Quality of Life

A national study finds rising death rates for midlife whites without a college education, even as mortality rates for other groups fall. So it is in Michigan, with stress and poor health leading to drug and alcohol overdoses and suicide.

Cities are turning to this perennial plant as a low-mow solution for maintaining abandoned or vacant properties.

Medicaid expansion and innovative programs are giving more low-income Michigan children a shot at healthy dental care. But access still lags in some rural and urban areas, and impoverished adults continue to suffer from lack of preventative care after years of uncertain funding.

Concern over fluoride’s effect on the human body – and some anti-government sentiment – is forcing dentists and scientists to defend the longstanding practice of putting fluoride in water systems to improve dental health.

The state is on the front lines of detecting head injuries. Yet Bridge found that Michigan allows high school football teams anywhere from four to six times as much full-contact hitting at practices as states like Ohio, Alabama and Texas.

A lawsuit claims that youth football led to brain damage and the suicide at age 25 of an Upper Peninsula football player.

With new legislation on the horizon, advocates for expanded practice rights for highly trained nurses say the move would lower costs and improve access to health care, particularly in rural Michigan.

In this rural Upper Peninsula family, one doctor, one nurse practitioner and two opinions on giving some nurses more autonomy to treat patients.

Should a law that protects rural farmers also allow urban farmers to raise goats in city neighborhoods?