ALESSANDRIA — A small portable tool developed in Italy now allows doctors to treat patients with heart conditions in remote areas that don’t have access to medical facilities. A 27-year-old doctor, Alessandro Faragli, and his colleague, Edoardo La Porta, a nephrologist, created the imaging device known as Impedance App. The device measures bio-impedance or how […]
Tag: health
“Hello fetus listeners …” The Babypod is a speaker that, inserted vaginally, will expose a fetus to music of your choice inside the womb. But what kind of music should we choose?
People with particularly high IQs are often viewed as difficult and socially awkward, a new survey suggests. But in reality, they’re not so different from the rest of us.
People who seek therapies to boost their health and outlook often experiment with a number of different methods, either simultaneously or in quick succession, hurting their chances for improvement.
BOGOTÁ — Colombians can add pollution caused by millions of cigarette butts to an already varied list of environmental calamities that include deforestation, forest fires and the pesticides and mercury dumped into their rivers. It’s the huge number of discarded cigarette butts that add gravity to what might seem an insignificant problem. In Bogotá alone, […]
BEIJING — In his book on Confucianism, Taiwanese academic Kung Peng-Cheng explored how Chinese people have historically had among the fewest cultural restraints related to the food and drink they consume. “They eat almost anything,” Kung remarked. Even alcohol, strictly prohibited in many societies for religious reasons, has only occasionally been banned in Chinese history, […]
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Ukrainian Magazine Smiles For Longevity
Kiev-based weekly news magazine Krayina asks its readers, “Are you ready to live until you’re 120?” In this week’s edition, the Ukrainian-language publication writes that longevity means additional opportunities — but also new problems: What to make of a couple extra decades? How to live in a family where four or five generations coexist? At […]
New studies show teenagers in Europe and North America are consuming less alcohol and cigarettes than they did even a few years ago. But other problems have worsened.
PARIS — Employees everywhere, here’s one more good reason to grumble: Your boss will probably outlive you. A new study from France’s national statistics bureau (INSEE) quantifies what many might have suspected, also in light of noted correlations between wealth and life expectancy. But the latest French study, which echos similar findings from other countries […]
Did you know the funny yellow stuff was born in the land of beurre?
The consequences can be catastrophic when cyber criminals blackmail hospitals. Experts are warning hospitals that they’re not doing enough to protect their patients’ data.
TOKYO — A growing number of Japanese are climbing the emergency staircases of high-rise buildings and towers recreationally, both for the views they can enjoy from the lofty structures and for the heart-pumping exercise. Climbing events held at such structures offer access to stairways that are normally closed to the public. On Nov. 14, at […]
In October, India issued a ban on foreign couples seeking surrogacy there. Now, a proposed law wants to make the entire industry illegal, even for Indian couples. Surrogates and their advocates say it would be a dangerous mistake.
Hip hop performers, flamenco stars and ballet and classical dancers all have a peculiar tenderness for their feet, which aren’t just work tools but extensions of themselves.
Researchers have discovered that a trigger in certain genes is responsible for some people burning calories better than others. In the long run, the finding may help in the fight against obesity.
HAMBURG — The heat in the kitchens is getting hotter. Life for cooks and chefs around the Western world has grown ever more difficult since healthy diets that exclude everything from gluten to dairy became a super trend. “We are confronted with this on a daily basis,” says Tony Hohlfeld, head chef at Hamburg’s gourmet […]
College students increasingly describe how the pressure to perform well is wreaking havoc on their well-being. Research even shows a worrying trend toward psychological conditions related to the strain. Here’s how to prevent the worst.
In Brazil, where you’re born not only affects how you live, but can also have an enormous impact on how long you’ll live. The results of the latest report from the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics, published in Folha de S. Paulo, show that life expectancy in the country of samba varies from what […]
SEOUL — Poverty among the elderly has been blamed for the growing rate of suicides among senior citizens in South Korea’s capital, where 50 seniors took their own lives last year. According to the Korea Labor Institute, 48.6% of the country’s elderly were living in poverty last year, the Korea Herald reports. The highest suicide […]
HAMBURG — In Birgit Böhm’s opinion, the “4” she’s looking at is balancing on one leg, like in the nursery rhyme “A little man in the forest,” and wearing a little red cloak. The “7” next to it looks like it’s made of thick gardening wire. And it’s green! The rest of the numbers and […]
The power of “Big Tobacco” in a state-run industry in China is surprisingly similar to the hold that U.S. cigarette makers long enjoyed. Indeed, Chinese anti-smoking advocates are decades behind Western counterparts.
Orthorexia is to eating right what anorexia is to eating less. It’s the condition of imposing such stringent control over one’s diet, insisting on eating only healthy or organic food, and it is becoming a health concern in developed nation
Though homophobia is not itself a mental illness, a new study finds that people who are prejudiced against gays and lesbians often do have mental disorders. But it’s unclear what we’re supposed to do with this insight.
SENDAI — Alcoholism and related problems are becoming serious in the three Tohoku prefectures severely affected by the Great East Japan Earthquake of March 2011. The deaths of loved ones or the stress of a prolonged life as evacuees have led to increased alcohol consumption, and some are newly diagnosed as alcoholics even 4 1/2 […]
Libération, Oct. 8, 2015 “How Brussels screwed up European sperm.” Libération dedicated its front page Thursday to an in-depth story about how the European Union has failed to restrict the use in every day products of endocrine disruptors, which researchers say are responsible for cancers, diabetes and poor sperm quality. Manufacturers use parabens, phtalates, bisphenol […]
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Uruguay President vs. Big Tobacco
MONTEVIDEO — While other world leaders used their slot at this week’s United Nations General Assembly to argue over Syria or the global economy, Uruguayan President Tabaré Vázquez had smoke on his mind. After winning a second non-consecutive term last November, Vázquez launched a full-scale attack on the global tobacco industry, accusing cigarette companies of […]
The pharmaceutical industry looks to identify new diseases so it can push new drugs on the market, and patients play along. The approval of reduced female libido as a pathology is a case in point.
CERRO DE PASCO — More than 2,000 children in Peru’s Pasco region have blood lead levels far higher than what the World Health Organization says is a safe range for children, and at least 70 of them are suffering from resulting physical illnesses and disabilities, Lima-based daily El Comercio reports. The culprit is mining, and […]
More than 3 million people die prematurely each year from dirty air. But researchers can now trace what exactly causes the bad air in different locations. A way to begin to fix it.
The protein-rich algae spirulina is abundant and affordable in the Central African Republic, making it a nutritional alternative to help feed kids in the developing world.
Invisible to the naked eye, the attitudes and regulations of local officials are blocking an expansion of private hospitals that most agree is much needed in China.
A Bogota-based NGO is helping some 30 farmers to sell organic produce directly to consumers. An oasis of clean food in the face of rising agrobusiness dominance.
Colombia’s health minister has opened up to euthanasia and imposed new bans on herbicides — news in a conservative country, and one so close to the U.S. for so long.
Doctors in Germany have noted an alarming rise in psychotic episodes linked to excessive marijuana use among young people, which follows other studies around the world raising alarms.
-Analysis- PARIS — As pharmacists look to the future, the first thing they should bear in mind is that the health market is growing as it never has before. But it’s also just as true that consumer habits are changing. People are better informed, more demanding and more prone to self-medication. All of those are […]
A German biologist spent two years on a project whose aim was to understand how people with Down syndrome think about the world. She wound up creating a magazine that capitalizes on their intelligence.
The architecture and interior design of a residential care home serving autistic people were specially designed to make the patients more comfortable. A look inside the award-winning facility.
Growing old doesn’t necessarily have to mean leaving a beloved home. A growing market of technology-related services for senior citizens is helping them to keep their beloved independence.
For years Beijing has said it’s working to provide safe drinking water to people in the countryside, but experts say the goal is far from being realized.