Fran Smith
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Author, editor, storytelling coach, newshound. Contributing editor @ReportingHealth. Nature lover, tap dancing wannabe. #binders
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Articles by Fran Smith
Preeclampsia a pregnancy danger, especially to Black moms
Preeclampsia a pregnancy danger, especially to Black moms Published Tuesday, October 27, 2026 11:00 pm By Fran Smith | Center For Health Journalism UNSPLASH Preeclampsia, a leading cause of maternal and fetal deaths, affects 2% to 8% of pregnancies in the United States annually, with Black women and babies disproportionately impacted.
Who else gets the chance?
Like many women I know, I've been riveted by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's Instagram videos last month about freezing her eggs. I've watched her set out her medications, fill syringes, give herself injections, lie on a gurney before the egg retrieval, walk to brunch afterward and open get-well snacks from friends. As I write this, it's Day 16 of her journey. She still has the belly bloat she said was her only discomfort after the procedure.
Testing kids’ fitness after taking away chances to be active
Testing kids’ fitness after taking away chances to be active Published Monday, August 17, 2026 12:00 pm By Fran Smith | Center for Health Journalism LOFOSYOS | UNSPLASH As children spend less time on physical activities, their fitness levels fall as a result. It’s back to school this fall for the Presidential Fitness Test, a Trump administration initiative to measure children’s strength, endurance, speed and agility. But here’s the important question: What are we doing to help kids get in shape?
Trapped in America's ‘food swamps’
The Health Divide | July 6, 2026 Junk food is everywhere these days, but healthy food follows the money (Photo by George Rose/Getty Images) By Fran Smith Center for Health Journalism Contributor Some years ago, a friend of mine co-authored a book called “Hungry,” with her daughter. It recounted the years when my friend, Sheila Himmel, worked as a newspaper restaurant critic, dining out night after night, while at home her teenage daughter quietly struggled with anorexia.
SNAP junk food bans make people healthier, or hungrier?
GETTY IMAGES Twenty-two states are moving to limit what people can buy with food benefits in a test supported by the Trump administration. Twenty-two states are moving to restrict what people can buy with their food benefits, targeting soda and candy in a huge, uncontrolled policy experiment backed by little evidence.
La ciencia de la longevidad
Ayuda Buscar en la ayuda Buscar en la ayuda La ciencia de la longevidad Autores: Fran Smith, Jasper Doest (fot.), David Guttenfelder (fot.), Nichole Sobecki (fot.), Melanie Wenger (fot.) Localización: National geographic, ISSN 1138-1434, Vol. 52, Nº. 1 (ENE), 2023, págs. 2-35 Idioma: español Texto completo no disponible (Saber más ...) Resumen Durante siglos, los humanos hemos perseguido el sueño de la eterna juventud, pero ¿hasta qué punto podemos luchar contra el paso del tiempo?
Dating With Intention: Seeking Love and Giving it Back to the Community — HYVEMIND
A welcoming, alcohol-free space designed for ease and clarity A creative atmosphere at Salt and Ash Market, owned by Ashton Boehman A curated soundtrack by DJ Elio Jordan A build-your-own bouquet bar from Indy Flower Bouquet Local vendors, mocktails, and plenty of opportunities for real conversation This night is intentionally softer, slower and more human than the usual singles event. It’s built for people who want to connect without numbing themselves to get through it.
The Health Divide: The devastating toll of wildfires on health is far greater than we think
September 15, 2025 – Everyone thought drugs killed 25-year-old Preston Weinberg. He died alone, crouched in the shower of his Los Angeles apartment, sometime between Jan. 9 and Jan. 11 of this year. No water was running. Police found small quantities of MDMA and cocaine in his home. Outside, smoke choked the air as two catastrophic wildfires tore through distant neighborhoods of the county. His parents, who live in Pennsylvania, got the heart-shattering call.
Have Your Say: Election Season
By Fran Smith fsmith13@mail.ccsf.edu 1 Elijah Watson – Film 4th Semester “I do not plan on voting this term because first and foremost both of the candidates I don’t like. Period.” 2 Isabella Wu – A.S. in Science Pre-Nursing “I think this November, I’m not really sure about whether or not I should vote yet because I still gotta’ look at all of the policies and what the candidates are addressing, and you know, what they’re actually going to do.
Instalar Certificado FNMT en iPhone
Yo tuve que instalarme certificado personal que termina en extension pfx creo recordar, pero no tiene tampoco mucho misterio. Lo primero debes tener copia de seguridad de tu certificado digital en tu PC o en movil dentro del correo para poder importarlo a un dispositivo IOS, sea iPhone o iPad, da igual.
O pensamento positivo pode prolongar a vida?
FOTO DE KENDRICK BRINSON Idosos seguram balões em uma solenidade no Arizona (EUA). Um dos componentes para uma vida longa é ser parte ativa de uma comunidade. Após a morte de meu pai, minha mãe entrou em um centro comunitário com piscina e começou a nadar várias vezes por semana. Dorothy tinha quase 80 anos. Ela conheceu gente, aprendeu sobre programas e serviços locais para pessoas mais velhas, e descobriu um centro de idosos que continua sendo seu ponto de encontro há 18 anos.
Can positive thinking prolong your life? Science says yes
Please be respectful of copyright. Unauthorized use is prohibited. Science Mind, Body, Wonder Studies show that staying optimistic about aging can be as beneficial to your health as exercising or eating well. After my father died, my mother joined a community center with a pool and started swimming laps several times a week. Dorothy was nearly 80. She met people, learned about local programs and services for older folks, and discovered a senior center that remains her hangout 18 years later.
Could Fido be our best hope to reverse ageing in humans?
Stephanie Abraham, a dog breeder and dog-show judge in Connecticut, U.S., lives with eight laid-back Cavalier King Charles Spaniels and a mischievous one named Ace. “He’s my only Cavalier who gets into trouble!” she says. The nine-year-old 8kg dog, with rich chestnut-colour markings and large, soulful eyes, likes to leap on a kitchen chair, swipe post off the butcher-block counter, and munch it to shreds. “The latest thing he chewed was my summons for jury duty,” Abraham says.
Could Fido be our best hope to reverse aging in humans?
Stephanie Abraham, a dog breeder and dog-show judge in Connecticut, lives with eight laid-back Cavalier King Charles Spaniels and a mischievous one named Ace. “He’s my only Cavalier who gets into trouble!” she says. The nine-year-old 18-pounder, with rich chestnut-color markings and large, soulful eyes, likes to leap on a kitchen chair, swipe mail off the butcher-block counter, and munch it to shreds. “The latest thing he chewed was my summons for jury duty,” Abraham says.
Can fasting help you live longer? Here’s what the science says.
Please be respectful of copyright. Unauthorized use is prohibited. Science Mind, Body, Wonder It’s a popular practice, and research shows it has real health benefits. A new diet that tricks your body into thinking it’s fasting may have similar benefits. By Photographs By Valter Longo spent childhood summers in Molochio, the village in the Calabria region of southern Italy where his parents were born. It happens to have a high concentration of centenarians.
‘Zombie cells’ could hold the secret to Alzheimer’s cure
By Photographs By Lewis O. Beck, Jr. was diagnosed with mild cognitive impairment nearly a decade ago, at 69. He continued working until recently, plays golf with three friends every Wednesday, and spends time with his miniature goldendoodle, named Bailey Irish Creme, a puppy his children pushed on him to help keep him engaged and alert. But his short-term memory is faltering, and his frustration is mounting. “Oh gosh,” says his wife, Mary Theresa Beck, known to everyone as Terri.
Can ageing be cured? Scientists are giving it a try
Scientists are great at making mice live longer. Rapamycin, widely prescribed to prevent organ rejection after a transplant, increases the life expectancy of middle-age mice by as much as 60 percent. Drugs called senolytics help geriatric mice stay sprightly long after their peers have died.
Can aging be cured? Scientists are giving it a try. National Geographic
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Can aging be cured? Scientists are giving it a try
By Photographs By Leer en español. Scientists are great at making mice live longer. Rapamycin, widely prescribed to prevent organ rejection after a transplant, increases the life expectancy of middle-age mice by as much as 60 percent. Drugs called senolytics help geriatric mice stay sprightly long after their peers have died.
On the hunt for the next deadly virus
The special packages arrived in January at the Bangkok laboratory of a virus expert named Supaporn Wacharapluesadee. They contained tubes of saliva and mucus from five people who had just landed at the city’s main airport from Wuhan, China. Days earlier, Chinese authorities had announced a cluster of mysterious pneumonia cases in Wuhan. Officials in Thailand, a top destination for Chinese tourists, rushed nurses to airports to screen arriving passengers for fevers or coughs.
What we're learning about how COVID-19 is impacting children
Children and teens seem to be the only bright spot in the COVID-19 pandemic. The first large analysis of pediatric cases in the U.S., released Monday by the CDC, found that children are less likely than adults to become severely ill or wind up in the hospital. The analysis looked at just over 149,000 cases reported from Feb. 12 through April 2, for which age was known. Children ages 18 and under accounted for 1.7% of the cases.
St. Joseph Church Should Play Role in Parish’s Future
To the Editor: Flanked outside the National Archives Building in Washington rests James Fraser’s heritage statue, which proclaims on its base, “The heritage of the past is the seed that brings forth the harvest of the future.” Before embarking on the capital campaign for the construction of the new church on the St. Joseph Parish campus, parishioners and residents were given assurances from the Diocese that no detrimental harm would come to the historic church structure that has been a...
These States Are Starting To Embrace Doulas - Especially For Vulnerable Moms And Babies
Eighteen months after Sharmin Sultana and her family immigrated to the United States from Bangladesh, she became pregnant with her third child. She was overwhelmed by having a baby in America. “I did not have a vehicle and I was not sure how I would go to the hospital,” she recalls. “I did not know I needed a car seat for taking my baby home from the hospital.
New study debunks argument for weakening healthy school lunch rules
That healthier eating is good for kids seems self-evident. Yet a 2010 federal law spearheaded by Michelle Obama to upgrade school meal standards for the first time since the 1960s set off a partisan furor. Under the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act, schools had to offer more fruits, vegetables and whole grains and cut back on salt and calories — longtime goals of public health advocates (to say nothing of many parents). But critics on the right blasted the legislation as “nanny state” overreach.
Why our fast-paced society loves yoga
This story appears in the January 2020 issue of National Geographic magazine. Judge Eleni Derke cuts an imposing figure, shrouded in her black robe and seated behind the elevated wood-paneled bench in the county courthouse in Jacksonville, Florida. From the jury box and lawyers’ tables, you can’t see what else she’s wearing: wildly patterned yoga pants. More than 25 years ago, Derke discovered yoga. She was suffering from the searing abdominal pain of Crohn’s disease. Her doctor recommended surgery.
How do we close the stubborn racial gap in breastfeeding? New book offers ideas
The United States has one of the lowest rates of breastfeeding in the world, and it's been known for decades that the rates are particularly low among black women. Research offers various explanations for this disparity. Among them: Health care providers are less likely to talk to black women about breastfeeding during pregnancy or after birth. Black moms tend to lack adequate family leave and return to work earlier after childbirth, often to jobs that do not accommodate breastfeeding.
Kids are uniquely vulnerable to changing climate, says growing body of research
As the most destructive wildfire in California history raged last year, Bay Area media ran photos of students at UC Berkeley, 160 miles away from the flames, wearing breathing masks to filter out toxic particles and gases from smoke fouling the region’s air. They were not the most horrific or heartbreaking picture of the effects of the Camp Fire, which killed 86 people and destroyed nearly 19,000 buildings. But those images haunted me, as a health writer and as a mom.
We’re Failing At Vaccinating Kids Against HPV - And That Could Cost Lives
Only about one in six adolescents in the U.S. have been fully vaccinated against HPV, the human papillomavirus, by the time they turn 13, despite national recommendations that girls and boys be up to date on the shots at that age. In that stark statistic lies a complicated story about a vaccine against a sexually transmitted virus that causes about 34,000 cancers a year in this country. It’s a story of official missteps, misinformation and confusion, and public anxiety about teen sex.
We know little about which drugs are safe for pregnant women - can new guidelines change that?
More than 90% of pregnant and breastfeeding women in the United States take at least one prescription or over-the-counter medication, and often more. Too often, a woman and her doctor have to guess whether the drug is safe and what dose is right, because few studies have looked at the effects of medications during pregnancy and lactation. Now the Food and Drug Administration has taken steps to encourage drug manufacturers to do more research in this sorely neglected area.
Suicides in teen boys spike: ‘We’re seeing something new among males’
A spike in suicides among teenage boys in the United States, reported Tuesday in JAMA, is the latest evidence of a public health crisis that continues to get worse. The suicide rate for boys ages 15 to 19 jumped dramatically in 2017, reaching its highest point in a generation. Although boys have historically had higher suicide rates than girls, a study in JAMA Network Open in May showed the gap has narrowed as suicide has increased among adolescent girls, especially 10- to 14-year-olds.
Even as the epidemic rages, alarming numbers of teens leave ER with opioid prescriptions
One morning a few years ago, my 17-year-old daughter woke up with sharp pain in her abdomen. We wound up in the emergency room, where a nurse quickly started her on a morphine drip. It was my daughter’s first exposure to an opioid and as it took effect, a look of bliss spread across her face. It alarmed me more than whatever was causing the pain. A few hours and many tests later the problem was diagnosed as a burst cyst — not dangerous, just uncomfortable.
Take it from someone who almost died: The resurgence of measles is terrifying
My mother tells me I almost died from measles at age 7. I don’t know if I really was in mortal danger, but the misery of the illness remains one of my most vivid childhood memories. Angry red splotches covered me from face to feet. I burned with fever for days. My inflamed eyes could not tolerate light, and both ears seared in pain from infection. An ear specialist showed up early one morning and, right there in my bedroom, lanced my eardrums to drain the pus, while I screamed in anguish.
Time to End Big Sugar's Sweet Deal
Sugar is already shaping up to be a contentious issue in upcoming debates on the 2007 omnibus farm bill. The call for dismantling the antiquated sugar support system comes from a wide range of people and organizations. The costs of the U.S. sugar regime include higher food prices for U.S. consumers and thousands of lost jobs in sugar-using industries.
How personalized medicine is transforming your health care
This story appears in the January 2019 issue of National Geographic magazine. Twelve years after Teresa McKeown beat stage 3 breast cancer with a brutal regimen of chemotherapy and a double mastectomy, the disease returned, more aggressively than before. This time chemotherapy failed. Day after day, she sat in a chair in her living room, too sick to move.
Betting Tips for Beginners to make your best win - Every thing you need to know about Jushua Vs Parker
If you are not a seasoned better it is certain that you need to look around for effective betting tips like Joshua Parker tips so you can easily follow and place your best bets in the event. This article provides with easy to follow tips for beginners so you can get started with making money from the race track. But here in this article we are discussing about Joshua Vs Parker.
All you need to know about the coming match between Anthony Joshua and Joseph Parker:
The match between Anthony Joshua and Joseph Parker is the most highly anticipated boxing match you will see. The winner-takes-all boxing match will see all the titles of IBO, WBA and IBF of Joshua and WBO heavyweight of Parker on the line. This is the best boxing match you will see in the coming March with both undefeated boxers looking in great form now.
Top Fights of Anthony Joshua
The current unified world heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua will come head to head with the New Zealand technician Joseph Parker on the 31st of the coming March at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff. The match will see the best of Anthony Joshua and Joseph Parker who both are looking very good at the moment. The winner-takes-all match will decide the fate of the WBO, WBA, IBF and IBO titles of both Joshua and Parker.
How Science Is Unlocking the Secrets of Drug Addiction
Patrick Perotti scoffed when his mother told him about a doctor who uses electromagnetic waves to treat drug addiction. “I thought he was a swindler,” Perotti says. Perotti, who is 38 and lives in Genoa, Italy, began snorting cocaine at 17, a rich kid who loved to party. His indulgence gradually turned into a daily habit and then an all-consuming compulsion. He fell in love, had a son, and opened a restaurant. Under the weight of his addiction, his family and business eventually collapsed.
Babies Fall Victim to the Opioid Crisis
This story is an expanded version of a page that appears in the September 2017 issue of National Geographic magazine. Babies going through opioid withdrawal have a distinct way of crying: a short, anguished, high-pitched wail, repeated over and over. It echoes through the neonatal therapeutic unit of Cabell Huntington Hospital in Huntington, West Virginia. A week-old girl has been at it, inconsolably, since six o’clock this morning.
Why Arts Education Is Crucial, and Who's Doing It Best | Edutopia
"Art does not solve problems, but makes us aware of their existence," sculptor Magdalena Abakanowicz has said. Arts education, on the other hand, does solve problems. Years of research show that it's closely linked to almost everything that we as a nation say we want for our children and demand from our schools: academic achievement, social and emotional development, civic engagement, and equitable opportunity.
Patricia Morrisroe Discusses Her Sleep Issues
nsomnia is America’s No. 1 sleep complaint. And people will go to great lengths to fight it. To find out how far, we asked journalist Patricia Morrisroe, whose book Wide Awake recounts her 3-year global quest for better rest... That’s only one of her surprising findings. In this interview, she reveals what she discovered during her quest for a decent night’s sleep. When did you first have problems sleeping? Second grade. We had to change seats according to our math scores.
Bashing Trade Is a Popular Election Year Target
Pundits are opining that Bernie Sanders’ significant win in the Democratic primaries in Michigan was primarily due to his vehement anti-trade stance. Donald Trump’s surge in the Republican primaries in Michigan and Mississippi also came in part from his own protectionist position. The Wall Street Journal has a lengthy front-page article on the rise of protectionist sentiment among both Democratic and Republican voters.
‘I was in control of it from the start’: A qualitative study of men’s experiences of positive adjustment following a heart attack
A qualitative design was used to explore the experience of positive adjustment following a heart attack. Ten men attending a cardiac rehabilitation programme completed in-depth semi-structured interviews. An overarching theme: ‘I was in control of it from the start’ emerged with six subthemes, relating to intrapersonal and interpersonal factors and processes. The subthemes reflected the importance of identifying controllable versus non-controllable factors and employing adaptive coping strategies.
Trade Promotion Authority: What it Is and What it Isn't
The House of Representatives is poised to vote on Trade Promotion Authority (TPA), the Bipartisan Congressional Trade Priorities and Accountability Act of 2015 (H.R. 1314). Unfortunately, there has been some misinformed criticism, in Congress and elsewhere, of so-called “fast track” legislation. Under TPA, the President has the authority to negotiate trade agreements if certain criteria established by Congress are met.
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A Man for All Seasons, Norman Borlaug
Has there been anyone else in history credited with saving a billion people? Yesterday Norman Borlaug received the Congressional Gold Medal, America’s highest civilian award.
Public Interest Groups Oppose Sugar Subsidies
Washington, D.C., July 17, 2007—As members of the House Agriculture Committee consider the 2007 farm bill, several public interest groups are urging committee members to reject plans to expand the U.S. government’s sugar subsidy program. Representatives of several consumer, taxpayer and humanitarian groups have joined an open letter highlighting the perverse and costly consequences of federal price supports for domestic sugar producers.
Time to End Big Sugar's Sweet Deal
Sugar is already shaping up to be a contentious issue in upcoming debates on the 2007 omnibus farm bill. The call for dismantling the antiquated sugar support system comes from a wide range of people and organizations. The costs of the U.S. sugar regime include higher food prices for U.S. consumers and thousands of lost jobs in sugar-using industries.
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