Long dismissed or mocked, menopause is finally being seen as a profound transformation: an ending that opens onto freedom.
Tag: healthcare
Chronic pain affects millions and often resists medical treatment. German researchers are exploring how the brain’s pain matrix can be retrained, offering hope to those trapped in cycles of constant pain.
Researchers say “sickness behavior” mimics mild depression as immune cytokines signal the brain to conserve energy, making people listless and withdrawn. Yet it differs from true depression and varies widely depending on mindset, stress and loneliness.
War is eroding the foundations of the health care system in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. Months of violence between government forces and M23, an armed group with backing from neighboring Rwanda, have spurred looting and closures of medical clinics around Lubero territory. Facilities that remain open are grappling with supply shortages, staff departures and mounting difficulties transporting patients.
Practitioners want legal recognition, critics call it pseudoscience. Can osteopathy really heal? The problem is that evidence is not always consistent.
New studies from Finland, Denmark and Norway suggest that mental health disorders might spread through social contact. But how strong is the effect — and should we call it an epidemic?
As staff shortages grow, a Munich startup is testing and training childlike AI companions designed to talk, remember and emotionally connect with the elderly — without ever losing patience.
RFK Jr.’s rise reveals how pseudoscience paranoia now holds political power. Conceived in the late 19th century, the survival of the fittest ideas of Social Darwinism helped drive Nazi ideology.
Have you suddenly developed hay fever? Have you had seasonal allergies, but it’s progressively worsened in recent years? You’re not alone. Why pollen is more aggressive in cities, why playing in the mud helps as a child, and what doctors recommend.
Fertility clinics should provide easy access to mental health support for those undergoing IVF treatments. Some of them do, many do not.
Some people seem to breeze through a 40-hour workweek, housework, workouts, and personal projects, while others barely make it to the couch after work. But what if you, too, could become one of those high-energy people?
Recent studies reveal strong links between air pollution and deposits in the brain, even in areas with low pollution levels. Inflammation plays a key role in this process.
When the desire to transition outweighs the severe risks of self-medicating.
One-third of young Polish women don’t go to the gynecologist from fear of being judged. Catholic Polish doctors often refuse to prescribe birth control, openly make references to their religion, make judgmental remarks about their patients, and, in the worst cases, deny women life-saving care because of Poland’s draconian abortion laws.
Insects like ants heal their fellow species, and they even perform surgeries. Biologist Erik Frank is researching their methods. He believes that humans can also benefit from them.
Motivate them or leave them alone? Be honest or say nothing? It is not easy to deal well with depressed people. But psychology professionals say that those closest can often help even more than trained experts. That doesn’t mean it’s easy. Here’s how to help…
Zambia is as generous with patients from neighboring Zimbabwe as it is with its own citizens. That could mean problems for both countries.
Luigi Mangione, accused of murdering Brian Thompson, the CEO of the health insurance company UnitedHealthcare, has become a folk hero for Americans across different political ideologies. That’s because the nation has a broken capitalistic healthcare system.
A new blood test, designed to detect more than 50 types of cancer, could be the future of early cancer detection. Is it the next big thing, or just another marketing gimmick?
For centuries, doctors have taken women’s diseases less seriously, saying they were psychological or made up. But now, social media is helping these women report their misdiagnoses and confront an unjust system.
Lecanemab, marketed as Leqembi, is the first drug targeting the root cause of Alzheimer’s disease to be approved by the European Medicines Agency. Despite its side effects and limited efficacy, it finally offers a glimmer of hope for effective therapies.
Years of budget cuts and a sluggish economy have pushed Italy’s public healthcare system to the brink. As doctors and nurses flee the country in search of better pay, it is in communities along the border with Switzerland where the cracks are most visible.
A landmark decision last year by the Mexican Supreme Court is part of a push in Latin America to expand abortion access. But as seen by the U.S. overturning Roe v. Wade in 2022 and the presidential election in November of this year the issue is moving in different directions around the world.
Though mainly associated today with Islamic countries, underage marriage is increasingly being reported in Colombia, and other places in Latin America, often with a financial motivation pushing poorer families to effectively “sell” their daughters to older men.
Hundreds of thousands of migrants are in limbo in Tunisia, which has in recent years become a major transit point for migrants fleeing conflicts and poverty in Africa and the Middle East for better lives in Europe. Women in particular lack basic rights, including sexual and reproductive health services.
The biggest firms and richest people in the world have the money states need to invest in services that can improve the lives of billions of people. That could help stop a collective slide into acute social and political tensions.
Erasing the practice of midwifery through legislation seems impossible, yet fear persists in Mexico, which counts at least 16,000 midwives, trusted by thousands of women every year, especially peasant and indigenous women.
Tools that use AI will help doctors work smarter and faster. But not all patient care can be improved by an algorithm.
Palestinian women are suffering disproportionately in the Gaza conflict, where they represent 70% of casualties and more than half of the displaced people.
An often dysfunctional state has turned Mexicans into a vigorously self-reliant, hard-working nation. But plans by the leftist presidential candidate to create a welfare state seem like the sure-fire way of pushing Mexico toward “Argentine-style” reliance on the government.
All informal workers face climate change and it impacts their livelihood — reduced income as well as reduced hours of work. Workers talk about fatigue and dehydration, excessive sweating, and general mental stress and anxiety.
Costly treatments, no appointment available, “dental deserts,” minority discrimination, mass exodus from the workforce… While UK dentists warn that so-called dental tourism is dangerous, the crisis in NHS dentistry is forcing more and more British patients to travel to brand new clinics in Turkey — not for cosmetic procedures, but basic treatment. In Turkey, medical tourism is booming more than ever.
Ending a pregnancy has become a major complication, and a crime, for Iranian women who cannot or will not have children in a country wracked by socio-economic woes and a leadership crisis.
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The Underbelly Of The Meditation Boom
For years, mindfulness has been promoted as a near panacea. But just how much does the brain affect the body?
It’s easier than ever to get prescription drugs online. Should regulators be paying more attention?
The World Health Organization has long walked the uneasy tightrope between evidence-based and traditional medicine. It is time to dismantle this unrealistic balance.
Parents in Karnali province started their own center to meet the need. But without adequate government funding, its survival is in doubt.
An ongoing outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease in southeastern Poland, near the Ukraine border, has prompted interventions from the Polish internal security agency. Over the past four days, authorities have not found any signs of deliberate spread of the disease, but are continuing to investigate.
It’s difficult to take a breath in the middle of all of the parenting chaos — but if we aren’t able to tell when happy moments are unfolding, we risk missing them altogether.
Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine began, Poland has accepted the largest number of Ukrainian refugees of any country. But in spite of the aid that they have received, some notable gaps remain: including the Polish healthcare system.