Allison Palmer
Allison Palmer covers health, wellness and lifestyle topics for The Sacramento Bee, focusing on emerging trends that help readers build positive, sustainable habits. Her recent work distinguishes itself by translating complex microbiome and brain-health research into clear, service-driven stories rooted in everyday routines. She brings a broad consumer sensibility to medical and scientific topics, consistently tying new findings back to practical changes readers can make.
Gut microbiome and healthy aging
Palmer’s coverage of the gut microbiome often uses striking case studies to explain how diet and bacterial communities in the body relate to longevity and overall health. In her article on a rare supercentenarian who ate one food three times a day, she examined what surprised scientists about the woman’s gut microbiome and how those findings connect to long-term wellbeing. The piece moves from a human story into an accessible explanation of microbiome science, framing technical research in terms of daily eating habits and sustainable nutrition choices. This approach reflects her broader focus on helping readers understand how small, consistent behaviors shape health outcomes over many years.
Oral bacteria and brain health
Another strand of Palmer’s reporting looks at the relationship between oral health and the brain, highlighting how gum bacteria can alter cells beyond the mouth. In her coverage of gum bacteria and brain cells, she lays out new research that links the oral microbiome to changes in brain tissue, underscoring the systemic impact of seemingly local infections. She connects these findings back to everyday oral-care routines, showing how practices like brushing and dental checkups fit into a wider picture of neurological and cognitive health.
By tracing the path from bacteria in the gums to potential effects on the brain, she makes complex biological pathways understandable and relevant to non-specialist readers.
Wellness reporting across the McClatchy network
Palmer has been a member of McClatchy Media since 2024, with her health and lifestyle work appearing across The Sacramento Bee, The Miami Herald, The Kansas City Star, Us Weekly and Woman’s World. She also holds author profiles at other McClatchy mastheads, including the San Luis Obispo Tribune, the Charlotte Observer, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram and the Durham Herald-Sun, reflecting the syndication and reach of her reporting. Across these outlets she maintains the same core emphasis on wellness coverage that is grounded in emerging research but framed for everyday decision-making. Beyond health and wellness, she produces a diverse range of content that extends into technology, travel, lifestyle and commerce, which informs her ability to situate scientific stories within broader consumer trends.
Service journalism grounded in emerging science
Throughout her body of work, Palmer favors formats that blend reported explainers with clear takeaways, using recent studies as a starting point rather than an endpoint. She frequently highlights the role of microbiomes - gut and oral - in shaping outcomes such as healthy aging and brain health, and then draws a line from those findings to specific behaviors readers can adopt or reconsider. Her language is direct and straightforward, keeping scientific detail intact while stripping away jargon so that complex mechanisms feel approachable.
Across topics, the through-line in her coverage is a commitment to helping readers convert cutting-edge health research into realistic, long-term habits rather than quick fixes.
4 more health journalists.
Aislinn Antrim
Aislinn Antrim is an associate editorial director at Pharmacy Times and a journalist who connects clinical advances, regulation, and the changing role of pharmacists. She writes pharmacy-centered health coverage on chronic disease therapeutics, specialty and oncology care, workforce pressures, and advocacy. Her reporting explains FDA actions, policy shifts, drug pipelines, and the real-world effects of new evidence on patient care and pharmacy practice. She often uses interviews and expert conversations to show how pharmacists improve adherence, manage side effects, navigate access and benefits, and coordinate care with prescribers. She also covers burnout, staffing strain, and the future of pharmacy practice, with an eye on how policy and economics shape work at the dispenser.
Alex Cabrero
Alex Cabrero is an Emmy award-winning KSL TV reporter who covers where health, safety and community life meet, always focused on how decisions and events affect everyday people. He has been with KSL since 2004, bringing long experience in breaking news, public service coverage and human-centered features. His beat includes public health, emergency response, technology, local infrastructure, environment and science, framed through community well-being and resilience. He reports on issues like mental health initiatives, law enforcement staffing, environmental hazards, rescues, wildfire detection tools, land-use fights and scientific discoveries, making technical and policy details clear for a general audience. He also produces many positive, everyday-life features on families, veterans, farmers, sports and local traditions. His style is direct and conversational, often built around a central person or family whose experience carries the story across TV, digital and social platforms.
Alexandra Frost
Alexandra Frost is a freelance journalist and content marketing writer who turns expert-backed health and family guidance into clear, practical service stories. She covers consumer health, wellness, nutrition, preventive care, medical research, parenting, kids’ mental health, education, products, and lifestyle. Her reporting explains concerns such as inflammation, urinary symptoms, fiber, lung cancer screening, pain treatment, mobility, family dynamics, children’s technology use, and school readiness. She profiles clinicians and scientists, connects research to everyday decisions, and focuses on what readers should watch for, ask, or change. Frost currently writes across multiple outlets, including Good Housekeeping, Cincinnati Magazine, Wirecutter, Popular Science, Success, Healthline, Parents, Women’s Health, Reader’s Digest, Today’s Parent, the Atlantic, the Washington Post, TIME, Consumer Reports, Business Insider, and National Geographic. She also works as a freelance editor, media consultant, and content strategist.
Alexandra Pattillo
Alexandra Pattillo is a freelance journalist who pairs rigorous health and science reporting with intimate accounts of patients’ lives. She covers health, science and wellness for the BBC and other major outlets, including National Geographic, The New York Times, The Atlantic, The Guardian, Outside, CNN and Inverse. Her beat includes eating disorders, women’s health, perinatal mental health, brain health, youth sports, concussion, long-term Covid symptoms, attention, habits and behavioral science. She reports on emerging treatments such as psychedelic-assisted therapy for anorexia, testing evidence, safety and relapse risk. She explains complex research in plain language and examines how it shapes everyday choices. Her reporting uses in-depth interviews with patients, families, clinicians, researchers and coaches. Through the BBC’s Health Gap column, she also covers stigma, unequal access to care and gaps between lived experience and standard medical pathways.