Gemma Ware, The Conversation e Daniel Merino, The Conversation
Listen to The Conversation Weekly as we delve into the achievements behind three of the latest Nobel prizes.
Nearly 100 scholars and health care professionals are urging women to limit their use of acetaminophen during pregnancy.
Oscar Wong/Moment via Getty Images
Tylenol has long been considered a go-to medication for low to moderate pain and for fever reduction, even during pregnancy. But mounting evidence suggests that it is unsafe for fetal development.
Disease and public health confusion were common in 18th-century England.
adoc-photos/Corbis via Getty Images
The 2,000-line poem by Scottish physician John Armstrong was written during a time of pandemic, war and increasing public disinformation. What can readers learn from it today?
Poisons have been used in traditional Chinese medicine for over two millennia.
4X-image/E+ via Getty Images
The usefulness of a drug is typically measured by its active ingredient. But traditional Chinese medicine shows that there’s more to healing than using the right chemical.
Because little scientific evidence exists for trans medical treatments, doctors are often wary when working with trans people, even if they realize it’s in the patients’ best interests to do so.
RNA carries copies of genetic information from DNA.
CROCOTHERY/ Shutterstock
Some AI systems make faulty assumptions about women and nonwhite men, which can lead to misdiagnoses. Overcoming this bias takes legal, regulatory and technical fixes.
Fungi are a small but important part of the gut microbiome. A new study in mice shows that how much weight mice gain on a processed food diet depends on this fungal microbiome.
New treatments target different stages of COVID-19, including before patients become sick enough to need a hospital.
Juan Monino via Getty Images
A year after it became clear that COVID-19 was becoming a pandemic, there is still no cure, but doctors have several innovative treatments. Some are keeping patients out of the hospital entirely.
Bacteriophage (yellow) are viruses that infect and destroy bacteria (blue).
Christoph Burgstedt/Science Photo Library,Getty Images
As the world has focused on the COVID-19 pandemic, other microbial foes are waging war on humans. Antibiotic-resistant bacteria pose a growing threat. But viruses may defeat them.
Given the observed and anticipated growth of telemedicine since the beginning of the pandemic, it would be a good idea to clarify and co-ordinate the rules applicable to it in Canada.
Shutterstock
Weed, though far less dangerous than many other drugs, is not entirely without risk. Some 59% of people treating pain with medical cannabis experience moderate to severe withdrawal symptoms
Families can prioritize learning more healthy ways to eat.
Joe Raedle/ Getty Images News
Lifestyle medicine targets the root of chronic diseases like obesity, heart disease and diabetes. Experts explain why everyone should embrace these free prescriptions for good health.
Adil Najam, international relations professor at Boston University, interviewed 99 experts about what the post-pandemic future will bring.
Pardee Center/Boston University
There’s no going back to normal after COVID-19, partly because our pre-pandemic world was anything but normal.
Air pollution exposure during mid to early life may be more important to developing Alzheimer’s disease than doctors realized.
Cecilie Arcurs via Getty Images
The tiny air pollutants known as PM2.5, emitted by vehicles, factories and power plants, aren’t just a hazard for lungs. A study finds more brain shrinkage in older women exposed to pollution.
The French government will not accept any passengers arriving from the U.K. amid fears over the new mutant coronavirus strain.
Steve Parsons/PA Images via Getty Images
A new strain of the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19 appears to be spreading fast in the UK. This probably isn’t a big problem, but the data isn’t in yet.
A laboratory technician wearing full personal protective equipment handles live samples taken from people tested for the coronavirus.
ANDREW MILLIGAN/POOL/AFP via Getty Images
The pandemic is placing strain not just on doctors and nurses but the medical laboratory professionals who conduct the billions of medical tests behind the scenes.
SHARP Professor, Vitalities Lab, Centre for Social Research in Health and Social Policy Centre, and the ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making and Society, UNSW Sydney
Honorary Enterprise Professor, School of Population and Global Health, and Department of General Practice and Primary Care, The University of Melbourne