As women age, they are more susceptible to vaginal dryness and pain during intercourse because of vulvovaginal atrophy (VVA). A new study suggests that ospemifene and systemic hormone therapy both result in improving VVA symptoms and likely improve the vaginal microbiome by reducing potentially harmful bacteria and increasing health-promoting microorganisms. Study results are published online...
Health
Covid-19 Conspiracy Theories That Spread Fastest Focused on Evil, Secrecy
In the early pandemic, conspiracy theories that were shared the most on Twitter highlighted malicious purposes and secretive actions of supposed bad actors behind the crisis, according to an analysis of nearly 400,000 posts. In the study, researchers identified commonalities in five of the most popular conspiracy theories: those related to Bill Gates, 5G Networks,...
Plague Trackers: Researchers Cover Thousands of Years in a Quest to Understand the Elusive Origins of the Black Death
Seeking to better understand more about the origins and movement of bubonic plague, in ancient and contemporary times, researchers at McMaster University, University of Sydney and the University of Melbourne, have completed a painstaking granular examination of hundreds of modern and ancient genome sequences, creating the largest analysis of its kind. Despite massive advances in...
New App to Help People Eat the Right Portion Sizes to Get to 5 a Day
A new app has been developed to help people reach the recommended target of eating five portions of fruits and vegetables a day. It tells users whether they are eating the right portion sizes, as well as the right foods, to meet the recommended guidelines from Health Authorities in the UK. Previous studies from Bournemouth University found...
Calmness and the Common Good, Anyone? Mindfulness Can Help Deal with Challenges in Working Life
At work, mindfulness, ’present-moment awareness’, benefits not only the individual but the whole work community, comes up in Laura Urrila’s doctoral dissertation in human resource management. When an individual participates in mindfulness training, the implications spill over to the wider work community. – Leaders who practise mindfulness are more present, give others space, seek to...
Do Former Football Players Age Faster?
Former professional football players — particularly linemen — are more likely than nonplayers with similar demographic characteristics to develop diseases typically associated with advanced age when significantly younger, according to new research published Dec. 8 in the British Journal of Sports Medicine. These former elite athletes also tend to experience age-related conditions — hypertension and diabetes,...
The Undying Holiday-Suicide Myth
The holiday-suicide myth, the false claim that the suicide rate rises during the year-end holiday season, persisted in some news coverage through the 2021-22 holidays, according to U.S. media data collected and analyzed by the Annenberg Public Policy Center (APPC) of the University of Pennsylvania. In fact, although the U.S. suicide rate increased in 2021 after...
Egyptian Mothers’ Employment Early in Children’s Life Help Their Daughters Stay in Work
Mothers in Egypt, where women’s employment remains ‘concerningly low’, can play an important part in shaping their daughters’ employment stability from a young age, says new research by Lancaster University. The study, by Dr. Mariam Abouelenin and Professor Yang Hu, of Lancaster University, looked at Egyptian mothers’ employment during their daughter’s adolescence and found that...
Negative Self-Perception Appears to Self-Perpetuate, Researchers Find
At the end of a bad day, how do you feel about yourself? The answer could indicate not only how your self-perception formed, but also how it renews, according to experimental results from a research group in Japan. They published their findings on October 10 in Cognitive Therapy and Research. “People with psychiatric disorders including...
New Survey Reveals Majority of European Dietitians Believe Moderate Coffee Consumption Has Clear Health Benefits
62% believe drinking coffee in moderation has clear health benefits 86% agreed that regular, moderate intake of coffee improves alertness and 67% agreed that coffee consumption is associated with an improvement in overall sports performance However, gaps in knowledge were identified regarding the associations between coffee intake and key non-communicable diseases A new report by the European...