Her Mom Was Lost In Dementia's Fog. Singing Christmas Carols Brought Her Back A woman had become barely verbal, an effect of dementia. Her daughter, an opera singer, decided to try singing Christmas songs with her, and they reconnected. Patti Neighmond
The Decade In Global Health: New Drugs, Faster Trials, Social Media To The Rescue Leading health experts shared the innovations and breakthroughs that they said saved millions of lives over the past ten years. Susan Brink
Why Certain Poor Shepherds In Nativity Scenes Have Huge, Misshapen Throats In some historical Nativity scenes, the shepherds have grossly enlarged thyroid glands — also known today as goiter. It's an apparent symbol of their poverty and iodine-deficient diet. Nell Greenfieldboyce
Working The Christmas Shift, 2 Young Doctors Learn What It Means To Be A Healer There's more to being a good doctor than providing medical care to your patients, physicians learn early in their training. And sometimes that lesson comes at the darkest time of year. John Henning Schumann
Malnutrition Hits The Obese As Well As The Underfed New research finds millions of people are getting enough calories but not enough essential nutrients. We asked leading researchers how to fix the problem. Allison Aubrey
Why Tobacco Industry Giants Backed Raising The Minimum Age Of Purchase President Trump has signed off on raising the age of sale from 18 to 21 for cigarettes and e-cigarettes. Health advocates worry it guards the industry from further sweeping regulations. Merrit Kennedy
A New Way To Quit? Psychedelic Therapy Offers Promise For Smoking Cessation Researchers are studying a new technique for quitting cigarettes. It involves cognitive behavioral therapy and guided hallucination sparked by psilocybin, the active ingredient in magic mushrooms. Stephanie O'Neill
Scrunchie Cat And Friends: Global Social Media Moments We Loved In 2019 They're sweet. And funny! And weird! Here's a sampling of viral videos, tweets and TikToks from around the world. Isabella Gomez Sarmiento
DHS Internal Watchdog Report Finds No Wrongdoing In Migrant Children's Deaths In terse statements, the Homeland Security Inspector General said two migrant children died in U.S. custody due to bacterial infections. Richard Gonzales
New Report Shows That An Alarming Number Of Children Are Being Poisoned By Opioids A new study finds that children are being poisoned by opioids, and a growing number of them in recent years are ending up in pediatric ICUs for lifesaving procedures. Rhitu Chatterjee
