Social media’s push for the perfect muscular body is fuelling a new form of disordered eating — and young men are most at risk: Young men are most likely to follow eating habits consistent with Mode. Elkhophoto/ Shutterstock From celebrities and influencers to everyday people, social media is full of content that showcases perfectly toned, …
African sci-fi: body hopping, artificial wombs and angry ghosts in a future Botswana: Tlotlo Tsamaase has already proved her talent for African science fiction. Her masterly short stories, one previously shortlisted for the Caine Prize, are helping put Botswana on the literary map. Her debut novel, Womb City, interweaves the mythological and digital expanses of …
Fascia: the most neglected part of our body is finally starting to receive attention: Photo Inspiration/Shutterstock We are constantly reminded about how exercise benefits our bone and muscle health or reduces fat. However, there is also a growing interest in one element of our anatomy that is often overlooked: our fascia. Fascia is a thin …
Weird and wonderful things lost then found inside the human body: Lisa F. Young/Shutterstock Doctors in Missouri recently made a startling discovery. A 63-year-old patient who went for a routine colon screening was found to have an intact fly in his colon. The doctors had no idea how the fly survived the perilous journey through …
What women say about how breastfeeding affects their body image: Krakenimages.com/Shutterstock The benefits of breastfeeding are well known – but the UK has one of the lowest breastfeeding rates in the world. The WHO recommends that babies should be exclusively breastfed up to the age of six months (when they can start having food in …
Is some of the body that collided with Earth to form the Moon still recognisable inside our planet?: Scientists have dated the birth of the Solar System to about 4.57 billion years ago. About 60 million years later a “giant impact” collision between the infant Earth and a Mars-sized body called Theia created the Moon. …
Heatwaves and hot temperatures are hard on the body – but a series of in-built adaptations make it easier to cope: The body is well-equipped to cope with the heat. tommaso79/ Shutterstock Record-breaking temperatures have been recorded in many countries in 2023. In some parts of Europe, summer temperatures even exceeded 45?. While this kind …
What happens to your body when you get left in the cold: The employee was only wearing jeans and a t-shirt. Cast Of Thousands/ Shutterstock Pret a Manger, a sandwich and coffee chain, was handed an £800,000 fine recently after one of its employees became stuck in a walk-in freezer. The employee was trapped in …
Microplastics discovered in the body tissues of whales, dolphins and seals – sparking concerns for human health too: A Risso's dolphin entangled in fishing line. Andrew Sutton/Shutterstock Marine mammals – animals including whales, dolphins, seals, sea lions, sea otters, dugongs and manatees – are threatened by an array of human activities. Species such as the …
Your body can be younger than you are – here’s how to understand (and improve) your ‘biological age’: Your chronological age and biological age may not be the same. Realstock/ Shutterstock The saying goes that money can’t buy you love. But can it buy you time? This is what US billionaire Bryan Johnson is hoping …
Prodrugs: pills your body converts into an illicit drug can evade detection, but we don’t know how big the problem is: Blackday/Shutterstock Drug traffickers have found a way to trick enforcement agencies by using one of the most potent tools our bodies have: our metabolism. Welcome to the world of prodrugs. Prodrugs are substances that …
Body mass index: why practitioners are relying on it less when looking at a patient’s health: BMI has many limitations. Rawpixel.com/ Shutterstock Body mass index has long been used by doctors as the standard method for measuring health – and often still is. But earlier this month, the American Medical Association (AMA) adopted a new …
How understanding plant body clocks could help transform how food is grown: Rimma Bondarenko/Shutterstock Have you ever had a bad case of jet lag? That horrible feeling when you get off a long haul flight and your body is telling you it’s time to go to sleep, but the outside world is telling you it’s …
Body dysmorphic disorder: what to know about this mental health condition: Actress Megan Fox recently shared in an interview with Sports Illustrated that she has body dysmorphia. In the video interview, Fox said: “I don’t ever see myself the way other people see me. There’s never a point in my life where I loved my …
Women appear to be more resilient to body clock disruptions than men – new research: One of the most common causes of circadian misalignment is shift work. Ground Picture/Shutterstock You might not know it, but we all have a clock ticking away inside us. This circadian clock operates on roughly a 24-hour cycle. It influences …
‘It felt like how I looked was part of the decoration’: how getting wed affects women’s body image: annie_zhak/Shutterstock Weddings are supposed to be joyful, but this joy can be accompanied by a lot of stress. Alongside choosing the menu, flowers and decorations and sorting the table plan, body image – how we think and …
A professor is going to live in an underwater hotel for 100 days – here’s what it might do to his body: As nightmares go, being trapped in a small box deep underwater is probably high on many peoples’ lists. But one US professor is doing this on purpose. Joe Dituri, a former US navy …
Body language books get it wrong: the truth about reading nonverbal cues: Defensive, uncertain, confident, confrontational: can your body language reveal what you're thinking? Pexels/Jopwell Most of us have heard the one about if you cross your arms over your chest you’re feeling defensive or if you’re fiddling with your hair while talking you feel …