One of the most delicate systems in the human body is the thyroid, so it’s a little unsettling when a drug meant to help it turns out to be far more potent than it should be. That is precisely the current situation with Vitruvias Therapeutics Inc., an Auburn, Alabama-based pharmaceutical company whose 30 mg thyroid tablets are at the center of a nationwide recall that currently carries the FDA’s most serious classification. On September 22, a full month after Vitruvias first withdrew the product in August, the FDA formally classified the recall as Class I. I remember that a class…
Author: Michael Martinez
Nancy Shevell has an almost cinematic quality; she is the type of person who enters a room silently, holds it without trying, and bears the burden of experiences that most people never have to go through. Before she became Lady McCartney and shared stages and red carpets with one of the most well-known musicians in the world, she was battling something much more private and less well-known: a breast cancer diagnosis that came in the late 1990s and altered everything that came after. When she was diagnosed, she was in her late thirties, a stage of life that usually feels…
Tens of millions of people watch Carrie Ann Inaba sitting behind the judges’ table every Tuesday when Dancing with the Stars airs. She is animated and astute, delivering scores with the kind of confidence that makes you forget anything could go wrong. For years, that image has been meticulously preserved: polished, vivacious, and completely composed. The weariness she’s been dealing with since before some of them were born, the dry eyes so bad they once caused corneal damage, or the joint pain that lurks beneath every public appearance like a low hum that never quite goes away are all things…
It seems as though the well-known last name should take care of everything, including the grief, stress, and medical realities, without complaining. There are public figures whose personal struggles remain unnoticed behind the headlines. Among them is Kerry Kennedy. She is best known for her human rights work and her ancestry as Robert F. Kennedy’s daughter. Despite facing health issues that would prevent most people from moving forward, she has spent decades advocating for causes that are important. Spasmodic dysphonia, a neurological disorder affecting the vocal cords, is the condition that attracted public attention. It results in uncontrollable spasms that…
There are times in a person’s public life when all the performance is stripped away, leaving behind something genuine and unvarnished. When his wife Hayley Erbert passed out on the side of a stage in Washington, D.C., in December 2023 due to a burst blood vessel in her brain, it was that moment for Derek Hough, the polished judge on Dancing with the Stars and the choreographer who makes everything look effortless. During their Symphony of Dance tour, she lost her bearings in the middle of a performance. What appeared to be fatigue proved to be disastrous. She was diagnosed…
The way Duncan Sheik’s last days unfolded—announced via an Instagram post, watched by strangers on the internet, and lamented by fans who still had “Barely Breathing” saved in some dusty playlist from the late nineties—is somewhat heartbreaking. In 1996, he had been unavoidable for a while. Then he became background, as is often the case with pop music. A name that comes to mind when someone says it. A voice that is still instantly recognizable. On September 17th, he vanished. When a statement appeared on his Instagram page on September 16th, it was the first indication to the public that…
There are times in Parliament that seem staged and theatrical, where nothing really changes while the cameras roll and everyone delivers their lines. Now and then, something truly human emerges. Teddy Johnson, a seven-year-old boy, was the subject of a speech given by Carla Lockhart, the DUP Member of Parliament for Upper Bann, at the dispatch box in April 2026. The previous week, he had passed away. Additionally, she ensured that the Prime Minister understood why his death should never have occurred. Teddy passed away from metachromatic leukodystrophy, or MLD, a rare and terrible neurological disorder that causes children to…
You may watch certain television personalities for years without giving much thought to what goes on behind the scenes. One of those characters is Philip Serrell, who is well-known, friendly, and a little eccentric with his signature scarves. He imparts antique knowledge on Bargain Hunt and Antiques Road Trip with the ease of someone who has been doing it for decades. This is precisely why, in early 2024, when viewers began to notice something different about him, the worry felt real rather than just idle celebrity rumors. It wasn’t an emotional interview or a dramatic announcement. As these things usually…