Another day, another health scare. I’m struggling to know which dangers I should take seriously

If you want to stir up online controversy, wooden spoons are the perfect tool with which to do so. Every few years, influencers go viral with warnings about how the wooden spoons in your kitchen are covered in disgusting gunk and if you don’t boil them immediately you will poison yourself and everyone you love.

In 2023, for example, a woman called Lulaboo Jenkins posted a TikTok video of her boiling spoons. Millions of people watched the water turn brown and it triggered a deep-cleaning craze. The Guardian’s Tim Dowling had a go, detailing the results in an article that prompted more than 1,000 comments. Who knew spoons could inspire such a feverish response? (Well, Jenkins, I suppose.)

We are raiding the Guardian Long Read archives to bring you some classic pieces from years past, with new introductions from the authors.

This week, from 2022: As I finished the final house calls of my long career in general practice, it struck me how detached I am from my patients now – and that it was not always like this. Where did we go wrong, and what can we do to fix it?

By Clare Gerada. Read by Lucy Scott

Administration to drop Idaho emergency abortion lawsuit and back South Carolina in Planned Parenthood funds case

The Trump administration fired off a series of dramatic attacks on abortion rights on Tuesday, as it signaled its plan to drop out of a case defending access to emergency abortions while asking the US supreme court for permission to join a case against the abortion provider Planned Parenthood.

The justice department said it would move to dismiss the case over emergency abortions, which had been originally filed by the Biden administration, according to court papers filed by the largest hospital network in Idaho. The Biden administration had sued Idaho over its near-total abortion ban, which it accused of running afoul of a federal law that protects patients’ right to health care in emergencies.

Health experts wary as US health secretary fails to endorse effective vaccines and instead calls them a ‘personal choice’

Robert F Kennedy Jr, the US health secretary, has caused alarm among pediatricians, vaccine experts and lawmakers with an opinion piece that focuses on vitamin A and nutrition as treatments for measles.

In response to a measles outbreak in Texas, which resulted in the first American measles death in nearly a decade, Kennedy wrote for Fox News about the benefits of “good nutrition” and vitamin A – but did not explicitly recommend highly effective vaccines.

In an essay in Sucker Punch, author Scaachi Koul deals with internalized fatphobia and learning to love her body

Even during the apocalypse, I was calorie counting.

While the pandemic raged on, I was still following The Rules, a set of requirements around my eating that I’ve had since I was 12. The Rules have changed over the course of my life, but there are always Rules.

Highly contagious respiratory illness was declared eliminated in US in 2000 but new cases have now risen

Two cases of measles have been confirmed in New York City so far this year, according to the New York City health department.

Officials have not disclosed the ages or vaccination status of the two cases, but they are urging parents to vaccinate their children. The first case was reported earlier this year, but the cases are reportedly unrelated.

Appointment advice | Certain death | Taxing billionaires | Working-class doctors | Perfectly fried chips | AI payback

Thanks for the advice on making the most of your doctor’s appointment (Don’t be afraid to cry – or to interrupt: doctors’ tips for making the most of your medical appointment, 2 March). Will you now publish a guide to making a doctor’s appointment?
Patrick Sheehy
Blackheath, London

• “People who drink tea may have a lower risk of stroke, dementia and even death” (Brewing tea removes heavy metals from water, study finds, 25 February). Really? I always thought that, whatever we eat or drink, we all have a 100% chance of death.
Tom Uprichard
London

Cassia and Ashley felt ‘dehumanized’ at the Re-Creation Retreat in Arizona, one of the many teen rehab facilities across the US. They knew they had to get out – but staff came after them

Girls who arrive at Re-Creation Retreat (RCR) begin at level one. At level one, girls are not allowed to look out of the window. They are not allowed to talk to each other or look each other in the eye. “Your microexpressions were controlled,” said Carissa Reyes, who joined the programme soon after it first opened in 2008.

Girls climb up the ranks with good behaviour, accruing points and privileges. Girls who reach higher levels are able to wear their own clothes or speak with permission. Eventually they reach level five, and are allowed to leave.

A diet high in fibre from different food sources is far more effective for maintaining a healthy gut than supplements and online fads, experts say

The emerging evidence of how our gut microbiomes influence our overall health has seen a surge in interest in how to achieve a healthy gut.

Perhaps nowhere is that interest more manifest than TikTok’s obsession – the hashtags #guttok and #guthealth show endless videos of influencers promising ways you can “eliminate bloating!” or “heal your gut”.

Shez Partovi, chief innovation officer at Philips, is excited about the benefits of new technology for patients and clinicians

Two decades ago, Shez Partovi was working as a neuroradiologist at the US private hospital chain Dignity Health in Arizona, and remembers listening to a lecture by a nun between seeing his VIP patients from Mexico and Saudi Arabia. Sister Margaret was talking about children with diabetes on Native American reservations just 50 miles from the private hospital, who had little or no access to medical care.

Partovi, now chief innovation and strategy officer at the Dutch healthcare company Philips, recalls: “She said: ‘I want you to remember there are people that are born, live and die never having seen a physician, and your job is to know that.’”