Andrea Vania has answered Likely

I have been working with obese children and adolescents for 30 years, and since when vit. D became an available lab test my group and I have regularly found those patients to have (in around 70% of the cases) insufficient or frankly devoid levels of it. Besides, as a paediatrician, I have frequently checked (as a part of routine check-ups) my healthy children/adolescents for serum levels of vit. D, finding low levels in many of them, although not as many as among obese patients. While we rarely see frank rickets, nowadays, vit. D insufficiency/deficiency cannot but impair - at least - bone healths, thus putting those subjects at higher risk of osteoporosis/osteomalacia later on in their life. Besides, I have noticed (personal observations, though) that chidren/adolescents who are kept conveniently repleted with vit. D during autumn and winter are less prone to seasonal viral infections and, more generally, upper respiratory tract's infections.

Adam Heenan has answered Unlikely

Anxiety is an emotion, so I would not consider it a "condition" at all. Some people, on the other hand, describe themselves as "anxious" or have been diagnosed with an "anxiety disorder." While someone who describes themselves as anxious may be more genetically predisposed to anxiety (we often colloquially call such people "high-strung, tense, nervous, etc."), anxiety disorders typically reflect learned behaviour. For example, generalized anxiety disorder is characterized by relentless worrying (a behaviour, not an emotion), and panic disorder can develop in people who learn to fear having a panic attack. Both those things can be "unlearned" through therapy or other positive, corrective experiences. 

Adam Heenan has answered Uncertain

Alcohol can make us feel less anxious immediately after consuming it. However, like most drugs, these effects don't last forever. Alcohol can make us more anxious the next day because of its negative effect on our sleep. 

Adam Heenan has answered Likely

Anxiety helps us adapt to situations, so in a sense, yes, it is healthy. However, anxiety can also get in our way. When anxiety is too high for a given situation, it's considered "maladaptive" (e.g., being too anxious to give a public speech).

Idan Solon has answered Near Certain

Let’s distinguish between the questions, “Are smart people more liberal?” and “Are liberals smarter?” (My interpretation is that the term "liberal" is being used in the United States sense of a consistent orientation toward the political left on economic, social, and foreign policy issues.) This distinction is necessary because people of high intelligence orient consistently toward the political left on economic, social, and foreign policy issues.  But other demographics are also more likely to orient toward the political left (e.g., blacks, Hispanics, women, young people) and some of these demographics do not tend to have higher average intelligence than the overall population. On surveys, exit polls, and public opinion polls, if people are queried regarding their positions on single issue measures, there tends to be a monotonically positive relationship between intelligence and political leftism.  An exception is if the issue involves rights for a demographic that scores lower on...

L S Simon has answered Uncertain

We yet do not know the controlling influences regarding structural progression in OA. The role of inflammation, genetics, and mechanics remain difficult to tease out. Structural modification is being pursued but if you improve cartilage, is that enough, or does the entire joint need to be addressed and in whom.

Arno Hazekamp has answered Uncertain

Meta-analyses of thw available clinical data shows that cannabinoids, including CBD may be effective for chronic pain, but it is unclear which types of pain exactly. Because there are many different TYPES of chrnic pain, and many REASONS for such pain, in combination with many different available ADMINISTRATION FORMS and QUALITIES of CBD currently on the market, it is unclear what the advice should be. CBD is widely available as a 'food supplement' but this is rapidly changing now the EU has labeled CBD a Novel Food. Some countries, including Austria and Spain, are already banning CBD from the stores. Moreover, many studies around the world have shown that very often CBD products do not actually contain what the label claims: CBD levels are too low (and sometimes there is no CBD at all), other products contain too much THC, and contaminants are also very commonly detected. As a result, we can not trust popular claims about the effects of "CBD' on most indications, because consumers...

Ewen Todd has answered Likely

Ethanol-based gels are highly effective against vegetative bacteria (not spores) and enveloped viruses but less effective against non-enveloped viruses including poliovirus, calicivirus (which includes norovirus), and hepatitis A virus. In addition, soil such as dirt or protein from handling fruits, vegetables, meat, fish, etc., reduce the impact of alcohol-based antiseptics. Enveloped virus do not easily survive throughout the GI tract, whereas non-enveloped virus can, and are transmitted to surfaces or people through fecal contact (also vomitus for norovirus). Wipes, rubs or handwashing do not need to kill the organisms, just remove them from the skin, but some usually remain and contact time is important for any disinfectant to be effective. FDA advises food workers to use soaps to clean hands, whereas alcohol-based antiseptics are widely used in health care settings.

James B Miles has answered Extremely Unlikely

Where free will is defined as freedom of choice (i.e. freedom for an individual to have ever chosen otherwise) then it cannot logically exist / there is no such thing as free will.Determinism cannot give us free choice, as if we act as we do because we are the causal products of biology and environment we had no possibility of doing otherwise. But neither can indeterminism give us free choice, because if the mind is − at least in part − undetermined, then some things “just happen” in it outside the laws of causation for which, by definition, nobody and nothing is chosing. Bourget and Chalmers’ 2014 survey of over two thousand philosophers found that 86% now accept that free choice cannot logically exist. However, where free will is defined as OTHER than freedom of choice – say freedom from constraint, or freedom from mental instability – then such a weaker form of “free will” has been argued to exist.

Lulu Bagnol has answered Near Certain

While conducting my published study on spiritual intelligence (SQ), emotional intelligence was one of the reoccurring themes that kept popping up during the in-depth semi-structured interviews. Out of the 10 participants, emotional intelligence was evident in 100% of my participants. Through the semi-structured questions, each participant was able to recognize their emotions and especially the emotions of others which facilitated their own SQ; in fact, emotional intelligence and SQ go hand-in-hand.

Joreintje D Mackenbach has answered Near Certain

In May 2017, the World Obesity Federation released a position statement in the journal Obesity Reviews recognising obesity as a "chronic, relapsing, progressive disease process." This view is in accordance with the positions taken by the World Health Organization in 1997 and the American Medical Association in 2013. As described by Bray et al. (Obes Rev 2017): "Obesity is viewed from an epidemiological model, with an agent affecting the host and producing disease. Food is the primary agent, particularly foods that are high in energy density such as fat, or in sugar‐sweetened beverages. An abundance of food, low physical activity and several other environmental factors interact with the genetic susceptibility of the host to produce positive energy balance. The majority of this excess energy is stored as fat in enlarged, and often more numerous fat cells, but some lipid may infiltrate other organs such as the liver (ectopic fat). The enlarged fat cells and ectopic fat produce and...

David Becker has answered Near Certain

There is no doubt that ryr lowers cholesterol.  It has a component in it called monacolins, which is similar chemically to lovastatinHere is a link to several papers that I have written on the topichttp://healthychangeofheart.com/our-team/published-papers/The major problem- it is over the counter so often the monacolin content among preparations can differ

Ian  Bennett has answered Near Certain

Both diagnostic and screening mammography undoubtedly saves lives, and the introduction of population-based mammography screening programmes for women over the age of 50 years in particular has been the major factor contributing to the observed reduction in mortality from breast cancer over the past 15 years.The evidence for the survival benefits associated with screening mammography have been clearly shown in multiple national and international trials over the past 40 years, and on the whole these studies have demonstrated a 30% reduction in mortality amongst women participating in mammography screening.Earlier detection of breast cancers is not only associated with improved prognosis, but also enables many women to be able to avoid more severe treatments such as mastectomies and chemotherapy.

V Mohan has answered Likely

Yes, there are a lot of studies which suggest that lack of sleep can increase the chances of developing diabetes and other metabolic diseases. In fact, the biology of circadian rhythm has also been attracting a lot of attention recently. Interestingly some recent unpublished data shows that both less sleep as well as too much sleep are linked to diabetes risk and indeed even to mortality. The optimum sleep recommended is 6-8 hours per day.

Raphael Stricker has answered Likely

Sexual transmission of Lyme disease: challenging the tickborne ...

Glen Trostle has answered Unlikely

Although it is well published that bees contribute to ~75% of crops, when we look up the world production of food, we find that vegetables consisted of about 1959 mmt in 2012; fruits and nuts 597 mmt in 2012 - see Looney 2016, Fruits, Vegetables and Tubers from: Rutledge Handbook of food and nutrition security, Routledge; meat was 320 mmt in 2014 (315 mt) - see https://www.globalagriculture.org/report-topics/meat-and-animal-feed.htm; and cereal grains were 2365 mmt in 2010 - see Awika 201l, Major cereal grains production and use around the world. Advances in Cereal Science: Implications to Food Processing and Health Promotion ACS Symposium Series; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 2011., Assuming that the major fruits, nuts and vegetables benefit from pollination, and that most animal food is from flowering plants requiring seed production (eg: alfalfa), that makes for about 55% of world food production benefiting from bees.

Diksha Dani has answered Near Certain

Yes, I think biological ageing is inevitable. In simple words, the bodily system, like a machine, gets over-used, defects keep accumulating and the energy required to maintain this system perfectly functional and efficient, declines progressively. In my opinion, the question of far more importance is how to achieve healthy ageing. How to prolong/control the decline of body system in a natural way ? I hope the scientists will go beyond wishful thinking, to develop a gross understanding towards what ageing really means and how to make it healthier. There is an immense need to put together the fragmented knowledge pieces, to develop an all-encompassing 'vision'!