Category: Health

For anyone facing cancer, the treatment options can feel brutally familiar: surgery, radiotherapy, chemotherapy, or a combination of them all. But a new approach is beginning to offer something very different. By using nothing more than precisely controlled sound waves, histotripsy can destroy tumours without cutting the skin or burning healthy tissue. Histotripsy uses technology […]

Strictly Come Dancing judge Shirley Ballas recently revealed that she’d “thought that was it” after a fish bone became lodged in her throat. Ballas’s terrifying ordeal lasted for 20 minutes, with the judge struggling to breathe until her hair and makeup artist managed to dislodge the bone using the Heimlich manoeuvre (also known as abdominal […]

Climate change is already shaping our wellbeing. It affects mental health, spreads infectious diseases, disrupts work, damages food supplies and forces families to leave their homes because of conflict, hunger or flooding. Wellbeing refers to everything that enables people to live healthy, safe and meaningful lives. It includes physical and mental health, access to food, […]

When he saw the newspaper headlines in 2002, James Partridge was furious. Severely burned in a fire at 18, he spent his life advocating for people with “visible difference” through charities like Changing Faces and Face Equality International. Yet he found himself used as tabloid fodder in discussions about face transplants: how much better might […]

The Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) and the Medical Research Council (MRC) have launched a UK-wide survey to gather insights from the animal research community. This forms part of a major fact-finding initiative focused on the nation’s animal research facilities and resources. A panel of experts from across the field is leading this […]

Can tattoos protect your skin from the sun’s harmful rays, or do they make things worse? A new study I conducted with colleagues suggests there may be cause for concern. We found that people with tattoos had a 29% higher risk of developing melanoma, a serious form of skin cancer often linked to ultraviolet (UV) […]

Most of us think of orange juice as a simple breakfast habit, something you pour without much thought. Yet scientists are discovering that this everyday drink may be doing far more in the body than quenching thirst. A recent study has shown that regular orange juice consumption can influence the activity of thousands of genes […]

Children’s Health Ireland (CHI) has issued a “sincere apology” following the death of 15‑year‑old Killian Burnett from Finglas, Dublin, who suffered a fatal asthma attack in March 2022 while waiting more than four years to see a specialist consultant Carlow Nationalist RTÉ. Inquest Findings At an inquest held at Dublin District Coroner’s Court, Coroner Clare […]

As a public health dentist and researcher, for years I saw the same pattern. Patients with deep root infections often had wider health problems, particularly those with diabetes. I did not yet understand why. Now, scientific studies are beginning to explain the link: treating a deep tooth infection may also help the body manage blood […]

Progress in cutting the global toll of cancer remains painfully slow, but a new blood test has sparked unusual levels of hope. Researchers say it could one day make routine screening far more effective by catching cancers earlier, when treatment has the best chance of saving lives. The Galleri blood test, developed by US firm […]