Category: Health

Planning summer holidays in Europe is beginning to involve more focus on avoiding high temperatures. Destinations including the Greek islands and southern Italy have traditionally relied on warm, stable summers to attract tourists. But they have faced extreme temperatures causing mass evacuations, wildfires and putting lives in danger in recent summers. Even without those conditions, […]

Reshetnikov_art/Shutterstock.com In 1950, two researchers noticed something that didn’t quite add up. Hector Chevigny, a writer who had lost his sight in adulthood, and psychologist Sydell Braverman were studying the psychological lives of blind people when they stumbled upon an intriguing pattern: schizophrenia, a serious mental illness affecting people across virtually every known society, appeared […]

When a man stabbed Jewish people in Golders Green, London, in what police declared a terrorist incident, the story spread fast – through news alerts, social media and the whispered conversations of anxious adults. When this happens, children notice. Whether they catch a fragment of a TV bulletin, overhear a parent on the phone, or […]

The overall number of cancers in people aged roughly 25 to 49 has risen by around a quarter since the early 1990s. Halfpoint/ Shutterstock Rising cancer rates in younger adults are real, worrying and still partly unexplained. A new analysis adds important detail for England, suggesting that 11 cancers are becoming more common in people […]

New Africa/Shutterstock.com For children with autism spectrum disorder and with an intellectual disability, the options for improving communication and social skills are limited. Talking therapies and behavioural programmes can help some children develop these skills, but they depend on specialists who are in short supply – even in wealthy countries. Around 30-35% of autistic children […]

What people see on screen can shape what they do off it. When actors such as James Dean and Marlon Brando lit cigarettes in 1950s rebel films, smoking came to signify cool, defiance and desire for an entire generation. Among 12- to 17-year-olds in the US, smoking initiation rose from about 20% in the early […]

People who exercise regularly may want to consider taking an omega-3 supplement. Olenaduygu/ Shutterstock Most people know omega-3 fish oils are good for health – especially heart health. But what many people might not realise is that these friendly fats can also be beneficial to your workouts. Research has linked omega-3s to better exercise performance […]

DimaBerlin/Shutterstock.com My ex once told me, mid-argument, that I was the most unempathetic person he’d ever met. It was a low blow. I’m a clinical psychologist. Empathy is literally my job. What he probably didn’t know – and I was too “flooded” to explain at the time – is that when we argue with people […]

Model of bacteriophages. These are viruses that multiply inside bacteria and cause their death. In some cases they are used in the fight against bacteria instead of antibiotics. shoma81/Shutterstock Bacteriophages, or phages, are viruses that infect and kill bacteria. These microscopic predators are found everywhere from soil and water to food and the human gut. […]

When we think about the causes of climate change, the usual suspects often come to mind: coal-fired power plants, traffic-choked roads, industrial agriculture. Rarely do we picture hospitals. Yet if global healthcare were a country, it would be one of the world’s top five greenhouse gas emitters. With healthcare responsible for about 5% of total […]