Health Care

  Some people are mosquito magnets. No matter where they go on summer vacation, one thing is certain: they will get bitten by mosquitoes, leaving them with large, itchy bumps that will bother them for weeks. On the other hand, the other people they are with don’t feel any pain. They don’t get bitten by a single mosquito, and when they do, they often only get a small red mark on their body. My friends have long joked that my blood must be ‘unusually sweet.’ And they are probably right. Our bodies emit a number of biological signals, such as breath and body odor, that determine how likely a person is to be bitten by a mosquito. In some people, these signals are so strong that mosquitoes can’t even get rid of them. Here are three ways these bloodsuckers can track you down. Carbon Dioxide Signals to Mosquitoes that You are a Good Candidate for a Bite Only female mosquitoes bite humans. They are attracted to us to obtain a protein in our blood that is needed for the development of their...

  Your Health A new study suggests that walking 7,000 steps  a day can boost your brain power and help you fight off a range of diseases. This may be easier to achieve in practice than the 10,000-step-a-day target which is considered the norm. The study, published in the Lancet Public Health, is linked to a reduced risk of serious health problems including cancer, dementia and heart disease. Experts say the findings could encourage more people to keep a record of how many steps they walk each day to improve their health. Dr Melody Ding says we tend to think we should take 10,000 steps, but this is not evidence-based. 10,000 steps are about five miles or eight kilometers. But the right distance will be different for everyone, i.e., the length between two steps, which depends on each person's height, gender and walking speed, and people who walk faster will also have a longer distance between two steps. Looking at the history of the term 10,000 steps, it was also used in Japan i...

  Water The general perception is that water filters installed in the kitchen can purify contaminated tap water and make it drinkable, but are they really necessary, and can they cause any harm? British citizen Sheema avoids drinking tap water. Her refrigerator has a water filter installed in the door and she uses it to drink water . It sterilizes the water using an ultraviolet chip. Sheema says that ‘filtered water tastes better. Tap water has the smell and taste of chemicals.’ Some people, including her husband, find this objectionable, who even tested it with their eyes closed, and it was found that they can indeed distinguish between the two waters with their eyes closed. The American organization Environmental Working Group surveyed 2,800 people, half of whom said that they should not drunk tap water, while about 35 percent filter their water. In a 2023 survey of more than 500 people in the UK by Swedish filter company Tap Water, 42% said they did not trust tap water. The wate...

  The FDA approved a novel AI tool that can identify underlying structural heart disease before symptoms appear.   ·         The first artificial intelligence tool to identify hidden structural heart disease during standard ECGs was approved by the FDA. ·         EchoNext is a cardiac screening designed to detect underlying disease before symptoms arise.   ·         In a 45-year-old man who eventually underwent a successful heart transplant, the new technique is credited with identifying serious, undetected heart failure. There is currently no early-detection test for cardiovascular disease, which is the world's biggest cause of mortality. A new tool for early detection of heart disease was approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on June 22. According to its manufacturer, Pathway Labs, EchoNext is an artificial intelligence tool that analyses a standard elec...