Award-Winning Health Journalism

The Vital Vagus

Peter Warnke, MD, neurosurgeon and director of stereotactic and functional neurosurgery at UChicago Medicine. He treats patients with vagus nerve stimulation

The autonomous nervous system’s longest nerve runs from the brain into the gut, helping the body rest, relax, and digest Fact checked by Jim Lacy Have you heard of the vagus nerve? I certainly hadn’t — until my son, who has a host of food allergies and other health issues, experienced anaphylaxis this past spring. […]

Undoing Debt

Gloria Austin. Photo by Jim Vondruska

As residents stress over unpaid medical bills, Illinois pilot programs pledge to abolish $1 billion of medical debt Fact checked by Jim Lacy Gloria Austin knew she had a problem when a red rash, a line around her stomach, appeared, as pain ramped up. The East Garfield Park resident was 62 at the time. After […]