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February 20, 2026

Les statines vous inquiètent ? Voici ce qu’en dit la recherche

Source: The Conversation – in French – By Dipa Kamdar, Senior Lecturer in Pharmacy Practice, Kingston University

Peu de médicaments ont suscité autant de débats que les statines. Les cardiologues affirment que ces médicaments sauvent des vies, mais certains patients s’inquiètent de leurs effets secondaires ou sont réticents à l’idée de prendre un médicament au quotidien.

Les statines constituent l’aspect médical du traitement permettant d’abaisser le taux de cholestérol. Ce dernier est influencé par des facteurs tels que l’alimentation, l’activité physique, le poids et le tabagisme. Bien que les statines soient prescrites sur la base de preuves cliniques, leur utilisation soulève la question de savoir si le risque cardiovasculaire doit être diminué principalement par des médicaments, par un changement de mode de vie ou par une combinaison des deux.

Les statines sont un groupe de médicaments qui bloquent l’action de l’enzyme HMG-CoA réductase. Cette enzyme joue un rôle central dans la production de cholestérol par le foie. Le cholestérol est une substance grasse dont l’organisme a besoin pour construire les membranes cellulaires, fabriquer des hormones ainsi que la vitamine D et générer de la bile pour digérer les graisses.

Le bon et le mauvais cholestérol

Le cholestérol circule dans le sang lié à des protéines, avec lesquelles il forme des particules appelées lipoprotéines. Les plus connues sont les lipoprotéines de basse densité (LDL) et les lipoprotéines de haute densité (HDL).

Le LDL est souvent qualifié de « mauvais cholestérol », car des taux élevés peuvent entraîner des dépôts de graisse dans les artères, tandis que le HDL aide à transporter l’excédent de cholestérol vers le foie. Les triglycérides sont un autre lipide sanguin important qui, lorsque leur taux est élevé, peuvent aggraver le risque cardiovasculaire.

Le cholestérol n’est pas nocif en soi. Les problèmes surviennent lorsque les taux de LDL et de triglycérides restent trop élevés pendant une période prolongée. Cela peut engendrer de l’athérosclérose, caractérisée par l’accumulation de dépôts graisseux qui rétrécissent et rigidifient les artères, augmentant ainsi le risque de crise cardiaque et d’accident vasculaire cérébral. En réduisant le cholestérol LDL et les triglycérides, les statines diminuent le risque de formation de ces dépôts.

Des essais cliniques à grande échelle ont démontré avec constance l’efficacité des statines. Une vaste revue de recherche a révélé que ces médicaments abaissaient considérablement le risque de crise cardiaque et d’accident vasculaire cérébral.

L’ampleur des bénéfices dépend du risque cardiovasculaire individuel et de la réduction du taux de cholestérol LDL obtenue. Sur la base de ces données, les directives nationales recommandent l’utilisation des statines à titre de prévention primaire chez les personnes à haut risque qui n’ont pas encore développé de maladie cardiovasculaire, et à titre de prévention secondaire chez celles qui souffrent déjà d’une maladie cardiaque.

Des effets secondaires

Compte tenu de la solidité des preuves, pourquoi les statines suscitent-elles encore autant d’hésitations ?

Comme tous les médicaments, les statines peuvent avoir des effets secondaires. Les plus courants sont les maux de tête, les troubles digestifs et les vertiges. Les plus graves, mais peu fréquents ou rares, comprennent l’inflammation du foie et des atteintes musculaires.

Parmi ces dernières, on trouve la myopathie, qui se caractérise par des douleurs ou une faiblesse musculaire, accompagnées d’une augmentation du taux de créatine kinase, une enzyme libérée lorsque les tissus musculaires sont endommagés. Dans de très rares cas, une dégradation musculaire grave appelée rhabdomyolyse peut survenir.

De vastes ensembles de données montrent que la plupart des gens tolèrent bien les statines. Lorsque des patients signalent des symptômes musculaires pendant le traitement aux statines, il y a moins de 10 % de risques que les statines en soient réellement la cause. La rhabdomyolyse, extrêmement rare, ne touche que quelques personnes par million d’utilisateurs. Le risque augmente à des doses très élevées ou si les statines sont prises en même temps que des médicaments qui interfèrent avec leur métabolisation.

Les statines peuvent également entraîner une légère hausse du taux de glucose dans le sang, ce qui touche principalement les personnes prédiabétiques ou diabétiques. Cependant, comme les statines réduisent considérablement le risque de crise cardiaque chez elles, les avantages l’emportent sur cette faible hausse. La plupart des effets secondaires sont réversibles après la fin du traitement, alors que les dommages causés par une crise cardiaque ou un accident vasculaire cérébral peuvent être permanents.

Les interactions entre médicaments préoccupent

Les interactions médicamenteuses constituent un autre sujet de préoccupation. Les statines, comme la simvastatine et l’atorvastatine, sont métabolisées dans le foie par les enzymes CYP, notamment la CYP3A4. Lorsque d’autres médicaments bloquent ces enzymes, le taux de statines dans le sang peut augmenter, ce qui accroît le risque d’effets secondaires musculaires.

Des médicaments antifongiques tels que le kétoconazole, certains antibiotiques comme l’érythromycine, des immunosuppresseurs comme la ciclosporine, ainsi que certains médicaments pour le cœur, comme l’amiodarone et le diltiazem, peuvent entraîner de graves interactions.

Même le pamplemousse peut interférer avec la métabolisation des statines. Il contient des substances chimiques appelées furocoumarines, qui bloquent les enzymes CYP3A4 dans l’intestin, permettant ainsi à une plus grande quantité de statines de passer dans le sang. Toutes les statines ne sont pas autant affectées, on peut donc choisir le médicament de manière à limiter ce risque.

Changer son mode de vie

Les statines sont efficaces, mais ne constituent pas le seul moyen de contrôler le cholestérol. Le mode de vie est très important, et certaines modifications sont recommandées en complément de la médication. Ainsi, l’obésité est un facteur de risque cardiovasculaire majeur.

Une revue d’études a montré qu’associer régime et activité physique permettait de perdre du poids, de réduire le taux de cholestérol ainsi que le risque de développer des maladies cardiométaboliques, comme les maladies cardiaques et le diabète de type 2.

Les changements dans l’alimentation sont particulièrement importants. Les spécialistes préconisent de diminuer la consommation de graisses saturées pour contribuer à la baisse du taux de cholestérol LDL. On trouve couramment ce gras dans le beurre, les viandes grasses et les aliments transformés.

Remplacer les graisses saturées par des graisses insaturées, qu’on trouve dans l’huile d’olive, les noix et les graines, peut améliorer le taux de cholestérol. Opter pour des protéines végétales comme les haricots, les lentilles ou le soja permet de réduire la consommation de viande rouge et de viande transformée.

L’apport en fibres est également important. Des études montrent qu’une consommation élevée de fibres est associée à un taux de cholestérol plus faible et à un risque moindre de maladies cardiaques.

Une revue publiée en 2019 a révélé que les personnes dont la consommation de fibres était élevée présentaient un risque de décès par maladie cardiaque ou de développer une maladie coronarienne inférieur de 15 à 30 %. Les céréales complètes, les fruits et les légumes sont une source de fibres, de vitamines et d’antioxydants qui favorisent la santé cardiaque.

Une activité physique régulière permet d’augmenter le taux de cholestérol HDL et de réduire celui des triglycérides. Les recommandations actuelles préconisent 150 minutes d’exercice physique d’intensité modérée par semaine. Toutefois, l’activité physique, quel qu’en soit le niveau, est bonne pour la santé.

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Il ne s’agit pas de choisir entre les statines et un changement dans son mode de vie. Pour les personnes à haut risque, notamment celles ayant déjà subi un infarctus, souffrant de troubles héréditaires liés au cholestérol ou présentant plusieurs facteurs de risque, les statines sont souvent indispensables.

Pour les personnes dont le taux de cholestérol est légèrement élevé, modifier son mode de vie peut permettre de retarder, voire d’éviter, la prise de médicaments. Un taux de cholestérol total sain est généralement inférieur à 5 mmol/L, mais il peut varier en fonction du risque individuel.

Les décisions thérapeutiques doivent être personnalisées, en tenant compte du risque cardiovasculaire, des effets bénéfiques avérés des statines, de leurs effets secondaires potentiels et des possibilités réelles de changer son mode de vie.

Les statines ont révolutionné les soins cardiovasculaires et permis de sauver des millions de vies. Elles restent toutefois controversées. La lutte contre une mauvaise alimentation, la sédentarité et l’obésité demeure essentielle pour réduire le fardeau des maladies cardiaques à long terme.

Dipa Kamdar ne travaille pas, ne conseille pas, ne possède pas de parts, ne reçoit pas de fonds d’une organisation qui pourrait tirer profit de cet article, et n’a déclaré aucune autre affiliation que son organisme de recherche.

– ref. Les statines vous inquiètent ? Voici ce qu’en dit la recherche – https://theconversation.com/les-statines-vous-inquietent-voici-ce-quen-dit-la-recherche-272607

February 20, 2026

Individual donors provide only a small slice of university research funding – but Jeffrey Epstein’s ties with academics show why screening matters

Source: The Conversation – USA (2) – By Brian Herman, Vice President for Research, University of Minnesota

The recent release of Jeffrey Epstein’s emails shows a wide net of contacts – including academics at prominent universities. Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images

Yale University, Columbia University and the University of California, Los Angeles are among the schools that have recently placed professors on leave, seen faculty resign or made other changes over faculty members’ ties to Jeffrey Epstein.

The University of Arizona, for example, canceled a science conference scheduled for April 2026, following the news that several speakers and organizers were named in the Epstein files. Astrobiologist Stuart Hameroff, for example, wrote on the social platform X on Feb. 6, 2026, that he “obtained one-time funding” for a conference from Epstein.

Bard College’s president, Leon Botstein, is among other academic leaders and researchers who have said that they met with Epstein for fundraising purposes – though, as The New York Times reports, Epstein rarely delivered on the money he promised for research and other purposes.

“There is a tremendous drive to acquire money to support the work of faculty and staff. The pressure has always been there – but you can still approach that in an ethically and morally acceptable way,” said Brian Herman, a former vice president for research at the University of Minnesota, in an interview that has been edited for length and clarity.

Amy Lieberman, the education editor at The Conversation U.S., spoke with Herman to understand how philanthropy for colleges and universities works, and what standards and safeguards are in place to help ensure that this money is given in an ethical manner.

A graphic shows cartoon people building different things and standing on ladders, near a large dollar sign. — Universities across the country are under pressure to fund research – and, in return, improve or maintain their college rankings.
iStock/Getty Images Plus

How is research at universities typically funded?

Funding to support university research comes from a variety of different sources.

Most university research funding – approximately 53%-55% of that support – comes from the federal government, like the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation.

About 8% of total funding comes from a number of private foundations and nonprofits, like the American Cancer Society.

Universities can also request that state and federal legislators allocate funding in their yearly appropriations bills for research. This involves negotiations between universities and their state and federal legislators. State and local agencies provide about 5% of total university research funding.

Universities themselves fund between 25%-26% of research, and businesses give 6%.

Other sources of funding, including individual donors, account for about 3% of the money that funds university research.

These individuals might be alumni of the university, have another kind of connection to the school or are personally interested in a specific area of expertise of the university. Or, they could be grateful patients who had medical issues solved by the university’s medical school.

How do universities connect with private donors?

Universities typically have fundraising offices that oversee relationships with donors.

Donor and university partnerships involve significant negotiations about how the money will be invested. Universities typically will work with faculty members with expertise in the area of research a donor wants to support and put together a research proposal. The prospective donor then reviews the plan and decides whether they want to support the research.

After universities receive and invest a donation, they give donors a progress report on the investment.

Private donors give money to the university, and not to an individual faculty member. This allows proper accounting and controls on how the money is used, to make sure they support the intended research and adhere to university policies.

How do universities screen donors for conflicts of interest, for example?

All universities have compliance offices that set up a compendium of policies that guide how they accept private funding.

The schools try to make sure there is no financial conflict of interest for the donor, researcher or institution – or a conflict of interest between people performing the research and those providing the funding.

There is practically always a need to strike a balance between managing potential conflicts appropriately and being able to obtain the resources necessary for a university to conduct its work.

Do universities typically screen for donors who have committed a crime?

Most universities screen potential donors.

The larger the dollar amount in question, the more substantive the screening is. Many universities have policies on this issue. It is likely that universities will strengthen these policies based on recent events related to the Epstein case. They will want to become more stringent with screening to make sure that their donors are not morally compromised.

For example, universities can conduct background checks on potential donors.

But if the donation is small, it is possible that a university would not conduct a background check. So, a faculty member could seek $5,000 for a conference and approach a donor individually and not involve the rest of the university in the donation.

How could the Epstein case influence how universities screen donors?

I expect that universities will enact more policies and procedures that guard against a situation like what we are seeing in the Epstein files. Universities may require more substantive checks on all donations independent of size and source. They are also likely to carry out more training of faculty, staff and administrators on how to secure individual donor support.

If universities have not already done so, I think they should instruct faculty members not to directly contact a donor or legislator on behalf of the university. They should also increase the penalties for university employees who do not comply with this policy.

In some cases, researchers may have an idea that is not aligned strategically with how the university is raising philanthropic funds. They may go looking for their own money. This doesn’t happen a lot, but it does happen, and universities will have to become more vigilant about these types of situations.

In reality, money is necessary to do most everything at universities, including paying faculty and staff, purchasing research supplies and even keeping the lights on in the research labs. Money is also a metric that is used as a measure of success and the ranking of a university – meaning, getting more money can lead to a higher ranking.

University leaders are facing natural pressure to raise money. There is a tremendous drive to acquire money to support the work of faculty and staff. This can create significant pressure to acquire funding – but this must always be done in an ethically and morally appropriate way.

Brian Herman does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

– ref. Individual donors provide only a small slice of university research funding – but Jeffrey Epstein’s ties with academics show why screening matters – https://theconversation.com/individual-donors-provide-only-a-small-slice-of-university-research-funding-but-jeffrey-epsteins-ties-with-academics-show-why-screening-matters-276345

February 20, 2026

How Dracula became a red-hot lover

Source: The Conversation – USA (2) – By Stanley Stepanic, Assistant Professor of Slavic Languages and Literatures, University of Virginia

In Luc Besson’s ‘Dracula,’ the titular character is a hopeless romantic. Vertical

The Lord of Vampires. The King of the Undead. The Ultimate Lover. All refer to the immortal Count Dracula, who originally appeared in Bram Stoker’s 1897 novel.

Yet the character’s fame has sprung more from his 200-plus cinematic resurrections, beginning with “Dracula’s Death” in 1921 and, most recently, in Luc Besson’s “Dracula,” which premiered in the U.S. in February 2026.

Besson’s rendition has received particular attention for its focus on personal passion. Originally titled “Dracula: A Love Tale,” the film features a protagonist who is not simply a monster, but a lover. The New York Times called the movie “extravagantly silly” and described actor Caleb Landry Jones’ performance of the classic monster as “deliciously operatic: less villain, more virtuoso in love.”

Meanwhile, in London, Dracula as lover also features as a theme in Cynthia Erivo’s new West End production, in which she plays the Count and 22 other characters. A smaller, recent production out of Washington, D.C., titled “Dracula: A Comedy of Terrors” presents the Count similarly, though with a hilariously deviant LGBTQ+ bite.

In other words, Dracula has come a long way from his days as a lecherous, old creep, a shift that can be attributed, in part, to evolving attitudes on love, gender and sexuality.

‘Even his breath was rank’

When Stoker first published “Dracula,” the character appeared at the end of a long line of literary vampires, from Lord Ruthven in John Polidori’s “The Vampyre” (1819) to Sir Francis Varney in “Varney the Vampire” (1845-1847).

A bald, skinny, elderly vampire with hollow eyes. — In the 1922 German film ‘Nosferatu, A Symphony of Horror,’ the vampire, Count Orlok, appears like his repulsive and predatory literary predecessors.
Frederic Lewis/Hulton Archive via Getty Images

These vampires were all decrepit, revolting and predatory old men, and Stoker’s Count Dracula was no different. In the novel, one character notes Dracula’s “course” hands, the “extraordinary pallor” of his skin and his “extremely pointed” ears; atop his “lofty domed forehead,” his hair grew “scantily” upon his head. Even his “breath was rank.”

Another character describes Dracula as possessing “not a good face,” adding that it was “hard, and cruel.”

The first surviving feature-length film adaptation of “Dracula” was the 1922 German film “Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror,” which cribs the plot and characters from Stoker’s novel. In it, Count Orlok – essentially a bootleg version of Dracula – looks ratlike, emaciated and pallid.

Seduction game

Little about Stoker’s Dracula or Count Orlok screamed “lover,” though there’s arguably an implicit sexuality in the way he attacks and stalks his victims.

Instead, Dracula gained his “lover” label from later appearances on screen.

The earliest example appears in the 1944 film “House of Frankenstein,” where Rita (Anne Gwynne) is initially concerned by Dracula’s presence. Later, however, she finds herself “no longer afraid” after he places a ring onto her index finger, which magically fits to her precise shape.

At the end of this scene, as she longingly looks into his eyes, he announces he will come for her the next day, as if it were all a budding tryst.

Count Dracula is more handsome Lothario than old lech in ‘House of Frankenstein.’

The evolution of Dracula’s character mirrored changes in more general perceptions of gender, sexuality and violence that occurred after World War II, when popular culture started to chip away at the centrality of the nuclear family. As books, films and TV shows explored themes like lust, infidelity, same-sex relationships and divorce, images of vampires became more complex.

In the 1958 film “Dracula,” for example – titled “Horror of Dracula” in the U.S. – Dracula (Christopher Lee) is a predator who breaks into the homes of married women.

Yet there’s also a hint of romance. In one particular scene, he assaults Mina Holmwood (Melissa Stribling). But Mina appears to eventually give in, and they share a brief, passionate kiss. The British Board of Film Classification even censored the scene, seeing it as a step too far in a film already replete with sexual overtones.

Director Terence Fisher later recalled telling Stribling to depict her character as though she “had one whale of a sexual night, the one of your whole sexual experience. Give me that in your face!”

Lover or monster?

By the 1970s, sexuality became even more of a pronounced theme in vampire-related media, mirroring broader cultural changes in views of human sexuality.

Comic books such as “Vampirella” presented the vampire as a hypersexualized, feminine, erotic symbol of power, while films such as “The Vampire Lovers” explored themes like lesbianism, though not in a way that was entirely explicit.

In the film “Count Dracula’s Great Love” (1973), Dracula falls head over heels for a young girl named Karen, who ends up rejecting his advances. Near the end of the film, the lovesick vampire bemoans, “For the first time, love brings a finish to the life of Dracula,” before driving a stake into his heart with his own hands.

Shortly thereafter, a made-for-TV “Dracula” features Dracula’s search for his dead wife.

A woman with black hair and a red dress passionately kisses a man with long black hair. — Winona Ryder and Gary Oldman share a kiss in a scene from the 1992 film ‘Bram Stoker’s Dracula.’
Columbia Pictures/Getty Images

The “search for a dead lover” would become a central theme in future films. For example, in Francis Ford Coppola’s “Bram Stoker’s Dracula” (1992), viewers learn that Dracula leaves Transylvania for England to pursue a reincarnation of his dead wife.

This yearning was a borrowed concept. In the Gothic soap opera “Dark Shadows” (1966-1971), the character Barnabas Collins (Jonathan Frid) tries to replicate his romance with his long-dead lover, Josette, by attempting to supernaturally control the living body of a girl named Maggie Evans (Kathryn Leigh Scott) so that she mimics Josette.

The concept of a vampire pining for a lost love – especially one from a lost era – marked a significant evolution in vampire media.

In the 1970s comic book series “The Tomb of Dracula,” the Count has a human wife named Domini; through magical means, he’s even able to conceive a child with her. Thanks to his romance, he can now “understand things such as peace and rest and love.”

Despite Dracula-as-lover now being such a well-worn trope, the ever-adaptable Count is also ready for his traditional scare duties, most recently in Robert Egger’s “Nosferatu” (2024). Whether he’s a lover, a monster or both, Dracula represents the idea of the vampire as a mirror of human experience. Romance can sometimes teeter between love and pain. Passion can sometimes be scary. So when you next see him on stage or screen, don’t be surprised if his fervent love also comes with a sharp bite.

Stanley Stepanic does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

– ref. How Dracula became a red-hot lover – https://theconversation.com/how-dracula-became-a-red-hot-lover-275789

February 20, 2026

Menstrual pads and tampons can contain toxic substances – here’s what to know about this emerging health issue

Source: The Conversation – USA (3) – By Jenni Shearston, Assistant Professor of Integrative Physiology, University of Colorado Boulder

Studies have found small amounts of toxic heavy metals and other potentially harmful substances in some menstrual pads and tampons. zoranm/E+ via Getty Images

About half of the global population menstruates at some point in their lives. Disposable products, such as tampons and pads, are some of the most popular products used around the globe to manage menstrual flow.

Unfortunately, studies have shown that many personal care products, including shampoo, lotion, nail polish and menstrual products, contain hazardous chemicals. Items used in or near the vagina are of particular concern because they are in contact with vaginal mucous membranes – the moist tissue lining the inside of the vagina that secretes mucus. These tissues can absorb some chemicals very efficiently.

People use menstrual products 24 hours a day for multiple days monthly, over the course of many years. Tampons, which are used internally, are surrounded by the permeable vaginal mucous membrane for up to eight hours at a time.

I am an environmental epidemiologist, and I study chemical exposure, its sources and its health effects. As a person who menstruates, I also must make my own decisions around menstrual products and manage the challenge of finding accurate information about women’s health risks, which receive less research attention and funding than men’s health.

In 2024, I co-authored the first paper that detected metals in tampons, including toxic metals like lead and arsenic. My colleagues and I also wrote a review paper that surveyed the scientific literature and found about two dozen studies measuring chemicals in menstrual products.

The various chemicals that these studies detected were typically at concentrations low enough to make their health impact unclear. However, they included chemicals known to disrupt the endocrine system, which makes and controls hormones that are essential for bodies to function.

The next question after detection of toxic heavy metals in tampons is whether these substances can be absorbed into the body.

How contaminants get into menstrual products

The first modern tampon in the U.S. was patented in 1931. Nearly a century later, tampons still are made primarily from cotton, rayon or a blend of the two.

Chemicals may get into tampons and other menstrual products in a number of ways. Some chemicals, like heavy metals, are present in soil, either naturally or due to pollution, and may be absorbed by cotton plants.

Other chemicals, such as zinc, may be intentionally added to menstrual products to prevent the growth of harmful bacteria. Still others, such as phthalates – synthetic chemicals used to manufacture plastics – may leach into menstrual products from plastic packaging or be added as part of a fragrance.

Research suggests that these chemicals are present in a large proportion of menstrual products – we found lead present in all 30 tampons we tested. What we don’t yet know is if these chemicals can get into people’s bodies in a high enough concentration to cause health effects in either the reproductive system or elsewhere in the body.

Limited federal regulations

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration regulates tampons, menstrual cups and scented menstrual pads as Class II medical devices, which carry moderate to medium risk. Unscented menstrual pads are Class I medical devices, which are considered low-risk. These categories are based on the risk the device may present to a consumer who uses it in the intended way.

FDA guidance for Class II devices offers only a few general guidelines with respect to chemicals. For menstrual tampons and pads, it recommends – but does not require – that products should not contain two specific dioxin products or “any pesticide and herbicide residues.” Dioxins are a chemical by-product of the bleaching process to whiten cotton, and they are associated with cancer and endocrine disruption. Using non-chlorine bleaching methods can reduce dioxin formation.

The most stringent regulation of tampons in the U.S. occurred after an illness called toxic shock syndrome became a public concern in the 1970s and 1980s. Menstrual toxic shock syndrome occurs when the bacteria Staphlococcus aureus grows in the vagina on inserted menstrual products and releases a toxin called TSST-1. This substance can be absorbed through the vaginal mucosa and cause a variety of symptoms, including fever, high blood pressure, shock and even death.

During this epidemic, in which at least 52 cases were recorded and seven people died over a period of eight months, tampons were associated with the syndrome – especially a highly absorbent tampon called Rely, which was pulled from the market.

In response, the FDA created a task force that recommended standardizing the tampon absorbencies and advised consumers to use the lowest absorbency for their flow. This is why tampons in the U.S. now come in a range of absorbencies, from light through regular to super and ultra, so that users can choose the level they need while minimizing risk of toxic shock.

Living in a ‘soup of chemicals’

Just because a chemical is present in a menstrual product doesn’t mean it can get into the body. However, chemicals like lead and arsenic are known threats to human health. So it’s important to study whether harmful chemicals present in menstrual products could contribute to health problems.

Humans in the modern world live in what expert toxicologist Linda Birnbaum, former director of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, calls a “soup of chemicals.” Simply being present on Earth means being exposed to many chemicals, at different concentrations, all at once. This makes it difficult to unravel the relationship between a single chemical exposure and health.

Nonetheless, science has shown that chemical exposure from at least one menstrual product – vaginal douches – does affect health. Vaginal douching is the process of washing or cleaning the inside of the vagina with water or other fluids.

The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists recommends avoiding this process, which can harm healthy bacteria in the vagina, increasing the risk of vaginal infections and other diseases.

In addition, a 2015 study found that women who use vaginal douches have higher concentrations of a chemical called monoethyl phthalate in their urine. Exposure to this substance is associated with reproductive health problems, such as reduced fertility and increased pregnancy risk.

Can these chemicals be absorbed?

Scientists are working now to determine what concentrations of metals and other chemicals can leach out of tampons and other menstrual products. One 2025 study estimated that volatile organic compounds, a group of chemicals that vaporize quickly, can be absorbed through the vaginal mucosa. Volatile organic compounds may be added to menstrual products as part of fragrances, adhesives or other product components.

My team and I are now shifting our focus to the relationship between menstrual product use, various chemicals, and menstrual pain and bleeding severity. We want to see whether some chemicals will be elevated in menstrual blood, whether these chemical levels are higher in people who use tampons, and whether the chemicals are associated with greater menstrual pain and bleeding.

States are starting to act on this issue. For example, in 2024, Vermont became the first U.S. state to ban multiple chemicals from disposable menstrual products. California bans PFAS, a widely used group of highly persistent chemicals, from menstrual products. New York adopted a law in December 2025 barring multiple toxic chemicals from menstrual products.

California also enacted a law in October 2025 that requires manufacturers of disposable tampons and pads to measure concentrations of arsenic, cadmium, lead and zinc in their products, and to share those measurements with the state, which can publish them. More information like this will help support informed choices for millions of consumers who rely on menstrual products every month.

Jenni Shearston receives funding from the United States National Institutes of Health.

– ref. Menstrual pads and tampons can contain toxic substances – here’s what to know about this emerging health issue – https://theconversation.com/menstrual-pads-and-tampons-can-contain-toxic-substances-heres-what-to-know-about-this-emerging-health-issue-268470

February 20, 2026

Colorado has high levels of radon, which can cause lung cancer – here’s how to lower your risk

Source: The Conversation – USA (3) – By Jan Lowery, Professor of Epidemiology, Colorado School of Public Health, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus

Radon exposure is the leading cause of lung cancer for people who have never used tobacco. Francesco Scatena/iStock via Getty Images

In Colorado, as of 2025, about 500 people a year die from lung cancer as the result of radon gas exposure. Nationally, the number of lung cancer deaths attributed to radon is about 21,000 per year.

Radon is present nearly everywhere outdoors, yet typically at levels that are not harmful. It becomes dangerous when it gets trapped and accumulates inside homes, schools and other buildings.

Radon is a naturally occurring radioactive gas that is produced by the breakdown of uranium, a heavy metal present in the soil. People cannot smell it or see it, which makes radon particularly dangerous. When radon gas forms in the soil, it rises and finds its way into homes old and new through cracked foundations, gaps around sump pumps and drains, and crawl spaces.

Many people are unaware of the radon levels in their home. In Colorado, it is estimated that only 50% of homes have been tested. Thus, many Coloradans may be exposed to elevated radon levels and not know it.

Though tobacco use is the most significant risk factor for lung cancer, accounting for approximately 86% of all lung cancer cases, radon is the leading cause of lung cancer among people who have never used tobacco. Radon also has a compounding effect with tobacco that further increases lung cancer risk among tobacco users. About 7 in 1,000 nontobacco users with prolonged exposure to elevated radon levels may develop lung cancer in their lifetime.

Exposure to radon is preventable. As a cancer epidemiologist, I aim to help all Colorado residents be aware of their home’s radon level and take appropriate actions to mitigate exposure and reduce their and their family’s risk of lung cancer.

Radon in your home

Because of Colorado’s unique geology, including mountainous regions that consist heavily of granite rock that contains uranium, radon levels are higher in Colorado than in other states.

Colorado is among the top 10 states with the highest radon levels across the country. About 50% of Colorado homes tested for radon have levels higher than the recommended threshold set by the Environmental Protection Agency, which is 4 picocuries per liter (pCi/L). The average level of radon in Colorado homes is 6.4 pCi/L, which is equivalent to having 200 chest X-rays each year. Radon levels differ across the 64 counties in Colorado based on their geography and makeup of the soil.

If a home is not adequately vented, radon can build up indoors. When radon decays, it releases radioactive particles that, once inhaled, can damage lung cells. More specifically, these particles can break chemical bonds in the cell’s DNA that, if not repaired, can lead to cancer. Prolonged exposure to high levels of radon, over several years, can cause lung cancer. Similar to tobacco use, it is the cumulative exposure to radon that increases risk for cancer.

Fortunately, there are ways to prevent radon from entering and accumulating inside our homes. Radon mitigation systems use fans and pipes to pull radon gas from below the foundation of the home and vent it outside. These systems can reduce radon levels inside the home by up to 99%.

Know your risk: Testing and mitigating

Testing your home for radon is simple and relatively inexpensive. Test kits are placed in the lowest living area of your house, apartment, condominium or townhome and left for a period of time. The EPA recommends testing for all residential units below the third floor.

There are short-term tests, which take from two to 90 days, and long-term tests, which take 90 days or more. Long-term tests are more accurate for estimating annual average radon levels. Once complete, tests can be mailed directly to a lab for processing.

A step-by-step instructional video on how to test your home for radon from the El Paso County (Colorado) Public Health Department.

Test kits typically cost less than US$50 or may be obtained for free from many sources, including the University of Colorado Anschutz Cancer Center. As of February 2026, the cancer center has distributed more than 1,600 test kits to people in 55 Colorado counties. Nearly 40% of the tests distributed thus far show radon levels above the EPA threshold.

The EPA recommends testing over multiple months, including colder months when windows and doors to the outside are typically closed and radon can become trapped indoors. Testing over several months provides a better understanding of the average annual radon level in the home.

Reduce your risk: Radon mitigation

People with radon levels in their home that are at or above 4 pCi/L are recommended to seek mitigation measures. This may involve sealing cracks in basement walls and foundations and installing a fan and vent pipe to pull radon gas from underneath the home and vent it outside. Mitigation can cost between $1,000 and $3,000 depending on home structure and location.

There are resources available for people who need radon mitigation and can’t afford it. Colorado’s state health department has a low-income radon mitigation assistance program that can pay for radon mitigation for people who are eligible based on income requirements.

Radon may be invisible, but its impact on human health is unmistakably real – and largely preventable. By taking action today – testing your home, sharing this knowledge and seeking help when needed – you are investing in a healthier future for yourself and your community.

Jan Lowery does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

– ref. Colorado has high levels of radon, which can cause lung cancer – here’s how to lower your risk – https://theconversation.com/colorado-has-high-levels-of-radon-which-can-cause-lung-cancer-heres-how-to-lower-your-risk-273666

February 20, 2026

Who will win in Gorton and Denton? What the results of every byelection since 2010 tell us

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Paul Whiteley, Professor, Department of Government, University of Essex

The fight is on for the Gorton and Denton byelection on February 26. It is a three-way contest between Labour, Reform and the Greens. According to Electoral Calculus, a site which runs regular MRP (multi-level regression post stratification) surveys, Reform will win with 32% of the vote, the Greens will come second on 23.3% and Labour third with 22.6%.

There is however a problem with MRP polls. They produce results that are far more variable than can be accounted for by standard sources of errors in surveys. For example, a different MRP conducted by Electoral Calculus in December last year gave Reform 335 seats, the Greens 52 and Labour 41 in a hypothetical general election.

In contrast, an MRP conducted by More in Common at about the same time gave Reform 381 seats, the Greens nine and Labour 85. Both results are therefore highly questionable.

An alternative approach to forecasting involves conducting small sample surveys in constituencies holding byelections. The trouble is that these are not very accurate – as the recent Caerphilly byelection for the Welsh Senedd proved. Based on polling, many believed Reform was a contender to win but it ended up some way behind Plaid Cymru.

The relationship between the Labour vote in general elections and subsequent byelections, 2010 to 2026:

A chart showing how votes in general elections correlate with byelections in the UK. — Correlation between byelections and general elections since 2010.
P Whiteley, CC BY-ND

A third approach is to use historical data on the relationship between byelections and general elections to predict results. If we examine a large number of byelections, then a strong relationship between the two becomes clear.

When you compare the Labour vote share in the 58 byelections held between 2010 and 2025 and the Labour vote in the previous general election in these constituencies. A good result for the party in a general election is likely to produce a fairly good result in a subsequent byelection.

In the 2024 general election, Labour obtained just under 51% of the vote in Gorton and Denton. We can use this to predict what will happen in the byelection.

To improve the accuracy of the forecast, we first need to account for unusual byelections over the years which could distort results. For example, in the Batley and Spen byelection in October 2016, Labour took 86% of the vote. This was because none of the other mainstream parties contested the seat in recognition of Jo Cox, the MP whose murder by a rightwing extremist triggered the byelection.

Equally George Galloway’s Respect party won a byelection in Rochdale in February 2024, just before the general election. This was largely the result of Muslim voters switching their support from Labour because of the party’s refusal to significantly sanction Israel, given what the United Nations described as the genocide in Gaza.

A third factor is that all these byelections happened under a Conservative government except for the Reform win in the Runcorn and Helsby in May 2025. A change of government affects all voters, so this needs to be accounted for in the forecast.

Like all predictions, this one is subject to errors and the modelling is done using a multiple regression analysis. It predicts that Labour will win approximately 37% of the vote.

Reform and Green voting

Unfortunately, we cannot use the same approach to forecast the Reform and Green vote shares because the historical data on the performance of these parties in byelections and general elections is not available. They didn’t fight many of these constituencies in either type of election.

An alternative approach is to focus on the Runcorn and Helsby byelection, which Reform won by a whisker from Labour with just under 39% of the vote. Between the general election and the byelection, the Labour vote share fell by 14%, the Reform vote increased by 20% and the Green vote increased by just under 1%. If Reform repeats this in Gorton and Denton it has a good chance of winning.

However, there are good reasons for thinking that Reform will not be able to do this, because of the socio-economic characteristics of the constituencies. We can compare them with the help of data from the 2021 census to find out what characteristics favour a Reform vote or a Green vote.

The second chart shows the correlations between Reform and Green voting in 2024 and various socio-economic characteristics in the 632 constituencies in Britain. For example, the correlation between Reform voting and Muslim religiosity was negative (-0.48) for Reform and positive for the Greens (+0.20). In other words, many Muslim voters in a constituency weakens support for Reform and boosts it for the Greens.

Correlations with voting Reform and Green in the 2024 general election in 632 constituencies in Britain:

A chart showing the correlation between Reform voting and Green voting. — How the Greens and Reform affect each other’s vote.
P Whiteley, CC BY-ND

In addition, the presence of many non-white residents and people in professional occupations in a constituency helps the Greens and weakens Reform. In contrast, constituencies with a lot of people over the age of 65 or who think of themselves as “English” (as opposed to British) helps Reform and weakens the Greens.

Socio-economic data in Gorton & Denton and Runcorn & Helsby:

A chart showing how Gorton & Denton and Runcorn & Helsby break. down demographically. — Who lives in Gorton & Denton and Runcorn & Helsby?
P Whiteley, CC BY-ND

Gorton and Denton has more professionals and very many more non-white people and Muslims than Runcorn & Helsby, so we can expect a boost for the Green vote. In addition, it has fewer over 65s and English identifiers, which again helps the Greens.

This means that Reform is unlikely to win the byelection since the opposition to Labour will be divided between them and the Greens instead of it all going to Reform, as in Runcorn and Helsby. The Greens could win the byelection, but it is more likely that Labour will win because of the divided opposition.

Paul Whiteley has received funding from the British Academy and the ESRC

– ref. Who will win in Gorton and Denton? What the results of every byelection since 2010 tell us – https://theconversation.com/who-will-win-in-gorton-and-denton-what-the-results-of-every-byelection-since-2010-tell-us-276135

February 20, 2026

UK’s new passport rules for dual citizens are a result of border control in the digital age

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Nando Sigona, Professor of International Migration and Forced Displacement and Director of the Institute for Research into International Migration and Superdiversity, University of Birmingham

From February 2026, most dual British citizens will need to use a British passport to travel to the UK. Presenting only a non-British passport will no longer be sufficient for boarding flights or ferries, unless it carries a certificate (costing £589) that confirms right of abode.

The rule was introduced to align dual nationals with the UK’s new electronic travel authorisation (ETA) system and to prevent confusion in border checks.

In legal terms, nothing fundamental has changed. British citizens still have the right to enter and live in the UK. But in practice, the way that right must be demonstrated has shifted. And that shift tells us something important about how citizenship is being reshaped in the digital age.

Over the past three decades, dual citizenship has become widely accepted internationally. In 1990, fewer than a third of countries allowed dual nationality in cases of naturalisation. By 2016, roughly three-quarters did.

This change reflected globalisation. As populations became more mobile, states adapted. Migrants often maintain attachments to more than one country. Dual citizenship is a pragmatic recognition of that reality, allowing people to belong in more than one place without forcing an exclusive choice.

According to the 2021 census, 1.2% of UK-born residents (587,600) were dual citizens with another country, rising from 0.5% in 2011 (231,600). For non-UK-born residents, 6.5% were dual citizens with the UK in 2021 (648,700), up from 5.1% in 2011 (381,200).

The rise reflects broader demographic change, but it also coincided with Brexit. The number of people holding both British and EU passports increased significantly between 2011 and 2021, suggesting that many UK residents sought to retain EU citizenship protections as the UK left the EU, while some EU residents acquired British citizenship to preserve unrestricted access to the UK.

In other words, dual citizenship in the UK today includes longstanding migrant and diasporic communities, but also a growing cohort shaped by recent geopolitical change.

Digital borders

The UK’s new passport rule does not mean the country is less tolerant of dual citizens. But it is a consequence of borders becoming more digitised in recent years.

Borders today are not confined to passport control desks. They operate through airline check-in systems, pre-travel authorisations, biometric databases and algorithmic risk assessments. Airlines are required to confirm eligibility before boarding. Digital systems match names, dates of birth and passport numbers against centralised records. Such systems prioritise coherence and consistency, aiming to eliminate ambiguity.

But dual citizenship, and transnational life more broadly, produce precisely the kind of complexity that digital systems struggle to accommodate. Names may differ across jurisdictions. Marriage can produce surname changes in one country but not another. Accent marks may appear in one passport and not in its transliteration. Children born abroad may be citizens by descent but have never held a British passport.

There is little room for discretion when border checks are digitised. The administrative solution is to use the British passport when entering Britain. Yet this is not always straightforward. Some dual citizens born abroad have never needed a British passport and must now apply for one in order to travel. Others may consider renouncing British citizenship to avoid the administrative burden — but this option is not available to underage dual citizens.

Dual citizens are not a homogeneous group. They include naturalised migrants who have retained their original nationality; British-born citizens who later acquired another citizenship through residence or marriage; children of mixed-nationality families; foreign-born children of British emigrants who are citizens by descent; and members of long-established Commonwealth communities whose plural affiliations are a result of British imperial history.

For some, the new rule simply means ensuring that their British passport is valid. For others — particularly families living abroad who have never needed a British passport for their children — it introduces an unexpected bureaucratic step.

This is where borders intersect with inequality. Families with easy access to consular services, financial resources and familiarity with UK administrative systems can adapt quickly. Those living further from British bureaucratic infrastructure face greater friction.

Travellers using e-gates at the UK border — Border control looks different in the digital age.
1000 Words/Shutterstock

The UK’s passport requirement is being introduced during a wider political moment in which states are exerting tighter control over citizenship. In the US, Donald Trump’s administration pledged to restrict birthright citizenship and expand the state’s power to remove citizenship.

In a number of countries, citizenship revocation powers have disproportionately targeted dual nationals, precisely because removing citizenship from mono-nationals would breach international law by rendering them stateless.

What we may be witnessing is not the retreat of dual citizenship, but its transformation. It remains widely tolerated. Yet it is increasingly bureaucratically policed.

The cumulative effect is subtle but significant. Citizenship is no longer just a legal status secured once and for all. It must remain legible to digital border systems and be continuously probed through interconnected databases.

Dual citizenship emerged as recognition that identities and attachments can be layered. Digital borders, by contrast, favour clarity and singular representation. This tension is unlikely to disappear.

The UK’s move signals how, in an era of digital borders and geopolitical uncertainty, the lived experience of citizenship is being reshaped — not through headline constitutional change, but through the quiet reorganisation of administrative systems.

Nando Sigona receives funding from UKRI for Rebordering Britain and Britons after Brexit (MIGZEN) (ES/V004530/1).

– ref. UK’s new passport rules for dual citizens are a result of border control in the digital age – https://theconversation.com/uks-new-passport-rules-for-dual-citizens-are-a-result-of-border-control-in-the-digital-age-276300

February 20, 2026

This waterlogged corner of England was once only habitable during summer. Climate change could make it so again

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Jess Neumann, Associate Professor of Hydrology, University of Reading

Flooding across the Somerset Levels in January 2026. Vortex525/Shutterstock

Standing on the hills looking out across flat green fields, linked by a network of hedgerows, copses and small settlements, the Somerset Levels looks like quintessential English countryside.

But this region’s rivers, drains, waterways and wetlands are integral to the levels’ history – an inhospitable, and at times perilously flooded, watery world, centuries ago only habitable during the summer months.

Right now, the levels are experiencing extensive flooding, stretching for miles on all sides of any roads that are still open to vehicles. Communities are trying to cope with a relentlessly wet winter halting transport, closing schools and leaving homes underwater, underpinned by a longer-term cycle of climate and sea-level change.

This part of south-west England, much of which is currently under water, used to be known as the “land of the summer people”. Historically, frequent flooding was the main reason for purely seasonal occupation in this area bordered by the Bristol Channel and the Mendip, Quantock and Blackdown Hills. Drier summers provided valuable grazing land and plentiful resources such as fish, peat, wildfowl and reeds, while the winter months brought heavy rain and floods, forcing communities to retreat to higher ground.

The climate here, although often wet, remained broadly similar to the rest of south-west England where year-round living was commonplace. So what exactly makes the Somerset Levels so prone to flooding and why does that matter now? The answer lies in its physical geography and how water from the sea, rivers, ice and rainfall has shaped the land over time.

A map of the Somerset Levels from 1794. — A plan for draining the turf bogs and flooded land, 1794 – John Billingsley.

Let’s go back to the end of the last ice age around 10,000 years ago. Although not under ice sheets directly, the river valleys of the Somerset Levels were inundated as the glaciers melted and sea levels rose. Dry land was only found on the nearby Polden Hills and on odd humps and mounds that rose as islands amid the sea – Glastonbury Tor is perhaps the most famous in today’s landscape.

A map showing how much water and waterways would have been part of the Somerset Levels in 5000BC. — A map showing how the Somerset Levels would have been in 5000BC.
South West Heritage Trust, CC BY-NC-ND

It is these hills and islands that provided safe winter havens for local people. Over the following thousands of years, the sea retreated and advanced periodically, first exposing, then flooding, the low-lying land. Wetter periods were driven by a cooler and rainier climate, increased river flows, rising sea levels and overall slow sinking of the land as a result of “isostatic readjustment” – the balancing of southern England after the weight of ice lifted at the end of the last ice age.

In response to the changes, the environment shifted from marine to brackish and freshwater conditions, initiating the formation of peat bogs as plants died in oxygen-less underwater conditions.

By the Neolithic period (4000BC-2300BC) the Somerset Levels were a vast area of freshwater wetlands and reed swamps. Human-made wooden trackways crossed the impassable reed swamps, linking the drier hills and islands upon which hunters and farmers set up base. The tracks, preserved today in the peat, point to organised use of the wetlands likely during the drier months.

Through the iron age, encroachment of the sea made much of the landscape wet again, yet evidence of semi-permanent occupation is present in the preserved lake villages, constructed on artificial foundations of timber, clay, and rubble.

Romans exploited the Somerset Levels for salt production by evaporating salt from the salt water using clay ponds (salterns) heated by peat fires.

Medieval settlers diverted the main rivers to create canal systems that helped to reduce winter flooding and reclaim agricultural land as described by in the authoritative book The Lost Islands of Somerset: Exploring A Unique Wetland Heritage. Throughout history, seasonal adaptation was the key to successful living.

Draining of the levels

Large-scale and coordinated drainage of the Somerset Levels began around the 12th century and brought about a gradual end to seasonal occupation. River embankments were constructed to reduce tidal flooding and sluices were built to manage water flow.

A criss-crossing network of drainage ditches (known as locally as rhynes) was created to carry water off the fields and into the rivers – many of these are still visible today and play a critical role in flood risk management. From the mid-18th century and into modern times, engineering such as pumps and dredging (the removal of silt, mud and vegetation from river channels) were introduced to maintain a balance between water levels and productive agricultural land.

Today, pumping remains essential to manage flood risk. Dredging, however, remains a politically contentious issue and is only used as a carefully considered method in certain places. While dredging can benefit local flood risk in the short term, the longer-term implications for nature, water quality, downstream flood risk and economic cost are now widely known.

Flooded fields with a fence in between. — The Somerset Levels when it flooded in 2014.
Nicksarebi/Flickr, CC BY

Today, communities have settled permanently across the Somerset Levels but the risks of living here are ever present. Rivers, many of which remain artificially modified, drain from the surrounding hills into the flat, low-lying bowl of the levels where the peat and clay soils are highly water retentive.

At times of high tide and heavy rain, tide lock, where the sea rises higher than the river level, prevents inland floodwaters from draining into the sea. This causes water to back up, overwhelming pumps and exacerbating flooding. The climate is changing – for every 1°C of warming the atmosphere can hold around 7% more moisture, increasing the risk of extreme rainfall and flooding.

Future flood risk management will continue to combine traditional engineering with more natural processes. Measures such as developing flood storage areas, wetland creation, leaky barriers, woodland planting and changing how land is farmed help intercept and slow water flow, alongside the use of pumps, drains and sluices.

However, the devastating floods of 2013-14, were a stark reminder that not so long ago, the levels were the land of the summer people. As flooding takes hold again in February 2026, it’s not clear how long year-round occupation will remain viable on the Somerset Levels.

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Jess Neumann works at the University of Reading as an associate professor of hydrology. She is a trustee of River Mole River Watch, a water quality charity who work with, advise, and receive funding from environmental and conservation organisations and agencies, water companies, commercial services, local authorities and community groups.

– ref. This waterlogged corner of England was once only habitable during summer. Climate change could make it so again – https://theconversation.com/this-waterlogged-corner-of-england-was-once-only-habitable-during-summer-climate-change-could-make-it-so-again-275995

February 20, 2026

Paris Hilton says she has ‘rejection sensitivity dysphoria’ – here’s what it is and how it’s linked to ADHD

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Georgia Chronaki, Senior Lecturer in Developmental Neuroscience, University of Lancashire

Hilton recently revealed she suffers from ‘rejection sensitivity dysphoria.’ Tinseltown/ Shutterstock

American media personality Paris Hilton recently shared on a podcast that she suffers from rejection sensitivity dysphoria, or RSD. Hilton, who has been diagnosed with ADHD, says the condition is common in people with the disorder. She also spoke of the impact RSD has had on her mental health over the years, describing it as being “like a demon in your mind” and saying that has been “extremely painful”.

It’s important to note here that RSD is not actually a clinical condition recognised in diagnostic manuals. What Hilton might actually be referring to when she talks about RSD are two separate but closely related psychological concepts: emotional regulation and rejection sensitivity.

Emotion regulation is an umbrella term. This refers to a person’s overall ability to manage emotional reactions in any given situation. Rejection sensitivity falls under this umbrella. It is when a person has a strong emotional reaction to rejection, even perceived rejection by other people. They may experience anger, shame, shutting down and becoming defensive following criticism by others.

People who have healthy emotional regulation skills are able to keep their emotions under control, even if a situation becomes stressful or tense. They’re also less likely to develop rejection sensitivity.

While difficulties in regulating our emotions is part of being human, our life experiences can shape how each of us perceives and regulates emotions in a given situation.

For example, if growing up you had a parent who repeatedly criticised you, you may be more likely to develop low self-worth. This is because we internalise the negative things people say about us and to us. It also means that, in the future, you may be more sensitive to criticism.

How is rejection sensitivity related to ADHD?

Between 25% and 45% of children with ADHD, and 30% to 70% of adults with ADHD, have difficulties with emotion regulation.

These difficulties often manifest as catastrophising (assuming the worst outcome will happen), blaming others and feeling vulnerable to perceived rejection by others.

Perceived rejection or criticism often causes emotional discomfort, too. While some people with ADHD will try to hide their emotions when feeling rejected, others may become overwhelmed and may lash out or become disengaged. These difficulties can contribute to emotional distress and affect relationships, education and employment.

Although the causes of emotion regulation difficulties in ADHD are not fully understood, research has explored several possible mechanisms.

For instance, research my colleagues and I previously published compared the brain waves of 6- to 11-year-old boys with and without ADHD. Both groups listened to a series of angry, happy or neutral voices through headphones.

The study showed that in boys with ADHD, their brains were extra active when listening to threatening (angry) voices. These results suggested an automatic, hyper-vigilance to threat in people with ADHD.

A young boy sits on the floor hugging his knees and looking worried or pensive. — Brain responses to anger and threats were different in boys with ADHD.
Ground Picture/ Shutterstock

A similar study showed that not only did young people with ADHD exhibit a larger brain reaction when rejected by their peers, they also had a smaller brain reaction when they were accepted by their peers.

Past experiences of being threatened or rejected can affect you deeply and may change how your brain develops. Although the exact mechanisms are not fully understood, research has also shown that experiences of rejection can shape how the brain develops in ADHD. For example, research found that in 9- to 13-year-olds, experiencing a greater number of stressful life events (such as being threatened) was linked with higher ADHD symptoms. In addition, children with high ADHD symptoms had differences in certain regions of their brain compared to children with low ADHD symptoms.

ADHD is not the only condition linked to rejection sensitivity. Conditions, such as autism, borderline personality disorder, depression and anxiety are also linked to rejection sensitivity.

However, the way rejection sensitivity manifests in these conditions differs. For example, people with ADHD who have rejection sensitivity may be very emotionally reactive when facing a difficult situation. But autistic people may tend to withdraw.

Managing rejection sensitivity

Some of the prescription treatments used to manage ADHD symptoms can offer some temporary relief from the emotional distress linked to rejection sensitivity. But they do not cure it.

A better strategy may be to focus instead on building environments that support wellbeing in people with ADHD rather than trying to resolve biological differences. Directing people with ADHD into areas where their strengths and interests lie may better equip them to deal with difficult situations or challenges.

Person-centred therapeutic approaches do exactly this. They aim to offer an environment, via a safe therapeutic relationship, where a person feels seen as a whole person – rather than for the problems they may have. The experience of being seen and accepted strengthens self-worth, and offers a corrective emotional experience to people who have felt criticised or judged in the past.

When people feel accepted, they start to feel more confident and rely less on negative self-talk. Recent research shows this approach can be effective for people with ADHD.

Treatments such as child-centred play therapy may be effective for children with ADHD in reducing emotion regulation difficulties – including rejection sensitivity. This therapy uses play to allow children to express their thoughts and feelings. Recent research has shown that this type of therapy is effective for improving emotional wellbeing in childhood ADHD.

In contrast, cognitive behavioural therapy focuses more on teaching you coping skills to alter so-called problem behaviours. This type of treatment can be effective for reducing ADHD symptoms but not necessarily for improving emotion regulation in ADHD.

Thanks to people like Paris Hilton, rejection sensitivity is now being talked about. This might help reduce stigma and hopefully pave the way to a more accepting, compassionate world for people with ADHD.

Georgia Chronaki does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

– ref. Paris Hilton says she has ‘rejection sensitivity dysphoria’ – here’s what it is and how it’s linked to ADHD – https://theconversation.com/paris-hilton-says-she-has-rejection-sensitivity-dysphoria-heres-what-it-is-and-how-its-linked-to-adhd-275006

February 20, 2026

If I Had Legs I’d Kick You is a warts-and-all portrait of a psychotherapist struggling with an ailing daughter

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Matt Jacobsen, Senior Lecturer in Film History in the School of Society and Environment, Queen Mary University of London

Rose Byrne won a Golden Globe and is nominated for an Oscar for her performance in If I Had Legs I’d Kick You. It’s a film about frayed mother Linda (Byrne) coping with her daughter’s strange, unspecified feeding disorder.

In director Mary Bronstein’s words, the film is “a surreal, horrifying, blackly funny portrait of a mother simultaneously kicking against and coming to terms with her maternal instincts”. Bronstein has drawn from her experiences with her own child’s illness, responding to what she sees as a gap in film and TV of authentic depictions of motherhood – or as she puts it: “Fully dimensional portraits of women who feel they can’t do it [and] are traumatised by expectations and circumstances.”

Representations of psychotherapy are foregrounded in the film. It opens in a counselling session with a paediatric specialist. An intense close-up holds on Byrne’s face as she defends herself from accusations that as a mother, she lacks boundaries and discipline. According to her daughter (Delaney Quinn): “Mommy is like putty [while] Daddy is hard.” When Linda crossly refutes the comment, the doctor tells her that “perception is reality”.

The film goes on to present the reality of Linda’s perception, as she becomes increasingly exhausted and overwhelmed, experiencing wild supernatural visions. The camera interrogates her psychologically, rarely disengaging from Byrne’s face and mostly shooting her fraught reactions in extreme close-up.

This makes for an extraordinarily intense, probing experience that requires an actor of Byrne’s level: every gesture, facial tick and shift in expression is finely calibrated. It is an unsettling choice that we are not shown her daughter’s face – the film is entirely focused on the mother’s reactions to her suffering child.

The trailer for If I Had Legs I’d Kick You.

Linda is a psychotherapist who has her own psychotherapy sessions with a colleague, played superbly for comic effect by US talkshow host Conan O’Brien – who drops the charm of his host persona for a performance of harassed awkwardness.

In the tradition of TV and film psychology professionals – think Frasier Crane from Cheers! and Frasier, Robbie Coltrane’s Fitz from Cracker, Jimmy Laird from Shrinking – the film plays wholesale into the trope of therapists who appear to need therapy more urgently than their patients.

Frustrated by the apparent lack of progress in her weekly session, Linda responds to her therapist’s assurance that a line of conversation can be continued at the next session: “We won’t talk about it next time. There’s no thread, there’s no thread at all!”

Psychotherapy is a fragmentary process. As anyone who (like me) has embarked on long-term talking therapy will recognise, it is in the nature of the experience that continuity between weekly sessions is elusive. Each conversation will follow its own unexpected twists and turns, despite any concerted intention by the patient or therapist to maintain control and return to where the last session finished.

If I had Legs I’d Kick You echoes this. It becomes rambling and disjointed by design, picking up and dropping threads like the human mind in freefall.

The film trades on the cliches of how psychotherapy is commonly portrayed. Navel-gazing narcissists make unhealthy demands on Linda’s time and she has limited ability to maintain boundaries. Her own therapy sessions are fraught, combative and unhelpful, and her self-involved patients are mined for comedy and ridicule rather than sympathy and compassion.

These broad representations may be recognisable as truisms of the profession for therapists themselves, but the film shows little optimism towards talking therapy’s ultimate value.

A therapy horror film

The film deploys several conventions of the horror film in its depiction of Linda’s maternal guilt and mental unravelling. There is something of the eerie discomfort of Repulsion (1965) and Rosemary’s Baby (1968) in uncanny scenes where the world around her starts to shift and contort.

In one scene, the ceiling of Linda’s apartment caves in, leaving a huge hole. As the film progresses, she returns to scrutinise it: each time the hole becomes wider, stranger and more livid. It is unclear whether this is a symbolic fantasy of Linda’s dissociative mind, or signals something more sinister and supernatural.

With its supernatural ambiguity, the film shares themes and style with last year’s Nightbitch, adapted from Rachel Yoder’s novel, which featured a brittle, vulnerable and very funny performance from Amy Adams as the struggling mother of a toddler.

The mothers in both films find solace in the suburban streets at night, away from public scrutiny, where they are unguarded and free to express their unvarnished selves. While Adams’s character in Nightbitch morphs into a predatory hound prowling the neighbourhood, Linda seeks escape through late-night drinking. She attempts to relive her carefree youth by taking drugs with her neighbour James, played sympathetically and with nuance by American rapper A$AP Rocky.

A series of cameos by instantly recognisable male actors is distracting and derails the film rather than aiding it. It is jarring to watch Danny Devito as a parody of an officious parking lot attendant, and a curious choice to feature the instantly identifiable voice of Christian Slater as Linda’s absent husband Charles. The comic effect of these intrusions took me out of the moment and jarred with the emotional intensity the film strives for.

Bronstein sets out to establish mood and ratchet tension to often unbearable levels. As the film reaches its crescendo, it becomes increasingly fraught and formless.

While Nightbitch suffered from an over-neat tying together of plot strands in its final minutes, here the opposite may be true. Perhaps that’s why, though Byrne is deserving of her best actress nomination, the film has not received Oscar nominations in any other category.

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Matt Jacobsen does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

– ref. If I Had Legs I’d Kick You is a warts-and-all portrait of a psychotherapist struggling with an ailing daughter – https://theconversation.com/if-i-had-legs-id-kick-you-is-a-warts-and-all-portrait-of-a-psychotherapist-struggling-with-an-ailing-daughter-276346