Health

Health

Burtran's mesh metal box may look plain and industrial, but it offers something extra in the world of air purifiers: negative oxygen ion technology. The company's claim is that its purifier's release of high-density (2,000-5,000 ions per cubic centimeter) negative oxygen ions delivers a "refreshing, forestlike atmosphere," which will boost energy, reduce stress, and improve sleep-all without ozone, radiation, or static. It also uses a HEPA 14, a denser filter than the more ubiquitous HEPA 13s that most air purifiers use.

Getty Images Scotland's resident doctors have called off a planned four-day strike over pay. They had been set to go on the first national walkout staged by NHS workers on Tuesday, having accused ministers of going back on promises over pay. But after further negotiations, the British Medical Association union is to suspend the strike and put a fresh pay offer to members - and is recommending that it is accepted.

There are more than 100,000 supplements on the US market capsules, powders, tablets and gummies sold to improve or maintain health. Supplements can contain vitamins, minerals, botanicals and amino acids on their own or in various combinations. The consumption of these products is surging. But it's a common misunderstanding that these products are entirely safe, says Dr Pieter Cohen, an internist and associate professor at Harvard Medical School.

A woman is planning to walk 115km to raise awareness of a rare condition which caused her to have two heart attacks. Cathy Read from Chippenham in Wiltshire has survived two spontaneous coronary artery dissections (SCAD). The rare condition predominantly affects women under 50 and is often under-diagnosed. In May, Read will be walking the Camino Frances route in Spain to raise funds for the charity that supported her recovery.

"I've been pretty absent on here the last few months, so I thought I'd share a little life update," she said. "I finished my 12th round of chemo just before Christmas, which meant I had a lovely chemo-free Christmas with my family. The past few months have been a mixed bag of cuddling Sam, our wee springer spaniel, on the sofa, and spending time with my nearest and dearest when my energy returned. Without them, I would be lost."

The feature, unveiled on Wednesday, creates a separate space within ChatGPT for health questions and discussions, where users can collect data from their connected health apps such as fitness apps and store their health files. Users can also connect to their electronic medical records through a partnership with b.well, OpenAI says. ChatGPT, then, does not have a direct integration with the MyChart patient records app from Epic, for example, but lets individual users make requests for their patient record data through integrations built by b.well.

When I asked neurologists about their top behaviors for brain health, they all stressed the importance of physical activity. Exercise is top, No. 1, when we're thinking about the biggest bang for your buck, said Dr. Gregg Day, a neurologist at the Mayo Clinic. Numerous studies have shown that people who exercise regularly tend to perform better on attention, memory and executive functioning tests. There can be a small cognitive boost immediately after a workout, and the effects are sustained if people exercise consistently.

Dining out at new restaurants can be a fun way to try different cuisines and get together with friends. For people with allergies, though, eating food they haven't prepared themselves in a new place can pose a serious threat. Cross-contamination can happen anywhere, and food-related anaphylaxis sends patients to the emergency room every six minutes, according to the Journal for Allergy and Clinical Immunology.

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I am 60 years old and have had hearing loss since grade school. I'd flunk all those screening tests. My two younger siblings have my same type of hearing loss and have worn hearing aids since their 40s, if not earlier. My siblings are persistent in trying to get me to buy hearing aids which they feel I need. Yes, I probably need them according to medical tests, but I have resisted due to vanity and, more practically, cost.

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

Recent surveys estimate more than 6.7 million Australians - almost half of all workers, and the majority in Sydney, Melbourne, and Canberra - work from home at least some of the time in paid or unpaid roles. With that increase in working from home, it's easy to spend too long sitting - which is now recognised as bad for our health.

Back in 2023, Withings launched Body Scan, a super-premium scale with the sort of tech found in a high-end gym or low-end clinic. It had a six-lead ECG, offered segmented body composition and could monitor your nerve health, among other things. Now the company has rocked up at CES 2026 in Las Vegas with a second-generation model that adds in tests for hypertension and cellular health.

Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) causes repeated pauses or reductions in breathing throughout the night, triggering drops in blood oxygen and frequent mini-arousals that sabotage quality sleep. The condition affects an estimated 80 million Americans, yet roughly 80 percent of cases go undiagnosed. Left untreated, OSA has been linked to serious long-term consequences, including heart disease, cognitive decline, diabetes, and an increased risk of car and workplace accidents driven by chronic fatigue.

Silicon Valley Auto Show: Shift into high gear this month and visit this Jan. 9-11 auto show featuring the latest models of cars, trucks, SUVs, crossovers and more. Sit in the drivers' seats, check under the hoods and speak with product specialists about the different vehicles. Test-drive new vehicles from brands such as Cadillac, Tesla and Toyota too. Opens at 10 a.m. each day, Santa Clara Convention Center, 5001 Great America Parkway, Santa Clara. bit.ly/4qnQvKw

Coro, a new device created by Coroflow, accurately monitors breast milk intake in real-time, down to the 0.1 milliliters -- the first product on the market to do so. Coro is a silicone nipple shield with a patented micro-flow meter that measures milk intake, which you can view in an app. The app translates the data into insights on breast milk volume and feeding trends for each breast to help new parents better understand their baby's feeding patterns.

I ordered another taxi and made my way out to wait in front of the motel, in despair that I might miss my flight. I stood on the dark footpath and spoke on the phone to my sister in Queensland about how I had missed my taxi and how unwell I felt. My health condition can affect my ability to think clearly, and I was telling her how my brain just wasn't working that day.

There are two ways of looking at this. Either you could say Ger Copeland is lucky, that he has no divine right to be alive, and focus on how he's defied outrageous odds not just to live, but to live the way he does - winning marathons and scaling unfathomable heights for a man in his condition. You could look at the 10 per cent chance of survival he once had and think how fortunate he is to still be around.

Habits can be sneaky. One day of grilled cheese does not immediately cause high cholesterol or obesity. It doesn't make or break us to have one off day. But the sinister part of habits is the cumulative effects of our daily choices. Bad habits plus bad habits get us further and further off center and can ultimately lead to worse physical and mental health, but these impacts sneak up on us. We don't notice them right away.

When you think of counting your steps or tracking your sleep, you're probably going to think of attaching a smartwatch or some other wearable to your wrist-but you can actually monitor a bunch of metrics using just your phone. Your phone has the ability to automatically track the number of steps you're taking, for example. As long as you've always got it with you, it can tell you if you're reaching that daily step count or not, with no other devices required.

All the weight loss tactics I'd grown up internalizing - painstakingly tracking calories and steps, feeling "naughty" for eating half a cupcake, pretending raw almonds are a treat - didn't just present a challenge to my soul. I was also pretty sure they didn't work for me. So, I got a body composition analysis: a complimentary service offered through my membership at Life Time Fitness, an athletic club. On average, membership costs between $100 and more than $330 in the US.

Why are data-intensive apps in the enterprise, healthcare, and public sector so unusable and scary-looking with data fields machine-gunned onto every page? Proven design techniques such as user research, context of use, design patterns, and plain language guidelines turn such experiences into information to easily act on. You don't need AI to do this. There is accounting for taste When choosing an accountant, the adage to find someone stereotypically boring, committed to a long, unadventurous journey, but good with numbers is well-known, if outdated.

It gets more complicated once you start focusing on specific nutrients. Striking the right balance of protein, fiber, carbohydrates, healthy fats like omega-3s, vitamins, and minerals can feel like a full-time job. Luckily, there are people out there whose job this actually is. We spoke to over 40 registered dietitians, sports nutritionists, longevity scientists, and gut health researchers, all of whom shared their best diet advice with us this year.

When I was 11 years old and expressed an interest in writing plays, my father was on it booking theatre tickets, driving me to Parramatta Library to borrow scripts and giving me a portable typewriter for my 12th birthday. Soon after, when my teenaged sister mumbled an interest in genetics, we all found ourselves in a university lecture hall for a public talk on the subject.

Tests were run and I was told it might be a clot. I recognized it as the kind that had killed a friend of mine just the year before. She was my age and also a mom of two. Healthy. Strong. I remember hearing she'd gone to the hospital and thinking, She's tough. I'll see her later this week. She was gone less than 24 hours later.

Running the company is no easy feat: Marchione works seven days a week, putting in more than 12 hours a day. That means his self-care routine is precisely dialed in. Marchione says he has always taken an unconventional, even contrarian approach, exploring beyond what mainstream medicine recommends. As a teen, he was an early adopter of fitness wearables like the Oura ring, and got into blue-light-blocking glasses and mouth taping - trends that, despite some mixed evidence, have become incredibly popular in wellness today.

Writing at the Associated Press, Albert Stumm explored the growing evidence that the physical act of laughing has health benefits. University of Pennsylvania cardiologist Dr. Michael Miller offered Stumm advice where he compared laughter to exercise: "Belly laugh at least two to five days a week." Dr. Miller went on to discuss the role that laughter can play in deploying endorphins, which can reduce the risk of heart disease and act to reduce pain.

Beauty has never been superficial. It's always been about self-esteem, self-confidence, and self-expression, knowing that how you're feeling inside is reflected on the outside. Today, the boldest expression of that confidence comes from beyond the makeup bag: It's a full night's sleep working with a skincare routine, balanced hormones supporting a healthy glow, nutrients fueling both energy and radiance, and gut health supporting complexion.

What a great piece by Ross Coleman about embarking on his speech therapy programme for stammering (My cultural awakening: Jonathan Groff inspired me to overcome my stammer, 6 December). Coleman was inspired by the example of Jonathan Groff, who is not a stammerer, tackling something head-on. The McGuire Programme that Coleman signed up for seems to have helped many people. While Groff served as his inspiration, there are no shortage of actual stammerers who have compelling stories to motivate people as they navigate the choppy waters caused by their speech.

"All the energy you put in, you get back manyfold more through the metabolic and mental benefits of exercise," Holtan told Business Insider. "As soon as I really realized what this was doing for me physically and mentally, I wanted to implement this for patients too." Her patients at Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center in Buffalo, New York receive stem cell treatments for conditions like leukemia - a grueling procedure that can require months of recovery time in a hospital.

Bobby takes Jennifer back to being 19, in his first serious relationship, when sex felt inevitable until it wasn't. He describes the confusion of not understanding what was happening, the pain, the panic, and how Ireland's patchy sex education and constant media messaging left him thinking it should be instant, easy, and effortless. Instead, he spiralled into silence, avoidance, and the kind of secrecy that only grows heavier with time.

A lot of the research that's been done on mental health relies on self-report: Young people are asked to guesstimate how many hours they had on different platforms over weeks or months. They're also asked to estimate the impact of that screen use on their social relationships, their sleep, their exercise, their patterns. If you asked me, "John, what was your screen time for the last two weeks and what were your sleep patterns?," I wouldn't know.

Now, with Invisalign's advanced oral health scanning technology, Bay Area residents can get a clearer, more comprehensive picture of their oral health. In just ten to fifteen minutes, the innovative, 3D Invisalign Oral Health Scan captures a detailed view of your teeth and gums, revealing early signs of issues like gum recession, excessive wear, or bacteria-prone crowding before they become more serious.

Weight-loss giant Weight Watchers is relaunching itself for the Ozempic era. Six months after completing a Chapter 11 restructuring, the company is rolling out a revamped app and digital platform, a reimagined digital coaching experience, and a new brand identity. It's even bringing back its old, two-word name, Weight Watchers. (The company had changed its name to WW in 2018 and later styled itself WeightWatchers.)

She underwent a grueling treatment protocol: a lumpectomy, a year of chemotherapy, 33 days of radiation, skin grafting (to fix dead tissue from her lumpectomy), and a precautionary hysterectomy (her aunt was diagnosed with stage 4 ovarian cancer). "My treatment was pretty aggressive, so it really did take a toll on me," Burke, 54, told Business Insider. "It was pretty brutal to move my body." But she had one goal: to finish her first triathlon.