The Loss
To understand everything wrong about health care in America today, look to a horrifying trend in amputation.
medicine
A collection of 17 issues
Anything but Nothing
After a lifetime of mental illness, one woman opts to try electroconvulsive therapy. She discusses her decision with her sister.
My Letter From Oliver Sacks
Migraines, 3D magic, and an unlikely correspondence from one “incredibly stereoscopic person” to another.
Fight or Flight
A near-death experience makes this week’s International Asteroid Day a little more tricky to celebrate.
New York Fashion Week at My House
A visit to the New York studio/living room of a family’s style director who has a week’s worth of laundry ahead of her.
It Made Me Feel Like More Than One Person
You can learn how to read a poem, but you can’t choose how it will affect you. Here, a little cough launches a journey through a reader’s mind.
Junglecare
In search of a remedy for MS, a journey out of the gridlock of America’s health system and into the jungles of Belize, where medicine men promise cures for everything that ails you.
The Influencing Machine
When a genetic disease looms, we’re more like our parents than we’d like to believe—and when we become parents, that fear only grows.
An Unthinkably Modern Miracle
In today’s health care system, medicine often comes with a strange, Faustian bargain—including a plan for almost everything except the price.
After Birth
A home birth begets a crash course in DIY medical waste disposal.
Where the Himalayan Moss Grows
Going on a five-day cleanse—subsisting on a diet of shots, smoothies, very few actual foods, and no caffeine—leads to visions of apocalypse. From 2013, a quest to find the seven billionth child on Earth.
Overhand Right
Boxing belongs to the young. For an off-and-on wannabe, back in the ring and facing down The Chainsaw, the stakes are higher than they’ll ever be.
It’s All in Your Head
It begins as a dull ache, then the skull becomes hot and brittle, then the neck stiffens—and then there’s no escaping a migraine. A search for relief, temporary or otherwise.
Clenching the Night Away
A mouth guard can do more than save our enamel from nighttime gnashing. It may also shield us from our daily anxieties.
Learning to Talk
When a voiceover artist temporarily loses the use of her primary asset, the struggle back to speaking unearths what’s gone unsaid for too long.
The Wolf Is Waiting
Imperceptibly and without warning, your pulse accelerates, your mind races, and panic grips your body—for anxiety attack sufferers, every day is a case in survival. A journey to the wild to confront the fear.
Boy's Pain Is Orthodontist's Pleasure
The X-rays and photos show beyond any doubt that one orthodontist's recently found treasure spells financial tragedy for a local family.