Category: Health

Robert Kneschke/Shutterstock Disease-modifying drugs for Alzheimer’s offer a meaningful glimpse of hope for many people who fear dementia. Alzheimer’s disease is the most common cause of dementia, but dementia itself is an umbrella term for symptoms such as memory loss, confusion and changes in thinking. Unlike older dementia drugs, which help with symptoms but do […]

Brain changes that can eventually lead to dementia may begin many years before anyone notices symptoms such as memory problems, missed appointments or difficulty finding words. This is where blood biomarkers are becoming important. Biomarkers are measurable signs of biological activity in the body. In dementia research, some blood biomarkers can give clues about biological […]

PeopleImages/Shutterstock We have all heard it: “It’s just in your head.” When work deadlines pile up, financial worries linger or an unexpected public speaking obligation looms, we often treat anxiety as a purely psychological challenge – something to be overcome with a bit of willpower. But our bodies don’t separate the psychological from the physical. […]

Ibuprofen is shown to be more effective at reducing period pain. fizkes/ Shutterstock For something that affects millions every month, period pain remains surprisingly poorly treated. A recent analysis of supermarket transaction data from over three million shoppers found that paracetamol is the most purchased painkiller for menstrual cramps – despite being a less effective […]

Iryna Inshyna/Shutterstock Bad things have happened in maternity units. Babies have died. Women have been harmed. Families have been ignored, dismissed and left to fight for answers they should never have had to beg for. Safe maternity care must be a national priority. But after more than a decade of investigations, one question has become […]

Halfpoint/Shutterstock On a busy hospital ward, a nurse says “wonderful, wonderful” as a patient with dementia completes a task. It sounds simple, but moments like this can play an important role in how care gets done. Building on my doctoral research, a recent study I co-authored with colleagues examines how praise is used in the […]

Mai Groves/Shutterstock.com Rugby is a physical sport, and nowhere is that more apparent than in the tackle. In amateur and school rugby union, tackles are responsible for well over half of all match injuries, making them the single biggest source of injury risk in the game. That reality has prompted growing efforts to make tackling […]

Pramata/Shutterstock.com What if protecting your brain from dementia was as simple as wiggling your little fingers a few seconds each day? That’s the promise behind “pinky time”, a viral TikTok trend that claims a simple finger exercise can lower your risk of developing Alzheimer’s. Videos promoting this supposed brain-health hack have attracted millions of views, […]

Nuva Frames/Shutterstock In a recent episode of British sitcom Amandaland, Anne Flynn turns to ChatGPT for help talking to her teenage son about sex. The episode frames this as “The Chat”: the awkward parent-child conversation many adults dread. What Anne is doing on screen is what many people are now doing in private: taking hard […]

During a heatwave, cooling you down becomes much more important than digesting and absorbing a big meal. AnikonaAnn/ Shutterstock When temperatures soar, many people find their appetite suddenly plummets. The idea of eating a hot meal becomes the last thing our minds when the heat becomes too much to bear. This doesn’t happen because the […]