Health & Wellness News

A 2-time kidney recipient is sharing his story during Kidney Awareness Month. Organs from living donors last longer than those from the deceased, so a transplant surgeon is spreading the word about the process.

A national nonprofit organization, Homes For Our Troops, donated a home to Easton native, retired Marine Corps Cpl. Lasko, on Saturday at 10 a.m. in Wind Gap. Cpl. Lasko lost part of his left leg and sustained a traumatic brain injury during an explosion in Afghanistan in 2004.

The number of people experiencing mental health issues went up as a result of the pandemic. Lehigh Valley psychotherapist Shonda Moralis talks about what she is seeing and hearing from her patients.

The Parkland School District will host a Community Resource Fair, Health Symposium and New Parent Social, from 9 a.m. to noon on March 18 in the Parkland High School Cafeteria.

Bradbury-Sullivan LGBT Community Center hosted the first event of the 2023 PA LGBTQIA Health Summit, which featured discussion on how social factors affect LGBTQIA health.

Despite record revenues locally and across the country for golf, local municipal courses are facing heightened supply costs.

The Shapiro administration recently announced child care providers will get two free carbon monoxide detectors this spring.

Early mornings will again be dark so use caution driving in the early morning for the next several weeks.

Take a look at stories throughout the week of which we are most proud, had a profound impact or that you might want to look at again.

A free physical therapy clinic is being offered at DeSales University starting Monday. The services are being provided by students in the physical therapy program.

The Free Migration Project says it's in 'productive conversations' with LVHN to prevent woman's "medical deportation."

Advocates and service providers fear a proposed $20 million funding increase for community mental health services would not go far enough.

Members of Easton's Blueprint Communities organization announced their first project, a mural at Chubby's honoring South Side's past, present, and future, on Monday afternoon.

Northampton County and Northampton Community College will offer a free workplace safety training later this month aimed at employees of municipal governments, nonprofits and similar organizations.

The funding, through the Livable Landscape program, was unanimously approved at the county council’s June 18 meeting.

Legislators worked to establish penalties for xylazine use and trafficking in an attempt to lessen its presence in Pennsylvania's illicit drug supply. Some say doing so made way for a new, unclassified veterinary tranquilizer to take its place — medetomidine.

The tax and spending plan drew praise from Republicans for lowering taxes and funding border security, but Democrats condemned it for slashing Medicaid coverage and raising the deficit.

Nearly a year after the Biden administration designated xylazine as an "emerging threat" to the United States, Gov. Josh Shapiro classified it as a schedule III drug, making unauthorized possession a crime in Pennsylvania. Experts say the move has partly served to clear the way for new illicit substances to enter the drug market.

Proposed federal budget cuts would impact programs such as the free summer meal program for children in the Allentown School District.

The $2.75 million payment to the federal government resolves allegations that a pharmacy technician stole controlled substances on about 40 occasions and the health network failed to institute proper controls.

Despite not being approved for human consumption, veterinary tranquilizers are infiltrating the illicit drug supply in Pennsylvania. Harm reduction specialists and health care professionals say these overdoses can't be approached solely with naloxone, the opioid overdose reversal drug.

A generous donation from a Lehigh Valley native and others funds free swim lessons for children and adults in the River Crossing YMCA's Safety Around Water, or SAW, swim education program.

The bill would limit the manufacture, sale, distribution and use of firefighting foam containing PFAS, also known as forever chemicals, beginning in 2026.

Xylazine, an animal-grade tranquilizer that's not approved for human use, has taken Pennsylvania's illicit drug supply by storm. Known on the streets as "tranq," it accounted for almost 1 in 4 overdose deaths in Pennsylvania by 2023. Last year in Lehigh County, it was a contributing cause of death in 20 of the 112 deadly overdoses, or 17.9 percent of cases.