UN health agency issues alert on falsified medicines used for diabetes treatment, weight loss

The spurious semaglutides – of a specific brand Ozempic – were found in Brazil, the United Kingdom in October 2023, and the United States in December 2023, and were delivered through a regular supply chain. The WHO’s official notice follows reports of “falsified semaglutide products” across all geographical regions from its Global Surveillance and Monitoring […]

Continue Reading

Safe in the sun: Free dermatologist melanoma exams across Israel

With the arrival of summer, the danger of skin cancer increases. Every month, an average of 167 Israelis contract this malignancy. Hundreds of health fund clinics representing all four public health insurers are offering free skin examinations by dermatologists and plastic surgeons during National Skin Cancer Awareness Week from Monday, June 24, through Sunday, […]

Continue Reading

IDF reservists with PTSD shouldn’t be called up mid-treatment – TAU

An Israel Defense Forces reservist, Eliran Mizrachi of Ma’aleh Adumim, tragically took his own life earlier this month after serving for a long period in Gaza, getting a diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), undergoing treatment that was not successfully concluded and being called up prematurely for additional reserve duty. Psychiatrists asserted that he was […]

Continue Reading

Deadly and growing impact of air pollution laid bare in new UNICEF-backed report

The fifth edition of the report, released by the Health Effects Institute (HEI), revealed that air pollution caused 8.1 million deaths worldwide in 2021 and many millions are dealing with debilitating chronic diseases, leaving healthcare systems, economies, and societies. Further, it found that children under five are particularly vulnerable to air pollution, leaving over 700,000 […]

Continue Reading

One in five adults in Israel smokes, half of haredi adults affected

Data presented at a Knesset Health Committee meeting today indicated that one in five adults in Israel smokes, with the rate climbing to one in two among haredi (ultra-Orthodox) adults. The committee raised alarms about the high prevalence of smoking and the growing addiction to electronic cigarettes, which are reportedly four times more addictive than […]

Continue Reading

Israeli laser tech unblocks arteries

Israel has the highest rate in the OECD countries of leg amputations due, among other reasons, to arterial blockages that are left untreated.   Ordinarily, leg artery catheterization is carried out by inflating balloons or implanting supportive metal stents inside the blood vessel – but unfortunately, this method doesn’t always fully resolve the problem. The […]

Continue Reading

Composition of gut bacteria may predict development of PTSD in children

The contents of bacteria in the stomach can determine whether a person will develop post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) from infancy to late adolescence in humans, according to a new study out of Reichman University in Herzliya. The microbial profile was found to be one of the factors involved in developing PTSD and it outlines […]

Continue Reading

Study reveals how heart tissue can be regenerated

Aging of bodily tissues typically causes them to break down and eventually fail. However, researchers at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot have discovered that biological processes that are usually linked to aging are, in fact, vital for the regeneration of heart tissue.  This surprising conclusion emerges from a study just published in the […]

Continue Reading

Pasteurization may not clear bird flu virus from heavily infected milk

In raw milk samples spiked with high amounts of bird flu virus, small amounts of infectious virus were still detectable after treatment with a standard pasteurization method, researchers said on Friday. The findings reflect experimental conditions in a laboratory and should not be used to draw any conclusions about the safety of the US milk […]

Continue Reading