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Childbirth has always been perilous for women. Before the advent of modern medicine, a breech birth was often a death sentence. And even as recently as the turn of the 20th century, six to nine women in the U.S. died during childbirth or from related complications for every 1,000 babies born alive, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Advances in medicine and public health have significantly improved the odds that women — and their infants — will survive childbirth. In 2019, the most recent year for which there are data, only two women died for every 10,000 or so live babies born. That’s quite an improvement in little more than a century. Nevertheless, the U.S. still has the highest rate of maternal mortality in the industrialized world, and the rate has been creeping up in recent years. (5/20)

When we stare into the periodic table, it’s like looking into a mirror. The essential soft metals we need for life are sodium, potassium, magnesium and calcium, which dissolve easily into the water that makes up much of our body. Among the hard metals we use are iron, zinc and copper. Nearly half of all our proteins contain a metal. Most of us know iron best for its role in our blood. Four atoms of iron help form the molecule hemoglobin, the protein in a red blood cell that stores and transports oxygen. Every cell requires oxygen to burn the fuel glucose, producing the energy that does the cell’s work. As blood passes through an oxygen-rich environment like the lungs, the iron atoms in hemoglobin bind to oxygen atoms. Later, in oxygen-poor environments—a calf muscle working hard, a brow furrowed—iron atoms release their oxygen. (Sharman Apt Russel, 5/20)

Both of us lost our dads to Alzheimer’s disease, and both of our families carried extra burdens from dementia because the diagnoses were delayed. Diane’s family wondered if her dad’s personality changes were due to early retirement and feeling a loss of purpose. Nora’s family was puzzled by her dad’s trouble finding words and getting lost easily. (Nora Super and Diane Ty, 5/21)

Every day in my work, I am pained to witness the indignities that our neighbors experiencing homelessness endure. With so few public restrooms available and so many without a home, our neighbors are forced to relieve themselves on the streets. What choice do they have? Moreover, mental health resources in the community are in short supply, leaving neighbors with severe mental illness to wander through the streets, faced with confusion and the daily traumas of unsheltered life, their ragged clothing and lack of shoes a clear indication that things are not okay. (Jim Vargas, 5/19)

Covid-19 laid bare how dangerous social isolation can be to everyone and particularly aging Americans. As our nation works to rebuild from the devastation of the pandemic, the Biden administration's recent announcement to allocate $400 billion toward home health care was mostly met with warm welcome. The widespread social isolation people of all ages (including older adults) experienced as a result of the pandemic has been a crisis of its own. The Biden administration's move to rebuild "the care economy" signals a positive shift in our country toward prioritizing the needs of older adults—something we've been sorely lacking for a long time. If we hope to have a holistic recovery from COVID-19, that centers wellness for all, we must ensure the most vulnerable in our society are taken care of and that we are all finding ways to age well, together. Millennials and younger people are key to making sure this is our new reality. (Joseph F. Coughlin and Jordan Mittler, 5/20)

Jamie Dimon can't quit his health-cost crusade, even if Warren Buffett can. On Thursday, JPMorgan Chase & Co. announced that it was launching a new unit called "Morgan Health" to tackle the high cost and poor performance of  U.S medical care. The move comes just a few months after it gave up on Haven, a hyped joint venture with Jeff Bezos’s Amazon.com Inc. and Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. aimed at the same problem. JPMorgan may have learned some lessons, but the fundamental strategy is very similar: to test out innovative health-care ideas on the bank's workers and then use what it learns to help other companies and lower costs. However, American health care isn't uniquely expensive because wealthy corporations aren't smart enough. The real culprit is a series of large and intractable policy problems. They’re a big reason Haven never got off the ground. And they are why Morgan Health is likely to struggle as well. (Max Nisen and Brian Chappatta, 5/20)

The General Assembly’s Appropriations Committee has favorably voted out S.B. 956, An Act Providing Medical Assistance to Certain Individuals Regardless of Immigration Status.  The state, not surprisingly, has countered with a fiscal note that presents a two-year cost-estimate of $267 million to $374 million. But what if the cost of gradually insuring everyone who is eligible for health insurance in the state but for their immigration status works out to less than ten percent of that amount?  Wouldn’t that be an investment that Connecticut’s policymakers should consider? (Jay Sicklick, 5/21)