Category: Feature Stories

Putting electrical devices into standby mode instead of turning them off entirely is convenient but uses extra power. The older they are, the more juice they usually need in standby mode, but even modern devices can be pretty greedy when networked. Electricity is expensive and getting more expensive. One way to reduce a household’s energy consumption is to put electrical devices into standby mode less often and switch them off entirely instead. How much you can save by doing this depends mainly on your age. “Up to 20 percent of…

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It’s not just the shirt that gets too tight: overweight and obesity are generally among the leading causes of disability and death in Europe. Obesity and overweight in Europe have reached “epidemic proportions,” says the WHO. Ist latest European Obesity Report reports that 59 percent of adults weigh far too much. This has unhealthy, sometimes fatal consequences. More than half of adults in Europe weigh too much, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Fifty-nine percent of adults in the WHO European Region live overweight or obese. The proportion was…

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The new Omicron variant BA.4 is currently contributing to a new wave of CoV in South Africa. In Vienna, too, there are already almost 30 documented cases. Whether and for whom a fourth vaccination is valid, the city and the National Vaccination Committee disagree. The new Omicron variant BA.4 is one of the drivers of the currently rising fifth wave of infection in South Africa, according to Andreas Bergthaler, virologist and immunologist at MedUni Vienna. The variant has already arrived in Vienna as well, with “less than 30 cases” under…

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Experts had already emphasized weeks ago: that Omicron has the potential to become the dominant variant of the coronavirus. What does this mean for infected persons? What are the signs of illness? And why is Omicron more contagious than its predecessor Delta? Here is an overview of the most important answers. Can we expect a new wave of mutations in early summer? The Robert Koch Institute (RKI) in Germany gives an incubation period, i.e., the time from infection to the onset of the disease, of five to six and a…

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Seven hours of sleep at night is the ideal amount of sleep for middle-aged and older adults. That’s what U.S. and Chinese scientists report in the journal Nature Aging. The study concludes that significantly more or less sleep is associated with poor mental health and poorer mental performance. Good sleep is all the more critical, especially for older people. Specifically, scientists from the Universities of Cambridge and Fudan examined data from nearly 500,000 adults between the ages of 38 and 73, collected in the “UK Biobank,” a comprehensive British database.…

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Austria is probably the first European country to have had a significant transmission of BA.4. At the latest, another Corona wave will sweep over Austria and Europe in autumn. Experts, physicians, and virologists agree on this. Austria will be prepared, as Health Minister Johannes Rauch has repeatedly stated – most recently via Twitter. He said preparations were already underway for the fall and that various scenarios were being played out, depending on which variant of the virus would prevail. The strategy of the Minister of Health is briefly summarized: Testing,…

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Brown sugar gives many people the impression of being healthier. And is brown sugar the healthier alternative to white sugar? Or is cane sugar healthier? Sugar is the new fat. Few foods are as discredited as the sweet sin. It’s said to make you fat, sick, and addicted. Unfortunately, many foods, such as cakes, chocolate, or jam, taste so good precisely because of sugar because the sweetness is an essential flavor carrier, just like fat. White sugar is the most commonly used in recipes and for sweetening. The difference is…

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Sixty-five percent of patients with residual virus in the clinical trial had long-covid symptoms. Long-covid symptoms appear to be related to the presence of viral components. This concludes a clinical study of patients with chronic intestinal diseases led by Herbert Tilg, Director of Internal Medicine I at Innsbruck University Hospital. “The fact that viral remnants correlate with long-covid symptoms has never been shown humanely before,” Tilg said in an APA interview. Specifically, 46 patients with inflammatory bowel disease were also examined for corona in gastrointestinal endoscopy, described by the renowned…

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While some people have not even been infected after two years of the Corona pandemic, others have tested positive for the second time. What’s the reason? The Omikron wave is rolling across the country with full force. Several thousand people are infected with the coronavirus every day, even for the second time. But why is this happening? And most importantly, how quickly can you be re-infected after overcoming an illness? After surviving Corona infection: That’s why some people are infected twice First, the most critical question in advance: can you…

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