Manage your account King Charles III was briefly hospitalized Thursday amid ongoing medical treatment for cancer, according to Buckingham Palace. Charles' hospitalization was a result of "temporary side effects" he experienced after undergoing what the palace described as "scheduled and ongoing medical treatment for cancer" on Thursday morning. After a "short period of observation" in the hospital, the 76-year-old king returned to Clarence House, his royal residence in London, according to the palace. As a result of the hospitalization, Charles's engagements on Thursday afternoon and Friday were postponed. "His Majesty would like to send his apologies to all those who may be inconvenienced or disappointed as a result," the palace said in a statement Thursday evening. King Charles visits cancer center in 1st return to public duties since cancer diagnosis Charles's cancer diagnosis was announced by Buckingham Palace in February 2024, shortly after he underwent treatment for benign prostate enlargement. In announcing Charles' diagnosis, the palace did not specify the type of cancer, the stage of cancer or the type of treatment he is undergoing or planning to undergo. After spending several weeks largely out of the public eye, Charles visited a cancer treatment center on April 30, 2024, in his first public royal engagement since his own diagnosis. King Charles III seen in new photos after cancer diagnosis Since then, Charles has resumed a more regular schedule of public duties. On Wednesday, he visited an exhibition at Somerset House in London and later that evening attended a reception at Buckingham Palace. King Charles briefly hospitalized amid cancer treatment, Buckingham Palace says originally appeared on goodmorningamerica.com

Dartmouth researchers conducted the first clinical trial of a therapy chatbot powered by generative AI and found that the software resulted in significant improvements in participants' symptoms, according to results published March 27 in the New England Journal of Medicine AI. People in the study also reported they could trust and communicate with the system, known as Therabot, to a degree that is comparable to working with a mental-health professional. The trial consisted of 106 people from across the United States diagnosed with major depressive disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, or an eating disorder. Participants interacted with Therabot through a smartphone app by typing out responses to prompts about how they were feeling or initiating conversations when they needed to talk. People diagnosed with depression experienced a 51% average reduction in symptoms, leading to clinically significant improvements in mood and overall well-being, the researchers report. Participants with generalized anxiety reported an average reduction in symptoms of 31%, with many shifting from moderate to mild anxiety, or from mild anxiety to below the clinical threshold for diagnosis. Among those at risk for eating disorders-who are traditionally more challenging to treat-Therabot users showed a 19% average reduction in concerns about body image and weight, which significantly outpaced a control group that also was part of the trial. The researchers conclude that while AI-powered therapy is still in critical need of clinician oversight, it has the potential to provide real-time support for the many people who lack regular or immediate access to a mental-health professional. The improvements in symptoms we observed were comparable to what is reported for traditional outpatient therapy, suggesting this AI-assisted approach may offer clinically meaningful benefits." Nicholas Jacobson, study's senior author and associate professor of biomedical data science and psychiatry in Dartmouth's Geisel School of Medicine "There is no replacement for in-person care, but there are nowhere near enough providers to go around," Jacobson says. For every available provider in the United States, there's an average of 1,600 patients with depression or anxiety alone, he says. "We would like to see generative AI help provide mental health support to the huge number of people outside the in-person care system. I see the potential for person-to-person and software-based therapy to work together," says Jacobson, who is the director of the treatment development and evaluation core at Dartmouth's Center for Technology and Behavioral Health. Michael Heinz, the study's first author and an assistant professor of psychiatry at Dartmouth, says the trial results also underscore the critical work ahead before generative AI can be used to treat people safely and effectively. "While these results are very promising, no generative AI agent is ready to operate fully autonomously in mental health where there is a very wide range of high-risk scenarios it might encounter," says Heinz, who also is an attending psychiatrist at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon, N.H. "We still need to better understand and quantify the risks associated with generative AI used in mental health contexts." Therabot has been in development in Jacobson's AI and Mental Health Lab at Dartmouth since 2019. The process included continuous consultation with psychologists and psychiatrists affiliated with Dartmouth and Dartmouth Health. When people initiate a conversation with the app, Therabot answers with natural, open-ended text dialog based on an original training set the researchers developed from current, evidence-based best practices for psychotherapy and cognitive behavioral therapy, Heinz says. For example, if a person with anxiety tells Therabot they have been feeling very nervous and overwhelmed lately, it might respond, "Let's take a step back and ask why you feel that way." If Therabot detects high-risk content such as suicidal ideation during a conversation with a user, it will provide a prompt to call 911, or contact a suicide prevention or crisis hotline, with the press of an onscreen button. The clinical trial provided the participants randomly selected to use Therabot with four weeks of unlimited access. The researchers also tracked the control group of 104 people with the same diagnosed conditions who had no access to Therabot. Almost 75% of the Therabot group were not under pharmaceutical or other therapeutic treatment at the time. The app asked about people's well-being, personalizing its questions and responses based on what it learned during its conversations with participants. The researchers evaluated conversations to ensure that the software was responding within best therapeutic practices. After four weeks, the researchers gauged a person's progress through standardized questionnaires clinicians use to detect and monitor each condition. The team did a second assessment after another four weeks when participants could initiate conversations with Therabot but no longer received prompts. After eight weeks, all participants using Therabot experienced a marked reduction in symptoms that exceed what clinicians consider statistically significant, Jacobson says. These differences represent robust, real-world improvements that patients would likely notice in their daily lives, Jacobson says. Users engaged with Therabot for an average of six hours throughout the trial, or the equivalent of about eight therapy sessions, he says. "Our results are comparable to what we would see for people with access to gold-standard cognitive therapy with outpatient providers," Jacobson says. "We're talking about potentially giving people the equivalent of the best treatment you can get in the care system over shorter periods of time." Critically, people reported a degree of "therapeutic alliance" in line with what patients report for in-person providers, the study found. Therapeutic alliance relates to the level of trust and collaboration between a patient and their caregiver and is considered essential to successful therapy. One indication of this bond is that people not only provided detailed responses to Therabot's prompts-they frequently initiated conversations, Jacobson says. Interactions with the software also showed upticks at times associated with unwellness, such as in the middle of the night. "We did not expect that people would almost treat the software like a friend. It says to me that they were actually forming relationships with Therabot," Jacobson says. "My sense is that people also felt comfortable talking to a bot because it won't judge them." The Therabot trial shows that generative AI has the potential to increase a patient's engagement and, importantly, continued use of the software, Heinz says. "Therabot is not limited to an office and can go anywhere a patient goes. It was available around the clock for challenges that arose in daily life and could walk users through strategies to handle them in real time," Heinz says. "But the feature that allows AI to be so effective is also what confers its risk-patients can say anything to it, and it can say anything back." The development and clinical testing of these systems need to have rigorous benchmarks for safety, efficacy, and the tone of engagement, and need to include the close supervision and involvement of mental-health experts, Heinz says. "This trial brought into focus that the study team has to be equipped to intervene-possibly right away-if a patient expresses an acute safety concern such as suicidal ideation, or if the software responds in a way that is not in line with best practices," he says. "Thankfully, we did not see this often with Therabot, but that is always a risk with generative AI, and our study team was ready." In evaluations of earlier versions of Therabot more than two years ago, more than 90% of responses were consistent with therapeutic best-practices, Jacobson says. That gave the team the confidence to move forward with the clinical trial. "There are a lot of folks rushing into this space since the release of ChatGPT, and it's easy to put out a proof of concept that looks great at first glance, but the safety and efficacy is not well established," Jacobson says. "This is one of those cases where diligent oversight is needed, and providing that really sets us apart in this space." Dartmouth College Heinz, M. V., et al. (2025). Randomized Trial of a Generative AI Chatbot for Mental Health Treatment. NEJM AI. doi.org/10.1056/aioa2400802. Posted in: Device / Technology News | Medical Condition News Cancel reply to comment Conversations on AFM: Exploring the nanomechanics of living cells In this interview Prof. Dr. Kristina Kusche-Vihrog speaks about the nanomechanics of living cells and their implications for cardiovascular disease. Olivier Negre In this interview, News Medical speaks with Olivier Negre, Chief Scientific Officer at Smart Immune, about how immunotherapy is being revolutionized. Angeline Lim Molecular Devices' CellXpress AI streamlines cell culture processes, reducing human error and improving efficiency in drug discovery with advanced automation. News-Medical.Net provides this medical information service in accordance with these terms and conditions. Please note that medical information found on this website is designed to support, not to replace the relationship between patient and physician/doctor and the medical advice they may provide. Last Updated: Thursday 27 Mar 2025 News-Medical.net - An AZoNetwork Site Owned and operated by AZoNetwork, © 2000-2025 Your AI Powered Scientific Assistant Hi, I'm Azthena, you can trust me to find commercial scientific answers from News-Medical.net. To start a conversation, please log into your AZoProfile account first, or create a new account. Registered members can chat with Azthena, request quotations, download pdf's, brochures and subscribe to our related newsletter content. A few things you need to know before we start. Please read and accept to continue. Please check the box above to proceed. Great. Ask your question. Azthena may occasionally provide inaccurate responses. Read the full terms. Terms While we only use edited and approved content for Azthena answers, it may on occasions provide incorrect responses. Please confirm any data provided with the related suppliers or authors. We do not provide medical advice, if you search for medical information you must always consult a medical professional before acting on any information provided. Your questions, but not your email details will be shared with OpenAI and retained for 30 days in accordance with their privacy principles. Please do not ask questions that use sensitive or confidential information. Read the full Terms & Conditions. Provide Feedback

Manage your account The Department of Health and Human Services will be firing 10,000 employees—nearly a quarter of the workforce. The Wall Street Journal has reported that Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is cutting employees in the disease outbreak, drug approval, and insurance departments. These firings, combined with the 10,000 employees who've already quit, leaves the critical public health department with just 62,000 employees. The department will also lose half of its regional offices. “We are realigning the organization with its core mission and our new priorities in reversing the chronic disease epidemic,” Kennedy said. According to the Journal, the cuts will include: - 3,500 full-time employees from the Food and Drug Administration—or about 19% of the agency's workforce. - 2,400 employees from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention—or about 18% of its workforce. - 1,200 employees from the National Institutes of Health—or about 6% of its workforce - 300 employees from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services—or about 4% of its workforce. HHS has been a target for Elon Musk and DOGE since Trump reentered the Oval Office, and has received much ire from the right for its Covid-19 policies. This story has been updated.

Recognizing the importance of nutrition in a patient's recovery, NYU Langone Health has integrated meal delivery into patients' discharge planning at its Manhattan and Brooklyn campuses through a self-funded partnership with God's Love We Deliver, providing customizable meal deliveries based on a patient's dietary needs and preferences to those in need at home after they leave the hospital. Bridging hospital care and home recovery through nutrition is the driving mantra behind the partnership between NYU Langone Health and God's Love We Deliver, the only medically tailored meal provider in the New York metropolitan area. For Nancy Bourges, a Coney Island resident caring for her daughter following a transplant at NYU Langone, the meal delivery service came as an unexpected blessing. "She gets happy when they come," Bourges said. "She takes out each item and organizes them. When we don't have certain things at the house, she uses the bread they bring, puts it in the toaster, and makes peanut butter and jelly." The partnership, launched in February 2024, strengthens how patients transition from hospital to home. Instead of being handed a list of community resources and hoping for the best, eligible patients connect with God's Love We Deliver before even leaving the hospital. Kwan Hong Kim, a social worker at NYU Langone, understands the real-world challenges awaiting patients after discharge, such as managing medications and securing basic nutrition—factors that can make the difference between recovery and readmission. Being in a hospital is not exactly the most stress-free setting. Some families are very anxious. They have a loved one in the hospital. They're dealing with all these other things going on. Coordinating a meal plan is an added component of patient care involving multiple moving parts that social work is responsible for." Kwan Hong Kim, social worker at NYU Langone "What I like about how the program is set up is that the providers from God's Love have access to relevant information about the participating patient's medical conditions and nutritional needs," Kim added. This seamless integration ensures patients receive nutritional support precisely tailored to their medical conditions. For Allyson Schiff, director of business development at God's Love We Deliver, this represents a shift in healthcare delivery. "We are constantly demonstrating how medically tailored meals are part of a healthcare delivery system in a world that tends to think of healthcare as doctors' offices, prescriptions, and surgeries," Schiff explained. "We build flavor from things like garlic and ginger and carrots and onions. All our meals are low sodium and heart healthy. That's the foundation of a medically tailored meal." The reliability and compassion of the delivery service have made a significant impact on families like Bourges's. "The delivery people are very polite with my daughter, very friendly," she said. "It's usually the same guy, and he knows her already. He's so nice and patient with her because she talks to him. I'll say, 'She's got to let you go,' and he'll say, 'No, no, it's all right.'" This approach reflects mounting evidence that factors outside hospital walls — what healthcare professionals call "health-related social needs"—account for over 80 percent of overall health outcomes. Additionally, research has shown that medically tailored meals can reduce the rate of hospital readmission by up to 13 percent. "Our goal is to facilitate the transition from the hospital back into their community or home," said Jasmine Bar, MPH, administrative fellow of hospital operations, NYU Langone. "The program and its infrastructure give us insight into the challenges and opportunities that exist for patients and families to get connected to social care resources." The partnership's structure reveals patterns in how patients engage with support services. "When we rolled it out, the idea was if we offer people free meals, the majority of them would take the resource because it's free. But what we're seeing is there are multiple phases at which they might drop off," Bar said. "For patients who don't enroll in the program or don't want to accept the meals, we have a structure in place for social workers to document why, which can then inform additional interventions." Bourges initially was hesitant about the service when it was first offered. "I felt that maybe, being that my daughter is a picky eater, I don't want to waste food," she said. "I don't want to take away from somebody that could use it, or it could help them. But when they did deliver it, there was stuff that she did like, and oh my God, she was so happy." By documenting these experiences, the team can better tailor both their outreach and the meals themselves to meet patient needs. This attention to patient experience comes naturally to Kim, whose path to social work emerged through personal experience as a caregiver for a parent. "The social workers made me feel like a human being and not just an MRN," Kim said, referring to patients' medical record numbers. That experience now shapes Kim's dedicated approach to patient care, building trusted bonds with patients and families that open the doors for valuable client feedback. "Some of our patients are used to being the primary cook in their household, so having someone else prepare the meals is a huge logistical and financial weight off of them," Kim said. While early data shows promise, the team maintains rigorous standards. "Our standards for data evaluation are really high," said Bar. "There are many confounding factors as to why someone might be readmitted to a hospital shortly after they've been discharged. However, we can see the value the program is currently bringing to people's discharge experience and the learnings we will be able to integrate for better care." For many patients, the transition home is the most difficult part of their recovery. Through a careful approach to both patient care and program evaluation, hospitals can reshape what comprehensive healthcare looks like. NYU Langone Posted in: Healthcare News Cancel reply to comment Conversations on AFM: Exploring the nanomechanics of living cells In this interview Prof. Dr. Kristina Kusche-Vihrog speaks about the nanomechanics of living cells and their implications for cardiovascular disease. Olivier Negre In this interview, News Medical speaks with Olivier Negre, Chief Scientific Officer at Smart Immune, about how immunotherapy is being revolutionized. Angeline Lim Molecular Devices' CellXpress AI streamlines cell culture processes, reducing human error and improving efficiency in drug discovery with advanced automation. News-Medical.Net provides this medical information service in accordance with these terms and conditions. Please note that medical information found on this website is designed to support, not to replace the relationship between patient and physician/doctor and the medical advice they may provide. Last Updated: Thursday 27 Mar 2025 News-Medical.net - An AZoNetwork Site Owned and operated by AZoNetwork, © 2000-2025 Your AI Powered Scientific Assistant Hi, I'm Azthena, you can trust me to find commercial scientific answers from News-Medical.net. To start a conversation, please log into your AZoProfile account first, or create a new account. Registered members can chat with Azthena, request quotations, download pdf's, brochures and subscribe to our related newsletter content. A few things you need to know before we start. Please read and accept to continue. Please check the box above to proceed. Great. Ask your question. Azthena may occasionally provide inaccurate responses. Read the full terms. Terms While we only use edited and approved content for Azthena answers, it may on occasions provide incorrect responses. Please confirm any data provided with the related suppliers or authors. We do not provide medical advice, if you search for medical information you must always consult a medical professional before acting on any information provided. Your questions, but not your email details will be shared with OpenAI and retained for 30 days in accordance with their privacy principles. Please do not ask questions that use sensitive or confidential information. Read the full Terms & Conditions. Provide Feedback

In the wooded highlands of northern Arkansas, where small towns have few dentists, water officials who serve more than 20,000 people have for more than a decade openly defied state law by refusing to add fluoride to the drinking water. For its refusal, the Ozark Mountain Regional Public Water Authority has received hundreds of state fines amounting to about $130,000, which are stuffed in a cardboard box and left unpaid, said Andy Anderson, who is opposed to fluoridation and has led the water system for nearly two decades. This Ozark region is among hundreds of rural American communities that face a one-two punch to oral health: a dire shortage of dentists and a lack of fluoridated drinking water, which is widely viewed among dentists as one of the most effective tools to prevent tooth decay. But as the anti-fluoride movement builds unprecedented momentum, it may turn out that the Ozarks were not behind the times after all. "We will eventually win," Anderson said. "We will be vindicated." Fluoride, a naturally occurring mineral, keeps teeth strong when added to drinking water, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the American Dental Association. But the anti-fluoride movement has been energized since a government report last summer found a possible link between lower IQ in children and consuming amounts of fluoride that are higher than what is recommended in American drinking water. Dozens of communities have decided to stop fluoridating in recent months, and state officials in Florida and Texas have urged their water systems to do the same. Utah is poised to become the first state to ban it in tap water. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has long espoused fringe health theories, has called fluoride an "industrial waste" and "dangerous neurotoxin" and said the Trump administration will recommend it be removed from all public drinking water. Separately, Republican efforts to extend tax cuts and shrink federal spending may squeeze Medicaid, which could deepen existing shortages of dentists in rural areas where many residents depend on the federal insurance program for whatever dental care they can find. Dental experts warn that the simultaneous erosion of Medicaid and fluoridation could exacerbate a crisis of rural oral health and reverse decades of progress against tooth decay, particularly for children and those who rarely see a dentist. "If you have folks with little access to professional care and no access to water fluoridation," said Steven Levy, a dentist and leading fluoride researcher at the University of Iowa, "then they are missing two of the big pillars of how to keep healthy for a lifetime." Many already are. Nearly 25 million Americans live in areas without enough dentists — more than twice as many as prior estimates by the federal government — according to a recent study from Harvard University that measured U.S. "dental deserts" with more depth and precision than before. Hawazin Elani, a Harvard dentist and epidemiologist who co-authored the study, found that many shortage areas are rural and poor, and depend heavily on Medicaid. But many dentists do not accept Medicaid because payments can be low, Elani said. The ADA has estimated that only a third of dentists treat patients on Medicaid. "I suspect this situation is much worse for Medicaid beneficiaries," Elani said. "If you have Medicaid and your nearest dentists do not accept it, then you will likely have to go to the third, or fourth, or the fifth." The Harvard study identified over 780 counties where more than half of the residents live in a shortage area. Of those counties, at least 230 also have mostly or completely unfluoridated public drinking water, according to a KFF analysis of fluoride data published by the CDC. That means people in these areas who can't find a dentist also do not get protection for their teeth from their tap water. The KFF Health News analysis does not cover the entire nation because it does not include private wells and 13 states do not submit fluoride data to the CDC. But among those that do, most counties with a shortage of dentists and unfluoridated water are in the south-central U.S., in a cluster that stretches from Texas to the Florida Panhandle and up into Kansas, Missouri, and Oklahoma. In the center of that cluster is the Ozark Mountain Regional Public Water Authority, which serves the Arkansas counties of Boone, Marion, Newton, and Searcy. It has refused to add fluoride ever since Arkansas enacted a statewide mandate in 2011. After weekly fines began in 2016, the water system unsuccessfully challenged the fluoride mandate in state court, then lost again on appeal. Anderson, who has chaired the water system's board since 2007, said he would like to challenge the fluoride mandate in court again and would argue the case himself if necessary. In a phone interview, Anderson said he believes that fluoride can hamper the brain and body to the point of making people "get fat and lazy." "So if you go out in the streets these days, walk down the streets, you'll see lots of fat people wearing their pajamas out in public," he said. Nearby in the tiny, no-stoplight community of Leslie, Arkansas, which gets water from the Ozark system, the only dentist in town operates out of a one-man clinic tucked in the back of an antique store. Hand-painted lettering on the store window advertises a "pretty good dentist." James Flanagin, a third-generation dentist who opened this clinic three years ago, said he was drawn to Leslie by the quaint charms and friendly smiles of small-town life. But those same smiles also reveal the unmistakable consequences of refusing to fluoridate, he said. "There is no doubt that there is more dental decay here than there would otherwise be," he said. "You are going to have more decay if your water is not fluoridated. That's just a fact." Fluoride was first added to public water in an American city in 1945 and spread to half of the U.S. population by 1980, according to the CDC. Because of "the dramatic decline" in cavities that followed, in 1999 the CDC dubbed fluoridation as one of 10 great public health achievements of the 20th century. Currently more than 70% of the U.S. population on public water systems get fluoridated water, with a recommended concentration of 0.7 milligrams per liter, or about three drops in a 55-gallon barrel, according to the CDC. Fluoride is also present in modern toothpaste, mouthwash, dental varnish, and some food and drinks — like raisins, potatoes, oatmeal, coffee, and black tea. But several dental experts said these products do not reliably reach as many low-income families as drinking water, which has an additional benefit over toothpaste of strengthening children's teeth from within as they grow. Two recent polls have found that the largest share of Americans support fluoridation, but a sizable minority does not. Polls from Axios/Ipsos and AP-NORC found that 48% and 40% of respondents wanted to keep fluoride in public water supplies, while 29% and 26% supported its removal. Chelsea Fosse, an expert on oral health policy at the American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry, said she worried that misguided fears of fluoride would cause many people to stop using fluoridated toothpaste and varnish just as Medicaid cuts made it harder to see a dentist. The combination, she said, could be "devastating." "It will be visibly apparent what this does to the prevalence of tooth decay," Fosse said. "If we get rid of water fluoridation, if we make Medicaid cuts, and if we don't support providers in locating and serving the highest-need populations, I truly don't know what we will do." Multiple peer-reviewed studies have shown what ending water fluoridation could look like. In the past few years, studies of cities in Alaska and Canada have shown that communities that stopped fluoridation saw significant increases in children's cavities when compared with similar cities that did not. A 2024 study from Israel reported a "two-fold increase" in dental treatments for kids within five years after the country stopped fluoridating in 2014. Despite the benefits of fluoridation, it has been fiercely opposed by some since its inception, said Catherine Hayes, a Harvard dental expert who advises the American Dental Association on fluoride and has studied its use for three decades. Fluoridation was initially smeared as a communist plot against America, Hayes said, and then later fears arose of possible links to cancer, which were refuted through extensive scientific research. In the '80s, hysteria fueled fears of fluoride causing AIDS, which was "ludicrous," Hayes said. More recently, the anti-fluoride movement seized on international research that suggests high levels of fluoride can hinder children's brain development and has been boosted by high-profile legal and political victories. Last August, a hotly debated report from the National Institutes of Health's National Toxicology Program found "with moderate confidence" that exposure to levels of fluoride that are higher than what is present in American drinking water is associated with lower IQ in children. The report was based on an analysis of 74 studies conducted in other countries, most of which were considered "low quality" and involved exposure of at least 1.5 milligrams of fluoride per liter of water — or more than twice the U.S. recommendation — according to the program. The following month, in a long-simmering lawsuit filed by fluoride opponents, a federal judge in California said the possible link between fluoride and lowered IQ was too risky to ignore, then ordered the federal Environmental Protection Agency to take nonspecified steps to lower that risk. The EPA started to appeal this ruling in the final days of the Biden administration, but the Trump administration could reverse course. The EPA and Department of Justice declined to comment. The White House and Department of Health and Human Services did not respond to questions about fluoride. Despite the National Toxicology Program's report, Hayes said, no association has been shown to date between lowered IQ and the amount of fluoride actually present in most Americans' water. The court ruling may prompt additional research conducted in the U.S., Hayes said, which she hoped would finally put the campaign against fluoride to rest. "It's one of the great mysteries of my career, what sustains it," Hayes said. "What concerns me is that there's some belief amongst some members of the public — and some of our policymakers — that there is some truth to this." Not all experts were so dismissive of the toxicology program's report. Bruce Lanphear, a children's health researcher at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia, published an editorial in January that said the findings should prompt health organizations "to reassess the risks and benefits of fluoride, particularly for pregnant women and infants." "The people who are proposing fluoridation need to now prove it's safe," Lanphear told NPR in January. “What the study does, or should do, is shift the burden of proof." At least 14 states so far this year have considered or are considering bills that would lift fluoride mandates or prohibit fluoride in drinking water altogether. In February, Utah lawmakers passed the nation's first ban, which Republican Gov. Spencer Cox told ABC4 Utah he intends to sign. And both Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo and Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller have called for their respective states to end fluoridation. "I don't want Big Brother telling me what to do," Miller told The Dallas Morning News in February. "Government has forced this on us for too long." Additionally, dozens of cities and counties have decided to stop fluoridation in the past six months — including at least 16 communities in Florida with a combined population of more than 1.6 million — according to news reports and the Fluoride Action Network, an anti-fluoride group. Stuart Cooper, executive director of that group, said the movement's unprecedented momentum would be further supercharged if Kennedy and the Trump administration follow through on a recommendation against fluoride. Cooper predicted that most U.S. communities will have stopped fluoridating within years. "I think what you are seeing in Florida, where every community is falling like dominoes, is going to now happen in the United States," he said. "I think we're seeing the absolute end of it." If Cooper's prediction is right, Hayes said, widespread decay would be visible within years. Kids' teeth will rot in their mouths, she said, even though "we know how to completely prevent it." "It's unnecessary pain and suffering," Hayes said. "If you go into any children's hospital across this country, you'll see a waiting list of kids to get into the operating room to get their teeth fixed because they have severe decay because they haven't had access to either fluoridated water or other types of fluoride. Unfortunately, that's just going to get worse." This KFF Health News article identifies communities with an elevated risk of tooth decay by combining data on areas with dentist shortages and unfluoridated drinking water. Our analysis merged Harvard University research on dentist-shortage areas with large datasets on public water systems published by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The Harvard research determined that nearly 25 million Americans live in dentist-shortage areas that span much of rural America. The CDC data details the populations served and fluoridation status of more than 38,000 public water systems in 37 states. We classified counties as having elevated risk of tooth decay if they met three criteria: More than half of the residents live in a dentist-shortage area identified by Harvard. The number of people receiving unfluoridated water from water systems based in that county amounts to more than half of the county's population. The number of people receiving unfluoridated water from water systems based in that county amounts to at least half of the total population of all water systems based in that county, even if those systems reached beyond the county borders, which many do. Our analysis identified approximately 230 counties that meet these criteria, meaning they have both a dire shortage of dentists and largely unfluoridated drinking water. But this total is certainly an undercount. Thirteen states do not report water system data to the CDC, and the agency data does not include private wells, most of which are unfluoridated. This article was reprinted from khn.org, a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF - the independent source for health policy research, polling, and journalism. KFF Health News Posted in: Healthcare News Cancel reply to comment Conversations on AFM: Exploring the nanomechanics of living cells In this interview Prof. Dr. Kristina Kusche-Vihrog speaks about the nanomechanics of living cells and their implications for cardiovascular disease. Olivier Negre In this interview, News Medical speaks with Olivier Negre, Chief Scientific Officer at Smart Immune, about how immunotherapy is being revolutionized. Angeline Lim Molecular Devices' CellXpress AI streamlines cell culture processes, reducing human error and improving efficiency in drug discovery with advanced automation. News-Medical.Net provides this medical information service in accordance with these terms and conditions. Please note that medical information found on this website is designed to support, not to replace the relationship between patient and physician/doctor and the medical advice they may provide. Last Updated: Thursday 27 Mar 2025 News-Medical.net - An AZoNetwork Site Owned and operated by AZoNetwork, © 2000-2025 Your AI Powered Scientific Assistant Hi, I'm Azthena, you can trust me to find commercial scientific answers from News-Medical.net. To start a conversation, please log into your AZoProfile account first, or create a new account. Registered members can chat with Azthena, request quotations, download pdf's, brochures and subscribe to our related newsletter content. A few things you need to know before we start. Please read and accept to continue. Please check the box above to proceed. Great. Ask your question. Azthena may occasionally provide inaccurate responses. Read the full terms. Terms While we only use edited and approved content for Azthena answers, it may on occasions provide incorrect responses. Please confirm any data provided with the related suppliers or authors. We do not provide medical advice, if you search for medical information you must always consult a medical professional before acting on any information provided. Your questions, but not your email details will be shared with OpenAI and retained for 30 days in accordance with their privacy principles. Please do not ask questions that use sensitive or confidential information. Read the full Terms & Conditions. Provide Feedback

President Donald Trump is vowing a new approach to getting homeless people off the streets by forcibly moving those living outside into large camps while mandating mental health and addiction treatment — an aggressive departure from the nation's leading homelessness policy, which for decades has prioritized housing as the most effective way to combat the crisis. "Our once-great cities have become unlivable, unsanitary nightmares," Trump said in a presidential campaign video. "For those who are severely mentally ill and deeply disturbed, we will bring them to mental institutions, where they belong, with the goal of reintegrating them back into society once they are well enough to manage." Now that he's in office, the assault on "Housing First" has begun. White House officials haven't announced a formal policy but are opening the door to a treatment-first agenda, while engineering a major overhaul of the housing and social service programs that form the backbone of the homelessness response system that cities and counties across the nation depend on. Nearly $4 billion was earmarked last year alone. But now, Scott Turner, who heads Trump's Department of Housing and Urban Development — the agency responsible for administering housing and homelessness funding — has outlined massive funding cuts and called for a review of taxpayer spending. "Thanks to President Trump's leadership, we are no longer in a business-as-usual posture and the DOGE task force will play a critical role in helping to identify and eliminate waste, fraud and abuse and ultimately better serve the American people," Turner said in a statement. Staffing cuts already proposed would hit the part of the agency overseeing homelessness spending and Housing First initiatives particularly hard. Trump outlined his vision during his campaign, calling for new treatment facilities to be opened on large parcels of government land — "tent cities where the homeless can be relocated and their problems identified." They could receive treatment and rehabilitation or face arrest. Now in office, he has begun to turn his attention to street homelessness, in March ordering Washington, D.C., to sweep encampments, potentially separating homeless people from their case managers and social service providers, derailing their path to housing. The administration is discouraging local governments from following the federal policy, telling them it will not enforce homelessness contracts "to the extent that they require the project to use a housing first program model." And, in a recent order "reducing the scope of the federal bureaucracy," Trump slashed the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness, shrinking the agency responsible for coordinating funding and initiatives between the federal government, states, and local agencies, known as Continuums of Care. "Make no mistake that Trump's reckless attacks across the federal government will supercharge the housing and homelessness crisis in communities across the country," Democratic U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters of Los Angeles said in response to the order. Housing First was implemented nationally in 2004 under the George W. Bush administration to combat chronic homelessness, defined as having lived on the streets with a disabling condition for a long period of time. It was expanded under President Barack Obama as America's plan of attack on homelessness and broadened by President Joe Biden, who argued that housing was a basic need, critical to health. The policy aims to stabilize homeless people in permanent housing and provide them with case management support and social services without forcing treatment, imposing job requirements, or demanding sobriety. Once housed, the theory goes, homeless people escape the chaos of the streets and can then work on finding a job, taking care of chronic health conditions, or getting sober. "When you're on the streets, all you're doing every day is figuring out how to survive," said Ann Oliva, CEO of the National Alliance to End Homelessness. "Housing is the most important intervention that brings a sense of safety and stability, where you're not just constantly trying to find food or a safe place to sleep." But Trump wants to gut taxpayer-subsidized housing initiatives. He is pushing for a punitive approach that would impose fines and potentially jail time on homeless people. And he wants to mandate sobriety and mental health treatment as the primary homelessness intervention — a stark reversal from Housing First. The shift has ignited fear and panic among homelessness experts and front-line service providers, who argue that forcing treatment and criminalizing homeless people through fines and jail time simply doesn't work. "It's only going to make things much worse," said Donald Whitehead Jr., executive director of the National Coalition for the Homeless. "Throwing everybody into treatment programs just isn't an effective strategy. The real problem is we just don't have enough affordable housing." Trump got close to ending Housing First during his first term when he tapped Robert Marbut to lead the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness in 2019. Marbut pushed for mandating treatment and reducing reliance on social services, while curtailing taxpayer-subsidized housing. He argued that forcing homeless people to get sober and enter treatment would help them achieve self-sufficiency and end their homelessness. But covid-19 stalled those plans. Now, Marbut said, he believes the president will finish the job. "Trump knows that what we need to do is get funding back to treatment and recovery," Marbut said. "The Trump administration is laser-focused on ending Housing First. They realized it was wrong the first time and that's why I was selected to change it. They still realize it's wrong." Trump and administration officials did not respond to questions from KFF Health News. A request to interview Turner was not granted. Project 2025's "Mandate for Leadership," a conservative policy blueprint from some of Trump's closest advisers, explicitly calls for an end to Housing First. Housing First is under attack not only from Republicans who have long criticized taxpayer-subsidized housing for homeless people, but also from Democrats responding to public frustration over homeless encampments multiplying around the nation. Last year, the federal government estimated that more than 770,000 people in the U.S. were homeless, a record high. That was up 18% from 2023. And while housing grows increasingly unaffordable, homeless camps have exploded, spilling into city parks, crowding sidewalks, and polluting sensitive waterways, despite unprecedented public spending. Already, cities and states, liberal and conservative, are cracking down on street homelessness and targeting the mental health and addiction crisis. This is true even in deep-blue states like California, where Gov. Gavin Newsom has created a "CARE Court" initiative that can mandate treatment even though housing isn't always available and threatened to withhold funding from cities and counties that don't aggressively clear encampments. San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie has proposed ending harm reduction for drug users. Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass is prioritizing encampment sweeps even though the promise of housing or shelter is elusive. And San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan won initial City Council support for plans to arrest people who refuse shelter three times in 18 months and to divert permanent housing funding to pay for an expansion of homeless shelters. Mahan believes liberals and advocates have been too "purist" because housing isn't being built fast enough, while investments in shelter and treatment have been inadequate. "It can't only be about Housing First," he said. Homelessness crackdowns have exploded since the U.S. Supreme Court made it easier for elected officials and law enforcement agencies to fine and arrest people for living outside. Since June, roughly 150 laws imposing fines or jail time have been passed, with about 45 in California alone, said Jesse Rabinowitz, campaign and communications director for the National Homelessness Law Center. Rabinowitz and other experts say both Republicans and Democrats are undermining Housing First by criminalizing homelessness and conducting encampment sweeps that hinder the ability of front-line workers to get people into housing and services. However, there's disagreement on whether to entirely dismantle the policy. Liberal leaders want to maintain existing streams of housing and homelessness funding while expanding shelters and moving people off the streets. Conservatives blame Housing First for the rise in homelessness and are instead pushing for mandatory treatment and cutting housing subsidies. "I used to think it was just a waste of taxpayer money because it wasn't treatment-based, but now I think it actually enables people to remain homeless and addicted," Marbut said of the Housing First approach. He favors requiring behavioral health treatment as a prerequisite to housing. Evidence shows Housing First has been successful in moving vulnerable, chronically homeless people into permanent housing. For instance, a systematic review of 26 studies indicated that, compared with treatment-first, "Housing First programs decreased homelessness by 88%."And the approach has shown remarkable improvements in health, reducing costly hospital and emergency room care. Experts say Housing First has been severely underfunded and implemented unevenly, with some homelessness agencies taking federal money but not providing appropriate services or housing placements. "Making it the broad policy to all homelessness leaves it vulnerable to being attacked the way it's currently being attacked," said Philip Mangano, a Republican who spearheaded the development of Housing First as the lead homelessness adviser to George W. Bush. "The truth is it's a mixed bag. For some people like those who are using substances, the evidence just isn't there yet." Others say it has been ineffective in some places because of rampant misspending, abuse, and a lack of accountability. "This works when it's done right," said Marc Dones, a policy director for homelessness initiatives at the University of California-San Francisco, arguing that housing can save lives and lower spending on costly health care. "But I think we have been too polite and too nice for too long about some real incompetence." Jeff Olivet, who succeeded Marbut at the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness under Biden, said Marbut and Trump's positions are misguided. He argues that Housing First has worked for those who have gotten indoors, yet the number of people falling into homelessness outpaces those getting housing. And he says there was never enough money to provide housing and supportive services for everyone in need. "Housing First is not just about sticking somebody in an apartment and hoping for the best," Olivet said. "It's really about providing stable housing and access to health care, mental health and substance use treatment, and to support people, but not forcing it on people." This article was produced by KFF Health News, which publishes California Healthline, an editorially independent service of the California Health Care Foundation. This article was reprinted from khn.org, a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF - the independent source for health policy research, polling, and journalism. KFF Health News Posted in: Healthcare News Cancel reply to comment Conversations on AFM: Exploring the nanomechanics of living cells In this interview Prof. Dr. Kristina Kusche-Vihrog speaks about the nanomechanics of living cells and their implications for cardiovascular disease. Olivier Negre In this interview, News Medical speaks with Olivier Negre, Chief Scientific Officer at Smart Immune, about how immunotherapy is being revolutionized. Angeline Lim Molecular Devices' CellXpress AI streamlines cell culture processes, reducing human error and improving efficiency in drug discovery with advanced automation. News-Medical.Net provides this medical information service in accordance with these terms and conditions. Please note that medical information found on this website is designed to support, not to replace the relationship between patient and physician/doctor and the medical advice they may provide. Last Updated: Thursday 27 Mar 2025 News-Medical.net - An AZoNetwork Site Owned and operated by AZoNetwork, © 2000-2025 Your AI Powered Scientific Assistant Hi, I'm Azthena, you can trust me to find commercial scientific answers from News-Medical.net. To start a conversation, please log into your AZoProfile account first, or create a new account. Registered members can chat with Azthena, request quotations, download pdf's, brochures and subscribe to our related newsletter content. A few things you need to know before we start. Please read and accept to continue. Please check the box above to proceed. Great. Ask your question. Azthena may occasionally provide inaccurate responses. Read the full terms. Terms While we only use edited and approved content for Azthena answers, it may on occasions provide incorrect responses. Please confirm any data provided with the related suppliers or authors. We do not provide medical advice, if you search for medical information you must always consult a medical professional before acting on any information provided. Your questions, but not your email details will be shared with OpenAI and retained for 30 days in accordance with their privacy principles. Please do not ask questions that use sensitive or confidential information. Read the full Terms & Conditions. Provide Feedback

Wearable mobile health technology could help people with Type 2 Diabetes (T2D) to stick to exercise regimes that help them to keep the condition under control, a new study reveals. Researchers studied the behaviour of recently-diagnosed T2D patients in Canada and the UK as they followed a home-based physical activity programme – some of whom wore a smartwatch paired with a health app on their smartphone. They discovered that MOTIVATE-T2D participants were more likely to start and maintain purposeful exercise at if they had the support of wearable technology- the study successfully recruited 125 participants with an 82% retention rate after 12 months. Publishing their findings in BMJ Open today (27 Mar), an international group of researchers reveal a range of potential clinical benefits among participants including improvements in blood sugar levels and systolic blood pressure. Our findings support the feasibility of the MOTIVATE-T2D intervention – paving the way for a full-scale randomized controlled trial to further investigate its clinical and cost-effectiveness. We found that using biometrics from wearable technologies offered great promise for encouraging people with newly diagnosed T2D to maintain a home-delivered, personalised exercise programme with all the associated health benefits." Dr. Katie Hesketh, Co-Author, University of Birmingham Researchers found that, as well as the encouraging data for blood sugar and systolic blood pressure, the programme could help to lower cholesterol and improve quality of life. The programme saw participants gradually increasing purposeful exercise of moderate-to-vigorous intensity – aiming for a target of 150 minutes per week by the end of 6 months and supported by an exercise specialist-led behavioural counselling service delivered virtually. MOTIVATE-T2D used biofeedback and data sharing to support the development of personalised physical activity programmes. Wearable technologies included a smartwatch, featuring a 3D accelerometer and optical heart rate monitor, synced with an online coaching platform for the exercise specialist and web/smartphone app for participants. "The programme offered a variety of workouts, including cardio and strength training, that could be done without the need for a gym," added Dr. Hesketh. "Its goal is to make exercise a sustainable part of daily life for people with Type 2 Diabetes, ultimately improving their physical and mental health." The feasibility trial recruited participants aged 40-75 years, diagnosed with T2D within the previous 5-24 months and managing their condition through lifestyle modification alone or Metformin. University of Birmingham Hesketh, K., et al. (2021). Mobile Health Biometrics to Enhance Exercise and Physical Activity Adherence in Type 2 Diabetes (MOTIVATE-T2D): protocol for a feasibility randomised controlled trial. BMJ Open. doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-052563 Posted in: Device / Technology News | Medical Research News | Medical Condition News Cancel reply to comment Conversations on AFM: Exploring the nanomechanics of living cells In this interview Prof. Dr. Kristina Kusche-Vihrog speaks about the nanomechanics of living cells and their implications for cardiovascular disease. Olivier Negre In this interview, News Medical speaks with Olivier Negre, Chief Scientific Officer at Smart Immune, about how immunotherapy is being revolutionized. Angeline Lim Molecular Devices' CellXpress AI streamlines cell culture processes, reducing human error and improving efficiency in drug discovery with advanced automation. News-Medical.Net provides this medical information service in accordance with these terms and conditions. Please note that medical information found on this website is designed to support, not to replace the relationship between patient and physician/doctor and the medical advice they may provide. Last Updated: Thursday 27 Mar 2025 News-Medical.net - An AZoNetwork Site Owned and operated by AZoNetwork, © 2000-2025 Your AI Powered Scientific Assistant Hi, I'm Azthena, you can trust me to find commercial scientific answers from News-Medical.net. To start a conversation, please log into your AZoProfile account first, or create a new account. Registered members can chat with Azthena, request quotations, download pdf's, brochures and subscribe to our related newsletter content. A few things you need to know before we start. Please read and accept to continue. Please check the box above to proceed. Great. Ask your question. Azthena may occasionally provide inaccurate responses. Read the full terms. Terms While we only use edited and approved content for Azthena answers, it may on occasions provide incorrect responses. Please confirm any data provided with the related suppliers or authors. We do not provide medical advice, if you search for medical information you must always consult a medical professional before acting on any information provided. Your questions, but not your email details will be shared with OpenAI and retained for 30 days in accordance with their privacy principles. Please do not ask questions that use sensitive or confidential information. Read the full Terms & Conditions. Provide Feedback