WBEZ 91.5 Chicago

A new French study shows that breastfeeding may have lasting benefits for a child’s metabolism. Other studies suggest breastfeeding helps prevent infections, chronic diseases and obesity.

Almost half of African-American mothers in Illinois never breastfeed their newborns, according to a report by state and university researchers and a nonprofit group called HealthConnect One.

The parasite responsible for the intense fevers, chills, and headaches of malaria has proven elusive to the scientific effort to come up with a vaccine.So Dutch researchers are trying a new approach — "vaccinating" people by having them get bitten by mosquitoes carrying the malaria parasite, similar

The board overseeing Cook County’s Health and Hospitals System plans to meet this evening to discuss hiring an interim CEO.

Ten years ago, Uruguay had some of the highest cigarette-smoking rates in Latin America.But Uruguay's efforts in the last five years to curb smoking have been so successful that the small South American nation is embroiled in a lawsuit with tobacco giant Philip Morris International.We’ll talk

The warning that Tokyo's tap water contains twice as much radioactive iodine as allowed for infants strikes a particularly distressing chord.Infants are especially vulnerable because their cells are dividing faster than at any other time of life, and dividing cells are especially sensitive to radiat

A state board has rejected Cook County’s plan to close south suburban Oak Forest Hospital, but the proposal is almost certain to come up again.The county says closing Oak Forest Hospital and replacing it with an enhanced outpatient clinic would save money and provide more care.