The Guardian Health

Roll up, roll up! Older generation find joy and fearlessness in circus

Juggling, trapeze and hula hoop classes for over-50s are taking off as people rediscover their inner child and tap into health benefitsRumman Talukder’s favourite circus trick is called the Mermaid. Every Sunday, the 60-year-old IT consultant drives from his home in Stanmore to a circus school in Ware to practise it. Hanging from a trapeze by one arm, with his back arched and his legs wrapped around the rope, he says it makes him feel “strong and graceful”.“My wife thinks I’m mad but in the run-

health  Jul 5, 2026

The Guardian Health

NHS to use AI on its app to direct patients to appropriate services

Update in England expected to reach about 200,000 patients over the next year as part of £10bn package to overhaul NHS systemsThe NHS will begin using AI on its app to direct patients to the appropriate services, it has been announced.The tool will be used to triage patients and to ascertain if they should be allocated a GP appointment. Some may be advised to attend a pharmacy or their local A&E department instead, depending on the severity of their condition. Continue reading...

health  Jul 4, 2026

The Guardian Health

Week-long heatwave due in England with 34C peak in south-east

Heat health alerts in place in most regions of England from Sunday to Saturday with mercury also rising in WalesAnother heatwave is on the way across parts of the UK with peak temperatures of 34C forecast.Temperatures in the south of England could reach 28C on Saturday, according to the Met Office. Continue reading...

health  Jul 4, 2026

The Guardian Health

British Medical Association could axe up to a third of its staff amid cash crisis

Exclusive: Anger at union’s decision to put 200 of its 600 staff in England at risk of redundancyThe British Medical Association is threatening to axe up to a third of its entire workforce to help it tackle a significant cash crisis.The doctors’ union has placed 200 of its 600 staff in England at risk of redundancy. That has triggered anxiety and fury among staff, who have accused the BMA of appalling behaviour and “hypocrisy”. Continue reading...

health  Jul 4, 2026

The Guardian Health

Consider the parents caring for adult children not in work or education | Letter

One reader was surprised by how many people responding to Annalisa Barbieri’s advice column equate successful parenting with independenceReading the comments below Annalisa Barbieri’s latest advice column online (I wish my son wanted to spend more time with me, 28 June), I was struck by how many people equated successful parenting with raising independent adult children.But life isn’t always that straightforward. There is a largely invisible generation of midlife parents still caring for ad

health  Jul 3, 2026

The Guardian Health

Deaths in France surged 30% during hottest week of record June heatwave

Public health authority says 2,025 excess deaths probably an underestimate and that it expects toll to rise furtherThe number of deaths recorded in France surged by nearly 30% during the hottest week of the record-breaking heatwave that scorched much of Europe last month, the public health authority has said, adding that it expected the toll to rise further.Public Health France said on Friday there had been “an increase of 29.1%, corresponding to 2,025 additional deaths compared with the previou

health  Jul 3, 2026

The Guardian Health

People awaiting hospital treatment to get three weeks’ notice under NHS England plans

Move inspired by customer service provided by online retailers such as John Lewis and AmazonPeople waiting for hospital treatment will get three weeks’ notice of their next appointment under NHS plans inspired by the customer service provided by online shopping operators.Hospitals are being ordered to start telling everyone on their treatment waiting list at least three weeks before their operation, diagnostic test or meeting with a consultant. Continue reading...

health  Jul 3, 2026

The Guardian Health

This is how seriously a patient’s skin colour can affect the quality of medical care they receive | Devi Sridhar

New reporting from the Guardian has shed further light on the ‘ethnicity pain gap’. This is what has to be done to close itRead more from the Guardian’s ethnicity pain gap seriesI always know someone is going to say something racist when they start a sentence with, “I’m not racist, but …” Nobody likes to think they would ever discriminate against someone based on the colour of their skin – and some people seem increasingly uncomfortable about acknowledging that such discrimination exists at all

health  Jul 3, 2026

The Guardian Health

Sitting for more than 30 minutes at a time linked to higher risk of cancer death

Study suggests even light activity such as ironing could reduce health risks linked to prolonged sedentary behaviourSitting for longer than half an hour at a time each day raises the risk of dying from cancer, a study suggests.Researchers who tracked more than 90,000 people over a decade found that sitting or lying down while awake for more than 30 minutes in one period each day was associated with an increased risk of cancer death. The risk increases for every additional hour of continuous inac

health  Jul 2, 2026

The Guardian Health

Plans must be put in place before heatwaves – not cobbled together during them | Letters

Health professionals across Europe are calling for an EU climate and health strategy, write Mark Wilson and Dr Paul De Raeve; plus a letter from Nadine HendersonYou report on hospitals declaring critical incidents as their systems fail in the heat (Hospitals in England declare critical incidents as machines and IT fail in heat, 25 June). This is a crisis that health professionals saw coming.It is not England’s alone. During June’s record-breaking European heatwave, France raised its health

health  Jul 2, 2026

The Guardian Health

229,000 excess deaths: the cost of US-UK trade deal? - The Latest

The NHS will divert billions of pounds from essential services to pay for new medicines, under the terms of the US-UK trade deal agreed in December, which could lead to more than 200,000 excess deaths, analysis has found.Ministers have defended the deal as a way of helping British drug exports avoid US tariffs and giving patients access to vital medication, but critics accuse the Labour party of caving into pressure from Donald Trump.Lucy Hough speaks to columnist Aditya Chakrabortty Continue re

health  Jul 2, 2026

WHO News

WHO adds first diagnostic test for Ebola Bundibugyo virus to its Emergency Use Listing

Today, the World Health Organization (WHO) has added the first molecular diagnostic test for Bundibugyo virus (BDBV) to its Emergency Use Listing (EUL). The test detects the virus by identifying its genetic material in blood samples, helping confirm infection rapidly and accurately.WHO’s EUL procedure assesses the quality, safety and performance of essential health products based on the available evidence, while ensuring they meet minimum international standards and address the needs of lo

health  Jul 2, 2026

The Guardian Health

Ethnicity pain gap: the epidural failed and no one believed me – I could feel everything

Women from minority backgrounds are less likely to receive adequate pain relief during childbirthWomen from minority backgrounds in UK less likely to get epidurals, study findsHow the ethnicity pain gap follows people from birth to deathJulie Hammond, a 35-year-old mother of three from Kent, believes that the “excruciating” pain she experienced during the birth of her second child was not well managed by the medical professionals caring for her.“It’s difficult to put into words just how traumati

health  Jul 2, 2026

The Guardian Health

Women from minority backgrounds in UK less likely to receive epidurals, research finds

Exclusive: Guardian analysis exposes evidence of racial inequalities in pain relief offered across healthcare‘The epidural failed and no one believed me’How the ethnicity pain gap follows people from birth to deathWomen from Black and Asian backgrounds are less likely than their white counterparts to receive an epidural while giving birth, research has revealed.The findings, based on data collected from more than 2.7 million births in the UK, prompted experts to raise the alarm about an “ethnici

health  Jul 2, 2026

The Guardian Health

From birth until death: how the ethnicity pain gap follows people through life

Patients from minority ethnic backgrounds often have to demonstrate higher levels of pain, only to receive less effective treatment‘The epidural failed and no one believed me’Women from minority backgrounds less likely to receive epidurals, study findsA growing body of global research has shown that patients from minority ethnic backgrounds are less likely to have their pain recognised, believed and adequately treated – with disparities experienced from childhood all the way through to end-of-li

health  Jul 2, 2026

WHO News

Patient enrolment begins in a scientific trial to identify the first effective treatments for Bundibugyo virus disease

In a major international effort to evaluate potential treatments for Ebola disease due to Bundibugyo virus (BVD), the PARTNERS clinical trial has opened enrolment today for patients in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

health  Jul 2, 2026

The Guardian Health

All the whey up! A dairy byproduct is now the star of the ‘proteinmaxxing’ boom – but is demand too high?

As GLP-1s drive the current protein craze, a supplement once only taken by powerlifters is now so popular US producers are struggling to keep upFor generations, the Meives family made cheese. Tony Meives’s grandfather, a Swiss immigrant, and his father both ran small cheese factories in Wisconsin, in the heart of America’s dairyland. “I worked in the cheese factory my whole life,” Meives says. “I have four world-class cheesemakers in my family.” But when it came time to inherit the family busine

health  Jul 2, 2026

The Guardian Health

Over-40s with obesity have normal-BMI cholesterol and blood pressure levels, study finds

Success of statins and blood-pressure drugs hailed as researchers find some people with obesity were ‘better off’Many adults who are obese have “indistinguishable” cholesterol and blood pressure levels compared with those with a healthy weight, largely because of the use of statins, according to a study.In some cases, people with obesity were “better off” than those of a healthy weight, researchers added. Continue reading...

health  Jul 2, 2026

The Guardian Health

Starmer’s goodbye gift to Britain: a US pharma deal that could be more lethal than Covid | Aditya Chakrabortty

This shadowy treaty on medicine imports will cost the NHS billions and take funding away from doctors, nurses, cancer scans and the restFor all the crowd noise and heavy-breathing match analysis, British democracy is a simple sport. We elect politicians to serve our interests. They direct the vital services that look after our families and communities, such as our healthcare and our schools. The entire political system rests on one basic premise: they work for us.Believe that, as I do, and this

health  Jul 2, 2026

The Guardian Health

‘It’s peak tick season!’ Should Charlie xcx really have been lolling around in long grass?

Harry Styles, Zoë Kravitz, Sarah Pidgeon … celebrities love stretching out on Britain’s lawns and meadows. But with the tick-borne Lyme disease on the rise, is it safe for any of us?Do we need to worry about ticks in the UK? How serious are the risks associated with the diseases they can carry? Should we avoid rolling around in long grass à la Charli xcx in the video for her latest single, Wink Wink?These are questions that have been circulating on social media this week, after the release of th

health  Jul 2, 2026