Gentler Hair Health Options

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Hair, Gently

We have previously talked about the medicinal options for combatting the thinning hair that comes with age especially for men, but also for a lot of women. You can read about those medicinal options here:

Hair-Loss Remedies, By Science

We also did a whole supplement spotlight research review for saw palmetto! You can read about how that might help you keep your hair present and correct, here:

One Man’s Saw Palmetto Is Another Woman’s Serenoa Repens

Today we’re going to talk options that are less “heavy guns”, and/but still very useful.

Supplementation

First, the obvious. Taking vitamins and minerals, especially biotin, can help a lot. This writer takes 10,000µg (that’s micrograms, not milligrams!) biotin gummies, similar to this example product on Amazon (except mine also has other vitamins and minerals in, but the exact product doesn’t seem to be available on Amazon).

When thinking “what vitamins and minerals help hair?”, honestly, it’s most of them. So, focus on the ones that count for the most (usually: biotin and zinc), and then cover your bases for the rest with good diet and additional supplementation if you wish.

Caffeine (topical)

It may feel silly, giving one’s hair a stimulant, but topical caffeine application really does work to stimulate hair growth. And not “just a little help”, either:

❝Specifically, 0.2% topical caffeine-based solutions are typically safe with very minimal adverse effects for long-term treatment of AGA, and they are not inferior to topical 5% minoxidil therapy❞

~ Dr. Bajoria et al.

(AGA = Androgenic Alopecia)

Read more: Comparing Current Therapeutic Modalities of Androgenic Alopecia: A Literature Review of Clinical Trials

Argan oil

As with coconut oil, argan oil is great on hair. It won’t do a thing to improve hair growth or decrease hair shedding, but it will help you hair stay moisturized and thus reduce breakage—thus, may not be relevant for everyone, but for those of us with hair long enough to brush, it’s important.

Bonus: get an argan oil based hair serum that also contains keratin (the protein used to make hair), as this helps strengthen the hair too.

Here’s an example product on Amazon

Silk pillowcases

Or a silk hair bonnet to sleep in! They both do the same thing, which is prevent damaging the hair in one’s sleep by reducing the friction that it may have when moving/turning against the pillow in one’s sleep.

  • Pros of the bonnet: if you have lots of hair and a partner in bed with you, your hair need not be in their face, and you also won’t get it caught under you or them.
  • Pros of the pillowcase: you don’t have to wear a bonnet

Both are also used widely by people without hair loss issues, but with easily damaged and/or tangled hair—Black people especially with 3C or tighter curls in particular often benefit from this. Other people whose hair is curly and/or gray also stand to gain a lot.

Here are Amazon example products of a silk pillowcase (it’s expensive, but worth it) and a silk bonnet, respectively

Want to read more?

You might like this article:

From straight to curly, thick to thin: here’s how hormones and chemotherapy can change your hair

Take care!

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  • Fitness In Our Fifties

    10almonds is reader-supported. We may, at no cost to you, receive a portion of sales if you purchase a product through a link in this article.

    It’s Q&A Day at 10almonds!

    Have a question or a request? We love to hear from you!

    In cases where we’ve already covered something, we might link to what we wrote before, but will always be happy to revisit any of our topics again in the future too—there’s always more to say!

    As ever: if the question/request can be answered briefly, we’ll do it here in our Q&A Thursday edition. If not, we’ll make a main feature of it shortly afterwards!

    So, no question/request too big or small

    Q: What’s a worthwhile fitness goal for people in their 50s?

    A: At 10almonds, we think that goals are great but habits are better.

    If your goal is to run a marathon, that’s a fine goal, and can be very motivating, but then after the marathon, then what? You’ll look back on it as a great achievement, but what will it do for your future health?

    PS, yes, marathon-running in one’s middle age is a fine and good activity for most people. Maybe skip it if you have osteoporosis or some other relevant problem (check with your doctor), but…

    Marathons in Mid- and Later-Life ← we wrote about the science of it here

    PS, we also explored some science that may be applicable to your other question, on the same page as that about marathons!

    The thing about habits vs goals is that habits give ongoing cumulative (often even: compounding) benefits:

    How To Really Pick Up (And Keep!) Those Habits

    If you pressingly want advice on goals though, our advice is this:

    Make it your goal to be prepared for the health challenges of later life. It may seem gloomy to say that old age is coming for us all if something else doesn’t get us first, but the fact is, old age does not have to come with age-related decline, and the very least, we can increase our healthspan (so we’re hitting 90 with most of the good health we enjoyed in our 70s, for example, or hitting 80 with most of the good health we enjoyed in our 60s).

    If that goal seems a little wishy-washy, here are some very specific and practical ideas to get you started:

    Train For The Event Of Your Life!

    As for the limits and/or extents of how much we can do in that regard? Here are what two aging experts have to say:

    And here’s what we at 10almonds had to say:

    Age & Aging: What Can (And Can’t) We Do About It?

    Take care!

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  • Do CBD Gummies Work?

    10almonds is reader-supported. We may, at no cost to you, receive a portion of sales if you purchase a product through a link in this article.

    It’s Q&A Day at 10almonds!

    Have a question or a request? You can always hit “reply” to any of our emails, or use the feedback widget at the bottom!

    In cases where we’ve already covered something, we might link to what we wrote before, but will always be happy to revisit any of our topics again in the future too—there’s always more to say!

    As ever: if the question/request can be answered briefly, we’ll do it here in our Q&A Thursday edition. If not, we’ll make a main feature of it shortly afterwards!

    So, no question/request too big or small

    ❝I take CBD gummies. I don’t know if they are worth buying. Can you find a study on the effectiveness of gummies❞

    If you take them, and you’re not sure whether they’re worth it, then it sounds like you’re not getting any observable benefit from them?

    If so, that would seem to answer your question, since presumably the reason that you are taking them is for relaxation and/or pain relief, so if you’re not getting the results you want, then no, they are not worth it.

    However! CBD gummies are an incredibly diverse and not-well-studied product, so far, given the relative novelty of their legality. By diverse we mean, they’re not well-standardized.

    In other words: the CBD gummies you get could be completely unlike CBD gummies from a different source.

    CBD itself (i.e. in forms other than just gummies, and mostly as oil) has been studied somewhat better, and we did a main feature on it here:

    CBD Oil’s Many Benefits

    And while we’re at it:

    Cannabis Myths vs Reality ← This one is about cannabis products in general, and includes discussion of THC content and effects, which might not be so relevant to you, but may to some readers.

    Companies selling CBD and CBD gummies may make bold claims that are not yet backed by science, so if you are buying them for those reasons, you might want to be aware:

    Selling cannabidiol products in Canada: a framing analysis of advertising claims by online retailers

    One thing that we would add is that even though CBD is generally recognized as safe, it is possible to overdose on CBD gummies, so do watch your limits:

    A Case of Toxicity from Cannabidiol Gummy Ingestion

    Take care!

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  • How To Really Look After Your Joints

    10almonds is reader-supported. We may, at no cost to you, receive a portion of sales if you purchase a product through a link in this article.

    The Other Ways To Look After Your Joints

    When it comes to joint health, most people have two quick go-to items:

    • Stretching
    • Supplements like omega-3 and glucosamine sulfate

    Stretching, and specifically, mobility exercises, are important! We’ll have to do a main feature on these sometime soon. But for today, we’ll just say: yes, gentle daily stretches go a long way, as does just generally moving more.

    And, those supplements are not without their merits. For example:

    Of those, glucosamine sulfate may have an extra benefit in now just alleviating the symptoms, but also slowing the progression of degenerative joint conditions (like arthritis of various kinds). This is something it shares with chondroitin sulfate:

    Effect of glucosamine or chondroitin sulfate on the osteoarthritis progression: a meta-analysis

    An unlikely extra use for the humble cucumber…

    As it turns out, cucumber extract beats glucosamine and chondroitin by 200%, at 1/135th of the dose.

    You read that right, and it’s not a typo. See for yourself:

    Effectiveness of Cucumis sativus extract versus glucosamine-chondroitin in the management of moderate osteoarthritis: a randomized controlled trial

    Reduce inflammation, have happier joints

    Joint pain and joint degeneration in general is certainly not just about inflammation; there is physical wear-and-tear too. But combatting inflammation is important, and turmeric, which we’ve done a main feature on before, is a potent helper in this regard:

    Efficacy of Turmeric Extracts and Curcumin for Alleviating the Symptoms of Joint Arthritis: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized Clinical Trials

    See also: Keep Inflammation At Bay

    (a whole list of tips for, well, keeping inflammation at bay)

    About that wear-and-tear…

    Your bones and joints are made of stuff, and that stuff needs to be replaced. As we get older, the body typically gets worse at replacing it in a timely and efficient fashion. We can help it do its job, by giving it more of the stuff it needs.

    And what stuff is that?

    Well, minerals like calcium and phosphorus are important, but a lot is also protein! Specifically, collagen. We did a main feature on this before, which is good, as it’d take us a lot of space to cover all the benefits here:

    We Are Such Stuff As Fish Are Made Of

    Short version? People take collagen for their skin, but really, its biggest benefit is for our bones and joints!

    Wrap up warmly and… No wait, skip that.

    If you have arthritis, you may indeed “feel it in your bones” when the weather changes. But the remedy for that is not to try to fight it, but rather, to strengthen your body’s ability to respond to it.

    The answer? Cryotherapy, with ice baths ranking top:

    Note that this can be just localized, so for example if the problem joints are your wrists, a washing-up bowl with water and ice will do just nicely.

    Note also that, per that last study, a single session will only alleviate the pain, not the disease itself. For that (per the other studies) more sessions are required.

    We did a main feature about cryotherapy a while back, and it explains how and why it works:

    A Cold Shower A Day Keeps The Doctor Away?

    Take care!

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Related Posts

  • Eating For Energy (In Ways That Actually Work)
  • Detox: What’s Real, What’s Not, What’s Useful, What’s Dangerous?

    10almonds is reader-supported. We may, at no cost to you, receive a portion of sales if you purchase a product through a link in this article.

    Detox: What’s Real, What’s Not, What’s Useful, What’s Dangerous?

    Out of the subscribers who engaged in the poll, it looks like we have a lot of confidence in at least some detox approaches being useful!

    Celery juice is most people’s go-to, and indeed it was the only one to get mentioned in the comments added. So let’s take a look at that first…

    Celery juice

    Celery juice is enjoyed by many people, with many health benefits in mind, including to:

    • reduce inflammation
    • lower blood pressure
    • heal the liver
    • fight cancer
    • reduce bloating
    • support the digestive system
    • increase energy
    • support weight loss
    • promote good mental health

    An impressive list! With such an impressive list, we would hope for an impressive weight of evidence, so regular readers might be wondering why those bullet-pointed items aren’t all shiny hyperlinks to studies backing those claims. The reason is…

    There aren’t any high-quality studies that back any of those claims.

    We found one case study (so, a study with a sample size of one; not amazing) that observed a blood pressure change in an elderly man after drinking celery juice.

    Rather than trawl up half of PubMed to show the lacklustre results in a way more befitting of Research Review Monday, though, here’s a nice compact article detailing the litany of disappointment that is science’s observations regards celery juice:

    Why Are People Juicing Their Celery? – by Allison Webster, PhD, RD

    A key take-away is: juicing destroys the fiber that is celery’s biggest benefit, and its phytochemicals are largely unproven to be of use.

    If you enjoy celery, great! It (when not juiced) is a great source of fiber and water. If you juice it, it’s a great source of water.

    Activated Charcoal

    Unlike a lot of greenery—whose “cleansing” benefits mostly come from fiber and disappear when juiced—activated charcoal has a very different way of operating.

    Activated charcoal is negatively charged on a molecular level*, and that—along with its porous nature—traps toxins. It really is a superpowered detox that actually works very well indeed.

    But…

    It works very well indeed. It will draw out toxins so well, that it’s commonly used to treat poisonings. “Wait”, we hear you say, “why was that a but”?

    It doesn’t know what a toxin is. It just draws out all of the things. You took medicine recently? Not any more you didn’t. You didn’t even take that medication orally, you took it some other way? Activated charcoal does not care:

    Does this mean that activated charcoal can be used to “undo” a night of heavy drinking?

    Sadly not. That’s one of the few things it just doesn’t work for. It won’t work for alcohol, salts, or metals:

    The Use of Activated Charcoal to Treat Intoxications

    *Fun chemistry mnemonic about ions:

    Cations are pussitive

    Anions (by process of elimination) are negative

    Onions taste good in salad (remember also: Cole’s Law)

    Bottom line on detox foods/drinks:

    • Fiber is great; juicing removes fiber. Eat your greens (don’t drink them)!
    • Activated charcoal is the heavy artillery of detoxing
    • Sometimes it will remove things you didn’t want removed, though
    • It also won’t help against alcohol, sadly

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  • The Keys to Good Mental Wellbeing

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    The Nine Keys To Good Mental Wellbeing

    Today’s main feature is a bit “pop psychology”, but it has its underpinnings in actual psychology, and is especially useful if approached from that angle.

    What it’s most popularly enjoyed as:

    • A personality-typing system.
    • People love little quizzes and identifiers and such.

    What it’s actually really useful as:

    • A tool for understanding why people (including ourselves) are the way we are
    • A foundational knowledge for living better ourselves, and helping others too

    This stems from the fairly simple principle, uncontroversial in psychology:

    • We have needs, desires, and aversions
    • We act in a way that tries to get our needs met and avoid suffering
    • Thus: Need/Fear → Motivation → Action

    The Enneagram

    The Enneagram (ἐννέα = “nine” in Ancient Greek) system posits that we each have one fundamental need/fear (from a list of nine) that’s strongest for us. A deep-seated insecurity/longing, that we’ll go to almost any lengths to try to meet. Sometimes, in good ways, sometimes, bad.

    The Nine Basic Fears/Insecurities, And Their Corresponding Needs/Desires:

    1. Fear of being a fundamentally bad, wrong person / Need to be good and correct
    2. Fear of being fundamentally unloveable / Need to be loved
    3. Fear of being fundamentally worthless / Need to be valued
    4. Fear of being like everyone else / Need to be different
    5. Fear of being useless / Need to be useful
    6. Fear of being outcast / Need to have a set place in the group
    7. Fear of missing out / Need to experience things
    8. Fear of being hurt or controlled / Need to be in control
    9. Fear of conflict / Need to be at peace

    Of course, most of us have most of these fears/needs to some extent, though usually one will stand out—especially if we aren’t managing it well. The less healthy our coping mechanisms, the more obvious it is how we’re trying to overcompensate in some fashion. For example:

    1. A person who fears being wrong and so becomes a perfectionist rules-abider to a fault
    2. A person who fears being unloveable, and so exaggerates problems to get pity, as the next best thing
    3. A person who fears being worthless, and so exaggerates their accomplishments in order to be admired and valued
    4. A person who fears being like everyone else, and so descends into a “nobody could ever possibly understand me” black hole of pathos.
    5. A person who fears being useless, so burns themself out trying to be an omnicompetent Leonardo da Vinci without ever actually taking the time to stop and smell the flowers as Leonardo did.
    6. A person who fears being outcast, so becomes clingy, passive-aggressive, and suspicious
    7. A person who fears missing out, so tries to experience all the things all the time, ruining their health with dizzying highs and crushing lows.
    8. A person who fears being hurt or controlled, so becomes aggressive and domineering
    9. A person who fears conflict, so shuts down at the slightest hint of it

    If we have healthier coping mechanisms, these same nine people can look a lot different, but in much more subtle ways because we’re not trying to overcompensate so badly:

    1. A person who lives their life rationally by principles that can be adapted as they learn
    2. A person who loves and is loved, as perhaps the most notable part of their character
    3. A person who sets reasonable goals and accomplishes them, and seeks to uplift others
    4. A person who creates and innovates, enriching their own life and the lives of others
    5. A person who is simply very competent and knowledgeable, without overstretching
    6. A person who is dependable and loyal, and a reliable part of something bigger than themself
    7. A person who is fun to be around and loves trying new things, while also knowing how to relax
    8. A person who develops their leadership skills and is a tower of strength for others
    9. A person who knows how to make peace and does so—by themself, and with others

    By being aware of our own fears/insecurities that may drive our motivations and thus underpin our behaviors, we can usually manage them in a much more mindful fashion. Same goes when it comes to managing interactions with other people, too:

    • Letting the Type 3 know you value them, not their accomplishments or what they can do for you.
    • Appreciating the Type 5’s (varied or specialist) skills and knowledge.
    • Giving love to a Type 2 unprompted, but on your own terms, with your own boundaries.
    • And so on for other types

    Or for yourself…

    • As a Type 8, remembering that you can let go sometimes and let someone else be in charge.
    • As a Type 1, catching yourself holding yourself (or others) to impossible standards, and then easing up on that a little.
    • As a Type 9, remembering to stand up for yourself and others, however gently, but firmly.
    • And so on for other types

    If you’re unsure what to focus on, ask yourself: what’s your worst nightmare or greatest daydream? Then work out what it is about that, that makes it feel so bad or good.

    Then, approach things mindfully. Catch yourself in your unhealthy coping mechanisms, and find healthy ones instead.

    What if I get my type wrong? Or I get someone else’s type wrong?

    Obviously it’s better to get them right for maximum effect, but you can never go too far wrong anyway… because we all have all nine of those qualities in us, it’s just a matter of how strong a factor each is for us. So in the worst case scenario, you’ll make someone feel more secure about something that was only a very minor insecurity for them, for example.

    Or in the case of your own type, you may mistakenly think you’re acing being the world’s healthiest Type 5, until you realize you’re actually a Type 3 who thought learning all those things would make you more worthy (spoiler: those things are great, but you’re worthy already). Again, not the end of the world! No matter what, you’re learning and growing, and that’s good.

    Want to delve further?

    Read: The Nine Enneagram Type Descriptions (Basic, but more detailed descriptions than the above)

    Read: How The Enneagram System Works (More complex. Now we’re getting into the more arcane stuff we didn’t have time for today—wings and lines, triads, health levels, directions of integration and disintegration, and more)

    Like learning from books? Here are our top two picks, depending on your learning style:

    We’d love to offer a quick free test here, but all the tests we could find either require paid registration or are wildly inaccurate, so we’ll not waste your time.

    However, we do also think that working it out for yourself is better, as it means you have a handle on what those ideas, fears, insecurities, desires, needs, really mean to you—that way you can actually use the information!

    We’ll close by repeating our previous advice: If you’re unsure what to focus on, ask yourself: what’s your worst nightmare or greatest daydream? Then work out what it is about those scenarios that make them so bad or good. That’ll help you find your real fears/needs, such that you can work on them.

    Good luck!

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  • Native Americans Have Shorter Life Spans. Better Health Care Isn’t the Only Answer.

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    HISLE, S.D. — Katherine Goodlow is only 20, but she has experienced enough to know that people around her are dying too young.

    Goodlow, a member of the Lower Brule Sioux Tribe, said she’s lost six friends and acquaintances to suicide, two to car crashes, and one to appendicitis. Four of her relatives died in their 30s or 40s, from causes such as liver failure and covid-19, she said. And she recently lost a 1-year-old nephew.

    “Most Native American kids and young people lose their friends at a young age,” said Goodlow, who is considering becoming a mental health therapist to help her community. “So, I’d say we’re basically used to it, but it hurts worse every time we lose someone.”

    Native Americans tend to die much earlier than white Americans. Their median age at death was 14 years younger, according to an analysis of 2018-21 data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

    The disparity is even greater in Goodlow’s home state. Indigenous South Dakotans who died between 2017 and 2021 had a median age of 58 — 22 years younger than white South Dakotans, according to state data.

    Donald Warne, a physician who is co-director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Indigenous Health and a member of the Oglala Sioux Tribe, can rattle off the most common medical conditions and accidents killing Native Americans.

    But what’s ultimately behind this low life expectancy, agree Warne and many other experts on Indigenous health, are social and economic forces. They argue that in addition to bolstering medical care and fully funding the Indian Health Service — which provides health care to Native Americans — there needs to be a greater investment in case management, parenting classes, and home visits.

    “It’s almost blasphemy for a physician to say,” but “the answer to addressing these things is not hiring more doctors and nurses,” Warne said. “The answer is having more community-based preventions.”

    The Indian Health Service funds several kinds of these programs, including community health worker initiatives, and efforts to increase access to fresh produce and traditional foods.

    Private insurers and state Medicaid programs, including South Dakota’s, are increasingly covering such services. But insurers don’t pay for all the services and aren’t reaching everyone who qualifies, according to Warne and the National Academy for State Health Policy.

    Warne pointed to Family Spirit, a program developed by the Johns Hopkins center to improve health outcomes for Indigenous mothers and children.

    Chelsea Randall, the director of maternal and child health at the Great Plains Tribal Leaders’ Health Board, said community health workers educate Native pregnant women and connect them with resources during home visits.

    “We can be with them throughout their pregnancy and be supportive and be the advocate for them,” said Randall, whose organization runs Family Spirit programs across seven reservations in the Dakotas, and in Rapid City, South Dakota.

    The community health workers help families until children turn 3, teaching parenting skills, family planning, drug abuse prevention, and stress management. They can also integrate the tribe’s culture by, for example, using their language or birthing traditions.

    The health board funds Family Spirit through a grant from the federal Health Resources and Services Administration, Randall said. Community health workers, she said, use some of that money to provide child car seats and to teach parents how to properly install them to counter high rates of fatal crashes.

    Other causes of early Native American deaths include homicide, drug overdoses, and chronic diseases, such as diabetes, Warne said. Native Americans also suffer a disproportionate number of infant and maternal deaths.

    The crisis is evident in the obituaries from the Sioux Funeral Home, which mostly serves Lakota people from the Pine Ridge Reservation and surrounding area. The funeral home’s Facebook page posts obituaries for older adults, but also for many infants, toddlers, teenagers, young adults, and middle-aged residents.

    Misty Merrival, who works at the funeral home, blames poor living conditions. Some community members struggle to find healthy food or afford heat in the winter, she said. They may live in homes with broken windows or that are crowded with extended family members. Some neighborhoods are strewn with trash, including intravenous needles and broken bottles.

    Seeing all these premature deaths has inspired Merrival to keep herself and her teenage daughter healthy by abstaining from drugs and driving safely. They also talk every day about how they’re feeling, as a suicide-prevention strategy.

    “We’ve made a promise to each other that we wouldn’t leave each other like that,” Merrival said.

    Many Native Americans live in small towns or on poor, rural reservations. But rurality alone doesn’t explain the gap in life expectancy. For example, white people in rural Montana live 17 years longer, on average, than Native Americans in the state, according to state data reported by Lee Enterprises newspapers.

    Many Indigenous people also face racism or personal trauma from child or sexual abuse and exposure to drugs or violence, Warne said. Some also deal with generational trauma from government programs and policies that broke up families and tried to suppress Native American culture.

    Even when programs are available, they’re not always accessible.

    Families without strong internet connections can’t easily make video appointments. Some lack cars or gas money to travel to clinics, and public transportation options are limited.

    Randall, the health board official, is pregnant and facing her own transportation struggles.

    It’s a three-hour round trip between her home in the town of Pine Ridge and her prenatal appointments in Rapid City. Randall has had to cancel several appointments when family members couldn’t lend their cars.

    Goodlow, the 20-year-old who has lost several loved ones, lives with seven other people in her mother’s two-bedroom house along a gravel road. Their tiny community on the Pine Ridge Reservation has homes and ranches but no stores.

    Goodlow attended several suicide-prevention presentations in high school. But the programs haven’t stopped the deaths. One friend recently killed herself after enduring the losses of her son, mother, best friend, and a niece and nephew.

    A month later, another friend died from a burst appendix at age 17, Goodlow said. The next day, Goodlow woke up to find one of her grandmother’s parakeets had died. That afternoon, she watched one of her dogs die after having seizures.

    “I thought it was like some sign,” Goodlow said. “I started crying and then I started thinking, ‘Why is this happening to me?’”

    Warne said the overall conditions on some reservations can create despair. But those same reservations, including Pine Ridge, also contain flourishing art scenes and language and cultural revitalization programs. And not all Native American communities are poor.

    Warne said federal, state, and tribal governments need to work together to improve life expectancy. He encourages tribes to negotiate contracts allowing them to manage their own health care facilities with federal dollars because that can open funding streams not available to the Indian Health Service.

    Katrina Fuller is the health director at Siċaŋġu Co, a nonprofit group on the Rosebud Reservation in South Dakota. Fuller, a member of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe, said the organization works toward “wicozani,” or the good way of life, which encompasses the physical, emotional, cultural, and financial health of the community.

    Siċaŋġu Co programs include bison restoration, youth development, a Lakota language immersion school, financial education, and food sovereignty initiatives.

    “Some people out here that are struggling, they have dreams, too. They just need the resources, the training, even the moral support,” Fuller said. “I had one person in our health coaching class tell me they just really needed someone to believe in them, that they could do it.”

    KFF Health News is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF—an independent source of health policy research, polling, and journalism. Learn more about KFF.

    Subscribe to KFF Health News’ free Morning Briefing.

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