SELF-CARE

Nitazenes are a powerful class of street drugs emerging across the US. Two deaths in Boulder County, Colorado, in 2023 are the latest in the U.S. to be blamed on the powerful class of synthetic opioids called nitazenes. Most health systems cannot detect nitazenes, so the exact number of overdoses is unknown, but they’re implicated in more than 200 deaths in Europe and North America since 2019, including . One of the two Boulder County deaths is linked to a new formulation called N-Desethyl etonitazene, which was identified by a national laboratory, and is thought to be the first related death. The Conversation interviewed Dr. Christopher Holstege, professor of emergency medicine and pediatrics at the University of Virginia School of Medicine and director of the Blue Ridge Poison Center, wh...

The dirty truth about your phone – and why you need to stop scrolling in the bathroom. We carry them everywhere, take them to bed, to the bathroom and for many people they’re the first thing they see in the morning – more than 90% of the world owns or uses a mobile phone and many of us couldn’t manage without one. But while health concerns about phones use usually focus on the distraction they can cause while driving, the possible effects of radiofrequency exposure, or just how addictive they can be. The microbial infection risk of your phone is much less appreciated – but it’s very real. A 2019 survey found that most people in the UK use their phones on the toilet. So it’s not surprising to discover studies have found our mobile phones to be dirtier that toilet seats. We give our phones t...

‘It’s not surprising’: Nearly 1 in 10 teenagers have turned to pills for weight loss, research shows. Nearly 1 in 10 adolescent girls have used non-prescription pills to lose weight, according to new research. The report, an analysis of English-language research, noted that teenage girls in North America were the most likely group to have used these so-called weight loss aids, and pointed out that these tendencies — and the mindset driving them — raise the risks for eating disorders and overall harm to physical and mental health. Diet pills and supplements were the most commonly used non-prescription weight loss aid, followed by laxatives and then diuretics. The report—  published in the American Medical Association’s JAMA Network Open — found that 6.1 percent of teens in the United States...

Why do some men commit domestic violence? Trauma and social isolation may play a role. Support for survivors of domestic violence is important, but to end domestic violence once and for all, society needs to understand the people who perpetrate it and how to successfully intervene. Domestic violence is very common in the United States. Nearly half of women and men in the U.S. experience sexual or physical violence, stalking or psychological harm or coercion in a romantic relationship during their lifetime. Domestic violence is also experienced unevenly across the U.S population. Young people are most vulnerable, with nearly three-fourths of female victims reporting that their first experience of domestic violence occurred before age 25. People of color and LGBTQ+ people also experience con...

Could visiting a museum be the secret to a healthy life? It’s Saturday morning. You are barely awake, with a cup of coffee in your hand, and your gaze wanders to the window. It’s raining. So you make up your mind. This afternoon, you will go to a museum. But what if, without realizing it, you just made a good decision for your health? That’s the hypothesis put forward by the Association des Médecins francophones du Canada in 2018, when it launched the museum prescriptions program in partnership with the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. The project, now completed, has enabled thousands of patients to get a doctor’s prescription to visit a museum, either on their own or accompanied. The aim of the prescription was to promote the recovery and well-being of patients with chronic illnesses (hypert...

Here are 5 tips to help you maintain your sobriety as the holidays approach. If you are an alcoholic, getting sober is one of the hardest things you may ever do, staying sober will be the hardest, and you need all the help you can get. Read these tips, one of them may just save your life. 1. Stay out of slippery places. Only attend a function with alcohol being served if you have a legitimate reason to be there. 2. Don't depend on someone else to get you home from the occasion. Drive your own car, and make sure you park in a way that you won`t be blocked in. If you don't have a car, make sure you have cab fare and a cell phone. You should also have your sponsor's phone number. 3. Know what you are going to drink before you get there, and order something that comes in a can or bottle t...

Almost half of women with disabilities have experienced sexual harassment or assault in the workplace, according to a new 19th News/SurveyMonkey poll that is one of the first to explore the issue. The number, 48 percent, compares to 32 percent of women without disabilities who reported experiencing sexual assault or harassment at work. While there is a growing body of research and reporting on the sexual violence faced by people with disabilities, little of it has delved into the workplace. Monika Mitra, director of the Lurie Institute for Disability Policy at Brandeis University, said some describe sexual violence against people with disabilities “as a silent epidemic.” Mitra has done research on sexual violence against people with disabilities, but not in the workplace. To her knowled...

It’s time to bust the ‘calories in, calories out’ weight-loss myth. If you’ve ever tried to lose weight, there’s a good chance you’ve been told it all comes down to a simple “calories in, calories out” formula: burn more calories than you consume, and the kilos will disappear. And it’s easy to see the appeal of breaking weight loss down into simple maths – just follow the formula, and you’ll achieve success. It’s also believable because many people do lose weight when they first adopt this approach. Indeed, the diet industry’s reliance on the “calories in, calories out” concept is why society blames people for being overweight. Anyone who can’t follow this simple energy formula is only overweight because they lack the willpower to eat less and exercise more. But the only simple truth he...

Seeking Safety as a Black Woman in New Cities. I have moved three times in the past 13 months. My academic career-climbing has propelled me across the country from my longtime residence near Washington, D.C., to the Dallas–Fort Worth metro area, followed by a brief return to living New York City–adjacent. Now that I’ve finally secured a coveted tenure-track job, I have landed in upstate New York—Syracuse, to be precise. With each new move, I think about my safety as a young Black woman living on her own. The first rule is to never look too out of place; my vigilance is heightened in areas where I know I look like I don’t belong. “Belonging” is a complex concept, but I try to stay in areas that have rich diversity, from race and ethnicity to age, dress, and gender identity. When I first ...