As the population grows older, more and more people are using a combination of drugs to treat multiple conditions. This can lead to interactions and side effects that we all need to be aware of.

Alcoholic drinks should all carry calorie counts according to a leading UK public health doctor writing in the BMJ today, because of their contribution to obesity. Fiona Sim, Chair of the UK Royal Society for Public Health, writes that while adults who drink may be getting as much as 10% of their daily calories from alcohol, most people are unaware drinking contributes to their energy intake.

Adam was fortunate to survive a major car accident three years ago. He was in hospital for several months but had no ongoing physical injuries. He looked like he made a full recovery. But he was argumentative, childish, vulgar and his family said he “was not the same person”. Adam had a severe traumatic brain injury.

Schizophrenia is one of the most widely misunderstood of human maladies. The truth of the illness is far different from popular caricatures of a sufferer muttering incoherently or lashing out violently.

Anyone who came of age in the 1990s might remember the “Friends” episode where Phoebe and Rachel venture out to get tattoos. Spoiler alert: Rachel gets a tattoo and Phoebe ends up with a black ink dot because she couldn’t take the pain.

US actress Selma Blair announced she has been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. “I have probably had this incurable disease for 15 years at least,” she wrote. “And I am relieved to at least know.”

Older adults are at risk for both impaired oral health and malnutrition, according to a new study. Researchers analyzed the health records of 107 community-dwelling senior citizens who received treatment at the Rutgers School of Dental Medicine clinic between 2015 to 2016.

Researchers surveyed college students about their frequency of video game play, coping strategies, anxiety, and symptoms of various mental illnesses including gaming disorder and discovered that using video games as a coping mechanism for anxiety predicted symptoms of gaming disorder. Further, higher levels of stress increased the risk.

Just a few drinks changes how memories are formed at the fundamental, molecular level, according to a new study with flies. The new research finds that alcohol hijacks a memory formation pathway and changes the proteins expressed in the neurons, forming cravings.

Research has found the incidence of heart attacks in a sample of more than one-quarter of a million people increased with lower air temperature, lower atmospheric air pressure, higher wind velocity and shorter sunshine duration.

Stimulating the body’s cold and nicotine receptors burns energy, suppresses appetite, and may lead to weight loss, a study with mice shows. Inspired by everyday life, researchers wondered whether they could pharmacologically imitate some of the effects from winter swimming and smoking.

Fall is the season that transforms our forests with a beautiful display of colour and fills our kitchens with the smell of pumpkin pie and apple cider. It also brings something far less pleasant to our forests and hiking trails — blacklegged ticks.

This report provides a snapshot of Americans’ health up to 2016, revealing several key trends – including that Americans who don’t finish high school continue to lag behind. Again and again, the trends across educational levels indicate that adults with no high school diploma or GED are consistently at the greatest risk for the leading causes of disease and death.

Many cancer patients could soon be spared the unnecessary side effects of chemotherapy after having surgery. A blood test being trialled at more than 40 hospitals across Australia and New Zealand aims to detect whether there are any cancer cells remaining in the body after surgery, which could lead to the cancer returning.

For many, menopause conjures up feelings of embarrassment, hot flashes, mood swings and sleep disturbance. It doesn’t usually conjure up thoughts about the workplace.

The legalization of cannabis for adult use in Canada is one of the biggest national public policy shifts that many of us will ever witness in our lifetimes.

Our society seems to have accepted that gaining weight is an inevitable consequence of growing up in a place with easy access to calories and where physical activity plays a declining role in our professional and private lives. Aging just makes weight loss even more difficult.

Women who are marginalized by poverty may be reaping the greatest benefits from midwifery care. This is the finding of a large study that we published with colleagues this week in the British Medical Journal Open.

A quarter of children have dental decay by the time they start school. This occurs when bacteria in the mouth break down sugar to produce acid, which attacks and dissolves the teeth.

Dementia is the is the leading cause of death among Australian women and the third most common cause of death among men. While dementia is not a normal part of ageing, the biggest risk factor for dementia is advancing age. Given ours is an ageing population, estimates suggest dementia cases are set to almost triple by 2050.