Category: General Interest

It has been discussed for some time. Venice wants to start charging entrance fees for day visitors next year. The popular lagoon city has been trying different strategies to cope with the crowds for years. There have also been plans to charge admission fees for some time. In October, the city council finally set the course for this. Anyone wishing to visit Venice next year must pay five euros on certain days. “This is a globally unique experiment. The city is complex and fragile. We must take measures because there…

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From December, a previous advantage for Android users will no longer apply: in the future, they will only have a limited data volume available for backups. From December this year, a significant change will affect how Android users of WhatsApp can save their backups. Until now, these users have been able to store their WhatsApp backups automatically and free of charge in the Google Cloud (Google Drive), thanks to an agreement between Meta (the company behind WhatsApp) and Google. This arrangement is now ending. WhatsApp backups from Android users will…

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Vegetables contain more nutrients when raw. This is only partly true, as some vegetables actually become more nutritious when heated. Vegetables contain many valuable vitamins and minerals. But there are different opinions on how best to absorb them. The myth that nutrients are lost during cooking is a persistent one. This is true for some vegetables, but cooking, frying, roasting, or steaming can increase nutrient absorption for some foods. There’s a reason why the cartoon character Popeye loves to eat spinach: after all, the green, leafy vegetable is full of…

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A runny nose, a scratchy throat, and excruciating limb pain—colds are our unwelcome wintertime companions. However, if you treat your infection incorrectly, you will have to struggle with the symptoms for longer. It is, therefore, essential to avoid these mistakes. Suppress sneezingSneezing clears the nasal cavity of foreign bodies, such as dust and bacteria. If you suppress it, you keep these germs in your body, promoting even more colds. Even if the loud noise is unpleasant in public, sneezing should never be suppressed. Suppressing a sneeze can even be dangerous…

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It has long been known that there is a connection between nutrition and well-being. A study on depression now claims to have discovered the extent to which the gut microbiome, the entirety of all microbial co-inhabitants in the gut, plays a role in this. A thorough analysis—the most thorough to date—showed that individuals with depressive symptoms have a markedly different abundance or decrease of specific types of bacteria. The results can be read in the “Nature Communications” journal, published in December. In fact, people with mental illnesses are particularly prone…

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We all want to eat healthily. Many foods have health benefits that we don’t want to miss out on. But some other foods masquerade as healthy superfoods when, in fact, the opposite is true. The health halo effectAccording to experts, this phenomenon is known as the “halo effect”. The phenomenon is seen in the food industry when labels such as “high in fibre” or “low in calories” are applied to food packaging to make the product appear healthier. These foods are actually extremely processed, making them anything but nutritious. Because…

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The majority of Austrians have already been vaccinated against coronavirus or have recovered. However, people whose immune system is weakened due to illness or the use of immunosuppressive medication are often unable to build up sufficient immune protection against the SARS-CoV-2 virus despite vaccination and are, therefore, almost defenceless against it. There is a new prophylactic drug for this particularly vulnerable group of people. It is administered by two intramuscular injections at the same time. “Covid can definitely pose a risk to certain people in autumn and winter,” confirms Viennese…

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Onions are a tried-and-tested household remedy for coughs, earaches and insect bites. What ingredients go into producing wholesome onion juice, and how are onion pouches made? Onions are considered to be one of the oldest medicinal plants. It probably came to Europe via the Middle East and was originally mainly grown in monastery gardens. When onions are chopped or peeled, the sulfur-containing compound allicin—an antibacterial agent—is released. It makes our eyes water, has an antibacterial effect and also helps to loosen mucus, making it thinner and easier to cough up.…

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Newly purchased clothes should always be washed before you wear them for the first time. Because you never know what’s hiding on the surface. Sometimes, the anticipation of wearing a new item of clothing is too great. But it’s better to have the patience to wash it first, says Kim Romine, hygiene scientist at Procter & Gamble in Fairfield, Ohio (USA). “The human body naturally produces body dirt throughout the day.” On average, this adds up to about one liter of sweat, 40 grams of sebum, 10 grams of skin…

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