Did your parents tell you to turn off the TV and play outside? Perhaps they threatened that you were going to end up needing glasses if you didn’t stop playing computer games. It turns out your folks may have been right after all, although not quite for the reason they thought.
We’ve all heard claims chocolate is healthy. But if you’re anything like me, you’ve wondered if that’s a vicious rumour started by a chocolate multinational. I’m delighted to tell you in fact scientists have found plenty of evidence for the health benefits of chocolate eaten in moderation. But there are a few things you need to know. A long but not so sweet history The Latin name for cocoa, Theobroma, means “food of the gods”. […]
Water: it covers 97% of the planet, makes up almost two-thirds of each of us, and is a requirement for life as we know it. But did you know too much of it can kill you?
Think having a treadmill at your desk is a ridiculous fad? It may not be realistic for most workplaces but the idea is strongly rooted in science. You’re probably aware that sitting down all day is bad for your health. But just how bad? And is there anything you can do, short of quitting your desk job?
You've suffered a gunshot wound. You're losing blood and your organs are failing fast. Would you let doctors drain your blood and chill your body to 10 ºC, entering a state of clinically-dead, suspended animation, to buy precious time that may save your life? This radical technique is being trailed by a group of doctors at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center in Pennsylvania.
We have known for a long time that eating less (much less) can prolong life in many animals. Given fasting diets are currently all the rage, I decided to investigate the science. Is fasting also good for humans?
magine if there was something accessible, reliable and non-invasive to detect cancer before we even knew we had it. Sounds too good to be true, doesn’t it? But scientists have been working on just this. So, what exactly is this exciting cancer detector? Dogs!
Every second, 26,000 cups of coffee are drunk around the world. That’s more than two billion cups of coffee consumed every day. Yet most of us think of coffee as unhealthy. If coffee is your guilty pleasure you’ll be pleased to hear you can forget the guilt: coffee is good for you.
In 2010, a woman who had received no pre-natal care arrived at a hospital in rural Mississippi already in labour. Tests revealed she was HIV-positive. She gave birth to her baby girl before medication could be given which may have prevented the transmission of the virus from her to her baby.
Thanks to a specialised group of cells called pacemaker cells, your heart keeps beating, and at a regular pace. There are a few thousand of these cells in your heart and they send out the electrical signals that initiate each heartbeat.
Dr Jen Martin 