It's one of those myths so well established in the minds of doctors and the public it's almost impossible to shift: The idea that reducing cholesterol has a major impact on heart disease. It's arguable whether it has even the slightest impact, but with so much money and so many [...]
I remember when I first saw the pictures taken by the Hubble Space Telescope. Suddenly we could see amazing nebulas, the remains of supernova explosions and distant galaxies. They were there all along, but we just didn’t have the technology to see them. New technology is reshaping how we see [...]
Left untreated it can lead to strokes, heart failure and death. Yet atrial fibrillation (AF) -- the most common form of irregular heartbeat -- is forecast to grow to epidemic proportions within the next decade or two as the population ages. One of the risk factors for AF is sleep [...]
In Finland, they start taking them in childhood. That's because many families have a unit in their homes. In fact, even with a population of only 5½ million, there are at least one million saunas in use, with most Finns taking at least one bath a week. The sauna is [...]
Jonathan Searle couldn’t have been prouder. The teacher walked away from The Bottle Inn as the 2017 winner of the World Nettle Eating Championship. Nettle eating? Really? Really. July seems like a good time to talk about this common weed -- and in a good way, for a change. I [...]
The idea originated in Japan in the run up to the Olympic games in Tokyo in 1964. Since then, walking 10,000 steps a day - which would take about an hour and 40 minutes to complete - has become a goal for daily fitness among people worldwide. While it's laudable [...]
Many doctors seem to dole out antibiotics without much thought about their harmful side effects. Unfortunately, the potential side effects of these drugs can be as bad or worse than the original health complaints that prompted the prescriptions. They can lead to life-threatening complications. So the danger of antibiotics is [...]
The noise caused by trains, planes and automobiles is like a heart-threatening toxin that gets into your body. It can’t be measured by a blood test or found in a chemical analysis of your food, the air you breathe or the water you drink. But it’s just as damaging as [...]
A popular herb that’s been used for cooking since the Pharaohs built the pyramids can fight heart disease, cancer and diabetes. It’s one of the most powerful “medicines” known. A remarkable fact about this herb – researchers recognize that when you cook and consume it, you may ingest any of [...]
Every year five million Americans are admitted to hospital with an infectious disease. Over a third of these are for lower respiratory tract infections. This accounts for the largest proportion in both men and women. As for the rest of these encounters with microbes, men are more likely to find [...]
