Category: Health

Maxim Studio/Shutterstock Nearly half a century has passed since the first recognised case of Aids in the UK in December 1981. During that time, perceptions of HIV and people living with HIV have been transformed by medical advances and changing cultural attitudes. Yet the stigma created during the early years of the epidemic has proved […]

Habanero Pixel/Shutterstock New York has just declared a state of emergency as measles cases continue to rise. So far this year, the US has recorded 3,887 cases of measles, the highest annual total since 1991. That is about 70% more cases than were recorded during the whole of 2025. In November, the Pan American Health […]

Symptoms can return despite continued antidepressant treatment, but this does not necessarily mean the body has become tolerant to the medicine. Vitalii Vodolazskyi/Shutterstock Antidepressant use continues to rise. In England, 96 million antidepressant prescription items were dispensed to an estimated 9.1 million patients in 2025 to 2026. These medicines are prescribed for depression and other […]

How the health of your teeth is influenced by where you live. canva/Shutterstock/Videnskab.dk Teeth are an unlikely place to start when judging a health system, but they can be one of the most revealing. Oral health tells a surprisingly big story. Tooth decay, gum disease and tooth loss are some of the most common chronic […]

PeopleImages/Shutterstock Treatment for endometriosis can bring relief, but some women continue to have pelvic pain even after hormone treatment or surgery. For those who have spent years seeking help, continuing pain can be distressing and difficult to understand. Why does this happen? Sometimes endometriosis remains or returns. But pain can also involve other conditions, and […]

Scientists who worked out how to control brain cells with light have won this year’s Nobel prize in physiology or medicine. Karl Deisseroth, Peter Hegemann and Georg Nagel were honoured for their research into “light-gated ion channels and optogenetics”. Peter Hegemann, at Humboldt University of Berlin, and Georg Nagel, at the University of Würzburg, wanted […]

Tinnakorn jorruang/Shutterstock.com A sedative developed for cats and dogs is turning up in Scotland’s illicit drug supply. Medetomidine has been found in a fifth of heroin samples in Scotland, and there is no proven antidote if someone overdoses. Often called a new street drug, medetomidine was actually first developed as a sedative more than 50 […]

Following a good-quality diet for many years can have measurable impacts on ageing. Rawpixel.com/ Shutterstock When it comes to healthy ageing, the overall quality of a person’s diet matters more than eating any one “superfood” or nutrient. From the Mediterranean diet to the Nordic diet, specific eating patterns have been shown to reduce the risk […]

Workers remove massive accumulations of _Sargassum_ seaweed from a Caribbean beach in the Riviera Maya near Cancun, Mexico, in June 2025. elena.tres/Shutterstock Seaweed piling up on a beach might look harmless, but as quantities begin to rot, they can release gases that are toxic to people. In recent years, two people and several animals (including […]

AYO Production/Shutterstock More than 2,000 years ago, the Greek mathematician Euclid began his treatise Optics with an assumption that now sounds peculiar: visual rays travelled out from the eye towards the objects we see. We now know that vision works the other way around. But modern imaging has given the old idea an unexpected twist: […]