On November 1, we celebrate All Saints’ Day. One day after that, that is, on November 2, is All Souls’ Day. But what is celebrated on these two days anyway? And how did these holidays come about? All Saints’ Day is on November 1. The holiday is also called the Feast of the Communion of Saints. All Saints’ Day has its roots in the Christian Orient. Over the centuries, the Catholic Church has canonized many people. The reason for this was that they should serve as a guide for us.…
Read MoreCategory: Feature Stories
Dental hygiene: what the colour of your teeth says about your health
Dental hygiene is essential to our overall health. According to dentists, your teeth say a lot about you, including early symptoms of diseases hiding in your mouth, and also show the mistakes many of us make when brushing our teeth. Teeth are also said to affect one’s sex life. Besides brushing your teeth the right way, you should also pay attention to the colour of your teeth. According to Cleveland Clinic, the colour of your teeth reveals a lot about your overall health and lifestyle. Even if your teeth are…
Read More2 super-Earths found in habitable zone
The list of places where life could exist in space is growing. With the help of NASA’s TESS satellite, 2 new exoplanets have been found. According to a research team from the Spanish University of La Laguna, they are located in the habitable zone. Both planets were discovered at the star TOI-2095. The red dwarf is 137 light-years away from our solar system. The 2 planets orbiting it have been named TOI-2095 b and TOI-2095 c. Only a little bigger than the earth, but much heavierThe distance between the red…
Read MoreClimate crisis should be recognized as a health emergency
The World Health Organization (WHO) should declare the climate and natural crisis a health emergency, according to scientists worldwide.More than 200 scientific journals simultaneously issued a call to do so before the next World Health Assembly in spring 2024. These include renowned journals such as “The Lancet” and “The British Medical Journal” (“BMJ”). It is a dangerous mistake to consider the climate and nature crises separately, the appeal says. “The climate crisis and biodiversity loss are both damaging human health, and they are linked,” “BMJ” Editor-in-Chief Kamran Abbasi shared. “Therefore,…
Read MoreThe inner clock becomes unbalanced when the clocks change to winter time. Here are some tips to help ease this transition.
It’s only one hour, but it can mess up our sleep rhythm. The shift in time throws off our internal clock, which frequently results in sleep disturbances, exhaustion, and difficulties focusing. When the clocks are set back by an hour again at the weekend, many people struggle with fatigue and concentration problems. Our biological rhythm is primarily determined by external factors (zeitgebers). The most important of these zeitgebers is light. In particular, the blue component of the morning sun suppresses the sleep hormone melatonin and promotes the release of serotonin,…
Read MoreUN registers record number of 114 million refugees
According to UN figures, the number of refugees worldwide has reached a new high of around 114 million people. “At the moment, the world is rightly looking at the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza. But around the world, too many conflicts are spreading or escalating,” the head of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Filippo Grandi, said Wednesday in Geneva.In the first half of the year, he said, the wars and conflicts in Ukraine, Sudan, Myanmar and the Democratic Republic of the Congo drove people to leave their homes. He…
Read MoreSunflower oil: health, use and effect
You probably know sunflower oil mainly as a cheap and versatile cooking oil. But what’s it doing in cosmetics? And is it healthy at all? Sunflower oil is one of the most popular cooking oils in the world. You can buy the oil, which is extracted from the seeds of sunflowers, in a virgin or refined variety. Virgin sunflower oil is cold-pressed and not further processed after pressing. It is light yellow and tastes nutty. On the other hand, refined sunflower oil is purified of colorants and bitter substances, among…
Read MoreLose weight—this is the best time for dinner
Recent studies show that the timing of the evening meal is very relevant for weight management because it also influences what we eat. One aspect of controlling your weight is the timing of your meals. While some scientists insist that the effects of caloric intake on the body are the same whether you eat your last meal of the day at 4 p.m. or 10 p.m., recent studies show the opposite. They show that the timing of food intake significantly impacts how the body processes calories. So, what’s the healthiest…
Read MoreOctober 29: Daylight saving time ends on Sunday
On October 29, the clocks will change from daylight saving time to winter. In Europe, clocks will change from 3:00 to 2:00.Shouldn’t the time change be abolished?This is likely to start the discussions about the pros and cons of this measure again because an end to the time changeover at the EU level continues to be a long time coming. Sunday will see the switch back to wintertime.A corresponding Commission proposal from 2018 was already rubber-stamped by the EU Parliament in the spring of 2019. However, since then, the Council…
Read More