Chances are that if you are living in the United States right now, you are experiencing sweltering heat.

Blazing hot temperatures are blanketing much of the US. While July is always a warm month, the extent and duration of this year's heat is unusual and deadly. News reports indicate that...

I have been thinking about environmental toxins a lot lately. From the nuclear accident in Fukushima Japan to the 25th anniversary of the nuclear meltdown in Chernobyl to my own work as part of the Chicago Clean Power Coalition -- a group of 50 nonprofits working to clean...

As a progressive Democrat, I am happy and proud to live in Jan Schakowsky's district. She was a major supporter of the Affordable Health Care for America Act, opposed the Iraq war from the beginning, and is committed to protecting our environment and keeping Medicare and...

It's been a big couple of weeks for energy policy news. President Obama addressed the nation last Tuesday, giving an oval office address on the Gulf Coast oil spill. His speech had many detractors, but he did start to link the oil disaster to the creation of a...

The Florida urologist who posted the announcement on his office door this week asking all supporters of President Obama's health care reform bill to seek medical care elsewhere caused quite a stir. As a primary care physician, I think his actions were both unethical and immoral,...

Sen Joe Lieberman likes to take center stage whenever he can, it seems, and this time he is threatening to side with the Republicans, and filibuster the Senate's health care bill unless the Democrats drop expanded Medicare coverage and the public option from the proposed bill. Joe, I...

Today's announcement that President Obama won this year's Nobel Peace Prize not only strengthened the peace process, it also benefited human health worldwide.

Many of President Obama's efforts thus far to reduce and eventually eliminate the global stockpile of nuclear weapons could prove more beneficial than any other action...

As news of Iran's nuclear program made headlines today and nuclear tensions increase, we must remind ourselves that nuclear war is not 'winnable,' and that only steps towards zero nuclear weapons will make America safe.

President Obama opened his talk at the G-20, according to the New York...

In the 15 years I have been working as a doctor, I have probably not treated too many white supremacists. I have worked in community health centers in Boston and in the Chicago area, and most of my patients, who are mostly uninsured, are either African American or Latino/a. But...

Would a mere $2,154,200 change how you voted on the health care reform bill? If that's not quite enough, would $3,973,485 or $8,994,077 be more to your liking? Ask Senators Kent Conrad, Max Baucus and John Kerry. These multi-million dollar sums represent total donations from the health insurance industry...

Some people will do anything to advance the cause of universal health care in the United States. One dedicated doctor with blisters and sore muscles just completed a rather long walk for the cause--700 miles long.

Dr. Ogan Gurel set off from Chicago about one month ago, intent on walking...

Conservative pundits and politicians so quickly jump all over the Democrats' attempts to provide health care for all, bemoaning that any expansion of government programs will lead to health care rationing. Images of middle-aged men standing in line at the local hospital, clutching their chests and popping nitroglycerine pills while...

Every medical student knows that a patient who has possibly contracted bacterial meningitis requires emergency spinal fluid testing and initiation of antibiotic treatment, and that one particular strain of bacterial meningitis, Neisseria meningitidis, can kill healthy humans within hours.

Six years ago, the Chicago Health Department embarked on an...

This weekend, Chicago-area parents wondering whether or not to vaccinate their babies, toddlers, school-age kids or teenagers face a tough decision when it comes to expert advice: should they listen to Jenny McCarthy or to their pediatrician? McCarthy is slated to give the key-note speech at the Autism One...

What a difference a few days makes.

Last week, schools attended by children with probable H1N1 (swine) flu cases were shutting down in Chicago and in the surrounding suburbs. Hospital administrators were insisting on daily temperatures checks on all their employees, and sending home any employee who had an...