Long Covid has more than 200 potential symptoms. Selective gullibility is one of mine

When things are grim, the promises made by the wellness industry sound very appealing. I worry about how vulnerable this has made meOrdinarily, I’m a sensible person – at least part-time. A journalist, an asker of questions, a checker of sources. Historically, a big fan of research.But three years into a debilitating chronic illness, I am willing to try anything to get well

Children as young as 11 tempted to try betting after being ‘flooded’ by celebrity endorsement

Children as young as 11 feel tempted to try betting after being “flooded” by celebrities and sports stars promoting it, according to two reports that found nearly 90% of children aged 13-17 are exposed to gambling content online.The UK’s leading gambling charity, GambleAware, which commissioned the reports, urged regulators and policymakers to address social media accounts and influencers producing betting content on platforms such as YouTube, Instagram, TikTok and Twitch in light of the findings.In one survey of 2,100 children aged 11-17, a quarter said seeing a celebrity gambling, or advertising it, had made them want to follow suit, rising to more than a third (36%) among boys aged 16-17.This was despite the fact that almost four in five children agreed that nobody under the age of 18 should be exposed to content and advertising about gambling. The legal age to bet is 18

Stroke centres in England given AI tool that will help 50% of patients recover

Half of all people who experience a stroke in England will now recover thanks to a revolutionary AI scanning system that increases the number of patients avoiding serious disability.The NHS has equipped every stroke centre in England with life-saving software that quickly tells doctors if they need to perform emergency surgery and can triple the rate of recovery.The world-first technology analyses brain CT scans of stroke patients arriving at hospital, taking just a minute to identify the type and severity of stroke and the most appropriate treatment.It means doctors can then offer drugs or surgery much more quickly, with the system shortening the average time between patients arriving at hospital and starting treatment by one hour – from 140 minutes to 79 minutes.Quicker treatment means the proportion of patients recovering with no or only slight disability – defined as achieving functional independence – has tripled from 16% to 48% in NHS pilots of the system

Vaping may be causing irreversible harm to children’s health, doctors say

Doctors have raised the alarm about high levels of vaping among children worldwide, saying they are convinced e-cigarettes are causing irreversible harm to their health.Cardiologists, researchers and health experts said they were “extremely concerned” about the harmful effects of e-cigarettes on millions of teenagers and young people, including exposure to toxins and carcinogens – some of which are still unknown.Nicotine levels in e-cigarettes can be very high, raising the risk of addiction and injury to the developing brains of adolescents. Children are also risking long-term cardiovascular effects as a result of vaping at school and college, experts say.Speaking at the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) annual congress in Madrid, the world’s largest heart conference, Prof Maja-Lisa Løchen, a senior cardiologist at the University hospital of North Norway, said she was concerned that millions of children could face ill health in future

Why more and more people are tuning the news out: ‘Now I don’t have that anxiety’

News has never been more accessible – but for some, that’s exactly the problem. Flooded with information and relentless updates, more and more people around the world are tuning out.The reasons vary: for some it’s the sheer volume of news, for others the emotional toll of negative headlines or a distrust of the media itself. In online forums devoted to mindfulness and mental health, people discuss how to step back, from setting limits to cutting the news out entirely.“Now that I don’t watch the news, I just don’t have that anxiety

Ministers urged to put brakes on offices in England being turned into homes

Dozens of organisations have signed an open letter calling on the government to scrap office-to-residential conversions in England, which analysis has found led to the loss of almost 28,000 affordable homes.Local government campaigners, housing providers and homelessness charities have all joined the call to abolish some permitted development rights (PDR), which grant automatic planning permission to building projects and are often used to convert office blocks into housing.A major point of contention is that PDR developments are not required to make affordable housing contributions. New analysis by the Local Government Association (LGA) has found that nearly 28,000 affordable homes have been lost due to office-to-residential conversions under PDR in the past 11 years.An amendment to the planning and infrastructure bill – the government’s flagship planning changes designed to speed up housebuilding – that would remove many PDR allowances is being debated in parliament on Monday