SELF-CARE

Adolescents who smoke or vape may believe tobacco’s perceived coping benefits outweigh accepted health risks Tobacco use in a variety of forms is common in adolescent life today, with over 2.25 million youth using. Huge progress has been made over the past few decades in reducing cigarette use among young people. But tobacco use – primarily through e-cigarettes, also known as vapes – remains a complex problem for public health and policy. In 2024, just over 8% of U.S. middle and high school students reported having used a tobacco product. Among tobacco users, nearly 6% used e-cigarettes, more than a quarter of whom used an e-cigarette product daily. We are behavioral health researchers. Our team’s ongoing research examines the factors associated with adolescent tobacco product use ...

Americans die earlier at all wealth levels, even if wealth buys more years of life in the US than in Europe. Americans at all wealth levels are more likely to die sooner than their European counterparts, with even the richest U.S. citizens living shorter lives than northern and western Europeans. That is the key finding of our new study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine. We also found that while the wealthiest Americans live longer than the poorest, the wealth-mortality gap in the U.S. is far more pronounced than in Europe. We are a team of health policy researchers who study health systems and how their performance compares across countries. We analyzed survey data from 73,838 adults ages 50 to 85 across the United States and 16 European countries over a 12-year peri...

Numerology is an interesting discipline. Believers of numerology are found all over the world. There are ancient numerology systems and calculations in China, Greece and India that people even today believe in. Do you have a lucky number? A number you feel is the luckiest for you? A number that is preferred by you for your car license plate number, your phone number, mail ID, passwords, or simply to bet on. Many people choose their date of birth as their lucky number while some go for the date of birth of their spouse or kids. Many people across the world believe in deriving a lucky personal number for themselves with the help of numerology. Generally the numeric digit derived from the calculations based on date of birth can be considered as your lucky number. However, there are a lot of...

Transform the daily grind to make life more interesting – a philosopher shares 3 strategies to help you attain the good life. Imagine it’s Monday morning, too cold and too dark, but once that alarm goes off, you know you’ve got to rally. The kids have to get to school. You’ve got to get to work. And, of course, your ever-growing to-do list hangs over your head like a dark cloud, somehow both too threatening to ignore and too threatening to start its tasks. On days like this, you may be grateful simply to make it through. But then it begins, all over again. While you can’t escape the grind, you can transform it. The latest psychological research on the good life points the way: By shifting your mindset, you can make your day-to-day more interesting and create psychological richness wit...

Most adults will gain half a kilo this year – and every year. Here’s how to stop ‘weight creep’ Allgo/Unsplash As we enter a new year armed with resolutions to improve our lives, there’s a good chance we’ll also be carrying something less helpful: extra kilos. At least half a kilogram, to be precise. “Weight creep” doesn’t have to be inevitable. Here’s what’s behind this sneaky annual occurrence and some practical steps to prevent it. Small gains add up Adults tend to gain weight progressively as they age and typically gain an average of 0.5 to 1kg every year. While this doesn’t seem like much each year, it amounts to 5kg over a decade. The slow-but-steady nature of weight creep is why many of us won’t notice the extra weight gained until we’re in our fifties. Why do w...

You wake up late having slept poorly, the hot water's gone cold, the kids are moody and so are you. Life is struggle and everything's turning out just great thank you very much! We all have them. Nothing we do seems to hide the fact; it's not our day. We play just as hard and just as fair as any other day -- or at least it feels that way -- but it won't make any difference. We must plainly recognise unlucky days and deal with them best by being gentle with ourselves. This below is several hundred-year-old advice of Balthasar Gracian, the Jesuit priest and philosopher: Recognize Unlucky Days - "They exist: nothing goes well on them; even though the game may be changed the ill-luck remains. Two tries should be enough to tell if one is in luck to-day or not. Everything is in process of cha...

Don’t feel bad about bingeing TV. Humans have binged stories for thousands of years. Last night, millions of people will have tuned into Netflix and other streaming services to binge their favourite shows, including the (much anticipated) second part of Bridgerton season three. Streaming services such as Netflix, Disney+, Stan and Prime Video have habituated us to the “all at once” series drop. And even as some services try to find ways to break the binge model, many commentators have bid farewell to the “the good old days” of appointment viewing. Meanwhile, experts have highlighted the health concerns associated with “problematic bingeing”, including increased anxiety and depression. But there’s an important detail missing in these conversations. And that is the fact that bingeing –...