Health (Page 59)

Medicine pill is seen with Merck logo and words ‘Molnupiravir’ and ‘COVID-19’ displayed on a screen in the background in this illustration photo taken in Poland on November 5, 2021. Jakub Porzycki | NurPhoto | Getty Images Merck sold $3.2 billion of its oral antiviral treatment for Covid in the first quarter, fueling the company’s strong revenue growth. Merck on Thursday soundly beat Wall Street profit and revenue forecasts, reporting earnings of $2.14 per share on $15.9 billion in revenue. The company raised its 2022 earnings guidance to between $7.24 and $7.36 per share on $56.9 billion to $58.1 billion in revenue. It previously projected earnings per share between $7.12 to $7.27 on revenue of between $56.1 billion to $57.6Continue Reading

Liam Gallagher recently revealed that he is suffering from arthritis, leaving him with excruciating pain and the realisation that he will probably need hip replacement surgery. Most people associate arthritis with old age, but Gallagher is just 49. So how unusual is it to develop such severe arthritis before old age? Well, it depends on the type of arthritis. While there are a number of different types of arthritis, osteoarthritis is the most common. Osteoarthritis is common in older people, but it is possible for it to develop in younger people. A number of factors have been associated with the development of osteoarthritis, including ageing, being overweight, having an injury (such as having a torn anterior cruciate ligament in theContinue Reading

One in 20 UK women will now wait more than a year for an appointment. Elizaveta Galitckaia/ Shutterstock The COVID-19 pandemic has had a disproportionate and devastating impact on women’s health, according to a report from the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists. The report found that more than half a million women in the UK have been forced to wait for “non-urgent” gynaecological care. Waiting lists across the country are now 60% longer than pre-pandemic levels. This means that one in 20 women will now be waiting more than a year to receive gynaecological surgery, specialist treatments and even diagnoses. Some of those hardest hit by these delays are women suffering with endometriosis, the chronic inflammatory condition characterised byContinue Reading

Many women have to wait years for a diagnosis. Roman Kosolapov/ Shutterstock Over the last decade or so, there’s been an uptick in the number of adults being diagnosed with autism and ADHD. Any number of factors might explain this rise, including greater public awareness of both conditions, broader diagnostic criteria and changing perceptions in who autism and ADHD affects. But while autism and ADHD still affect a greater number of men, more women are reporting being diagnosed with these conditions as adults. Again, this increase is probably due to any number of factors. But social media may also be playing a role, with women able to use platforms such as Twitter and TikTok to spark discussions and share theirContinue Reading

China’s capital city of Beijing reported a spike in Covid cases over the weekend and began mass testing Monday in the business district of Chaoyang. Within the district, one community that’s pictured here became classified as a high-risk area. Jiang Qiming | China News Service | Getty Images BEIJING — China’s capital of Beijing warned over the weekend that Covid had spread undetected in the city for a week, and that more cases would be found with investigation. The main business district of Chaoyang began three days of mass testing on Monday for anyone living or working in the region, which is home to many embassies and foreign businesses. The district accounted for most of the 42 new Covid casesContinue Reading

Cold showers can have some benefits, a scientist says. Shutterstock, CC BY-NC Anyone watching the BBC programme Freeze the Fear with Wim Hof may be starting to wonder whether there really “power in the cold shower” as extreme athlete Hof claims. Hof, who set a Guinness World Record for swimming under ice, says that a “cold shower a day keeps the doctor away” by decreasing stress and increasing energy levels. He asks celebrity participants on the show, including sports presenter Gabby Logan and singer Alfie Boe, to have a cold water shower of 12°C every day, increasing the duration of the shower over time from 15 seconds to two minutes. Watching the reaction of the participants under the cold showerContinue Reading

Singapore is set to ease most Covid measures from April 26, authorities said. Lauryn Ishak | Bloomberg | Getty Images SINGAPORE — Singapore is set to remove nearly all virus safety measures from Tuesday as the city-state seeks to return to pre-Covid living, authorities announced on Friday. There will be no more social distancing or limits to the number of people at social gatherings. Fully vaccinated travelers will no longer need to take Covid tests before departing for Singapore. On-arrival tests have been waived since April 1. “Things continue to look up for us. Our social resilience is strong and now we are in a comfortable position. We can therefore afford to take further steps to restore pre Covid-19 normalcy,”Continue Reading

The stress of exercising while sick could potentially make our immune cells less effective. Dmytrenko Vlad/ Shutterstock Exercising regularly is good for your immune system – with some research suggesting that it may even lower the risk of getting upper respiratory infections, such as the common cold. Even as little as 30 minutes of moderate exercise five times a week is enough to bring about benefits. Since exercising is good for our immune system, some people might think that exercising while you’re sick can help you “sweat it out.” Unfortunately, when it comes to the common cold, there’s no evidence exercising while sick can shorten the illness or make it less severe. There are a couple of reasons why exerciseContinue Reading

Shidlovski/Shutterstock Every year, around 12,000 men in the UK die from prostate cancer, but many more die with prostate cancer than from it. So knowing whether the disease is going to advance rapidly or not is important for knowing who to treat. Our latest study, published in European Urology Oncology, sheds some light on understanding which cancers will progress rapidly and aggressively and which won’t. Part of the answer lies with five types of bacteria. For some years, we have known that pathogens (bacteria and viruses) can cause cancer. We know, for example, that Helicobacter pylori is associated with stomach cancer and that the human papillomavirus (HPV) can cause cervical cancer. There is also growing evidence that the bacteria FusobacteriumContinue Reading