Tag: Health

The human body is highly adaptable. It continuously reconfigures and reorganises itself in direct response to the demands placed upon it. Its musculature is not a static structure, but a highly dynamic system that responds immediately to both activity and inactivity. When regular activity is removed, the human body does not simply stop or pause...

The 1912 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded to Alexis Carrel “in recognition of his work on vascular suturing and the transplantation of blood vessels and organs.” His work addressed a fundamental problem in early surgery, how to restore blood flow after injury or operation and helped make complex procedures like organ transplantation...

The SELECT trial, led by A. Michael Lincoff and published in The New England Journal of Medicine (2023), showed that once-weekly semaglutide reduced major cardiovascular events by 20% in adults with a body mass index (BMI) of 27 or higher and pre-existing cardiovascular disease, but without diabetes. The trial enrolled 17,604 participants and tracked outcomes...

Climate change is emerging as a major public health threat in India, reshaping disease patterns, straining healthcare systems, and placing nearly 40% of districts at high risk from extreme weather events, according to a new report.  The report, Under the Weather: India’s Climate-Health Intersections and Pathways to Resilience, by Dasra, a philanthropy fund organisation, highlights...

Two disorders caused by the dysfunction of the reproductive and endocrine system are PCOS (polycystic ovary syndrome) and endometriosis. Both are deeply linked by genetics and how our body regulates certain biological signals. Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS) is a hormonal disorder, that affects the reproductive system in women. It leads to irregular menstruation, higher levels...

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has announced the launch of a mission in Ladakh to examine the physiological, psychological and operational dynamics of gaganyatris (astronauts) and ground teams functioning in a high-altitude environment. Scientific data generated on crew performance and human factors will contribute directly to the Gaganyaan programme and future long-duration missions. Known...

Certain kinds of mutations in gene TP53, which encodes the p53 tumour suppressor protein, often dubbed the ‘guardian of the genome’, could perhaps be making acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL) one of the hardest cancers to treat, new research has found. The study, led by Caner Saygin, assistant professor at the University of Chicago Medicine, was recently...

India’s relationship with fragrance is ancient, intimate, and profoundly sophisticated. Long before perfume became a global industry, long before it was bottled, branded, advertised, and sold in department stores, fragrance in India was understood as a lived technology-deeply embedded in medicine, ritual, daily grooming, aesthetics, seasonal rhythms, and even spiritual practice. Scent was never merely...

(Subscribe to Science For All, our weekly newsletter, where we aim to take the jargon out of science and put the fun in. Click here .)   Last week, an 11-year-old boy died in Kozhikode, Kerala due to a Shigella infection . The State Health Department said that six people had been confirmed as having...

Antibiotic-resistant typhoid infections accounted for at least 87% of India’s disease-related economic burden in 2023, according to a study in The Lancet Regional Health Southeast Asia. The total economic burden due to typhoid fever was estimated at ₹123 billion. Children under the age of 10 incurred the highest economic burden, contributing to over half of...