Fishy findings - can eating oily fish prolong our life expectancy?

It is an established fact that eating oily fish is good for you. It provides the body with much needed omega-3 fatty acids, something of which the body cannot produce itself, but which has been linked to better neurological health. Nutritionists recommend we eat at least two portions of oily fish a week (around 140g is classed as one portion); yet recent surveys suggest that nine out of ten children and two-thirds of adults in Britain never eat it.

Why It’s Important To Get A Good Night’s Sleep

With the clocks going forward on March 31st, losing an hour’s sleep can make all the difference to how you feel the next day. Many of us soon learn to adapt to this subtle but noticeable shift in our body clock, but for an increasing number of people, the switch to British Summer Time simply adds to their sleep problems.

Research shows that diet can cause acne

Acne is extremely common, and the condition is generally considered to be hormonal. These hormonal changes can be the result of many different factors, including illness or age, which is why it’s most common in people during their teenage years. There are also those that believe that diet has a role to play, but anyone who has had to deal with acne will almost always tell you that they’ve been told by their doctor or read that diet doesn’t have an influence....

How Safe Is Buying Medication Online?

There is a great deal of controversy regarding the sale of online medications. When it comes to the online sale of prescription medications, many people mistakenly believe that any medications available online are counterfeit and/or dangerous. Though it is certainly true that there are a number of online sellers of medication that are operating illegally, there are also many legal online clinics - such as HealthExpress - which only sell genuine medications...

How healthy is your working environment?

Last week on this blog I lamented the lessening lengths of our lunch breaks, after an article from the BBC magazine suggested that hour-long breaks should become mandatory. This week, yet more worrying work-based woes have been uncovered, with new research confirming that work-based stress can place a significant strain on the heart, risking heart attacks and even death.

Save our lunch breaks! Midday meals under threat from technology

How did you eat your lunch today? Did you take a stroll to a nearby park? Eat in a subsidised staff canteen? Fix up a sandwich in your own kitchen? Or did you simply take five minutes and eat a sandwich at your desk? If it’s the latter, you’re not alone. More and more people are reportedly choosing to forego their lunch hour and instead just eating lunch at their desk.

The Health Benefits of Meditation

Though more often associated with the realm of spirituality than that of medicine, many studies suggest that meditation offers a number of very real health benefits to its practitioners, from helping you to get a good night’s sleep, to making you feel more content and less stressed. Find out more about the benefits of unwinding and the science behind it.

We ARE exercising enough

The BBC reported yesterday on a study done on the Hadzabe, a tribe of hunter-gatherers in Tanzania, which highlighted that exercise may not be as important as we are lead to believe. The findings of the study would suggest that being overweight is becoming an issue in the West mainly because of overeating, and not just because of a lack of activity. Obviously this is debatable.

Can owning a dog improve your health?

It will be no surprise to anyone who has ever owned a dog to know that there are a number of benefits associated with this particular pet. The benefit that is cited the most often is companionship, but over the years numerous studies have demonstrated that there are demonstrable health benefits as well. This week, a study from the United States has provided more evidence to prove that owning a dog in childhood significantly reduces the chance of a child...

Is there room for gamification in medicine and healthcare?

Everyone loves a good game. From the timeless classics, such as a round of Monopoly shared with the family, to the absorbing isolation of playing Angry Birds on a mobile phone, games permeate and reflect every part of life. Almost everything imaginable has been “gamified” at some stage or another, with football stadiums, battlefields and even operating rooms open to everyone in a constructed world. How can gamification benefit the healthcare industry?