Thursday, 21 November, 2024

Health care should improve your health, right?

It’s undeniable: modern medicine offers ever-expanding ways to heal and prevent disease. But it’s also true that health care can cause harm. One analysis found that about 6% of health care encounters caused preventable harm, leading to thousands of deaths Read more…


Swimming lessons save lives: What parents should know

Before going any further, here’s the main thing parents should know about swimming lessons: all children should have them. Every year, over 4,500 people die from drowning in the United States — and, in fact, drowning is the leading cause Read more…


Orienteering: Great exercise and better thinking skills?

Picture this: you’re with friends in an unfamiliar forest using only a map and a compass to guide you to an upcoming checkpoint. There are no cell phones or GPS gadgets to help, just good old brainpower fueled by a Read more…


How health care leaders can prioritize health equity for the LGBTQIA2+ community

Editor's note: Health inequities have long been an issue for people in the LGBTQ+ community. We're pleased to share a post from our colleagues in Corporate Learning at Harvard Medical School focusing on solutions that health care leaders can champion. Read more…


Prostate cancer: Brachytherapy linked to long-term risk of secondary malignancies

When cancer patients are treated with radiation, it’s possible that the therapy itself may cause new tumors to form in the body later. Radiation kills cancer cells by damaging their DNA, but if the treatments cause genetic damage to normal Read more…


One surprising effect of wildfires: Itchy, irritated skin

Are you finding yourself with itchy, irritated skin that you can’t stop scratching? Or have you wondered why your child’s eczema is suddenly worse and so hard to control? Mounting evidence suggests that wildfires, which are increasing in intensity and Read more…


The cicadas are here: How’s your appetite?

You’ve probably heard the news: Cicadas are coming. Or — wait — they’re already here. And are they ever! Due to an unusual overlap of the lifecycles of two types (or broods) of cicadas, trillions of cicadas are expected to Read more…


Ultra-processed foods? Just say no

Americans love their ultra-processed foods, whether they come as cereal (like Cap’n Crunch, a favorite of mine as a kid), snack foods (like Cheetos), entr’es (like hot dogs), or desserts (like Twinkies). Sure, loading your plate with vegetables, fruits, fish, Read more…