Wildcard

Vitamin C is one of the most iconic nutrients in popular health culture, often credited with preventing colds, boosting immunity and even fighting serious diseases. But while it’s essential for our bodies to function, its benefits are often misunderstood or overstated. Before you stock up on supplements, here’s what to consider. What is vitamin C…

Have you ever heard two or more women say they’re on the same cycle? This is a common claim among women who live together, for example in a family or as housemates. This idea that people menstruate, or have their period, at the same time is known as “menstrual synchrony”. If their menstrual periods happen…

Artificial intelligence (AI) already affects many areas of daily life, including the lives of young children. Many families give screens to children younger than two, and AI-generated content is increasing on the popular YouTube Kids channel – and it plays automatically. Most parents are not able to monitor everything their child sees online. Some AI-generated…

To recover from abuse or another traumatic experience, some people turn to a therapy called eye-movement desensitisation and reprocessing, or EMDR. But this may present problems if these people pursue justice in the courts. In New South Wales, for instance, evidence obtained using EMDR can’t be used in a case unless it has been approved…

Once, the only nut butter on the supermarket shelf was peanut butter. Now you can also buy almond, cashew, hazelnut and macadamia nut butters, or blends. So which is the healthiest nut butter to spread on your toast? As we’ll see, the healthiest is not just about the actual nut. It’s also about what else…

We usually have to wait until winter approaches before we see an increase in cases of influenza, or the flu. But we have already seen a lot of flu this year, with 25,000 cases reported from January to March – and that’s only a fraction of actual case numbers. Most people with the flu recover…

You wake up with that familiar urgency to go to the toilet and burning when you pee – and no matter how many times you go, that urgency doesn’t let up. You know exactly what it is: a urinary tract infection, or UTI. UTIs are common, affecting half of all women at some point. They…

Whether it’s riding a bike or knitting a sweater, there are some tasks you do without thinking. These are commonly associated with “muscle memory”, the idea your body can remember how to perform complex tasks and, over time, learn to do them automatically. But do your muscles actually have a memory? And what role does…

In the past ten years or so there has been a lot of interest to see if medicinal cannabis can help children with emotional and behavioural problems – the ones associated with conditions such as autism, ADHD (attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder) and Tourette syndrome. Australia’s drug regulator confirms doctors are prescribing medicinal cannabis for such conditions….

When you have a baby, mealtimes can be messy and stressful. If you’re a new parent you may be unsure what, when, and how to feed your little one. And you may also worry about choking, particularly when it’s time to start feeding your baby solid foods. For babies starting solids at the recommended age…

Have you ever tasted a word, or seen colours while listening to music? If you have, you may be among the 1% to 4% of people who have a fascinating trait known as synaesthesia. Synaesthesia is a neurological phenomenon where the activation of one sense, such as hearing, triggers the activation of another usually unrelated…