Category: Health

Don't give up your mouthwash just yet. years44/ Shutterstock Social media videos are claiming that mouthwash can raise risk of blood pressure – and potentially damage heart health. According to some of these videos, this is caused by mouthwash wiping out “good” oral bacteria that are important for the cardiovascular system. While it’s a striking […]

tigercat_lpg/Shutterstock It’s 3am. The room is dark, the house is silent, but your brain is suddenly wide awake. Many people find themselves waking at roughly the same time each night and start to wonder whether something is wrong with their sleep. Waking during the night is actually a normal part of sleep. Most people wake […]

Piyaset/Shutterstock.com Antibiotic resistance is often associated with hospitals and the overuse of antibiotics in agriculture. Both are genuine problems, but new research suggests another potential culprit that many people haven’t considered – droughts caused by climate change. A recent study published in the journal Nature Microbiology found that when soil dries out, it can speed […]

Photka/Shutterstock.com It’s easy to see discarded plastic as nothing more than waste. Much of it ends up in landfill, breaking down into microplastics that seep into water supplies and threaten the environment, and potentially human health. But what if the same plastic waste could instead be transformed into life-saving medicines? In a recent study published […]

alvarog1970/Shutterstock.com Some lovers try positions that they can’t handle – I’m referring to the bones of the wrist, of course. The phrase is a classic mnemonic used to remember the eight carpal (wrist) bones – scaphoid, lunate, triquetrum, pisiform, trapezium, trapezoid, capitate and hamate – whose initials form the memorable sentence. One of the most […]

THICHA SATAPITANON/Shutterstock.com Imagine a stark choice. You can save one person who is likely to live another 30 years. Or you can save several people who may each live another ten years. Should we prioritise saving more lives – or more years of life? This kind of trade-off sits at the heart of how health […]

When missiles and drones strike populated areas, the images that follow tend to show destroyed buildings and burning streets. What they rarely capture is what happens inside the bodies of those nearby, including people who walk away apparently unharmed. The injuries caused by modern explosive munitions are wide-ranging, often hidden, and can develop hours or […]

Vitalii Vodolazskyi/Shutterstock Labels like autism, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and dyslexia are not new. But the way we understand them is changing. In recent years, researchers have increasingly worked with neurodivergent people rather than simply studying them from the outside. That change has brought better access to diagnosis, more inclusive approaches in schools and […]

Steroid injections offer a rapid, effective way of reducing joint pain. crystal light/ Shutterstock Osteoarthritis affects around 600 million people globally. It causes pain, stiffness and reduced joint function – most commonly in the knees, hands and hips. There’s currently no cure for osteoarthritis. Many people manage the condition through exercise, maintaining a healthy weight, […]

Funda Demirkaya/Shutterstock.com Marriage, it turns out, may come with a side‑effect no one puts in the vows: people who have been married seem less likely to develop cancer than those who have never married at all. That is the provocative finding from a large new study that has raised interesting questions about what really keeps […]