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Wellness

Wellness
Latest news and features on wellness, including diet, mental health trends, exercise, fitness, medicine and diseases.
Angong Niuhuang Wan is among the most prized traditional Chinese medicine formulas and costs an eye-watering amount. But do the pills actually help prevent and treat strokes, and can they be harmful? A Hong Kong-based TCM practitioner helps us understand more. Photo: Shandong Hongjitang Pharmaceutical Group
Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM)

Explainer | All about TCM’s ‘miracle pill’ Angong Niuhuang Wan, and when not to take it

The prized Angong Niuhuang Wan is thought to help stroke victims if taken at the right time. But when is that, and can it harm you?

Meditation and how to find balance

Why wild health raves will be one of 2026’s biggest wellness trends

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Beauty

Why expensive shampoos aren’t always the best for your hair

Medicine

It’s not ‘all in your head’: women’s pain really lasts longer, study finds

Myth-busting findings that immune system differences cause chronic pain to persist longer for women highlight the need for better treatment.

Women’s pain has often been overlooked as “more in the mind”. But a new study has found chronic pain to be more exacerbated for women than for men, and the biological reason behind it. Photo: Shutterstock
What to do in Hong Kong

5 of the best things to do in Hong Kong this weekend, February 27 to March 1

From a bar crawl for a good cause to a flea market and an art exhibition exploring China’s economic rise, here are our picks for the weekend.

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Food and Drinks

Why dates are healthier than sugar – but can you tell the varieties apart?

Popular gifts at religious events like Ramadan and Eid al-Fitr (the end of Ramadan), dates are now catching on outside the Muslim world, partly due to their lower glycaemic index.

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How to age well

Women’s heart attack symptoms and risk factors differ from men’s. Here’s what to know

Women’s heart attacks often have more subtle symptoms and sex-specific risks. Experts provide preventive measures to protect your body.

Lori Sepich suffered two heart attacks 13 years apart. An estimated 275 million to 300 million women globally live with cardiovascular disease. Photo: AP
Travel news and advice

Do you feel fatigued when flying? Expert tips to avoid mid-flight slumps

Doctors break down key reasons why flying can leave you feeling so bloated and exhausted and give advice on how to stay feeling productive.

Hong Kong society

Parents of Hong Kong’s ‘Girl Behind the Face’ finally share their story

Mui Thomas’s story of living with a rare skin disease has moved many. Now, her adoptive parents share why they ignored advice to ‘walk away’.

Mental health

Magnesium can help you sleep – but check the dose and how to take it

Experts advise on magnesium threonate, malate, citrate and other compounds, as well as whether you should take it as a pill, as a powder added to a drink or as a spray.

Magnesium can help you sleep, but it’s important to understand the differences in the various compounds on the market and how best to use them. Photo: Trip
How to age well

What is the best brain training test to reduce dementia risk?

Study finds speed-based brain training better than memory or reasoning training in reducing risk of Alzheimer’s disease and related dementia.

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In a study on whether specific types of cognitive training could reduce the risk of Alzheimer’s disease and related dementia, the group that undertook speed training improved the most, in areas including safer driving, improved mood and more self-confidence. Photo: Shutterstock
Video gaming

How playing Tetris can help reduce traumatic memory flashbacks: study

Playing Tetris while recalling distressing memories reduced intrusive flashbacks for healthcare workers in a ‘breakthrough’ trial.

Food and Drinks

How did cookies kickstart a community social movement for one lost Hongkonger?

How does cake bring people together? Events organiser Rachel Au of Baking Social found purpose in her passion for all things sweet.

Disease

‘I could not walk’: how exercise helped a mother manage serious knee pain

With surgery off the table, Hong Kong-based Kavita Biswas forced herself to strengthen the muscles around the knee.

Kavita Biswas could barely walk short distances before she started physiotherapy and resistance training to strengthen the muscles around her knee. Now the osteoarthritis sufferer can walk for up to 45 minutes at a time and manages her daily life independently. Photo: Kavita Biswas
Cancer

Is magnetic heating technology a new weapon in the fight against cancer?

America’s Mayo Clinic is testing Israeli technology that targets solid tumours with fast-rising heat in a process it calls hyperthermia.

Mayo Clinic radiation oncology department staff test the magnetic nanoparticle hyperthermia system. Photo: newsnetwork.mayoclinic.org
Mental health

Burnout brought a CEO to breaking point. How to recognise the signs and fix it

Headhunting firm founder Oliver Rolfe became compulsively addicted to his work and felt ‘miserable, emotionally numb’ – but couldn’t stop.

What to do in Hong Kong

5 of the best things to do in Hong Kong this weekend, February 20 to 22

Enjoy music and markets in West Kowloon, take your pet to a cafe in Sheung Wan, attend a women-only workout in Quarry Bay and more.

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Disease

The apple in this picture is not red, but grey. Why your brain lies to you

The representation of reality your brain provides after processing sensory perceptions may not match the real thing, a neuroscientist says.

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What colour is the apple on the cover of Daniel Yon’s book A Trick of the Mind: How the Brain Invents Your Reality? Photo: Amazon
Hong Kong society

Breaking the cycle: Hong Kong parents wrestle with impact of their own abuse

Experts urge cultural change to end intergenerational violence as landmark study reveals childhood trauma still shapes parenting patterns.

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Food and Drinks

On the Menu | What do an American reality TV show and Chinese aunties have in common?

A Chinese millennial woman talks fat and fortune as she contrasts the toxic culture of the early noughties with today’s body positivity.

How to age well

Singaporean started aikido in her 60s in poor health. Now 73, she’s a black belt

The Japanese martial art helped Lily Chan get off osteoporosis medication and massively improved her overall health and mobility.

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After just two years of aikido training, Chan’s health improved and she was finally able kneel and squat. Photo: courtesy of the Chan family
Icons and Influencers

Meet Google co-founder Sergey Brin’s Maga girlfriend, Gerelyn Gilbert-Soto

‘GG’ lives with Brin at his Lake Tahoe mansion and attends functions at the White House – Donald Trump just called her a ‘wonderful Maga girlfriend’.

Google co-founder Sergey Brin’s girlfriend Gerelyn Gilbert-Soto is a wellness influencer who has also shown herself to be a staunch supporter of President Donald Trump. Photos: @omggerelyn/Instagram
Mental health

Q&A | A mental health expert on how you can make your New Year’s resolutions stick

If your resolutions are already faltering in February, worry not – there’s always Chinese New Year, and Hong Kong’s Sonia Samtani is here to help.

Healthy eating

Want to beat your sugar cravings? How to cut down and even quit sugary foods

Kick-start your sugar-free journey with expert tips on managing cravings, mindful snacking and embracing healthier substitutes.

Food and Drinks

This TCM bar in China makes customers drinks based on its doctor’s diagnoses

Shanghai bar Niang Qing is one of many new traditional Chinese medicine bars that offer bespoke wellness to China’s stressed-out youth.

A bartender prepares shots at Niang Qing, a “TCM bar” in Shanghai, China. Similar bars based on traditional Chinese medicine have popped up in cities across China, epitomising what the country’s stressed-out, time-poor youth refer to as “punk wellness”, or “wrecking yourself while saving yourself”. Photo: AFP
Cancer

How the cancer that killed James Van Der Beek is threatening more under-50s

No one knows what is causing the rise in colorectal cancer cases in younger adults. Here are the symptoms and who is most at risk.

Photo: @vanderkimberly/Instagram https://www.instagram.com/p/C6U5VHXLcPw/?hl=en&img_index=1
How to age well

This Singapore-based executive lost 21kg in 9 months and cured his knee pain

Weighing 93kg was a wake-up call for Ben Payet, whose health journey fixed a knee issue that threatened to stop him running for good.

How to age well

8 hot wellness trends in 2026, from women’s longevity to ‘health raves’

Here are some of the top wellness trends predicted for 2026, including a focus on women’s health, ‘neurowellness’ and reducing over-tracking.

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