The AbbVie Foundation, a nonprofit working to advance health equity, is donating $75 million to UChicago Medicine to support the $815 million cost to construct a state-of-the-art cancer care pavilion, the first and only freestanding facility of its kind in Illinois.

The BfR Consumer Monitor is a central instrument of consumer health protection. As a representative population survey, it provides answers every six months to the question of what the public thinks about consumer health protection issues. The substance melatonin was a topic in the BfR Consumer Monitor for the first time. The body's own "sleep hormone" is available as a prescription-only medicine and in over-the-counter food supplements. Melatonin is said to promote sleep. But how well known are melatonin supplements to the general public?  The survey revealed that 56 per cent have heard of them. "Among those who are familiar with melatonin-containing food supplements, opinion is divided," explains BfR President Professor Andreas Hensel. "Half have reservations, the other half don't. In principle, the use of melatonin-containing food supplements as a sleep aid should be viewed with caution."

Link to the Consumer Monitor: https://www.bfr.bund.de/cm/364/bfr_consumer_monitor_08-2024.pdf

Compared with just before the Covid-19 pandemic, people are spending nearly an hour less a day doing activities outside the home, behaviour that researchers say is a lasting consequence of the pandemic.