Public health

Public health

From herbalists in Africa gathering plants to use as poultices to acupuncturists in China using needles to cure migraines, or Indian yogis practising meditation, traditional remedies have increasingly being shown to work, and deserve more attention and research, according to a World Health Organization official. A historical lack of evidence, which has seen traditional practices dismissed by many, could change with more investment and the use of modern technology, according to Dr Shyama Kuruvilla, who leads the WHO Global Traditional Medicine Centre.

Rash of shootings reflecta lack of standards Re: Gunfire wounds troops in DC (Page A1, Nov. 27) and Legendary coach shot at Laney College (Page A1, Nov. 14). The last 30 years have seen heinous mass shootings of innocents become ho-hum events of everyday life from Columbine (1999) to Sandy Hook (2012) schools; to just-engaged 20-year-old-Israelis walking (2025) in Washington, D.C.; to Laney college football coach John Beam (November 2025).

Rules bring back bad memories of winter waves during pandemic when people were unable to see their sick relatives

It follows feedback from black heritage groups who said they were more likely to become regular blood donors if they could donate with faith, community or friendship groups. Mark Chambers, from NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT), said: "The initiative is about creating a shared experience that makes donating more welcoming, inspiring, and impactful - especially for first-time donors - in a setting that feels more like community than clinic."

Millions of Americans are bracing for higher health costs in 2026, as subsidies that help them pay for health insurance under the Affordable Care Act are set to expire on December 31. Experts warn that a failure in Congress to extend the tax credits could be financially devastating for individual policyholders, while also raising health care costs as a whole. Roughly 22 million Americans receive the ACA subsidies, which were created in 2021 to lower households' monthly premiums.

It's feeding time for the animals on this property outside Nashville. An albino raccoon named Cricket reaches through the wires of its cage to grab an animal cracker an appetizer treat right before the evening meal. "Cricket is blind," said Robert Sory, who is trying to open a nonprofit animal sanctuary along with his wife Emily. "A lot of our animals come to us with issues."

In it, the Canadian ex-doula Yolande Norris-Clark falsely links ultrasounds to autism and ADHD and states that ultrasound damages and modifies and destroys cells. Yolande Norris-Clark in an episode of The Complete Guide to Freebirth. Photograph: FBS Norris-Clark, who was born in Vancouver, is arguably the most famous freebirth influencer in the world. She is also a key figure in FBS, a US company run by her business partner and fellow ex-doula Emilee Saldaya.

Sleep loss has become a quiet constant of modern life. It shows up in early commutes, late-night screens, rotating shifts, and a work culture that treats being reachable as a virtue. The public usually talks about the obvious costs, like fatigue and brain fog. The more consequential costs may be metabolic. When sleep is cut short, appetite often becomes harder to manage. People report stronger cravings, less satisfaction after meals, and a tendency to snack late.

A farmer has been fined after a spate of cow attacks on walkers in Cornwall, which saw one man spend five days in hospital with multiple serious injuries. Brian Gregory, 75, had been on a caravanning holiday at Porthcothan in June 2024 when he embarked on a dog walk with his labrador Molly along the West Coast Path. He was attacked by a herd of cows with calves, and was trampled and butted while his dog was able to escape uninjured.

"a $100 million scheme to unlawfully provide easy online access to Adderall and other stimulants by targeting drug seekers, engaging in deceptive advertising, and putting profits above patient care."

There's blood everywhere, and the baby's dead,

The Ad Council, in partnership with the U.S. Department of Transportation's National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and the Television Bureau of Advertising (TVB), today announced the launch of the 22 nd annual Project Roadblock. Each year, local broadcast TV stations across the country donate airspace to Buzzed Driving Prevention public service advertisements (PSAs) during the holiday season, reminding holiday travelers about the dangers of buzzed driving and encouraging them to plan ahead for a safe ride.

However, one overlooked impact of return-to-work policies is that they do not account for air quality issues in commercial buildings, The Way Commercial Cleaning notes. This trend, dubbed sick building syndrome, can be detrimental to employees' effectiveness once they get back into the swing of sharing office space. Once understood, it explains why indoor air quality services are increasingly in demand.

NHS England must prioritise improving wait times for adult gender dysphoria clinics, an independent 'Cass-style' review has said. The operational review, headed by Dr David Levy, urged the UK's public health service to create an action plan that would reduce wait times for a first appointment in its Adult Gender Identity Clinics (GICs). Patients are reportedly waiting over 15 years to access care according to the review, which said operational issues would likely exacerbate the problem if nothing is done.

Mrs Albino said: "We believe a series of systemic failures contributed to her death and we will not allow her to become just another case and a statistic." She added that her daughter's condition was worsened by anxiety. "As a family, we feel that nobody helped us and others actually worsened Emily's anxiety by not listening to our concerns," she added.

The UK's online gambling landscape changed sharply in September 2025. The new national rules capped online slot stakes at £5 per spin for adults and £2 for anyone under 25. Ministers framed the move as a fairness measure that simply puts online casinos on the same footing as land-based venues, where the same ceiling has existed for years. Operators now follow a rulebook that fixes the upper boundary of a single spin and leaves little room for interpretation.

For a festival with childbirth at its religious heart, it is perverse how much of our traditional Christmas spread isn't recommended for pregnant women. Pre-pregnancy, this was not something I'd clocked. I was the soft cheese supremo, canape queen at my happiest with a smoked trout blini in one hand and a champagne flute in the other. Then one day in October, two blue lines appeared on a test result and everything started to change: my body, my future and most pressingly my Christmas.

Kitchens, even very clean ones, smell like food, and this is a neon welcome sign to a rodent's nose. These creatures don't rely on their eyesight the way humans do. Smell is their dominant sense, and they use it to follow scent signals that mark a rat-safe route or a promising meal. A mouse has over 1,000 odor receptors (whereas people have a measly 350) finely tuned to trace the semiotics of a kitchen, like starches, fats, and other rodents' chemical signatures.

Last Tuesday afternoon, Dean Andrea Baccarelli at the Harvard School of Public Health sent out a brief message announcing that one of the country's most experienced and accomplished public health leaders, Dr Mary T Bassett, would step down as director of the Francois-Xavier Bagnoud Center for Health and Human Rights. The email struck a polite, bureaucratic tone, thanking her for her service and offering an upbeat rationale for a new focus on children's health.

In the first 90 days after the Palisades and Eaton fires erupted in January, the caseload at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center's emergency room looked different from the norm. There were 46% more visits for heart attacks than typically occured during the same time period over the previous seven years. Visits for respiratory illnesses increased 24%. And unusual blood test results increased 118%.

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. At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

An intense surge in flu cases driven by a newly dominant virus strain is sweeping across Europe, placing healthcare systems in several countries under severe pressure, the World Health Organization has said. The WHO said on Wednesday that at least 27 of the 38 countries in its European region were reporting high or very high influenza activity, with more than half of patients with flu-like symptoms testing positive in six countries including Ireland, Serbia, Slovenia and the UK.

At a hearing Wednesday morning, U.S. District Judge Maxine M. Chesney gave the government until 4 p.m. on Monday to resolve the issue or file an opposition, according to Tess Borden, a lawyer with the Prison Law Office, which brought the class action lawsuit, along with the American Civil Liberties Union, the California Collaborative for Immigrant Justice and Keker, Van Nest & Peters LLP. The judge set a hearing, if needed, for next Tuesday in San Francisco.

More babies are being born by caesarean section in England than delivered naturally - without assistance - for the first time. Latest NHS data for 2024-25 shows that 45% of births were by C-section, compared to 44% which were spontaneous, a term used to describe a natural vaginal birth. Another 11% needed extra support and interventions like forceps. Nearly half of the caesaereans - when the baby is delivered by surgeons cutting into the mother's abdomen and womb - were planned in advance.

Concord, NH - Attorney General John M. Formella and a bipartisan coalition of attorneys general are calling on Meta to better enforce its own policies about pharmaceutical and wellness ads on Instagram and Facebook and take additional measures to prevent AI-generated weight loss content in ads. These ads are likely to see an uptick during the holiday season and the new year, when conversations around weight loss and appearance tend to increase.