EurekAlert! News by Subject: Medicine & Health - News by Subject: Medicine & Health

Medicine & Health

Updates every hour. Last Updated: 28-Dec-2025 07:11 ET (28-Dec-2025 12:11 GMT/UTC)

New mapping identifies urgent opportunities to strengthen Singapore’s children’s mental health ecosystem

Duke-NUS Medical School
Reports and Proceedings

A new report from the SingHealth Duke-NUS Global Health Institute (SDGHI), supported by the Octava Foundation, has mapped Singapore’s programmes supporting children’s mental health.

Eyes above the trees

Kyoto University
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Kyoto, Japan -- Forests have been benefitting humanity since long before the health benefits of forest bathing were discovered. They are major carbon sinks that provide a wide range of ecosystem services, including timber and non-timber forest products, recreation, and climate regulation.

Accurately assessing forest biomass is essential for understanding carbon storage and supporting sustainable forest management, but forests are vast three-dimensional structures and therefore difficult to study. Until recently, even measuring the height of a single tree was a challenging task, let alone understanding the size of its canopy. Conventional ground-based tree surveys are labor-intensive and often difficult to conduct in remote or steep terrain, limiting their use in large-scale assessments. This has also restricted researchers' ability to develop accurate biomass estimation formulae.

However, new drone-based technologies such as LiDAR, or Light Detection and Ranging, are becoming increasingly accessible to researchers and have enabled more efficient measurement of tree structures and forest biomass. Emitting hundreds of thousands to millions of laser beams per second, LiDAR obtains three-dimensional information about the objects it scans.

Journal: Journal of Forest Research
Funder: Japan Society for the Promotion of Science

Health data for 57 million people in England show changing patterns of heart diseases before, during and after the pandemic

Health Data Research UK
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A comprehensive study of electronic health records for 57 million people living in England has revealed the evolving burden of cardiovascular diseases before, during and after the COVID-19 pandemic.

The study was led by scientists at the Universities of Edinburgh, UCL, and Cambridge with technical and data support from the BHF Data Science Centre at Health Data Research UK. The insights gained into the patterns of multiple heart diseases reveal important health inequalities during and after the COVID-19 pandemic that can be targeted to improve cardiovascular health.

Journal: The Lancet Public Health
Funder: Health Data Research UK

Microplastics are everywhere – and raising urgent health questions, new study finds

Biochar Editorial Office, Shenyang Agricultural University

Microplastics, tiny bits of plastic less than 5 millimeters in size, are now found in our air, food, water, and even inside the human body, according to new research led by scientists from China and the United States. The study, published in Carbon Research, urges scientists and policymakers to take immediate steps to understand and address potential health risks linked to widespread plastic pollution.

Journal: Carbon Research

The way you walk: 10–15 minute bouts of walking better for your cardiovascular health than shorter strolls

University of Sydney
Peer-Reviewed Publication

People who walk at least 10-15 minutes in a single stretch reduce their risk of developing cardiovascular disease by two thirds compared to those who walk less than five minutes in one go

When walking the same number of steps, longer accumulations of steps in one go have a greater health benefit than short bouts spread out across the day

Journal: Annals of Internal Medicine
Funder: National Heart Foundation of New Zealand, National Health and Medical Research Council Investigator Grant

Getting steps in one long walk a day cuts risk of death and CVD better than multiple short walks

American College of Physicians
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A prospective population-based cohort study of suboptimally active adults (<8,000 steps per day) assessed whether individuals who accumulate their daily steps in shorter or longer bouts are at greater risk for all-cause mortality and cardiovascular disease (CVD), regardless of the total number of steps taken.

Journal: Annals of Internal Medicine

Saudi Native Dr. Hani K. Najm named next vice president of the American College of Cardiology

American College of Cardiology
Business Announcement

Hani K. Najm, MD, MSc, FACC, will be the next vice president of the American College of Cardiology, a global cardiovascular organization dedicated to transforming cardiovascular care and improving heart health for all. Najm will assume the role of vice president during the American College of Cardiology’s Annual Scientific Session (ACC.26) on March 28 – 30 in New Orleans.