health

Bacteriophages could potentially be used to treat bacterial infections, including those that are becoming harder to treat with antibiotics. But advances in biological design also create new challenges for biosecurity.

The teenage brain works in a way that has been shaped by evolution for a unique and uniquely challenging time of life.

Very cold food or drink touching the roof of the mouth or the back of the throat can trigger the pain.

A heart attack can cause a cardiac arrest, but the two are not the same thing. In SADS, it’s usually the electrical rhythm that’s suspected, not a blockage.

Concerns about disordered eating should be taken seriously, but vegetarianism or veganism should not be treated as a warning sign on its own. A more useful assessment asks why the diet was adopted.

People often confuse emotional regulation with temperament, which is your natural, inborn style for how you approach or react to the world. Emotional regulation, on the other hand, isn’t something people either have or don’t have. It is a set of skills that develops over time.

They could have bacterial, fungal, chemical or heavy metal contamination; their purity could be lower than indicated; and the dose promised may not be what you receive.

Cyclospora is found only in humans, where it replicates in the intestinal tract, causing severe diarrhoea. In many states, sewage water is treated – though not always in ways that remove or kill the oocysts – and then released into waterways and can be used to irrigate crops.

A runner’s high is about far more than pleasure chemicals. Running changes how different brain networks communicate. During prolonged, rhythmic exercise (such as running), activity within the default mode network – the collection of brain regions associated with self-reflection, worry and thinking – appears to decrease.

For definitive proof of bad air quality in your bedroom, use an indoor air quality monitor. Seeing the hard data is often the best prompt to open a window, clear a vent, or switch on a dehumidifier.

Throughout life, bones are continuously renewed in a process called “remodelling”. The cells responsible have their own biological clocks, much like the ones that help regulate sleep, hunger and countless other daily rhythms.

Stop while you could still perform one or more repetitions. This is described as repetitions in reserve, or RIR. If you could complete ten repetitions but stop after eight, you have two repetitions in reserve, usually written as 2 RIR.