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By JIM and LISA MCGOVERN

You have cancer. Words nobody ever wants to hear — but each year, nearly two million of our fellow Americans hear them. More than 600,000 die annually after battling these diseases, including over 12,000 people in Massachusetts alone.But it does not...

By EMILY THURLOW

EASTHAMPTON — Almost every morning, Robin Bialecki is up at 5 a.m. to make her rounds at grocery stores like Big Y and Stop & Shop, salvaging unsellable food items that can be distributed to those in need through the food pantry at the Easthampton...

By EMILY THURLOW

EASTHAMPTON — A few months ago a resident asked the city’s Health Department how they could acquire fentanyl test strips, one of several harm reduction products the city makes available for free upon request, without having to ask for them in person...

GRANT ABy MARY BYRNEStaff WriterNORTHAMPTON — ServiceNet, the large nonprofit human service agency headquartered in Northampton, intends to use a significant $4 million grant from the federal government to extend and expand a two-year-old pilot...

By ANNA GUARACAO

As the temperature drops and Bay State residents spend more time indoors, public health experts and health care professionals are concerned about an increasing viral mix of COVID-19, RSV, and the flu, while staffing shortages and overflowing emergency...

By ALEXANDER MACDOUGALL

NORTHAMPTON — Students and staff members returning to Northampton public schools will return to temporary masking for nine days, as the school looks to add precautionary measures in light of climbing COVID-19 and flu cases across the country.In a...

By EMILY THURLOW

EASTHAMPTON — In the wake of two highly contentious public hearings that packed the City Council chambers, At-Large City Councilor Owen Zaret came before the Board of Health Tuesday night to present a proposed ordinance designed to stop deceptive...

By SCOTT MERZBACH

AMHERST — A new town department that will provide an alternative to police, with unarmed employees responding to calls that don’t feature violence of serious crime, has its inaugural leader.Earl Miller, regional director of recovery for the...

By DUSTY CHRISTENSEN

HOLYOKE — Holyoke Medical Center intends to close its maternity services unit, leaving Holyoke residents with no place to give birth and receive obstetric care within the city.The decision comes after HMC temporarily closed its Birthing Center in...

By TYNAN POWER

Alice Walker said, “Sexuality is one of the ways that we become enlightened, actually, because it leads us to self-knowledge.” But what happens when sexuality becomes a site of pain and trauma? For far too many people, harmful experiences can limit...

By GINNY HAMILTON

Thanksgiving is notorious as the busiest car travel holiday. The headaches of traffic snarls can be as emblematic of the holiday as cranberry sauce. Most people can be grateful to experience traffic headaches only figuratively. For some, however,...

By GINNY HAMILTON

Do you stand like a duck?Please stand up for a moment and take a look down at your feet. Do your toes point out to the sides? For most of us, the answer is yes.This is often because our outer hip muscles, the hip rotators, are stronger than their...

By GINNY HAMILTON

Early on an August Sunday morning, we pulled out of our driveway in a car laden with bikes, camping gear and beach chairs, determined to beat Cape traffic. We hadn’t even made it to the end of our street when I realized I’d left my phone on the...

By Bryna Greenspan

A few decades ago, high in the Italian Alps, a five-thousand-year-old mummy was found.  Offered up from a melting glacier and discovered by unsuspecting hikers, Otzi the Iceman was remarkably preserved, frozen as he was in the snow for millennia....

By LILLIAN ILSLEY-GREENE

BOSTON — Massachusetts could become the first state in New England to ban non-consensual pelvic examinations on women under anesthesia as outlined in bills filed by state Sen. Jo Comerford, D-Northampton, and state Rep. Mindy Domb, D-Amherst.Pelvic...

By LISA SPEAR

Jenny Marshall of Leverett leans back in what looks like a fancy lawn chair while a woman kneeling in front of her is cradling Marshall’s feet in her hands, buffing away at her toenails, rubbing away the cracks in her heels and scrubbing her calluses....

By M.J. TIDWELL

Editor’s note: This is Part 2 of a four-part series on the role of sedatives known as benzodiazepines in the nation’s opioid crisis. Dr. Christy Huff, a Texas cardiologist, was prescribed Xanax after a dry-eye syndrome caused her eyes to “feel like...

By LISA SPEAR

When Catherine Ames, 47, of Northampton steps out of the infrared sauna, the skin on her face is glowing and clear, much different, she says, than it looked a month ago.Before she started her 30-minute sessions each week at Thelo Home & Modern...

By LISA SPEAR

When Dusty Miller of Belchertown would pick up her cat Mary Clare, the kitty would wrap its little legs around her shoulders in a kind of hug. When Miller was sad, Bardsley, her other cat, would cuddle up to her.But two summers ago, both pets...

By Barbara Quinn

In these glorious tomato growing months from June to September, the best tasting tomatoes are those grown close to home. Some of the best tomatoes to grace my taste buds were “volunteers” that popped up in a pile of dirt behind my house a few years...