Eight schools in London have closed this month because of an infestation of spiders. The schools reported that they were concerned for the children’s well-being so they sent their pupils home – in one case for a whole month.

The heart rate monitor built into the new Apple Watch has sparked sharp debate over its risks and benefits, even though the feature was cleared by the Food and Drug Administration.

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.

Edible wild greens could help improve food security, boost public health and make communities more resilient to disaster. Edible wild greens are consumed globally, particularly during food shortages, and many are used medicinally in teas, poultices and supplements.

“Exercise isn’t really important for weight loss” has become a popular sentiment in the weight loss community. “It’s all about diet,” many say. “Don’t worry about exercise so much.”

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.

Chewing gum may be an effective delivery system for some vitamins, according the new research. Nearly 15 percent of all chewing gum varieties sold promise to provide health-enhancing supplements to users, so researchers studied whether two vitamin-supplemented products were effective at delivering vitamins to the body.

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.

Stress is great. It makes us faster, stronger, more agile and our brains have better recall and flexibility. That’s why people are willing to put themselves in stressful work situations or engage in extreme sports.

Many children may snore at some point in their lives, especially during bouts of colds or when their allergies are acting up. It’s often a passing phase, but how do parents know if it’s an issue requiring treatment?

Ground-level ozone is one of six major pollutants regulated nationally under the Clean Air Act. It is not directly emitted, but instead forms in the atmosphere through reactions between other pollutants from cars, power plants and industrial sources. Breathing ozone irritates the airways and can worsen respiratory diseases such as bronchitis, emphysema and asthma.

There are many rational reasons that motivate consumers to spend US$65 billion annually on household cleaning products. But non-rational mechanisms are nevertheless still at work in the cleaning products market, as in all others.

Many people believe that low-fat dairy products are healthier than high-fat dairy products. Indeed, many public health guidelines recommend low-fat dairy over high-fat dairy.

Many current suicide prevention interventions focus on raising awareness of suicide or on preventing it only at the point just prior to it occurring. But despite decades of government investment in suicide awareness programs, the rate of deaths by suicide in Australia is the second highest it’s been in ten years.

Women who faced sexual abuse in childhood or adolescence benefit significantly from a kind of therapy that focuses on reducing psychological distress through resolving interpersonal conflicts and strengthening social relationships, according to a new study.

A video recently doing the rounds on Facebook included a segment from the BBC comedy quiz show QI. The video asks which of avocados, almonds, melon, kiwi or butternut squash are suitable for vegans. The answer, at least according to QI, is none of them.

For over a century, we have relied on a simplistic measure to determine if someone is a “healthy” weight or not. This is the body mass index (BMI) – the ratio of a person’s weight to the square of their height.

When someone is diagnosed with a mental health disorder such as depression or anxiety, first line treatments usually include psychological therapies and medication. What’s not always discussed are the changeable lifestyle factors that influence our mental health.

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.