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As health reporters and editors, we know what's good for us. But that doesn't mean we always do it. This year, each of us took at least one thing we've learned covering health and applied it to our own lives. Here's what stuck.Collecting houseplants Last year at this time, I had a modest couple of shelves of houseplants. Now, I live in a jungle. I started collecting rare aroids—a family of plants that includes philodendrons, monsteras, and alocasias—and my new hobby transformed the trajectory of my year. Tending to my plants keeps me busy, so I have less time to scroll social media or get lost in my thoughts, and being surrounded by lush green is calming. I've traveled to new cities to attend plant events, and I’m constantly researching and learning how to be a better plant parent. Plus, t...

Ten years ago, the idea of tracking your footsteps or your heartbeat was weird. Those dedicated to the pursuit of quantified self knowledge proselytized in TED Talks, while journalists attended conferences and reported on the strange new trend. Today, over 40% of households in the U.S. own a wearable device, according to statistics service Statista. It is not uncommon to hear retirees comparing or boasting about their step count for the day. The quantified self is ascendant. Now, as artificial intelligence’s relentless advance continues, researchers and technologists are looking for ways to take the next step—to build AI health coaches that sift through health data and tell users how to stay fighting fit.The triumph of the quantified selfThere’s a lot of evidence to suggest that wearables ...

After Iowa lawmakers passed a ban on gender-affirming care for minors in March, managers of an LGBTQ+ health clinic located just across the state line in Moline, Illinois, decided to start offering that care.The added services would provide care to patients who live in largely rural eastern Iowa, including some of the hundreds previously treated at a University of Iowa clinic, saving them half-day drives to clinics in larger cities like Chicago and Minneapolis.By June, The Project of the Quad Cities, as the Illinois clinic is called, had hired a provider who specializes in transgender health care. So, Andy Rowe, The Project’s health care operations director, called the clinic’s insurance broker to see about getting the new provider added to the nonprofit’s malpractice policy.“I didn’t anti...