Direct-to-Consumer Lab Tests, No Doctor Visit Required

Though parents may be worried, the need for a diagnosis depends on whether the child is actually struggling.

Well: Coloring Your Way Through Grief
After several people close to her died, a grief counselor developed an adult coloring book meant to help people with all kinds of losses.

Well: Ask Well: The Downside of Smoothies
Do I absorb more sugar and calories when I drink fruits and vegetables in a smoothie as opposed to just eating them whole?

Well: The Weekly Health Quiz: Intense Exercise, Diet Soda and Things We Worry About
Test your knowledge of this week’s health news.

Well: Donating an Organ to My Son
As a physician and as a mom, I was used to solving problems. Now I just needed to say a prayer and be available for parts donation.

Well: Pesticide Exposure May Increase Risk of A.L.S.
Exposure to pesticides may increase the risk for Lou Gehrig’s disease, a new study has found.

Well: Learning to Walk in My 60s
In 1951, at the height of the polio epidemic, I knew about my limp before I knew much else about myself.

Well: Giving New Doctors the Tools They Need
They say if all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail. I wonder, then, why my toolbox often seems so inadequate for fixing my patients.

Well: The New Performance Enhancer in High School Sports? Nutrition
More schools are starting to see nutrition as a critical component of athletic training.

Well: Out With the Old
It may be better to give up your bad habits all at once, rather than one at a time.

Well: Diet Soda in Pregnancy Is Linked to Overweight Babies
Drinking one can of diet soda a day doubled the risk of having an overweight 1-year-old.

Well: Heavier People Don’t Die Young
People with a body mass index of 27 have the lowest risk of dying early, according to a new report.

Well: Picking Up an Infection in the Hospital
Like most people, I had long heard about the dangers of contracting infections in hospitals. But I never took them seriously until I entered the world of the sick.

Well: Talking With Teenagers About Marijuana
Adults can use the evolving laws as a jumping-off point to talk with teenagers about how they’ll approach any number of dicey decisions.

Well: Can High-Intensity Exercise Help Me Lose Weight? And Other Questions, Answered
Which is better: high-intensity exercise or moderate endurance exercise? Do you have to cycle to get the benefits? Answers to your questions about the one-minute workout.

Well: Three Ways for Children to Try Meditation at Home
There are many apps, classes and books to guide children in meditation, but it is easy (and free) to start at home.

Well: The Mindful Child
New research shows the benefits of meditation for the elementary school set.

Well: Mother’s Day: The Aftermath
Brunch, flowers and hugs, and then it’s back to reality.

Well: Worried? You’re Not Alone
Two out of five Americans are worried about something every day. Sometimes worrying can help solve your problems — and sometimes it just leads to more worry.

Well: Dehydration: Risks and Myths
For most healthy people, thirst is a reliable signal that more water is needed. But there are exceptions.

Well: Parents, Stop Feeling That Everything You Do Is Wrong
In lighthouse parenting, the goal is to balance keeping kids off the rocks with preparing them to ride the waves.

Well: Swaddling May Increase the Risk of SIDS
Advice to place infants on their backs for sleep is even more important if parents choose to swaddle them.

Well: Think Like a Doctor: Sick at the Wedding Solved!
What was wrong with a man who suddenly became ill at his brother’s wedding? More than 400 of you offered your diagnoses, but no one got it completely right.

Well: The Weekly Health Quiz: Prince, Food Labels and ‘The Biggest Loser’
Test your knowledge of this week’s health news.

Well: Ask Well: Taking a Daily Aspirin
Adults ages 50 to 69 who are at high risk for heart attack or stroke should take a daily low-dose aspirin to prevent both heart attacks and strokes as well colorectal cancer.

Well: The Family That Runs Together
As my family members sniped at one another on our way to the marathon, I couldn’t help asking myself: Why didn’t I just run this marathon alone?

Well: A Mother’s Lesson: When Memory Fails, Delight in the Moment
My mother wrote about her mother’s Alzheimer’s disease in this paper decades ago. And then it came for her.

Well: Yoga for the Showoff. Namaste.
Handstand classes are in demand, thanks at least in part to Instagram.

Well: Pricing a Year of Life
“What is another year of your life worth?” Experts put the number at $50,000. Can patients like me — older people with recurrent disease — estimate the expense of a future year of cancer treatment to decide whether it’s worth it?

Well: Think Like a Doctor: Sick at the Wedding
Can you figure out what is wrong with a 38-year-old man who suffers from fevers, aches and night sweats after traveling to the mountains of Colorado?

Well: Fat Dad: Mom Makes Dinner
My mother’s idea of a good home-cooked meal consisted of au gratin boxed potatoes, canned tuna fish, or maybe some Franco-American Spaghetti0s.

Well: ‘Two-Minute-Warnings’ Make Turning Off the TV Harder
New research shows that giving a child a “two-minute warning” before turning off a video game or TV show does not make it easier for a child to turn away from a screen.

Well: When Hospital Rooms Become Prisons
Like most doctors, I had never received any training on the care of prisoners. So when Michael came to my clinic, I was unprepared.

Well: Starting Your Own Midlife Internship
A number of new programs and businesses encourage an internship-style approach to help women and men get back to the workplace after a career break.

Well: After Cataract Surgery, Hoping to Toss the Glasses
By age 80, more than half of Americans either have a cataract or will have had cataract surgery. Some opt for a form of surgery that can make reading glasses obsolete.

Well: Ovary Removal Tied to Colon Cancer Risk