The Guardian Health

Do you need electrolytes? Will tea cool you down? Is it safe to drink beer? How to stay hydrated in a heatwave

The hotter it gets, the faster our bodies lose water. Obviously, we need to replace it – but is anything better than plain H₂O? And does timing matter? Here’s what the science saysHydration is important. In temperatures like those we’re increasingly seeing in much of the world, sweating can be the only way for our bodies to cool down, and our thirst isn’t always the best indicator of how much water we’ve lost or need. The consequences of not being sufficiently hydrated as temperatures creep towa

health  Jun 28, 2026

The Guardian Health

Comedian Joanne McNally looks back: ‘In my 20s, my bulimia was spiralling out of control. My breakdown was the making of me’

The Irish standup and writer on three-day benders, her accidental comedy career, and her feral stage personaBorn in County Roscommon in 1983 and raised in Dublin, Joanne McNally is a standup comedian and writer. Her breakthrough came with the one-woman show Bite Me, and her subsequent tour, Prosecco Express, included a 78-night run at Dublin’s Vicar Street. She co-hosts the hit podcast My Therapist Ghosted Me with Vogue Williams. Her standup show Pinotphile is touring Ireland and the U

health  Jun 27, 2026

The Guardian Health

‘A sad inevitability’: after decades of climate warnings, why is Europe so unprepared for rising heat?

Scorching summer of 2003 triggered first efforts to deal with the problem but heatwaves still have devastating impactOn Wednesday, Pierre Masselot received a text from his daughter’s nursery – less than 50 miles from the weather station that was the first this week to break the UK June temperature record – asking parents to collect children early because the school buildings were getting unbearably hot.Similar scenes were repeated across Europe this week as the continent swelters through its mos

health  Jun 27, 2026

The Guardian Health

Nigel Farage’s anti-WHO campaign moves to US with allies added to board

Relocation of Action on World Health raises questions over why Reform UK leader is involved in a US pressure groupNigel Farage’s campaign against the World Health Organization (WHO) is moving to the US with a new board of lobbyists, raising questions over why the Reform UK leader is involved in an American pressure group.The Action on World Health campaign, co-founded by Farage, is relocating to the US state of Delaware as a charitable foundation and grassroots non-profit. Continue reading...

health  Jun 27, 2026

The Guardian Health

White House mandates move away from overdose prevention in US health programs

Experts say move signals greater political interference into public health and will exacerbate opioid overdose crisisHealth programs receiving federal funding must agree within days to new priorities from the Trump administration, including a focus on “parental authority” in education and a move away from proven overdose-prevention methods like harm reduction, suggesting greater political control over public health.The new priorities will likely affect progress against the opioid crisis, and the

health  Jun 26, 2026

The Guardian Health

Why is alcohol dangerous in a heatwave, and should I cut it out completely?

Those partial to a pint may be relieved to know a modest of amount of weak beer may actually be beneficialEuropean heatwave live – latest updatesAs Europe endures a record-breaking heatwave, countries are taking steps to keep people safe and prevent health services from becoming overstretched. Parisians face a temporary ban on drinking alcohol in public to reduce the pressure on the hospitals after a four-fold rise in cardiac arrests in a 24-hour period.We look at why drinking alcohol can be dan

health  Jun 26, 2026

The Guardian Health

New study suggests health damage from exposure to Ohio toxic train spill

Research finds immune systems still ‘responding to toxic chemical exposures’ related to East Palestine derailmentIn the weeks after the East Palestine train wreck culminated in a towering fireball and chemical release in the small Ohio town, Jessica Boersma was seriously exposed to the stew of compounds emitted from the derailment site.Boersma lives less than a quarter mile away, and, as a city council member, she had to spend significant time at the site coordinating with first responders. Cont

health  Jun 26, 2026

The Guardian Health

FDA to discuss easing restrictions on peptides despite safety concerns

Committee will meet in July to discuss peptides now sold in gray market despite limited evidence of safety and efficacyAdvisers to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) will soon hold a meeting about whether to ease restrictions on access to some research peptides, a group of drugs with a zealous following and thin evidence to support them.If restrictions are eased, US compounding pharmacies would be able to produce and fill prescriptions for Americans – a change that would effectively legalize

health  Jun 26, 2026

The Guardian Health

Whereabouts of nearly 300 people with Ebola unknown in DRC

Fears over ‘huge, huge community transmission’ as modelling predicts thousands of cases and deaths by SeptemberThe whereabouts of almost 300 people who have tested positive for Ebola in the Democratic Republic of the Congo is currently unknown, according to Africa’s top public health official.The humanitarian crisis amid the conflict in the affected areas means more than 1 million people are living in camps to which health workers have no access, Dr Jean Kaseya, director general of the Africa Ce

health  Jun 26, 2026

The Guardian Health

Mark Tame obituary

My friend Mark Tame, who has died of lung cancer aged 61, spent his life caring for others. He worked for various charities (including Mind) in Bristol and London that advocated for mental health patients, and spent the past five years at Homerton healthcare NHS foundation trust in London as a care coordinator after the Covid-19 pandemic.Mark was born in Wivenhoe, Essex, the son of Anne Tame, a telephonist, and John Matthews, a telephone engineer, who met in the postwar period at Bletchley Park,

health  Jun 26, 2026

The Guardian Health

The Mission review – a surgeon saves lives in war-torn Gaza in a visceral portrait of human endurance

Mohammad Tahir and his colleagues operate through bombing and blackouts in barely functional hospitals – but there are moments of relief amid the documentary’s tragedy and goreWhat this documentary might lack in film-making finesse it makes up for with sheer visceral and emotional impact. British nerve surgeon Mohammad Tahir and his colleagues, who also work the cameras, toil in Gaza’s barely operational hospitals during some of the worst days and nights of the war in the winter of 2024-25. Supp

health  Jun 26, 2026

The Guardian Health

The Guardian view on the Ockenden maternity review: lifting standards must be the number one priority | Editorial

Families are right to be angry about devastating care failures in Nottingham. Ministers must respond fastThe painful familiarity of key themes in Donna Ockenden’s review of maternity care failures must not detract from the urgency around this issue. The 400-page report published on Wednesday is a shocking catalogue of what went wrong at Nottingham university hospitals NHS trust. Its contents range from a excruciating case study of the errors leading to the death of baby Harriet Hawkins in 2

health  Jun 25, 2026

The Guardian Health

‘Infection control becomes almost impossible’: four doctors on the NHS heatwave crisis

Frontline medics describe extreme heat conditions they feel are unsafe and lacking in dignity for patientsHospitals in England declare critical incidents as machines and IT fail in heatHospitals in England are declaring critical incidents with radiotherapy machines, MRI scanners, cooling units and IT systems failing owing to the extreme heat.Here four doctors describe their experiences on the frontline that they say feels unsafe and dangerous for patients amid the worst NHS heatwave crisis in ye

health  Jun 25, 2026

The Guardian Health

Belittled, ignored or gaslit – now we know the true cost of not listening to pregnant women | Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett

The Ockenden report tells a terrible story of neglect. It’s a story that I – and far too many women I know – recogniseThe findings of Donna Ockenden’s report on maternity services at Nottingham University hospitals NHS trust (NUH) are horrifying. Such is the scale of suffering on the part of mothers, babies and their loved ones that it is almost beyond contemplation. Harrowing details – a room filled with the smell of infection after a woman who was told to labour at home for six days was finall

health  Jun 25, 2026

The Guardian Health

Three in five young gun violence survivors do not receive mental healthcare – this California bill can fix that

The Thrive Act will create a pilot program that offers mental health resources for shooting survivors and witnesses under 25When Marvin Pérez and his family moved from their home country of Guatemala to Oakland, California, he thought it would lead to a better life for them all. But two years ago, when he was 23, Pérez was walking home from a store just four blocks from his family’s house. Someone drove past him and shot at Pérez multiple times, hitting him in his left leg.His physical recovery

health  Jun 25, 2026

The Guardian Health

Hospitals in England declare critical incidents as machines and IT fail in heat

Extreme weather breaks MRI scanners and cooling units, as workload rises for sleep-deprived staff on sweltering wardsDoctors have sounded the alarm over the disastrous impact of extreme heat on the NHS in England, with radiotherapy machines and MRI scanners failing, critical IT systems stalling and cooling units that serve entire hospitals breaking down.The hot weather has also prompted a surge in admissions and people arriving at A&E, causing severe overcrowding in some places and exacerbat

health  Jun 25, 2026

The Guardian Health

The Trump administration is calling frozen embryos children | Moira Donegan

A document on an embryo adoption program may be marginal – but it marks an escalation in the pursuit of fetal personhoodThe Trump administration quietly declared frozen embryos to be children last week. In a call for grant applications related to a nearly 20-year-old program meant to raise awareness about frozen embryo adoption, the Department of Health and Human Services referred to frozen embryos using the terms “child” and “children”, calling for screening standards for frozen embryo purchase

health  Jun 25, 2026

The Guardian Health

Chris and Martina: The Final Set review – tennis titans discuss their deep bond and intense rivalry

Now supporting each other through cancer treatment, Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova trace the ups and downs of their decades-long relationship at the summit of sporting achievementHere is a Netflix documentary with a real story to tell: the giant friendship and frenmity (or frivalry) between Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova, the two titans who throughout the late 70s and 80s dominated international women’s tennis and did so much to boost the sport whose existence, incidentally, helped to

health  Jun 25, 2026

The Guardian Health

Bodies in Nottingham NHS trust mortuary in state of ‘advanced deterioration’, inspectors say

Human Tissue Authority says bodies not transferred to freezer in time due to insufficient storage needsBodies in the mortuary at the NHS trust at the centre of the health services biggest ever maternity care scandal were found in a state of “advanced deterioration” due to not being transferred to a freezer in time, inspectors have said.Human Tissue Authority (HTA) inspectors who visited Nottingham university hospitals NHS trust in March discovered eight bodies in a state of advanced decompositio

health  Jun 25, 2026

The Guardian Health

Blue Heron review – sombre and sophisticated portrait of childhood trauma in 1990s Canada

A Hungarian immigrant family grapple with oppositional defiant disorder in Sophy Romvari’s intimate and unshowy debut featureThe past folds into the present in this very fine debut feature from Canadian film-maker Sophy Romvari, which has grown in my mind on a second viewing, having first come across it at last year’s Locarno film festival. It is an autobiographical, in fact autofictional, movie imbued with a kind of quietism, a refusal to amplify its real-life drama and tragedy. It doesn’t orch

health  Jun 25, 2026