside, how inequality and discrimination fueled an uprising in Grand Rapids, just days after riots began in Detroit. Plus, a University of Michigan pediatrician says that saying Flint's children have been poisoned by lead does more harm than good. 

To hear individual interviews, click here or see below: 

Health officials have reported a rise in cases of Legionnaires' disease this summer both nationally and here in Michigan. 

It's been 42 years since the first outbreak of the mystery disease that eventually became known as legionellosis — and it took some serious medical detective work to figure it out.

Were the children of Flint "poisoned?”

It’s a word that gets tossed around a lot in connection to the lead exposure caused by Flint’s improperly treated drinking water.

But in an opinion piece published in Sunday’s New York Times, Dr. Hernán Gómez and co-author Kim Dietrich argue that saying Flint's children have been poisoned "unjustly stigmatizes their generation."

Today on Stateside, we talk to state senator and Republican gubernatorial candidate Patrick Colbeck about Medicaid reform, tax cuts, and controversial comments on a Democratic candidate. Plus, a former college football player who wants to change the culture around mental health among student athletes. 

To hear individual interviews, click here or see below:

If you’re out in wooded or brushy areas this summer and want to avoid Lyme disease, here’s the advice of the day: Wear long sleeves and pants, and check yourself frequently for ticks, which spread the disease.

But for a time in the late 1990s and early 2000s, people had the option to take an even more preventative measure: They could get a Lyme disease vaccine.

The opioid crisis is taking a tragic toll on families nationwide. According to the Centers for Disease Control, more than 64,000 Americans died from drug overdoses in 2016, double the amount from a decade prior.

Among Native Americans, the rate of opioid overdoses is disproportionately higher. In Michigan, opioid-related deaths are nearly twice as high among tribal members compared to other demographics.

It is the 157th birthday of someone whose life is proof that you shouldn't let the negative opinions of your professor get in the way of your ambitions.

William Mayo, half of the dynamic duo who went on to found the famed Mayo Clinic, was born this week in 1861.

Dr. Howard Markel, University of Michigan medical historian and PBS contributor, joined Stateside to tell us about his extraordinary life. 

The opioid epidemic reaches every corner of life in our state.

That includes libraries, where administrators and staff are figuring out the best response if a patron appears to be under the influence of drugs, or potentially experiencing an opioid overdose.

Feeling anxious or unsettled? You're not alone. An online poll from the American Psychiatric Association finds 39 percent of American adults reported themselves as more anxious today than they were in 2017.

There are more than 3 million Americans living with glaucoma. As Baby Boomers march into their senior years, that number is inevitably going to go up.

Now, researchers at the University of Michigan have come up with a medical implant that measures just 1 millimeter, and it's changing the way we treat glaucoma.

The opioid epidemic is causing death and havoc for families all across the United States.

Hundreds of state and local governments have filed lawsuits against the manufacturers of the prescription opioids. Among those suing are 50 cities in Michigan.

There is a big hurdle for those Michigan cities to clear, though. A 1995 state law, sponsored by then-state senator Bill Schuette, gave pharmaceutical companies protection from lawsuits filed by consumers.

The state health department is out with a new report on the deadly Legionnaires' disease outbreak in Genesee County.

The Michigan Department Health and Human Services makes an old claim linking most of the legionella cases to Flint’s McLaren hospital.

Today on Stateside, we hear how Michigan pressed the feds to come up with PFAS standards at the EPA's national summit. And, we learn hackers are mining for Bitcoin, and they might be using your computer. Also today, we learn that a mother tried to tell the state her son was mentally ill and violent, but help came too late.

We often ask listeners to reach out with stories we could share on Stateside. Here's an example of when someone did just that, writing to tell us about a Detroit-based nonprofit that can save lives.

It's called Team fEMR, a free and open source electronic medical records system for short-term medical service trips. It allows medical volunteers to record and pass along patient records to the next group of volunteers.

How do you know if nursing homes and assisted living communities are treating you or your loved ones properly, and what do you do if they’re not?

If certain health providers and legislators get their way, Michigan's mental health system could soon be privatized.

Pretty much everyone agrees that closer coordination of mental and physical health care would be a good thing for patients.

After all, the mind is connected to the body, but just how to get there has been up for fierce debate going on two years now.

It began with unbearable pain — an alarming development for a woman seven months pregnant.

And before too long, Dr. Rana Awdish was losing her grip on life.

While Awdish did not die, she did endure a long, tough recovery from the medical crisis that cost her the life of her unborn child.

And, as a physician who cared for patients in the intensive care unit, she learned profound lessons about how doctors and nurses practice medicine.