One of the commonest causes of illness, a sore throat often clears up on its own, but knowing what's causing it is important to treat it properly. Viral, bacterial, or caused by allergic elements - these kinds of sore throats have different characteristics that need different responses.

Sore throats have several origins, including infection and environmental factors. Some common causes include:

Viral infections: Viruses cause 90% of sore throat cases. Sore throats may result due to flu or common cold as well as those from chickenpox and measles that can all cause irritation.

Bacterial Infections: Streptococcus bacteria, the most common cause of strep throat, is the most common bacterial source. Strep throat is contagious and can lead to complications if untreated.

Allergies: Pollen, pet dander, and mold can trigger throat irritation, often accompanied by postnasal drip, sneezing, and watery eyes.

Environmental Factors: Dry air, pollution, and smoke can dry out or irritate the throat, creating a scratchy sensation.

Other Causes: GERD, vocal strain, even tumors may be responsible for chronic sore throats.

How to Distinguish Between Viral, Bacterial, and Allergic Sore Throats

Determining your cause of sore throat requires analysis of symptoms that accompany it, how long the sore throat lasts, and how bad the sore throat is.

Viral Sore Throats

The viruses that cause a sore throat are usually similar to a cold in their symptoms and tend to be milder than bacterial infections.

Symptoms of Viral Sore Throat

- Red, swollen throat without white patches

- Persistent cough

- Runny nose and nasal congestion

- Fever, usually mild

Duration: Viral infections last for 7–10 days without antibiotics.

Treatment: Home remedies, such as warm fluids, saltwater gargling, and over-the-counter pain relievers can help alleviate it.

Also Read: Flu Season Grips 40 States In US, CDC Reports Alarming Numbers

Bacterial Sore Throats

Bacterial sore throats, mainly strep throat, are more severe and require prompt medical attention to prevent complications.

Symptoms of Bacterial Sore Throat

- Red and swollen tonsils with white patches or streaks of pus

- High fever

- Absence of a cough

- Nausea, vomiting, or stomach pain (especially in children)

- Small red spots on the roof of the mouth

Diagnosis: Rapid strep tests or throat cultures confirm the presence of bacteria.

Treatment: Antibiotics are necessary to eliminate the infection. Without treatment, complications like rheumatic fever or abscesses can develop.

Sore Throats Caused by Allergies

Throat irritation is caused by postnasal drip. Allergies create a buildup and drip of mucus down the back of the throat.

Allergic Sore Throat Symptoms

- Irritation of the throat and ears

- Runny eyes, sneezing, and nasal congestion

- These symptoms are usually relieved by antihistamines or removal from the source of the allergen

Duration: Allergic sore throats are sustained for as long as the allergens are exposed.

When to Seek Medical Care?

A sore throat should be taken to a doctor if:

- The condition lasts more than a week.

- There is shortness of breath or swallowing becomes painful.

- Swelling is too pronounced or the pain in the throat is extreme.

- High fever, rash, or joint pain occur along with the sore throat.

- A child shows signs of dehydration or refuses fluids due to throat pain.

Early diagnosis can prevent complications and speed recovery.

Effective Treatment for Sore Throats

Home Remedies for Viral and Allergy-Related Sore Throats

Viral infections and allergies often respond well to non-invasive treatments:

• Drink warm teas, broths, or water to soothe the throat.
• Gargling with warm, salty water can reduce inflammation.
• These help soothe an irritated throat and can alleviate coughing.

Let your body rest sufficiently. Humidifying dry air will help keep the throat moist, especially when winter is on its way.

Why Not All Sore Throats Require Antibiotics?

Bacterial infections require antibiotics such as penicillin or amoxicillin. Finish the treatment completely to avoid reoccurrence or resistance.

How to Keep Sore Throats at Bay When Winter Is Near

Prevention is better than cure, and simple lifestyle changes can reduce your risk:

• Wash your hands frequently to avoid infections.
• Avoid close contact with sick individuals.
• Use air purifiers to minimize exposure to irritants.
• Stay hydrated and maintain a balanced diet to boost immunity.

Understanding the cause of your sore throat—whether viral, bacterial, or allergic—is key to effective treatment and recovery. While many sore throats resolve on their own, seeking timely medical advice for persistent or severe symptoms can prevent complications. Prioritize self-care, and don’t hesitate to consult a doctor when needed. Remember, your throat’s health is a vital part of your overall well-being.

Where fat accumulates in the body can be far more important than simply shedding pounds when it comes to lowering diabetes risk, a new study published in Nature suggests. For people with prediabetes, which is when blood sugar is higher than normal but not yet at diabetes levels, targeting belly fat specifically may have a greater impact than losing weight overall through lifestyle changes.

Halting prediabetes is critical, as nearly 70 percent of individuals in this category eventually develop diabetes. Reversing prediabetes also protects against complications like heart disease, kidney problems, and nerve damage.

What About Study Findings?

In the study, two groups of participants had similar overall fat levels but differed in how fat was stored. Those who lost more belly fat, or visceral fat, over a year were able to reverse prediabetes, while those who didn’t reduce abdominal fat did not reach healthy blood sugar levels.

Researchers from the University Hospital Tübingen in Germany found that focused lifestyle changes could bring prediabetic individuals into remission even without major weight loss. This remission was associated with a roughly 70 percent reduction in the risk of developing Type 2 diabetes over the following decade.

Among 1,105 participants with prediabetes, the study examined 234 individuals who did not lose overall weight. Of these, 51 achieved prediabetes remission after a year of targeted lifestyle interventions, while the remaining 183 did not reach healthy glucose levels.

Does This Study Hold Lessons for Indians?

“Weight loss remains the primary goal for people who are obese. However, reversing prediabetes can also happen without major weight loss, especially when lifestyle interventions focus on improving diet quality, increasing physical activity, and building muscle while reducing fat,” says Dr. Anoop Misra, chairman at Fortis C-Doc Hospital for Diabetes and Allied Sciences.

He adds that for Indians, reducing both subcutaneous abdominal fat and visceral fat is key for better metabolism. These changes, paired with increased muscle mass and improved functional capacity, enhance insulin sensitivity and help maintain long-term blood sugar control.

Why Abdominal Obesity Is a Priority

Belly fat, or visceral fat, releases inflammatory substances that interfere with insulin, the hormone that moves sugar from the blood into cells. To compensate, the body produces more insulin, which can overwhelm the pancreas and raise blood sugar. Excess sugar is often stored as fat around the abdomen, which is why even individuals of normal weight with a protruding stomach are at higher risk of diabetes.

What Lifestyle Interventions Help Reduce Belly Fat?

“Diet composition matters most lower carbs, higher protein, and healthy fats, all within a controlled calorie range, can help reverse prediabetes even without significant weight loss,” says Dr. Misra. Good carbohydrate sources include whole grains, fruits, legumes, and non-starchy vegetables, while healthy fats come from nuts, seeds, olive oil, and fatty fish.

Physical activity also plays a crucial role. Combining resistance training, such as weightlifting at least twice a week, with aerobic exercises like walking, running, or swimming, is effective at reducing visceral fat. Adequate sleep around seven hours per night is also essential to keep blood sugar levels under control.

Search engines like Google and Bing, and AI chatbots like ChatGPT and GPT-4, are now major sources of health information. But how reliable are they?

A new research published in the NPJ Digital Medicine tested four major search engines and seven different large AI models, including leading programs like ChatGPT and GPT-4, by asking them 150 medical questions. Their study looked at how accurate the answers were, how much the results changed based on how the question was asked, and whether giving the AI access to search results helped.

Which Gave Better Answers: AI or Search Engines?

While AI Chatbots, with 80% accuracy, generally outperformed Search Engines, with 50-70% accuracy, on direct health questions, the study found that AI chatbots are good, but their mistakes are worrying.

Confidence in Errors

The biggest and most dangerous problem was that the AI sometimes gave confidently wrong answers that directly disagreed with established medical facts. This is highly risky in a health setting.

Overall Accuracy

The AI chatbots generally did better than search engines, correctly answering about 80% of the questions. The best performers were typically GPT-4, ChatGPT, Llama3, and MedLlama3.

Precision Problem

Search engines like Google usually return answers that are correct when they directly address the question, but they often clutter the results with information that is incomplete or off-topic. They struggled with giving a straight "yes" or "no" answer.

User Habits

The study simulated a "lazy" user, who just trusts the first answer, and a "diligent" user, who checks three sources. Surprisingly, the "lazy" users were sometimes just as accurate as the diligent ones, suggesting that top-ranked results are often good, but this is a risk if a highly ranked answer happens to be wrong.

Bing was the best among search engines, but it wasn't significantly better than Google, Yahoo!, or DuckDuckGo.

How You Ask The Question Matters

The AI's accuracy was highly sensitive to how the question was phrased. Using an "expert" prompt like asking the AI to cite reputable medical sources generally led to better, more medically sound answers, even if they were sometimes less direct.

Giving the AI the top search results before it answered (retrieval augmentation) usually improved performance, especially for smaller AI models. However, this didn't always help; if the search results given to the AI were irrelevant or low-quality, the AI's answer could actually get worse. More information isn't always better.

Things to Keep In Mind

Some points noted by the researchers was,

• Questions about COVID-19 were easier for both AI and search engines, likely because of the huge amount of data available about the pandemic.

• While AI is powerful, its tendency to be swayed by how you word the question and its confident errors mean we need to be very cautious about using it for medical advice.

• The overall conclusion is that AI models are promising for health information, but they are not yet fully reliable on their own. Combining them with high-quality search results is likely the best way forward, but only if the search results fed to the AI are trustworthy.

A recent scientific study found an exciting new way to check if someone is likely to get Alzheimer's disease due to their genetics. Instead of current medical tests, which are often costly, complex, and invasive, this new method uses simple eye-tracking technology. This means diagnosing the risk could become much easier for patients and more affordable for healthcare systems.

As you may know, there is currently no cure for Alzheimer's disease. This is a neurodegenerative disease that can affect a person’s memory, skills, as well as behavior. The best way to deal with this disease is by diagnosing it early, so that doctors can provide medicine and treatment options to delay the onset and manage the symptoms. However, it is not easy to spot the symptoms, so how can one know for certain whether they have Alzheimer's disease or not?

How Can Eye Trackers Detect Alzheimer’s Disease

This research, which involved scientists from the University of Strathclyde, looked closely at how well this new technique works. The technology is a specific system called ViewMind Atlas. It works by monitoring a person's tiny, subtle eye movements. Then, Artificial Intelligence (AI) software analyzes these movements.

Since the eyes are closely linked to the brain, the way they move can tell doctors about the brain's health and function. The most important part is that this system can successfully identify the genetic risk in people years before they start showing any actual memory loss or other Alzheimer’s symptoms.

How Accurate Is This Eye Tracking Test?

To test the system, the researchers studied a group of people from extended families in Colombia who have a known genetic mutation that causes Alzheimer’s. The results were incredibly promising:

For the family members who were already showing symptoms of the disease, the ViewMind Atlas test was 100% accurate in identifying them.

More remarkably, for those who carried the gene but didn't have any symptoms yet (asymptomatic), the test was 96% accurate at correctly identifying their risk. The AI model essentially learned to look at the patterns of eye movement and use them to tell apart the people who had or were likely to get Alzheimer's from those who weren't.

Can This Help Improve Early Diagnosis Rate?

The research team found this eye-tracking test detects the disease earlier than standard cognitive tests, which often fail to flag a problem until it is well underway. The lead scientist, Professor Mario Parra Rodriguez, explained why this is such a big deal. He pointed out that today's common tests are "expensive and invasive," often requiring hospital procedures.

The ViewMind Atlas system, however, helps doctors predict Alzheimer’s risk years in advance. This is key for doctors, who often struggle to figure out if a patient’s mild forgetfulness is just a normal part of getting older or a serious risk of dementia. This new tool could help them act quickly to treat or manage the risk instead of having to wait for the disease to fully develop.