Health

Injury or pain affects participation for one in five physically inactive women taking part in social sport, with those from lower-income households more likely to be injury-affected, new research from La Trobe University shows. Researchers surveyed more than 1,330 physically inactive women who had participated in social sport programs across Victoria. Among women affected by injury, the knee (39%), lower back (30%) and ankle (25%) were the most common complaints.

According to a master’s thesis at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), a mobile game can make physical activity more enjoyable. Two master’s students investigated how the mobile game “BitPet” affects physical activity, motivation and social well-being. The three-week study involved 51 participants and combined questionnaires, interviews, step counts and activity data collected through the game itself.

Exercise does more than keep our minds and bodies healthy. It also protects us against the effects of aging. Scientists have developed self-contracting mini-muscle implants that grow their own blood supply and mimic the biological benefits of exercise, giving people unable to work out because of physical limitations a way to reap the same rewards.

Folic acid—an essential vitamin added to flour and cereals and prescribed at high doses for cancer patients and people with blood disorders—does not elevate toxic formaldehyde in the body, according to a new study of mice and human cancer patients who consumed high doses.

A basketball court, soccer field or playground may help make a park inviting. But a new UC Irvine study suggests that the way public safety is approached can also influence how people use those spaces.

Scroll through social media and you will encounter a strange vocabulary for an old impulse: “tanmaxxing,” “UV chasing” and “SPF shunning.” In some corners of the internet, sunscreen is described as toxic, while a “natural” tan is portrayed as protective.

Online warnings about alcohol and cancer prompted stronger responses when they named specific cancers and included AI-generated images showing health consequences, according to a new study led by researchers at Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center, part of the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine.

Nicotine vaping during adolescence may leave a lasting imprint on the brain’s reward system, driving nicotine-seeking behavior well into adulthood even after long stretches without any exposure, according to new research led by scientists at The University of Texas at El Paso.

If you want to improve yourself, your health or your lifestyle, you need to do it to the “maxx”—according to social media, at least.

Lentils, beans and chickpeas have been feeding people for thousands of years. Lentils are among the world’s earliest cultivated crops, with archaeological evidence tracing them back to the beginnings of agriculture. Yet scientists are still learning what happens inside our bodies when we eat them.

When the sky becomes orange and hazy from wildfire smoke, modern humans are at greater risk than our earlier ancestors would have been.