The Guardian Health

New Zealand drugs regulator approves use of MDMA to treat severe PTSD

New Zealand decision follows Australian approval in 2023 of psychedelics to treat PTSD and treatment-resistant depressionTwo psychiatrists in New Zealand won approval on Friday to prescribe pharmaceutical-grade MDMA to people with severe post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).The move by New Zealand’s pharmaceutical regulatory body Medsafe makes the country only the second worldwide to approve the party drug for use in treating PTSD, following Australia in 2023. Continue reading...

health  Sep 4, 2026

The Guardian Health

The body snatchers: how a young Nigerian man was lured to London in an organ-trafficking plot – podcast

Daniel was working at a market in Lagos when he was given the chance to start anew in the UK. He had no idea what was expected of him in returnBy Alexis Okeowo. Read by Nneka OkoyeRead the text version hereSupport the Guardian today: theguardian.com/longreadpod Continue reading...

health  Sep 4, 2026

The Guardian Health

Do people really smell different as they get older? The truth behind ‘old person smell’

Experts say that the smell comes from a chemical compound called 2-nonenal, and it can show up much earlier than one expectsLast week, my mom complained that she’s starting to smell “like an old person”.She had grabbed her favorite sweater and draped it over herself at the movie theater. “It smelled like my grandmother,” she said, almost whispering. “I thought someone must have borrowed the jacket. But it was just me.” Continue reading...

health  Sep 3, 2026

The Guardian Health

The September reset is real. I’m about to become a better person, flaxseed by flaxseed | Emma Brockes

Small changes are what I’m aiming for – 10-minute workouts, cleaning out my handbag. Then I’m less likely to have failed come OctoberAre you a January resolutions or a September reset person? The latter has always felt more propitious to me, light of the exhaustion of Christmas and with the weather still on our side. Last week, when the Pavlovian response to buying new stationery (for my kids) kicked in, I found myself following a rote impulse to sort my life out by replacing the bag in the vacu

health  Sep 3, 2026

The Guardian Health

An autism or ADHD diagnosis without access to treatment is a hollow outcome | Letter

Helen Macdonald responds to a report by the parliamentary and health service ombudsmanThe parliamentary and health service ombudsman’s findings are stark and sadly familiar (Autism and ADHD care complaints more than triple in five years in England, 26 August). A more than 200% rise in complaints, years-long waits, patients paying thousands of pounds for private care when the NHS fails them, and a system so complex that people are routinely denied rights they are legally entitled to – these are e

health  Sep 2, 2026

The Guardian Health

Banning nuts from the skies would not keep people with allergies safe | Letters

Alison Smith says food bans do not improve compliance, they create a false sense of security in patientsAs the mother of a child with anaphylactic allergies, I am sympathetic to the terror that Lucy Pasha-Robinson describes (Food allergies when flying are no joke. That’s why nuts should be banned on planes, 27 August). Indeed, last summer I spent six hours compulsively cleaning on a demonstrably filthy flight. Flight crew handed out wipes to passengers “to clean your tray tables”, then proceeded

health  Sep 2, 2026

The Guardian Health

Free cholesterol tests on the NHS are great – but here’s the five-point health MOT I’d really like to see | Devi Sridhar

You could be walking around symptom-free and not know you’re pre-diabetic, living with hypertension or at a high risk of a heart attackProf Devi Sridhar is chair of global public health at the University of Edinburgh“An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure,” Benjamin Franklin’s adage goes. Yet that simple prescription has been hard to follow in the current NHS. As has been frequently highlighted, one of the biggest challenges for the health system is not just how much we spend per capita

health  Sep 2, 2026

The Guardian Health

Almost half of world’s farmers poisoned by pesticides every year, experts find

Study reveals that pesticide poisoning kills 11,000 people each year, with India accounting for nearly 60% of fatalitiesAlmost half of the world’s farmers are poisoned by pesticides every single year, a study has found.Using publicly available data from 2006-2023, the study, which was commissioned by Pesticide Action Network, found there to be an estimated 402-433m cases of unintentional acute pesticide poisoning of farmers and farm workers every year. Continue reading...

health  Sep 2, 2026

The Guardian Health

A moment that changed me: I had a panic attack on public transport – and it led me to a horrifying secret

For a decade I lived with a fear so bad that I once tried to climb out of a tube carriage while it was in motion. Then a hypnotherapist told me to ask my parents one very important questionIn 2000, I had been living in London for just over a decade and working at EMI Records for five years. I had moved to Brixton from Surrey – where space and peace were generally abundant – in the late 80s, and I’d noticed I was becoming increasingly anxious and claustrophobic, particularly on public transport.A

health  Sep 2, 2026

The Guardian Health

‘I want to live’: the disabled people unable to go abroad because of care funding refusal

Campaigners say care users face a postcode lottery for support overseas – despite no extra cost to taxpayerDisabled people are being blocked from travelling abroad by NHS care boards and local councils that refuse to let them use their care funding outside the UK, the Guardian has learned.Campaigners warn of a “postcode lottery” in England where the right of a disabled person to travel overseas depends on where they live or the whim of local officials – even when there is no extra cost to the ta

health  Sep 2, 2026

The Guardian Health

It’s not easy to show my scars. But I am proud to break the deadly silence around breast cancer in Nigeria | Gloria Chinyere Okwu

I was told to keep my diagnosis private but I am determined to show the reality of breast cancer and reject the stigma that prevents women seeking treatment‘Madam, this looks like breast cancer, and if it is, we will chop off your breast.” That was how the doctor welcomed me into the chaotic world of cancer in 2017 when I was 32 years old. He had his back to me, but kept on talking, peering into the specimen bottle.For a moment, I could no longer hear him. I thought of my three children, the uni

health  Sep 2, 2026

The Guardian Health

Assisted dying, palliative care and patient choice | Letters

Readers respond to an article by Dr Zubir Ahmed, who argued that better palliative care should be prioritised before assisted dying is legalisedI work as a renal physician, including on a transplant ward, so I will have had many of the same experiences as Zubir Ahmed, but I do not share his opinion about assisted dying (As a doctor, I say this: before we even consider assisted dying, fix how we care for the most vulnerable, 26 August).It is universally agreed that patients with capacit

health  Sep 1, 2026

The Guardian Health

We must do more to save care leavers’ lives | Letters

Readers respond to a report on the tragic consequences of the ‘care cliff’, when vital support is taken away at age 18Your article draws attention to a landmark review that describes the “care cliff” for young people leaving care at 18 leading to tragic outcomes (‘He was left on his own’: the care-leaver lives lost to a system that abandons them at 18, 25 August). The good news is that there are ways to fix this problem, but they are neither quick nor straightforward.My own research found that f

health  Sep 1, 2026

The Guardian Health

Full-blown adulthood: does it actually start at 50?

According to a new survey, that’s the age when people feel most confident and in control of their lives. In other words, they no longer have a chairdrobe ...Name: 50 (and thriving).Age: You can work this one out. Continue reading...

health  Sep 1, 2026

The Guardian Health

Forget T-maxxing – the manosphere’s obsession with testosterone is just fear-maxxing | Donna Lu

Testosterone replacement therapy comes with serious and potentially irreversible health risks including infertility and early heart diseaseRead more in the Antiviral seriesAre you tired? Feeling flat and irritable? Finding it difficult to concentrate? Maybe you’re experiencing the seemingly ubiquitous symptoms of modern life. Or, if you’re a man, you may have been told by countless uncredentialed online influencers that you’re probably suffering from “low T”.For decades, testosterone has been ma

health  Sep 1, 2026

The Guardian Health

Dyson launches £420 toothbrush that films ‘live cleaning footage’ inside your mouth

James Dyson says ‘complete dental system’ will also include toothpaste and mouth rinse that each cost £8.50It is the live stream you never wanted to see but may find impossible to resist: rolling footage beamed live from inside your mouth while you are cleaning your teeth.Dyson, the home appliance maker that made its name inventing bagless vacuums and bladeless fans, has turned its attention to oral hygiene with a £420 all-singing, all-dancing toothbrush that can clean, floss and even spray tiny

health  Sep 1, 2026

The Guardian Health

US health officials exclude measles-related deaths in Pennsylvania from counts

RFK Jr, the health secretary, has suggested the death were ‘fabricated’ while the CDC claimed it was reviewing themTop US health officials and government agencies are currently not including the two recent measles-associated deaths in Pennsylvania in their counts.“This is highly unusual,” said Debra Houry, former chief medical officer of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). She noted that this did not happen with the three deaths reported from measles in Texas and New Mexico

health  Aug 31, 2026

The Guardian Health

Caregiver creep: how helping elderly relatives can snowball into a full-time job

Assisting an ageing loved one can start with small tasks but may lead to full-time caregiving that requires more supportHelping an ageing parent or loved one often begins with easy-to-field requests: Pick up a prescription. Drive them to a doctor’s appointment. Grab groceries.However, light tasks – just “helping out” here and there – may eventually snowball into the avalanche of full-time caregiving, a phenomenon becoming known as “caregiver creep”. Like “caregiver burnout”, it’s not a formal te

health  Aug 31, 2026

The Guardian Health

A pediatrician is running for Senate. Can doctors change the political debate over health and science?

After Lindsey Graham’s death, Democrat Annie Andrews finds herself in a closely watched race as she seeks to flip his Republican seatAnnie Andrews was a dark horse Democrat challenging a five-term Republican in the US Senate when 314 Action, a political action fund devoted to electing scientists and doctors, first backed her.Now, after the unexpected death of Senator Lindsey Graham, Andrews finds herself in a closely watched race. Donald Trump persuaded South Carolina voters last week to select

health  Aug 31, 2026

The Guardian Health

‘Who knows what they’re taking?’: people risk the gray market for the newest weight-loss drug

Retatrutide, not yet approved by the FDA, is the latest wonder drug to shed pounds despite warnings from doctorsAbout two years ago, Henry, who is 6ft 3in, weighed 210lb, which meant he was only slightly overweight, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention body mass index.Still, the thirtysomething who lives in the Pacific north-west had hypertension, sleep apnea and body image issues, so he started taking the weight-loss drug Ozempic. While he dropped pounds, he experienced c

health  Aug 31, 2026