Eight months into the pandemic, where are we headed?

We do not know what 2020 would have looked like without a pandemic, but we already know that some losses could have been prevented. And, if the future lies in the spectrum of pandemics, as the WHO warns, we should learn all the lessons that can be learned from this long journey.

COVID-19: Crisis prayer and the crisis of our prayers

I was descending from Omu Peak, in the Bucegi Mountains, with a few dozen young people. It had not been an ideal hike, and we were behind schedule. The forest made the darkness even thicker as it began to cover the mountain, and slowly, our minds as well.

11 million people die each year from these nutrition mistakes

From Europe to Asia and from Africa to the Americas and Australia, none of the culinary traditions, not even those acclaimed by scientists, generate an optimal supply of nutrients. Moreover, the food we eat daily kills 11 million of us prematurely every year. So then, what should we eat?

Our daily E-numbers: an epidemic of suspicion (Part II)

The first part of this discussion essentially highlighted that, despite the alarming and catastrophic claims surrounding E-numbers, these substances are generally far less harmful than many believe. In the following section, we will examine some of the most criticised and controversial E-numbers in Romanian public discourse. Let’s begin with the one often described as “the most TOXIC/CARCINOGENIC additive”: E330.

The return to nature

What would you think if your doctor prescribed a dose of nature, as a clinical and therapeutic treatment—to admire a cloud, to have a meal at the beach, to bury your face in the grass? This is exactly what some doctors are doing, after studies have shown the benefits of connecting with nature—especially since the trend of moving away from nature in recent...

COVID-19 vaccines safety: Does it take decades to get the answer?

Do we need to wait for the results of longitudinal scientific studies, extending to decades, to know if vaccines are safe?

Mind over matter

I was a sickly child. If I wasn’t catching a humble cold, it was something more exotic, like whooping cough or bronchitis.

“When doctors don’t know what to do, it’s time for alternative medicine.” True or false?

When it comes to cases where "doctors don't know what to do," the first thought that comes to mind is usually cancer. Conventional treatment, which can prolong life for a few years and sometimes just a few months, comes at a high price in the quality of life, and patients come to prefer the "natural" way: alternative medicine.

How to sleep well in the age of anxiety

Sleep is perhaps the most important, complicated, and misunderstood physiological mechanism that keeps us alive.

COVID-19: Rehearsal for the big surprise

There has been a lot of speculation in the online environment about COVID-19 and the end of the world, but the connection between the two is more subtle than it first appears. It has been suggested that the pandemic is only the tip of the iceberg, that it is one of the seven last plagues of Revelation, or that it is the fourth...

We need water

The question of the origin and justification of the recommendation to drink at least eight glasses of water a day was first seriously examined in a scientific publication by Heinz Valtin.

A sharp mind at the age of 100

Growing old is inevitable, but experiencing a significant cognitive decline isn’t. An encouraging piece of news uncovered by several studies that focus on people in their old age suggests that changing one’s lifestyle could increase the chances of having a sharp mind up until the age of 100.

How can the church support those affected by dementia?

According to experts and organisations that support this category of patients, people suffering from dementia and their caregivers need all the congregational support they can get.

COVID-19: Should we care about the environment in the midst of an economic crisis?

Our planet may be fittingly compared to the 1994 film, Speed: A bomb is planted on a bus and rigged to explode when the bus slows to less than 80 kilometres per hour. The bus barrels through Los Angeles, hitting obstacles and endangering the lives of passengers and pedestrians until a solution is found.

Good luck, bad luck…and cancer

Many had not yet finished clearing away the leftovers from the New Year's Eve table, almost no one had returned to work, politics was still numb and journalists yawned with boredom because almost nothing of interest had happened on 2 January 2015.