r/Health

In London, an Ultra Low Emission Zone requires vehicles to meet strict emissions standards or else pay a daily fee for driving through that area. 

It’s an initiative that has reduced toxic air pollution levels and spurred drivers to adopt cleaner vehicles.

And now it’s even been linked to improved lung growth in the city’s children.

Before the Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ), London children had stunted lung growth, a 2018 study found. 

When exposed to air pollution, like the emissions from traffic, their lungs were smaller than they should have been—putting them at risk of asthma attacks, lung diseases, and even early death as they become adults.

But now, after five years of the ULEZ, those children’s lungs have improved, according to a major five-year study recently published in the Lancet Public Health journal. 

It’s a result that Chris Griffiths, a professor at Queen Mary University of London and University of Oxford as well as lead investigator on the study, calls “astonishing.”

Read more on Fast Company.

We asked doctors to explain lesser known potential risks of GLP-1 drugs, from hair loss to unwanted pregnancies.

Read the full story here with this gift link. There's no paywall.

Unjected isn’t the only dating platform for the unvaccinated. There’s the similarly named Unjabbed, and the unfortunately named Pureblood.Dating. The frenzy of the pandemic is over—vaccine requirements have relaxed, and few people are asking one another whether they’ve been vaccinated before hanging out or hooking up. So why are these unvaccinated singles so stuck on the question? 

According to public health historian and Auburn University professor Zachary W. Schulz, PhD, a distrust in vaccines began long before COVID-19 upended our lives. “Americans as a society have long debated the balance between individual liberty and collective responsibility in public health,” Shultz says.

“COVID didn’t invent vaccine hesitancy,” Shultz says. “It really magnified the fault lines that were developing for decades.”

That, combined with the social isolation of the pandemic (which can breed conspiratorial thinking) and a government that promoted anti-science rhetoric around the illness, created the perfect storm.

Research shows that shared values in questioning authority can help foster belonging and social security—something that might become especially important for a person like Armstrong, whose vaccine skepticism cost him most of his previous community. 

“If someone has repeatedly experienced criticism, ridicule, or rejection because of their beliefs, joining a dating platform where those beliefs are normalized provides immediate acceptance,” says psychologist Lauren Mahoney, PsyD. “Most people are drawn toward communities where they feel seen rather than communities where they expect to defend themselves.”

Read more: https://www.playboy.com/read/sex/anti-vaxxers-made-their-own-dating-app

Federal public health officials say West Nile virus cases are at an all time high for this time of the year, the highest number of human cases reported in June since 2004.

West Nile virus is the most common and serious mosquito-borne disease in California that can be fatal to humans and some wildlife, according to the California Department of Public Health. 

In Los Angeles County, cases began to pop up in May, firstly in Pico Rivera and Long Beach, according to the Greater Los Angeles County Vector Control District. Now it’s up to 27 within its coverage area.

At the same time, more mosquitoes carrying the virus are being found.

Read more about why cases are growing and how to stay safe at the link.