Category: Health

Two young people are dead and 20 are receiving treatment after a meningitis outbreak at the University of Kent. The students caught up in it belong to a generation that has never been routinely vaccinated against the strain responsible. That is not because a vaccine doesn’t exist. It does. Bexsero, which protects against meningococcal group […]

T-cells, a type of immune cell, can be used to attack cancer cells. Lightspring/ Shutterstock A new immunotherapy drug has demonstrated early promise in a recent prostate cancer clinical trial. The drug, called VIR-5500, is a “masked T-cell engager”. This type of immunotherapy ignites our own immune arsenal to fight cancer. In the trial, which […]

New Africa/Shutterstock.com British children are not getting shorter, despite claims to the contrary. In fact, they are getting taller. But this is not good news. When my colleagues and I analysed national data on child height, we found that the trend is largely explained by rising childhood obesity and widening inequalities. Claims that British children […]

The actress hopes sharing her story will raise awareness of the condition. Denis Makarenko/ Shutterstock Academy Award-winning actress Lupita Nyong’o recently shared on Instagram that she has fibroids. The actress revealed that she has had 77 uterine fibroids over the course of her lifetime – the largest of which were the size of an orange. […]

Oleh Veres/Shutterstock They say love conquers all, but it doesn’t always conquer snoring. In the US, it’s estimated that 82% of couples share a bed. Sharing a bed with your partner is often seen as an essential part of a romantic relationship. But have you ever wondered whether sleeping apart might actually be better for […]

Prostock-studio/Shutterstock If you are a student in the UK, news of an outbreak of meningitis affecting university students in Kent may be causing you alarm. The UK Health Security Agency has confirmed 13 cases of invasive meningococcal disease, a severe infection that can cause meningitis and septicaemia (blood poisoning), and is providing antibiotics and guidance […]

Halfpoint/Shutterstock When 12-year-olds receive a letter from the school nurse about the HPV vaccine, their reactions are often mixed. Some students worry about the needle. Others wonder why they need a vaccine for something they have never heard of. What many of them may not realise is that this routine school vaccination protects against a […]

Aleksandr Yu/Shutterstock.com When e-cigarettes first appeared around 2010, they were hailed as a breakthrough: nicotine delivery without the toxic tar and combustion byproducts of traditional cigarettes. Public health bodies cautiously endorsed them as a tool for adult smokers to quit, often citing early claims that vaping was 95% less harmful than smoking. More than a […]

ArtVibe1/Shutterstock When someone speaks in a language we do not understand, we do not assume their words are meaningless. We assume we are the ones who cannot yet understand them. You might try gestures, sign language or the few words you recognise to grasp what they are saying. The assumption is always the same: meaning […]

PeopleImages/Shutterstock Hearing loss and dementia affect millions of people worldwide. But headlines describing hearing loss as the “leading mid-life risk factor” for dementia can be misleading. They often oversimplify complex science, and risk confusing people who are trying to understand what hearing loss can mean for brain health. Research shows that hearing loss and cognitive […]