Consuming traditional forms of media – including books, music and television – has little effect on short-term adult well-being, according to a new study published in Scientific Reports. It is often assumed that engaging with traditional types of media improves well-being, while using newer types of media, such as social media, worsens well-being. However, evidence of...
A quick walk down the drink aisle of any corner store reveals the incredible ingenuity of food scientists in search of sweet flavors. In some drinks you’ll find sugar. A diet soda might have an artificial or natural low-calorie sweetener. And found in nearly everything else is high fructose corn syrup, the king of U.S....
The school closures in spring 2020 had a negative effect on the health and well-being of many young people. But homeschooling also had a positive flipside: Thanks to sleeping longer in the morning, many teenagers reported improved health and health-related quality of life. The study authors from the University of Zurich therefore believe school days...
At the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, rainy weather prompted behaviors similar to early social distancing in some counties across the U.S. the weekend before the first wave of stay-at-home orders were issued, and health data indicate that these behavior changes likely saved lives. Economists at UC Santa Cruz used this as a natural experiment...
The toilet of a First Temple period luxury villa reveals: Due to poor sanitary conditions, the Jerusalem elite suffered from infectious disease The 2,700-year-old remains of intestinal parasite eggs were discovered in a cesspit beneath the toilet in the garden of a luxury estate uncovered at the Armon Hanatziv Promenade in Jerusalem. The researchers: These...
Tobacco-style public health campaigns are needed to spell out the full extent of the harms of ultra processed foods, argue public health experts in the open access journal BMJ Global Health. Despite strong evidence linking these products to serious health consequences, the public are in the dark about the real dangers of these ‘foods’ and have...
Why should two individuals with exactly the same risk factor profile for developing heart attacks or strokes be treated differently based purely on their race? Is it race that alters risk of these people or is race a surrogate for other factors that may be elevating risk? And how large can these race-related differences in...
Alcohol sales and consumption increased during the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, but the effect of the increase in consumption on population health is not fully understood. In new research published in Hepatology, a team led by investigators at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) projected rates of liver disease and associated deaths due to increased alcohol consumption...
Twenty-one months into the global pandemic, millions of Americans continue to believe misinformation about vaccination and Covid-19, and these beliefs are associated with hesitancy to get themselves and their children vaccinated – or, if they are vaccinated, to get a booster for added protection against the omicron and delta variants. In the fourth survey conducted...
The COVID-19 pandemic revealed that for-profit long-term care homes had worse patient outcomes than not-for-profit homes. A new study found that of those for-profit homes, long-term care homes (LTCs) owned by private equity firms and large chains have the highest mortality rates. The study conducted by researchers at the University of Waterloo traced the growing...
