Health

Medicare, Australia’s universal health insurance scheme, guarantees all Australians access to a wide range of health and hospital services at low or no cost.

Our body isn’t just human—it’s home to trillions of microorganisms found in or on us. In fact, there are more microbes in our gut than there are stars in the Milky Way. These microbes are essential for human health, but scientists are still figuring out exactly what they do and how they help.

This time of year, many of us love to get out and spend time in nature. This may include hiking through Australia’s many beautiful national parks.

Taking a shower. Grocery shopping. Moving around the kitchen. Getting dressed. The underappreciated link between these mundane activities is good balance, which geriatricians say is key to maintaining an independent lifestyle as we age.

States with strict abortion bans are losing residents, particularly younger people, which could have long-term economic implications.

There has been a significant increase in orphanhood in the last two decades in the U.S., according to a new study. The research, published in Nature Medicine, estimates that in 2021, 2.9 million children in the United States, or 4.2% of all U.S. children, had experienced the death of at least one parent or a grandparent caregiver responsible for most of the basic needs of the child.

The distance between a patient’s home and an abortion-services facility where they would seek care significantly influences how they receive birth-control medications, according to a study published Jan. 8 in the American Journal of Public Health.

In a paper published in JAMA, health policy experts at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) report that patient care experience worsened after private equity (PE) acquisition of US hospitals, as did patient-reported staff responsiveness.

You don’t have to actually freeze to death in order to die of cold. And according to the Mayo Clinic, people who are dying of cold usually don’t realize it.

The group of bacteria called Enterobacteriaceae, including Klebsiella pneumoniae, Shigella, E. coli and others, is present at low levels as part of a healthy human gut microbiome. But at high levels—caused, for example, by increased inflammation in the body, or by eating contaminated food—these bugs can cause illness and disease. In extreme cases, too much Enterobacteriaceae in the gut can be life-threatening.