Our study revealed breastfed babies had twice the number of regulatory T cells. SeventyFour/ Shutterstock Life outside the womb is tough – not least because of the many bacteria, viruses, and other pathogens that can harm a baby. Not only does a baby’s immune system need to be able toContinue Reading
LittleDogKorat/Shutterstock COVID-19 has changed how we give birth, where we give birth, and who is present when we give birth. The effects of these changes are yet to be fully understood, and while the experience of childbearing has become more difficult in many ways during the pandemic, there may alsoContinue Reading
Velishchuk Yevhen/Shutterstock A pregnant woman with suspected COVID-19 was rushed by ambulance to Skåne University Hospital, in Malmo, Sweden, suffering from sudden severe abdominal pain. The doctors noticed that the unborn infant had an abnormally low heart rate, which can be a sign that the baby is not getting enoughContinue Reading
A coronavirus variant called B1525 has become one of the most recent additions to the global variant watch list and has been included in the list of variants under investigation by Public Health England. Scientists are keeping a watchful eye on this variant because it has several mutations in theContinue Reading
Short and long naps both have benefits. Rawpixel.com/ Shutterstock Some people swear by an afternoon nap – whether it’s to catch up on lost sleep or to help them feel more alert for the afternoon ahead. Even Boris Johnson supposedly favours a power nap during his work day (though theContinue Reading
With the UK on track to vaccinate all its priority groups with a first dose by mid-April, the target date for getting an initial vaccine to the rest of the British population has been brought forward by a month, to the end of July. In conjunction with this, prime ministerContinue Reading
People with this gene variant shivered less and had a higher core body temperature when exposed to cold water. Dudarev Mikhail/ Shutterstock Some people just aren’t bothered by the cold, no matter how low the temperature dips. And the reason for this may be in a person’s genes. Our newContinue Reading
Some studies have linked drinking milk with higher risk of oestrogen-receptor positive breast cancer. Summersky/ Shutterstock Breast cancer has now overtaken lung cancer as the world’s most commonly diagnosed cancer, and as the leading cause of cancer-related deaths for women in many countries. While genetics can certainly increase risk ofContinue Reading
To Olivia, a new film on Sky Cinema, captures the year (1962) that author Roald Dahl’s daughter died of measles encephalitis. The death of seven-year-old Olivia nearly tore the family apart. This terrible story will be new to many people, but it’s not new to me. I first heard itContinue Reading
shutterstock For more than a decade, drug-related deaths (DRD) in Scotland have been rising – alongside evidence which suggests that the country has had much less success in treating and supporting people who use drugs compared to the rest of the UK and Europe. The figures for 2019, which wereContinue Reading
