Health News

‘Not out of the woods’ in battle against Covid: WHO

The World Health Organization’s COVID-19 chief warned Tuesday “We’re not out of the woods” in the fight against the pandemic, even if many people thought it was nearly over. Maria Van Kerkhove, the technical lead for WHO’s COVID-19, said last week 3.1 million known new cases were reported to the UN health agency, and 54,000 […]

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The quality, not quantity, of cardiovascular fat can interfere with memory later in life

A worsening cardiovascular profile after menopause may contribute to the fact that women are disproportionately affected by dementia. A new study identified a link between cardiovascular fat volume and radiodensity and cognitive function, as well as racial differences in this association. Study results will be presented during The North American Menopause Society (NAMS) Annual Meeting […]

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Not even a global pandemic can stop poor hand hygiene

New Curtin research has identified that the average Australian only occasionally washed their hands properly during the COVID-19 pandemic, despite hand hygiene being one of the key recommendations for protecting against the deadly disease. The study, published in Psychology and Health, surveyed people across the nation to understand the behaviors behind these results, as well […]

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Patient preferences do not explain racial disparities in opioid prescribing

Why are Black patients less likely than white patients to be prescribed opioids for acute pain in the emergency department (ED)? While many theories have been put forward (ranging from racial differences in patients’ pain management preferences to providers’ false beliefs in biological differences between racial groups), the specific mechanisms underpinning these disparities are unclear. […]

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How Instagram Is Not Good For Your Mental Health

There have been numerous studies regarding the impact of social media on the mental health of its users, and most of them have concluded that it is negative. However, a recent survey has put Instagram at the very top of that list, naming it the most damaging social media platform in existence today as far […]

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Why you might not be the body shape you think

Hourglass, bottom hourglass, top hourglass, spoon, rectangle, diamond, oval, triangle, and inverted triangle… there are nine official female body shape classifications. However, new research shows that just moving the tape measure by 1cm could shift 40% of women into a different shape class, giving conflicting results. Depending on how somebody is measured, a spoon shape—which […]

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Estrogen status, not sex, protects against heightened fear recall

A new study shows that markers of fear recall differ between men and women, but in a hormone-dependent manner. Aberrant fear-memory processing in the brain is thought to underlie anxiety disorders, which affect hundreds of millions of people worldwide. The neurobiological mechanisms underlying these disorders remain poorly understood, but recent studies suggest that neural oscillations […]

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Suppression of COVID-19 waves reflects time-dependent social activity, not herd immunity

Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) have developed a new mathematical model for predicting how COVID-19 spreads. This model not only accounts for individuals’ varying biological susceptibility to infection but also their levels of social activity, which naturally change over time. Using their […]