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The June that just ended was the Earth’s hottest recorded — ever. And the first week of July saw the trend continue. The surging summer temperatures made me wonder: Just how much heat can the human body stand? (F.D. Flam, 7/10)

Sunday morning at the supermarket. My wife likes to shop, but today I’m scouring labels to keep sugar and too many carbs out of my diet. You see, I’m one of the 96 million Americans that the Centers for Disease Control says has pre-diabetes. Texas and the “Deep South” States lead the nation. Over 25% of our older Americans have the disease. (Steve Fischer, 7/11)

For a characteristic we don’t get to choose, our birthdays affect many important parts of our lives. Our research has shown that there are some surprising and important considerations families and health providers alike should address for kids whose birthdays happen to be in the summer. (Anupam B. Jena and Christopher M. Worsham, 7/11)

The National Organ Transplant Act of 1984 created the framework for the organ transplant system in the United States, and nearly 40 years later, the law is responsible for millions of needless deaths and trillions of wasted dollars. The Transplant Act requires modification, immediately. (Ned Brooks and ML Cavanaugh, 7/9)

If you care about women’s health, or the health of the U.S. economy for that matter, you should be paying attention to Medicaid. Medicaid,  the publicly funded health insurance program designed to provide a safety net for low-income and disabled Americans, is unraveling at an alarming pace  — and that’s bad news for women, families, communities and the nation as a whole. (Martha Nolan, 7/9)

Aspartame is an artificial sweetener that is used in a lot of products, including Diet Coke and Coke Zero. Like most artificial sweeteners, we have a wonderful love/hate relationship with it. It’s sweet but doesn’t have any calories, so it’s great for people who want to lose a bit of weight. Also, a bunch of people are convinced that anything artificial is basically poison, and that diet soft drinks are probably killing us all. (Gideon Meyerowitz-Katz, 7/8)

Every new data point or report appears to confirm it: The U.S. is in the midst of a mounting maternal mortality crisis. A recent JAMA study lends fresh insight into the magnitude of the problem, showing that maternal mortality rates more than doubled in the U.S. during the two decades from 1999 to 2019. (Annalisa Merelli, 7/11)