Author: admin
We’ve all heard the advice to “drink more water.” But what does the research actually say about how changes in water intake affect our mood, and does it matter how much you habitually drink in the first place? A landmark peer-reviewed study published in PLOS ONE (Pross et al., 2014) addressed exactly this question, yielding striking findings that challenge a one-size-fits-all approach to hydration.Who Are “High” and “Low” Drinkers?Before diving into the findings, it helps to understand how researchers defined their groups. The study recruited habitual high-volume drinkers (HIGH), defined as those with fluid intakes of at least 2 liters…
WILLIAMSTON, N.C. — Two years after her brother’s death, Debra Pierce still wonders whether the 50-year-old would have survived his heart attack if her local hospital hadn’t closed. “The sad thing is we’ll never know if he could have been saved that night or not, because we don’t have a higher level of care in this county,” Pierce said as she stood outside the mobile home where she last hugged her brother. Emergency crews from a neighboring town worked on Stanley Sears for a half hour but couldn’t revive him for the long drive to the closest hospital, records show.…
The NHS has hit its target for the number of patients waiting 18-weeks thanks to the biggest improvement in waiting times since the launch of the iPad. In March, 65.3% of patients were waiting 18-weeks, as the waiting list fell by over 312,000 last year, the largest year-on-year reduction in 16 years. The improvement in performance by 6.4% since July 2024 means approaching half a million (450,000) fewer people were waiting over 18 weeks for NHS treatment in March this year. The NHS also recorded its best year on record for elective care, with more than half a million (506,000)…
Children with asthma are especially vulnerable to the climate-related exposures like air pollution and heat waves. The impact of climate on respiratory health was the subject of a meeting alongside the World Health Assembly (WHA) in Geneva. This comes as the UN General Assembly endorsed a landmark International Court of Justice ruling that holds countries accountable to curb greenhouse gas emissions. “Imagine you are running. You are tired and want to stop. But I keep telling you to run. You can’t breathe,” said Dr Helena Pité, describing what it means to have a ‘lung attack,’ which can be caused by…
Editorial Note: Originally published in November 2009, this resource is updated as needed to reflect the latest developments. Key Facts Although the U.S. has been involved in efforts to address the global AIDS crisis since the mid-1980s, the creation of the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) in 2003 marked a significant increase in funding and attention to the epidemic. Now, more than 20 years in, PEPFAR reports saving an estimated 26 million lives and is currently providing HIV prevention and treatment services to millions. PEPFAR has been the largest commitment by any nation to address a single disease…
Every spring, millions of people wage the same losing battle: watery eyes, relentless sneezing, a nose that simply will not cooperate. And nestled in hedgerows and meadows across the world, the plant responsible for one of nature’s most infamous stings may offer a surprising remedy.Stinging nettle, Urtica dioica, has a long history in herbal medicine, dating back to ancient Greece. Today, a growing body of peer-reviewed research is catching up with that tradition, revealing how processed nettle extracts may help calm the very immune responses that make allergy season so miserable.First, the IronyBefore we explore the remedy, the paradox deserves…
President Donald Trump has long bantered about GLP-1s, the breakthrough medicines that have changed care for diabetes and obesity. Sometimes he calls them “the fat drug.” In an interview with the The New York Times in January, he mused that “I probably should” take them. A few days before the Times published that story, Trump invested in Eli Lilly, the nearly $1 trillion drugmaker whose fortunes are closely tied to its blockbuster GLP-1s, Zepbound and Foundayo — and to government reimbursement for the medicines. This week we reported on several Lilly stock purchases made by Trump or his brokers from…
Thousands of people in England have had lung cancer caught early thanks to NHS scanning trucks in supermarket car parks, sports stadiums and busy high streets. New NHS data shows 10,678 lung cancers have been detected through the programme since it began – more than three quarters of which were caught at stages one or two. People diagnosed with lung cancer at the earliest stages are nearly 13 times more likely to survive for five years than those whose cancer is caught late. Local health teams perform in-depth lung health checks and scans on current and past smokers aged 55-74…
China is the powerful new member of the WHO Executive Board. The World Health Organization’s (WHO) Executive Board (EB) decided on Monday that the first forum for candidates aspiring to become the next Director General will be held on 18 November, where they will face questions from member states. Meanwhile, some of Africa’s poorest countries will play a decisive role in choosing the next DG, thanks to their membership of the global body’s 34-member EB. The EB has the powerful task of shortlisting three candidates for election by the World Health Assembly (WHA) in 2027. The Africa region’s seven representatives…
Originally published on May 21, this Policy Watch was updated on May 23 to incorporate additional information and developments. The recently announced Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), which is quickly escalating in the region, emerges at a time when the larger fiscal and programmatic environment for global health efforts faces particular hurdles, and international cooperation has been significantly challenged. This is in large part due to policy decisions made by the Trump administration and presents the first real global outbreak test following those changes. On May 15, news broke of a large, ongoing Ebola outbreak…
Most people associate dementia with its most visible symptoms: a loved one forgetting familiar faces, struggling to finish a sentence, or getting lost on a street they’ve walked a hundred times. But what if the story of dementia begins decades before any of that? What if the brain is already quietly changing while the person is still sharp, independent, and completely unaware?That is precisely what the science tells us.The Brain Changes Long Before the Mind DoesThe most important thing to understand about dementia, particularly Alzheimer’s disease, which accounts for up to 70% of all cases, is that it does not…
Céline Gounder, KFF Health News’ editor-at-large for public health, discussed the diversion of a Detroit-bound plane to Canada over Ebola concerns on CBS News’ CBS Mornings on May 21. Gounder also discussed how the Democratic Republic of Congo’s Ebola outbreak has been declared a global health emergency on Fox’s LiveNOW on May 18. KFF Health News senior correspondent Renuka Rayasam discussed Georgia’s debate over licensing midwives on WUGA’s The Georgia Health Report on May 15. KFF Health News senior correspondent Angela Hart discussed California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s budget rollbacks on KQED’s Political Breakdown on May 14. KFF Health News California…
The good bacteria living in the gut of humans play essential roles in keeping their hosts safe from food allergies. A recent international study showed that gut microbiota taken from human babies and given to mice protected the recipients from developing allergy to milk. The results of the animal experiment suggested that probiotic treatments may be able to stop the development of food allergies in humans. Furthermore, they identified the bacteria Anaerostipes caccae as the species responsible for the protection. An earlier study conducted by The University of Chicago researcher Cathryn Nagler and her colleagues reported that the gut microbiome of healthy human babies do not resemble the gut microbiome of babies with allergy to cow’s milk. They followed…
Photoaging (premature aging) is one of the many unfortunate consequences of excessive exposure to ultraviolet (UV) rays – harmful forms of electromagnetic radiation coming from the sun and other artificial sources of light. When the skin is repeatedly exposed to radiation, its normal structure gradually gets altered, resulting in the loss of moisture and elasticity, and the appearance of fine lines, wrinkles, and age spots. Because of this, the search for effective anti-photoaging compounds, especially from natural sources, has become the primary objective of many studies. In a recent study published in The American Journal of Chinese Medicine, researchers from Kyung Hee University in South Korea…
Alzheimer’s disease is the most common form of dementia, and aging is its primary risk factor. Therefore, researchers continue to look for ways to counter the effects of aging on the brain. In a recent study, researchers from The Salk Institute for Biological Studies discovered a potential natural treatment for Alzheimer’s in the form of a medicinal herb found in California. In their study published in the journal Redox Biology, they found that yerba santa (Eriodictyon californicum), a plant native to California, contains an active compound called sterubin that could be used to treat people with Alzheimer’s. Yerba santa, which is…
Your arteries start to age the day you were born, but it does not mean that they are as old as your actual age. Your lifestyle and diet influence arterial aging. When your arteries age, plaque forms in the arterial walls. This reduces the flexibility of arteries, causing them to become stiff and increasing the pressure within the arteries. These put a strain on the heart and can lead to heart failure if not treated. As plaque builds up, blood flow reduces. If a piece of the plaque comes lose, it will flow downstream and will eventually rest in the…