Health

A collection of 373 posts

Health

Permethrin-treated baby wraps cut malaria cases in Ugandan trial

Researchers in Uganda found that treating cloth baby-carrying wraps with the insect repellent permethrin cut malaria rates among the infants carried in them by about two-thirds in a trial in Kasese, a rural, mountainous part of western Uganda. The trial involved 400 mothers and babies aged about six months. Half

Health

Experts raise safety and transparency concerns as ChatGPT Health reaches some Australian users

OpenAI has made ChatGPT Health available to a limited number of users in Australia and is accepting sign-ups to a waitlist, prompting concern from health experts about the tool’s safety, testing and regulation. The concerns follow cases such as a 60-year-old man with no history of mental illness who

Health

New York Times Well launches 5-Day brain health challenge

Last week the New York Times Well desk kicked off 2026 with a 5-Day Brain Health Challenge. The newsletter’s host spoke with Dana Smith, who designed the challenge, about practical steps people can take to support brain health. Smith said brain health is a topic that "touches all

Health

Nick Reiner placed in yearlong Los Angeles mental health conservatorship in 2020

Nick Reiner, who has been charged with killing his parents, was placed into a yearlong mental health conservatorship in 2020, two people with knowledge of the arrangement told The New York Times. A clerk with the Los Angeles Superior Court said the conservatorship ended in 2021. Steven Baer, the licensed

Health

Best mattresses of 2025: Otty, Simba and Ikea Valevåg top nine tested picks

The Guardian's mattress tester and a family panel turned the reviewer's home into a showroom to sleep-test nine bestselling bed‑in‑a‑box mattresses for 2025, covering two pocket‑sprung models, six hybrids and one all‑foam option. The testers each slept on allocated mattresses for

Health

Africa CDC says US-funded hepatitis B newborn trial in Guinea-Bissau cancelled

The controversial US-funded study on hepatitis B vaccines among newborns in Guinea-Bissau has been cancelled, Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention senior official Yap Boum said. "The study has been cancelled," Boum told journalists at a press conference on Thursday morning. The $1.6m study, funded under

Health

Mount Sinai alleges sabotage as nearly 15,000 New York City nurses strike

Two days into the largest nursing strike New York City has seen in decades, Mount Sinai Hospital said it had fired three nurses after they were caught "deliberately sabotaging" the labor-and-delivery floor by hiding supplies for newborns, the hospital said. Two of the nurses denied the allegation, saying

Health

Therapist Advises How to Support an Acquaintance With Depression Who Cancels Plans

Lori Gottlieb, writing in her Ask the Therapist column, responded to a reader in a small community whose acquaintance — more than an acquaintance but not a close friend — frequently agrees to plans then cancels and has recently disclosed she is struggling with depression. Gottlieb said people often treat visible illnesses

Health

Prince William helps with farm chores in Herefordshire, highlights farmers' mental health

People reports that Prince William visited a family-run farm in Herefordshire on Jan. 15, 2026, joining seasonal tasks such as pruning apple trees, building a fence and feeding sheep while drawing attention to farmers' mental health as patron of We Are Farming Minds. While pruning in the rain he

Health

Times journalist watches infant heart transplant at NewYork-Presbyterian

Simar Bajaj, a New York Times health journalist, observed an infant heart transplant at NewYork-Presbyterian Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital in September, watching the donor heart begin to beat in a 6-month-old patient named Luna whose heart had begun failing in May. Bajaj had permission from Dr. Emile Bacha to

Health

Aimee Donnellan's Off the Scales charts the rise of Ozempic and GLP-1 drugs

In her first book, Off the Scales, Reuters journalist Aimee Donnellan examines the social and scientific upheaval prompted by GLP-1 weight-loss drugs such as Ozempic, Wegovy and Mounjaro. Donnellan frames the drugs’ emergence against entrenched judgments about body size and beauty norms, citing examples such as a 2022 Times column

Health

Guest hospitalised after ingesting recalled Dr Schwartz hand sanitiser

A person was hospitalised with acute methanol poisoning after ingesting a now-recalled hand sanitiser while staying at the Paradise Resort on the Gold Coast, Queensland health authorities said. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) recalled Dr Schwartz Hand Sanitiser after it was identified to contain a high concentration of

Health

Trump administration reinstates nearly $2 billion for mental health and addiction programs

Less than 24 hours after more than 2,000 addiction and mental health programs nationwide received notices terminating almost $2 billion in funding, the Trump administration reversed course and reinstated the money, an administration official confirmed Wednesday night but declined to say why. The previous day the Substance Abuse and

Health

Kaiser Permanente settles for $556 million over Medicare Advantage billing claims

Kaiser Permanente agreed to pay $556 million to the federal government and two whistle-blowers to settle civil lawsuits that accused the health system of fraudulent overbilling through its Medicare Advantage plans. The suits, filed more than a dozen years ago, alleged that Kaiser overstated how sick its patients were to

Health

Administration reinstates hundreds of NIOSH employees placed on leave

The Trump administration reinstated on Tuesday hundreds of employees of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention who had been placed on administrative leave in April. The workers are all staff members of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, a C.D.C. unit charged with preventing work-related

Health

Marisa Abela on body image struggles after thyroid cancer

People reports Marisa Abela, the 29-year-old actress known for starring in HBO's Industry, said on the How To Fail with Elizabeth Day podcast on Jan. 14 that a thyroid cancer diagnosis at 23 changed her relationship with her body. Abela said she had hoped the experience would make

Health

Physiotherapists set out everyday steps to protect pelvic floor health

Australian physiotherapists and researchers have outlined practical daily strategies to maintain pelvic floor health and warned against common mistakes such as constant clenching or over-engaging the core. The pelvic floor comprises the muscles at the base of the pelvis and, as Lisa Birmingham describes, “everything above it, including ligaments”; it

Health

Therapists and researchers say people struggle to imagine the future amid a polycrisis

As the new year begins, many people report difficulty picturing a better future, with clinical psychologist Dr Steve Himmelstein in New York telling the author that most of his clients have "lost the future." The writer said social media responses from friends and acquaintances echoed a similar sense

Health

Mother of three in Conway, Arkansas dies after suffering brain aneurysm while driving

People reports that Tylena Wright, a mother of three from Conway, Arkansas, died after suffering a brain aneurysm while driving in December; she lost consciousness on Monday, Dec. 29 while "moving into oncoming traffic," according to KARK.com and a GoFundMe page created by her son. Her 19-year-old

Health

Small daily lifestyle changes linked to longer life in two studies

Independent.co reports two new studies that identify small, achievable lifestyle changes linked to reduced mortality and longer lifespan. The first study, published in The Lancet, found that an extra five minutes of brisk walking a day could reduce deaths by 6 per cent among the least active people and

Health

Nottingham hospital trust declares critical incident amid winter infections

Nottingham University Hospitals Trust has declared a critical incident amid severe and sustained pressure on its services, Independent.co reports. The trust said it is overwhelmed by rising patient numbers, winter infections such as flu and norovirus, and staff sickness, leading to significant and unacceptable delays in A&E

Health

South Carolina adds 124 measles cases as Arizona-Utah outbreak expands

Independent.co reports health officials in South Carolina confirmed 124 new measles cases since Friday, as an outbreak centered in Spartanburg County has ballooned after the holidays. South Carolina has logged 434 cases as of Tuesday in the outbreak; hundreds of children have been quarantined because of school exposures, some

Health

Earflo sippy-cup device aims to reduce children's need for ear tube surgery

Earflo is a medical device presented at CES that is designed to look and work like a sippy cup and could potentially help children avoid ear tube surgery, according to early studies. In an early peer-reviewed study of 21 children aged one to 12 who used Earflo for four weeks,

Health

Readers share small practical changes that helped habits stick

The Guardian asked readers how they build habits that last and published a roundup of small changes people said helped them keep routines such as daily flossing, exercise or eating more plants. Respondents described practical, low-cost adjustments: batch-cooking and storing meals in glass containers instead of plastic; keeping a mini

Health

Obamacare enrollment falls by 1.4 million after subsidy lapse

About 1.4 million fewer people have enrolled in Affordable Care Act plans this year, federal government numbers published Monday show: 22.8 million people had coverage starting Jan. 1, down from 24.2 million by mid-January last year. The decline — about 6 percent — follows the expiration of enhanced premium