Author: Healthcare Propulsion Staff

Ed Shirt, 25, recommends fitting in the 30 minutes wherever you can in the day and splitting it into chunks if that makes it more manageable.”Walk before work, on your lunch break or after dinner,” he says. “You don’t have to do all 30 minutes at once either – three 10-minute walks throughout the day add up just the same.”Living by the coast in Prestatyn in Denbighshire, Wales, he often sets a timer and picks a landmark to walk to. “I get my half hour in literally just getting on the beach. There’s something about the movement of walking that…

A row has broken out in Germany after the coalition government announced changes to sick-leave rules, requiring Germans to provide a doctor’s note to their employers on the first day of their illness.The changes also mean workers will not be able to obtain the note by phone, scrapping a measure brought in due to the Covid-19 pandemic.”The number of sick days in Germany is too high,” said Chancellor Friedrich Merz.Under the current rules, a certificate is only required if a person is unfit for work for more than three days – in other words, on the fourth day, although employers…

Doctors on the island called off a planned walkout in January 2025 after a deal was reached covering two financial years from 2023-24.That saw the awarding of an 8% pay uplift for the first year, along with another 6% rise from April 2024 and a further 2% from February last year.The BMA said, despite those rises, doctors’ real-terms pay was still significantly below what it was in 2008.Chair of the Isle of Man Medical Society Dr Prakash Thiagarajan said the latest vote was “a clear message that the current situation cannot continue”.Pay erosion had left doctors “feeling undervalued and increasingly…

Growing older often means recovering more slowly from muscle injuries, but scientists may have uncovered an important reason why. A new study from UCLA, conducted in mice, found that aging muscle stem cells build up high levels of a protein that slows their ability to spring into action and repair damaged tissue. At the same time, that protein appears to help the cells endure the challenging conditions found in aging muscle. The research, published in the journal Science, suggests that some biological changes linked to aging may not simply be signs of decline. Instead, they may serve as protective adaptations…

Scientists have uncovered evidence that could change how doctors think about a common form of stroke and why standard preventive treatments often fail. New research suggests that lacunar ischemic stroke is not primarily caused by fatty plaque building up inside arteries, as many have assumed. Instead, the strongest link appears to be with changes in the brain’s blood vessels themselves, specifically the enlargement and widening of arteries. The findings may help explain why commonly prescribed stroke prevention medications such as aspirin and other antiplatelet drugs have had limited success in preventing this type of stroke. Researchers say the results are…

Our latest Movers and Shakers roundup includes new chief executives for University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust, East Cheshire NHS Trust and East and North Hertfordshire NHS Trust. University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust has announced the appointment of Dr Trevor Smith as chief executive. He will take up the role in the autumn from current CEO David French who, earlier this year, announced his decision to step down. Zara Jones has been appointed chief executive of East Cheshire NHS Trust. She will officially take up the post on 1 October 2026, succeeding Ged Murphy, who is retiring at the…

Bumble bees have demonstrated an impressive ability that scientists once believed was limited to humans and other animals with much larger brains. In a new study, the insects successfully completed a completely unfamiliar object manipulation task despite never being taught how to solve it. The findings challenge a long-standing belief that spontaneous problem solving is unique to humans and other large-brained vertebrates. More than a century ago, psychologist Wolfgang Köhler showed that chimpanzees could suddenly solve unfamiliar problems by combining objects in new ways, such as stacking boxes to reach a banana hanging overhead. Those experiments became classic examples of…

Modern weight loss medications have transformed obesity treatment, helping many people lose significant amounts of weight. But these drugs often come with an important drawback: They can also reduce muscle mass. Now, researchers have uncovered a biological mechanism that may one day help address that challenge while also boosting the body’s ability to burn fat. Scientists at the Weizmann Institute of Science have identified a protein called MTCH2, nicknamed “Mitch,” that appears to play a major role in how cells manage energy and store fat. In a recent study published in the EMBO Journal, the team found that disabling this…

Although there is statutory maternity and paternity leave – which guarantees time off and partial income compensation – not everyone takes it.Women can get six weeks before their due date and eight weeks after giving birth. Fathers get up to four weeks of flexible paid leave within eight weeks of a child’s birth.Both parents are also entitled to childcare leave until the child turns one, during which eligible employees receive 67% of their wages for the first 180 days and 50% thereafter. Since April 2025, some parents can receive more support for the first 28 days if both parents take…

Excessive blood loss is the leading cause of death from combat injuries, making rapid bleeding control one of the biggest challenges in battlefield medicine. Researchers at KAIST, including an Army Major, have developed a next generation spray-on powder that can stop severe bleeding in about one second. The innovation could significantly improve survival for wounded soldiers while also offering broad potential for civilian emergency care. The research team, led by Professor Steve Park of KAIST’s Department of Materials Science and Engineering and Professor Sangyong Jon of the Department of Biological Sciences, created a powder type hemostatic agent that quickly transforms…