Do you really know?

The placebo effect is a phenomenon in which a person's symptoms or well-being improve after receiving a fake treatment that has no specific or intrinsic effect on their condition. For example, a person may feel less pain after taking a sugar pill that they believe is a painkiller, or they may feel more energetic after receiving an injection of saline solution that they think is a vitamin. The plac...

According to Retaildata.co.uk, us Brits are the second biggest consumers of gum in the world. On average, Brits use between 120 and 130 sticks each every year! Now despite that, many people don’t really know what chewing gum is actually made up of. We know that the minty freshness helps with bad breath and that maybe there’s some connection to oral hygiene, but that’s about it. Oh and of course we...

Eating disorders don’t appear overnight, they tend to build up over time, shaped by a mix of genetic, psychological and social factors. That’s why early detection matters: the sooner the warning signs are recognised, the faster appropriate support can be put in place. And it’s worth being clear, this isn’t about occasional cravings or a slightly restrictive diet. Eating disorders are serious psych...

Therapy can help people cope with stress, trauma, depression, anxiety, and other psychological issues but finding the right therapist is not always easy. There is a global shortage of mental health professionals, and many people face barriers such as stigma, cost, or lack of availability. According to the World Health organisation there are almost one billion people with a mental disorder, that's...

The ongoing cost-of-living crisis is forcing people to make a number of difficult choices. Heating the house or flat and putting food on the table are getting more and more expensive, meaning there’s less money left over for luxuries. And it seems that has started extending to basic hygiene products too. Findings from a YouGov study commissioned by UK charity The Hygiene Bank were released in Octo...

Since the launch of ChatGPT in November last year, there’s been a wave of popular demand for AI technology. The chatbot reached 100 million users in record time, with its appeal stretching far beyond the tech-savvy. After all, it can write essays and songs, summarise documents and hold human-like conversations. But the rapid advances are causing concern in some quarters. In late March, the Future...

Around the age of 4, children develop a preference for using one of their hands to complete certain tasks, like drawing for example. The same goes for foot preference, when it comes to which foot they use to start going up a flight of stairs, or to kick a ball. It even goes for our eyes and ears. Generally when a child reaches the age of five, their preference for using one side of the body to car...

Whether it’s as kids in the school playground, fooling around with our first partner as a teenager or with our own kids when we become parents, tickling is generally synonymous with moments of playful fun. Of course tickling can bring on strong reactions and some people hate it, so it’s important to only do it to someone if they’re not objecting, no matter how harmless it might seem to you. Some p...

Catching up on life updates over a drink or dinner, making vague plans to see one another again in the coming weeks and then not end up seeing the person for another six months after anyway! That pattern probably sounds familiar to a lot of you, and it’s become known as catch-up culture. Isn’t that just what a normal friendship looks like when you get into adulthood? What’s problematic about catch...

You may remember hearing about ancient Greek hero Ulysses in school lessons. He’s the central character in Homer’s Odyssey. As legend goes, after fighting for a decade in the Trojan war, Ulysses wandered the world for another 10 years to get back home to his wife and son. On his enforced travels, Ulysses suffered danger, adversity and loneliness throughout. Spanish psychiatrist Joseba Achotegui sa...

Algae is an aquatic plant that grows in most fresh and saltwater bodies across the world. There are over 40,000 species of algae, and they range in size from microscopic to giant kelp and seaweed plants. Many species of algae are edible, and have been consumed for thousands of years by humans for their unique taste and nutritional benefits. Algae is highly nutritious. In most algae types, you will...

he last two and a half years have caused a lot of us to reassess our priorities in life. Are we really living our lives to the full? Are there new experiences that we should be trying out? Within that context, an alternative nomadic lifestyle called vanlife has seen a resurgence.  It’s been around since the 1960s, when hippies would travel across the United States in vans. But social media has mad...

The trend, which emerged in certain feminist movements in the 1960s, has been spreading on social networks since 2020, notably under the #NoBra banner. And it seems the trend may be lasting despite the worst of Covid hopefully being behind us. We’ve recently seen A-Listers like Dua Lipa, Kirsten Stewart and Lily Allen go braless in public, with the Daily Mail referring to “the great underwear-free...

Also known as plantar warts, verrucas are usually found on the soles of the feet, but can sometimes be seen between the toes or on the heels too. You may remember catching one at your school swimming lessons as a child. Verrucas have a reputation for being a nuisance. Firstly, let’s face it, like all kinds of warts they’re pretty unsightly. They look like small, rough, thickened skin. But that’s n...

Side, stomach or back; what kind of sleeper are you? Some people say that our sleeping position reflects what kind of person we are. .. While we can’t really comment on how much truth there is to that, we can say for sure that it has an impact on sleep quality and consequently our mood in the morning. Let’s take a few minutes to talk about our personal favourites. Well I usually sleep on my back w...

What are the warning signs of a toxic friendship? Today is World Friendship Day, a chance to reflect on how important friends are in our lives. Generally speaking, having friends is a positive thing which brings us moments of fun and joy. But toxic friendships can exist too and in such cases, the relationship can be more of a burden than anything else, for one of the people involved at least! Let’...

Coffee is one of the most popular drinks in the world, with an average of 98 million cups consumed in the UK every day, according to the British Coffee Association. In moderation, there are plenty of benefits to be gained from drinking coffee, but there can also be some negative side effects, in particular due to its caffeine content. Decaf is an alternative, but is it really healthier? Our bodies...

What are the latest advances in lung cancer treatment? In April 2022, findings from the large scale CheckMate 816 clinical trial were presented to the American Association for Cancer Research. The trial looked into the effectiveness of immunotherapy drug Nivolumab, combined with chemotherapy to treat lung cancer patients. The findings were promising, showing that this particular treatment combinat...

We can all picture someone. A friend who once meant a lot. The person you could call anytime, the one you’d lose track of time with. Maybe they’re still in your life. Or maybe they’re not. And if they aren’t… does that automatically mean something went wrong? Friendships aren’t fixed, they shift and change, just like we do. How long does it actually take to become friends? So where does this seven...

How did Internet Explorer go out of fashion?  On 15th June 2022, American internet giant Microsoft cut off Internet Explorer, its long standing web browser. At the end of the 1990s and through to the 2000s, it set the standard when it came to browsers. In 2004 it had a usage share of as high as 95%, a figure which was under 1% by the time it closed, according to Irish traffic analysis website Stat...

We’re only a quarter of the way through 2023, and already we’ve seen a number of unexpected images go viral. Examples include Pope Francis wearing a white Balenciaga puffer jacket, Donald Trump being arrested at the foot of the Trump Tower in New York, and Barack Obama and Angela Merkel sharing an ice cream on the beach.  So what do these viral images all have in common? Well of course they weren’...

If you go back to early social media days, it was somewhat rare. But nowadays the practice of sadfishing is widespread, among celebs, influencer wannabes and average Joes alike. Since the advent of social media, we’ve gotten used to seeing highlight reels of people’s lives on our newsfeeds. But in recent years, people have been more and more willing to share posts about moments of sadness, rather...

Polish-American man Leo Gerstenzang is credited with inventing the humble cotton bud in the 1920s, an item which has since gone on to be used for many different purposes, having originally been thought up as a baby hygiene product. Yougov research from 2019 found that 62% of Brits use cotton buds to clean their ears, and 22% of us only use them for that purpose. That’s particularly true for men, g...

This kind of one-way relationship is generally between a fan and a public figure or fictional character. It’s about the feeling of familiarity or even friendship we feel for a celeb without ever actually having had any direct interaction with them. Most of the time of course, said celeb doesn’t even know we exist. After all, depending on their stature, they may have millions of fans, but there’s o...

Do I have generalised anxiety disorder? Generalised anxiety disorder is a psychological condition, which affects around 3% of all people, according to the Anxiety and Depression Association of America. But it seems to affect certain groups disproportionately. For example, women are twice as likely to be affected as men. Furthermore, less than half of people with GAD receive treatment. What are the...