Somali-American activists recently scored a victory against Amazon and against colourism, which is prejudice based on preference for people with lighter skin tones. Members of the non-profit The Beautywell Project teamed up with the Sierra Club to convince the online retail giant to stop selling skin lightening products that contain mercury. After more than a...
The number of e-cigarette users who began vaping at age 14 or younger has more than tripled in the last five years, say University of Michigan researchers. Last year, 28% of e-cigarette users said they started no later than age 14, compared to about 9% in 2014. The findings appear online in the American Journal...
Researchers studying a patient with a rare lung disease called hard-metal pneumoconiosis say the disease was probably caused by vaping. The condition creates an unusual and distinctive pattern of damage to the lungs that results in breathing difficulties. It is typically diagnosed in people who work with “hard metals”, such as cobalt or tungsten, in...
University of Canberra researchers have shown that art gallery programs can improve the wellbeing of people living with dementia – and they’ve backed it up by testing study participants’ saliva. Published in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease, the UC study monitored new participants of the National Gallery of Australia’s (NGA) Art and Dementia program over six...
Advertising budgets and strategies used by beer companies appear to influence underage drinking, according to new research from Iowa State University. The findings show that the amount of money spent on advertising strongly predicted the percentage of teens who had heard of, preferred and tried different beer brands. For example, 99% of middle school and...
The ever-expanding field of virtual reality (VR) has been used in health care settings like physical rehabilitation. It’s also made its way into therapy settings to reduce phobias and delusions. Could creative arts therapies be the next frontier for VR? Researchers from Drexel University’s College of Nursing and Health Professions in the Creative Arts Therapies Department conducted a study...
Cannabis may be helping Canadians cope with the effects of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), new research suggests. In an analysis of health survey data collected by Statistics Canada from more than 24,000 Canadians, researchers from the BC Centre on Substance Use (BCCSU) and University of British Columbia (UBC) found that people who have PTSD but...
A study led by researchers from St. Michael’s Hospital of Unity Health Toronto and ICES found that people living in neighbourhoods considered to be the least walkable were up to 33 per cent more likely to have a high predicted 10-year cardiovascular risk compared to individuals living in the most walkable neighbourhoods. The study, publishing...
In today’s stressful world, mindfulness – a type of popular spirituality that strives to focus on the present moment – promises to soothe away the anxiety and stress of modern life. The Internet is full of popular cure-all mindfulness apps targeting everyone from busy urban professionals to dieters, those suffering from insomnia and even children....
In the 1970s, doctors in the United States performed sterilizations on an estimated 25 to 42% of Native American women of childbearing age, some as young as 15. Even the lower estimate—one quarter of Native women—is a whopping statistic. The federal government subsidized the sterilizations, which often took place without consent or under great duress....
