A fresh prescription > What if a free bag of farm-fresh produce could help improve patients’ health? That’s the idea behind M Health Fairview’s VeggieRx program, a philanthropy-supported effort that was developed in partnership with the Hmong American Farmers Association and highlighted by KARE11 in August. M Health Fairview teams identified groups of patients, such as those who have diabetes or vitamin deficiencies, plus those experiencing food insecurity, to receive the fresh produce.

It could get worse > If ever we thought the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic was behind us, University of Minnesota infectious disease expert Michael Osterholm, Ph.D., M.P.H., urges us to think again. His team predicts that almost every single one of the 100 million unvaccinated Americans who hasn’t had COVID-19 yet will likely get it in the coming months, short of strong precautions. “The next variant,” Osterholm told Newsweek in August, “could be delta on steroids.”

Why teens need their rest > No one feels great when they’re short on sleep, but poor sleep can be particularly detrimental to the mental health of teenagers. It can lead to exhaustion, depression, anxiety, and self-medication in adolescents, whose brains are still growing and developing, M Health Fairview child and adolescent psychiatrist Jessica Cici, M.D., told MinnPost. “Getting better sleep is one simple, controllable thing that we can do to help us feel better.”