Health

Crosses to Bear

Every day the new politics of abortion play out at clinics like the one in Bryan–College Station, where emotions run high and Roe v. Wade is almost beside the point.

Susan Powter

No one can say exactly when it happened. But at some point after Jan Jarboe Russell’s November 1993 cover story, “The Skinny on Susan Powter,” appeared, the insanity stopped. The workout madwoman with the grating voice and the blond buzz cut could no longer be heard blaring out of millions

Killer Bugs

I learned a shocking lesson when I visited San Antonio's "hot lab," where some of the world's deadliest microbes are studied. The germs are winning.

Vocal Heroes

The doctors at Abilene’s Voice Institute of West Texas can treat all manner of problems with the way you talk? Speech, speech!

Rx for Trouble

As surgeon general—the nation’s top doctor— C. Everett Koop was much beloved and undeniably respected. So why is the Web site that bears his name in such disarray?

Self-help: Phillip McGraw

Oprah’s guru.

Ardor in the Court

Working out of his two-man firm in Dallas, plaintiff’s attorney Kip Petroff is doing something his peers around the country can’t: He’s bringing a major drug company to its knees.

A Strike Against You

If your family has a history of cancer, are you doomed? Even though many of his relatives—including his famous father—succumbed to the disease, Mickey Mantle, Jr., didn’t think so. Then he got sick.

Killer C

If you had a blood transfusion before 1992 or have ever shared a needle, you could have hepatitis C. You may feel fine, but it could be killing you.

Addicted to Sex?

Even if you’re not, many Texans are: Sex Addicts Anonymous has 61 chapters across the state, tending to the tattered psyches of exhibitionists and other tormented souls.

Skin Care

A Houston company’s breakthrough burn treatment.

HEALTH: Jack Roth

The doctor is in.

How to Have Great Sex Forever

Since I started taking Viagra, I have had the time of my life. You can too—but there’s more to romance than a little blue pill.

Rx for Scandal

The poor quality of health care in the state’s penal system is enough to make you sick. Plus: Inside Tex Moncrief’s IRS mess; a River Oaks bookie is tried for murder; UT’s writing program achieves Texas-size success; and things get woolly for thestate’s mohair producers.

The Needle and the Damage Done

In 1979, as an undercover cop in Tyler, I got hooked on drugs. Nearly two decades later I’m clean, but the consequences of my addiction haunt me still.

Health • Eric Moon-shong Tang

Smoking out the truth.

Food Fright

Eating a peanut shouldn’t be a particularly memorable experience, but for Dallasite Mona Cain and countless other allergic Americans, it’s a matter of life and death.

Blowin’ in the Wind

Itchy eyes, sore throat, runny nose: It must be allergy season. But what causes allergies? How do you pick a doctor? And what’s the best treatment? An in-depth look at an affliction that’s nothing to sneeze at.

Making Headway

At the Texas Woman’s University Aphasia Center in Dallas, a promising new treatment is helping stroke victims learn to read, write, and speak again.

Cancer Patience

To perfect a promising new gene therapy, doctors at Houston’s M. D. Anderson need time. Unfortunately, that’s one thing people with malignant brain tumors don’t have.

So Much to Learn, So Little Time

Today students at Southwestern Medical School in Dallas are expected to master more hard-core science than ever before. Yet after graduation, they’ll have to keep studying, and be counselors and business experts too. A hard look at the way we teach our doctors—and why it has had to change.

Lead Reckoning: The Dish on Talavera

In the sixteenth century, potters emigrated from Talavera de la Reina in Spain to the new colonial settlement of Puebla in Mexico and began crafting their majolica- inspired earthenware, known as Talavera. Although some factories in Puebla still produce high-quality pottery in the old style, most of the vibrantly decorated

Health • Gloria Feldt

Family planner.

Spin Control

Vertigo isn’t just the stuff of Hitchcock thrillers—it’s a debilitating disease, as Dallas radio talk show host Kevin McCarthy found out the hard way.

The Big Chill-Out

Feeling stressed? Soothe the strain of the daily grind at these terrific Texas retreats.

Pale by Comparison

“Michael Jackson’s disease” sounds like a punch line, but the pigment-robbing skin disorder is no joke. Just ask Dallas County commissioner John Wiley Price.

Smooth Operator

You might say Tarek Souryal is the most important Dallas Maverick: He doesn’t score or rebound, but he reconstructs million-dollar ankles and knees, and that makes him a real team player.

The Real Medical Crisis

For reformers of the nations health-care system, ground zero may be Dallas’ Parkland Memorial Hospital, where the crush of uninsured patients with non-urgent complaints is affecting everyone’s care.

Texas Twenty: Linda Aguilar-Bryan and Joseph Bryan

After a decade of lab work at Baylor College of Medicine, this husband-and-wife team has solved the mystery of hyperinsulinism.

A New Low

Across the state, kids are getting seriously messed up on a dirt-cheap downer from Mexico.

Silicone City

From invention to litigation, the breast implant has done more for Houston’s economy—and its psyche—than anything since oil.

Bad Medicine

By vetoing the Patient Protection Act, Gearge W. Bush put cost before care.

A Perfect Mess

Can a suburban Dallas house-wife who suffers from obsessive-compulsive disorder ever overcome her fears? She doubts it.

Roe v. World

Twenty-five years after Norma McCorvey joined the flight to legalize abortion, the battle is still raging—and so is she.

Walk, Don’t Run

After years of arguing that vigorous activity is a key to good health, Kenneth Cooper is exercising his right to change his mind.

Playing Doctor

Drug War!

How a small Houston biotech company and a giant California-based rival are battling over who developed what may be a revolutionary cure for asthma and allergies.

Not What the Doctor Ordered

How an old-fashioned Texas physician fought the takeover of modern medicine by heartless insurance companies—and lost.

Hunger Pains

Without constant care, victims of an obscure genetic disorder would eat themselves to death.

Tom Caskey

Tracking down deadly genes.

Loved to Death

Married for 32 years, my parents both died of AIDS, and we, their children, may never know why.

The Price of AIDS

After years of decay and death, a Houston neighborhood ravaged by the disease is learning to live with it—and surviving.

Love and Death on the Third Floor

She was the princess who wore Tiffany perfume. He was the middle-class guy who raced cars. But when they met on the cystic fibrosis wing of a Dallas hospital, romance bloomed.

Altered State

A year after a grand mal seizure left me convulsing on the floor, I’m still finding my way back into everyday life.

Running Rabid

Five years ago, rabies was rare in South Texas. Now nearly three hundred animals have died and the epidemic is not abating.

Essay: Myth-O-Maniacs

Twenty years ago, we were two-steppers. Now we’re twelve-steppers, thanks to a set of self-help gurus.

Last Rights

My son ended his life after three years of madness and unbearable depression. Who am I to say he did the wrong thing?

Heartless Behavior

Cardiologists Per and Peter Langsjoen sounded a warning.

Rescue Mission

The politics of trauma.

Flight for Your Life

When a few minutes matter, an EMS helicopter can make the difference between life and death.