Category: Science and Health

Popular anti-parasitic drug ivermectin, once also falsely touted as a possible COVID-19 cure, may actually have another secret and game-changing use: Killing bed bugs, according to a recent study. While ivermectin is not effective in curing the deadly coronavirus that has spread throughout the world since 2020, it may be able to help tackle another […]

More than one biblical story pivots on the occurrence of a significant dream, or a vision of the night. The Talmud takes dreams seriously, although it understands their limitations: “even a dream that will be fulfilled contains some nonsense.” (Berakhot 55a) Maimonides writes that the Patriarchs experience prophesy only in dreams. This statement leads to an objection […]

Bronchiolitis is a common chest infection that affects babies and children under the age of two years, especially in the autumn and winter and causes the accumulation of mucus and phlegm in the small airways (bronchioles), resulting in partial blockage. It is the leading cause in the Western world for hospitalizations of babies before their […]

A significant new function of the mammalian sperm protein IZUMO1 that may ultimately lead to more targeted diagnoses and treatment of human fertility problems and promote the development of more sophisticated forms of contraception has been discovered by researchers at Haifa’s Technion-Israel Institute of Technology and two Japanese universities.  They found that the protein IZUMO1, […]

Israeli Consul-General in Shanghai Eddie Shapira was held in a medical facility for 10 days, as part of China’s zero-COVID policy, he wrote on Facebook over the weekend. Shapira said the “conditions are reminiscent of a prison,” and that he experienced “the 10 most bizarre days that I could imagine.” The diplomat caught COVID-19 with […]

A woman with a nut allergy was in for a sickening surprise when she found out that the very allergy she’s lived with and grown accustomed to was to blame for some serious discomfort she had in her nether regions. The 28-year-old woman had a history of anaphylaxis caused by the presence of antibodies called […]

Just learning to play a musical instrument – and playing the piano – has a positive impact on the brain’s ability to process sights and sounds and can even help to lift a “blue” mood.  Music involves different senses and is emotional in nature, and musicians show enhanced detection of audio-visual temporal discrepancies and emotion […]

Every winter, seasonal varieties of diseases such as the flu arrive in Israel, creating many waves of illness. Right now it seems like many people are sick, with runny noses, deep coughs and a general bad feeling, and we might also get sick.  Yet some people easily get through the winter easily, and they don’t […]

A recommendation to drink eight glasses of water a day is one of the most recognized dietary recommendations and it even appears on the recommendations of government websites. However, a new and stringent study on water consumption, reveals that the amount of water that one needs to consume varies widely from person to person. Some […]

Israel entered the coronavirus crisis with the highest number of people dying from infectious disease per capita in the developed world – some 73% more than the No. 2 country, Greece, according to an Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) report at the time. It also had the highest hospital occupancy rate of any […]