Reminder: the state of your hymen is not an indicator of whether you’ve had sex. Yet there are no laws banning exams
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Continue reading...Category Archives: Health
New year health kicks are great – but your environment is also vital | Dr Robert Wright
Understanding how environment impacts health will empower us to make the lifestyle changes that matter most, from what foods to buy to fragrances to avoid
Exercising and eating better as part of our new year health kicks are great, but we should also think more deeply about the role the environment plays on our health. As a professor of environmental medicine, I believe this is an exciting new area of study that will play a big part in the future of personalized medicine.
Consider this, every day we are bombarded with messages: genes that cause cancer, supplements that prevent Alzheimer’s disease, diets that prevent asthma, chemicals that make us gain weight. But while headlines frequently proclaim “game changing” new findings, over the last 20 years in the US and Europe our health status as a population has seriously deteriorated. Rates of obesity, diabetes, heart disease, cancer and learning disorders continue to rise. Genetic variation may be part of the puzzle that explains why we get sick, but clearly there are missing pieces.
Continue reading...China’s Sars-like illness worries health experts
China’s viral pneumonia outbreak may have jumped species barrier, raising fears of pandemic
The finding that the outbreak of viral pneumonia in China that has struck 59 people may be caused by a coronavirus, the family of viruses behind Sars, which spread to 37 countries in 2003, causing global panic and killing more than 750 people, means that health authorities will be watching closely.
China says the illness is not Sars (severe acute respiratory syndrome), nor Mers (Middle East respiratory syndrome), both of which are caused by coronaviruses, and so far it appears milder than both. Unlike Sars, it does not appear to spread easily between humans and unlike Mers, which has a mortality rate of about 35%, nobody has died.
Continue reading...Germany’s abortion law: made by the Nazis, upheld by today’s right | Mithu Sanyal
An old 1930s law that hinders women’s access to terminations has survived public protest – and is being exploited by anti-abortion groups
It’s like the holocaust only worse, according to babycaust.de, the German website dedicated to abortion, or as they call it: “The mass murder of unborn children.”
Every country has its nutters. The problem with these particular nutters is that their website is your best bet if you need to find a doctor who performs abortions in Germany. It provides a full list of practitioners with the “licence to kill” by town and postcode, decorated with images of hacked-up babies in petri dishes, some of them made into gifs to show the blood still dripping. Whatever for? They obviously don’t want you to go to these doctors. But they do want to make it easier for you to report these “killers” to the police.
Continue reading...Surgery by candlelight: hospitals in Nigeria suffer losing power – and staff
As a failing electric grid further burdens the creaking health system, doctors continue to seek opportunities abroad
The waiting rooms at the Ifako Ijaiye hospital in Lagos are overcrowded with patients waiting to see doctors. Often people have to stand outside.
“It is now like this every day. We have to come early and pick numbers before we can meet the doctors. Even though the doctors try to see everybody, it has got worse,” says Oluchi Ezegbo, a market trader from Okearo, in nearby Ogun state.
Continue reading...Severe childhood deprivation reduces brain size, study finds
Brain scans of Romanian orphans adopted in UK show early neglect left its mark
Children who experience severe deprivation early in life have smaller brains in adulthood, researchers have found.
The findings are based on scans of young adults who were adopted as children into UK families from Romania’s orphanages that rose under the regime of the dictator Nicolae Ceauşescu.
Continue reading...More than 200 members of Congress urge US supreme court to reconsider Roe v Wade
Appeal in an amicus brief in a Louisiana case was signed by 205 Republicans and two Democrats
More than two hundred members of Congress have urged the US supreme court to reconsider the landmark 1973 Roe v Wade ruling which legalized abortion nationwide.
The appeal came in an amicus brief in a Louisiana case, and was signed by 205 Republicans and two Democrats, and calls on the high court to revisit the ruling, which affirmed that access to safe abortion is a constitutional right.
Continue reading...Want to lose weight? Lose the car
A long-term resolution to leave the car at home could help waistlines as well as the environment
Since 2011 Beijing has controlled traffic growth by allocating new licence plates in a bimonthly lottery. There is less than a one in 500 chance of getting a plate in each draw but winning might not be as wonderful as it first seems.
The impact of increased motorised travel extend beyond air pollution. In the UK the total distance walked each year dropped by 30% between 1995 and 2013, and the distance cycled in England and Wales in 2012 was just 20% of that in 1952 – but these changes have been slow and are difficult to study.
Continue reading...Can your phone keep you fit? Our writers try 10 big fitness apps – from weightlifting to pilates
There are a dizzying number of apps promising to get you in shape – even if you can’t get to a gym. But can any of them keep our writers moving?
Price £15.49 a month.
What is it? A full-service experience from the Hollywood star Chris Hemsworth: not just workouts, but a complete meal planner – with food for breakfast, lunch and dinner – a daily guided meditation and a daily motivational article.
The experience I immediately regret declaring myself “intermediate” as the app launches into a punishing pilates workout. I am not very flexible at all, and it turns out that my baseline fitness leaves much to be desired in terms of core strength.
More frustrating is the fact that the various workouts are introduced as videos. Clearly, this is supposed to emulate a real pilates class, but when my phone tells me to lie face-down on the floor I can no longer see the screen. It is frustrating to have to repeatedly break out of the pose to check the next movement.
Worth a download? Only if you are single, enjoy cooking and are willing to hand control of your life to an app.
AH
AI system outperforms experts in spotting breast cancer
Program developed by Google Health tested on mammograms of UK and US women
An artificial intelligence program has been developed that is better at spotting breast cancer in mammograms than expert radiologists.
The AI outperformed the specialists by detecting cancers that the radiologists missed in the images, while ignoring features they falsely flagged as possible tumours.
Continue reading...Is veganism as good for you as they say?
It’s the wellness industry’s cash cow, and athletes’ latest choice, but scientists caution there’s still much we don’t know about the diet
Katharina Wirnitzer was in the midst of training for the Bike Transalp race, one of the world’s toughest endurance events, when she began investigating whether a vegan diet was suitable for athletes.
The year was 2003 and veganism was a long way from the current boom, which has established it as one of the most in-vogue dietary trends. But Wirnitzer, a sports scientist at the University of Innsbruck, had become intrigued by the resurgence of ancient theories linking plant-based diets with improved athletic performance.
Continue reading...Samoa ends measles state of emergency as infection rate slows
Six-week state of emergency is lifted after disease killed 81 people and sickened more than 5,600 others
Samoa has lifted a six-week state of emergency after the infection rate from a measles outbreak that has swept the country started to come under control.
The South Pacific nation has been gripped by the highly infectious disease, which has killed 81 people, most of them babies and young children, and sickened more than 5,600 others.
Continue reading...Stop smoking campaign in England axed after health budget cuts
Charity decries government’s ‘foolhardy’ decision to reduce anti-smoking budget by 24%
The government has been accused of undermining its ambition to make England smoke free after an anti-smoking campaign was cancelled following a 24% cut to the public health marketing budget.
Health Harms, a Public Health England (PHE) scheme, has previously sought to harness new year resolutions in January to encourage the 6 million tobacco smokers in the country to quit through vaping and visualising how cancer-causing chemicals and tar are inhaled.
Continue reading...Single woman sues Chinese hospital for refusal to freeze eggs
Teresa Xu says doctor told her to hurry up and get married before having children
At the end of last year, Teresa Xu visited a hospital in Beijing to discuss options for freezing her eggs. The doctor said she could not help Xu, a single woman, because it went against regulations. Then she gave the 31-year-old some sisterly advice: hurry up, get married and have children now.
Xu was shocked and disappointed. “I had no way to express my anger,” she said. She felt like she was being treated like a wayward child. “Like I was an intruder, delaying other couples … like my demands were too much. I felt powerless and depressed.”
Continue reading...Queen’s speech: PM points to harder Brexit and 10-year rule
Johnson government outlines tougher laws on sentencing and constitutional reform
Boris Johnson has set out his vision for the Tories to govern for the next decade as he published a Queen’s speech that points the way towards a harder Brexit and sweeping constitutional reforms.
The prime minister claimed that he wanted his programme for government to last for more than one parliament, describing it as a “blueprint for the future of Britain”.
Continue reading...Queen’s speech: NHS at heart of Johnson’s plans, says minister
Rishi Sunak highlights £34bn health spending, but appears to water down social care pledge
Boris Johnson will try to use the Queen’s speech to refocus attention away from Brexit and on to the NHS, the government has confirmed.
The prime minister intends to put the health service at the centre of the legislative programme, according to the chief secretary to the Treasury, Rishi Sunak.
Continue reading...Depression and suicide linked to air pollution in new global study
Cutting toxic air might prevent millions of people getting depression, research suggests
People living with air pollution have higher rates of depression and suicide, a systematic review of global data has found.
Cutting air pollution around the world to the EU’s legal limit could prevent millions of people becoming depressed, the research suggests. This assumes that exposure to toxic air is causing these cases of depression. Scientists believe this is likely but is difficult to prove beyond doubt.
Continue reading...‘These babies should not have died’: How the measles outbreak took hold in Samoa
The unprecedented health crisis has claimed 72 lives, mostly children. Now questions are being asked about how it came to this
“Every time I visit my baby, I see a morgue full of dead babies,” says a mother sitting at Tupua Tamasese Meaole National Hospital in Apia, the capital of Samoa.
The woman’s one-year-old died in the measles outbreak that has wracked the Pacific nation over the past two months. She now comes to the morgue day after day, awaiting the release of her child’s body.
Continue reading...Julian Assange’s extradition fight could turn on reports he was spied on for CIA
Allegations a security firm at Ecuadorian embassy gave footage to CIA come as 100 doctors urge Australia to protect him
Julian Assange’s fight against extradition to the US could last years, and his argument could hinge on reports he has been illegally spied upon and his sensitive information given to the CIA.
Meanwhile, more than 100 doctors from across the world have written to the Australian government, urging it to act and “protect the life of its citizen”, in a letter to be delivered to the foreign affairs minister on Tuesday, amid warnings Assange’s health continues to deteriorate.
Continue reading...Two standard alcoholic drinks a day no longer safe, health officials say
National Health and Medical Research Council updates guidelines for first time since 2009 and says adults should average no more than 1.4 drinks a day
It is no longer safe to have two standard drinks a day, Australian health officials have warned.
Released just in time for Christmas, the National Health and Medical Research Council on Monday published a draft report which updated Australia’s alcohol guidelines for the first time since 2009.
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