We are always told to never mix work and friendships in social settings. While it is normal to make friendships at work, you should always keep a professional distance to make sure things do not go sour and start affecting your work. This also means that you do not divulge private information or have private conversations with your colleagues as you may never know how this could be brought up and affect you. This is an unsaid rule in corporate culture that if you are sick or you are coming down with a serious issue, you should never bring it up and keep it to yourself. While this may seem unusual to new workers, it is a very common knowledge for people who have been in the industry for a long time. A new study showed that this is much more common than many people believe!

A new poll shows that a lot of U.S. workers with long-term health problems keep it a secret from their bosses. This affects their health and their jobs. It's a big problem that employers could help fix, which would be good for everyone. This isn't just about people having a sniffle. We're talking about serious conditions like heart disease, diabetes, and asthma that require ongoing management and can significantly impact a person's life, both inside and outside of work. The fact that so many people feel they need to hide these conditions shows a larger issue of stigma and lack of support in the workplace.

How Does Health Become A Hidden Burden?

Most U.S. workers which were over half of the people, have some kind of long-term health problem. But a lot of them, about 6 out of 10, don't tell their boss. They might be afraid their boss will treat them differently or think they can't do their job. Keeping secrets like this can make it hard to get the help you need at work. It can also make your health problems worse because you're stressed about hiding them. It's a tough situation, and it shows that many workplaces aren't as supportive as they could be.

The poll also found that more than a third of people with health problems have had to miss doctor's appointments because of work. This means they're putting their jobs ahead of their health, which isn't good. It's hard to balance work and health, especially when you have a long-term illness. People need understanding bosses who will let them take time off for important medical stuff. Missing appointments can make health problems worse, and it can also make people feel more stressed and anxious.

Does It Impact Their Career And Well-Being?

Almost half of the workers with health problems said they couldn't even take breaks during the day to take care of themselves. They also said they felt like they'd been passed over for promotions because of their health. And some people even got bad reviews at work because of their health problems. This can make people feel really bad about themselves and their jobs. It can also make their health problems worse because they're so stressed. It's not fair, and it's something that needs to change.

It's not just people with health problems who have a hard time. Lots of people are also taking care of someone at home who is sick. Almost half of these caregivers have to help their sick family member during work hours. And many of them have trouble taking time off to care for their loved ones. Some people even have to work fewer hours, which means less money. This shows how much pressure people are under, trying to juggle work and family and health.

Did you know that prostate cancer is now the fastest-growing cancer among Indian men and yet remains one of the least discussed? Taking that first step to get tested for prostate cancer is the hardest thing a man will probably have to do. It is a delicate matter, no doubt, but lack of awareness and the stigma attached to the disease are keeping more and more men in the dark and hesitant to discuss this openly.

Indian men need to be nudged into taking that crucial first step towards treatment and to a healthy life waiting to be lived, post-treatment. The best way to break the societal stigma is to know everything about the disease and to demystify it.

Don’t forget, when it comes to getting the right medical aid for the disease, the second leading cause of death globally according to the WHO accounting for 10 million deaths since 2020, timing is everything. Thanks to all the technological advances made in the field in India and globally, there is hope for men across the world because prostate cancer is curable, provided it is detected early.

So, here is everything you need to know about it:

What Is Prostate Cancer?

The gland in the male reproductive system that makes seminal fluid is the prostate. This most common type of slow-growing cancer in men that sees the abnormal growth of cells in the gland, if detected early, is very much curable. Some early-stage symptoms of the disease are blood in the urine or semen, trouble urinating and erectile dysfunction and if you’re asking yourself, why you?

You could probably blame age, family history or lifestyle choices. While we cannot change the ‘why’, we can master the ‘how’ of finding the right treatment in time. Step 1: Rule out the possibility of cancer with a simple Prostate-Specific Antigen (PSA) blood test.

How Has Technology Increased The Success Rate Of Treatment?

In the last 10 years, technology and innovation have revolutionized the diagnostics and treatments of the disease. Scientists from across the world are working around the clock, making marked improvements in treating prostate cancer.

From surgery, radiation and hormone therapy to advanced AI-powered analytics, services and products, science ensures that the news gets better each day. We have AI analyzing vast quantities of medical data to find hidden patterns, and personalized prognoses, ensuring healthcare professionals are making diagnoses faster, more accurate and risk-free.

Similarly, minimally invasive treatments like TULSA-PRO are offering the medical fraternity and patients new hope. This incision and radiation-free, robotically-assisted and MRI-guided solution is a customizable treatment for prostate cancer. TULSA-PRO (Transurethral Ultrasound Ablation) uses real-time MRI guidance and ultrasound energy to precisely target and ablate prostate tissue without the need for incisions or radiation.

Patients can return to normal life in just a few days with faster recovery time and fewer side effects. This cutting-edge procedure uses MRI-guided transurethral ultrasound ablation (TULSA-PRO) to precisely destroy only the diseased tissue, whether it’s a small tumor (focal therapy) or the entire gland while actively cooling the urethra and rectum to protect them. It’s a one-time, day care, go home the same day with minimal pain and rapid return to normal life — most men resume work and normal activities within days.

While the science fraternity continues their path-breaking work in the field, it is also the responsibility of male citizens to keep themselves abreast of the developments in the field, report symptoms to a doctor early on, particularly those with a family history of prostate cancer.

Regular checkups are essential but so is knowing the difference between a routine check-up and specific tests for prostate cancer.

Former US Senator Ben Sasse is battling Stage 4 pancreatic cancer that has spread around his body. According to his doctors, he now has four types of cancer: lymphoma, vascular, lung cancer, liver cancer, and pancreatic cancer.

Speaking to The New York Times’s “Interesting Times” podcast, the Republican Senator from Nebraska reflected on his life and impending death.

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Sasse was diagnosed with Stage 4 pancreatic cancer in December 2025, which remained in the shadows for a long time. Until late October, Sasse had no symptoms. But it started with a lot of back and abdominal pain. Initially, he thought it was due to “some ab muscles pulled from stupid forms of training”.

His doctors thought Sasse had some undiagnosed celiac disease or some dairy allergy. However, a full body scan in December revealed that Sasse’s “torso is chock-full of tumors.”

“In mid-December, I got a three- to four-month life expectancy,” he was quoted as saying.

“They told me over the course of the next couple of days that I already have five forms of cancer: lymphoma, vascular, lung cancer, bad liver cancer, and pancreatic, where it originated,” the former senator added. “So, it was pretty clear that we’re dealing with a short number of months left to live.”

Sasse represented Nebraska in the Senate for eight years before resigning to become the president of the University of Florida in July 2024.

During the interview, Sasse said his condition has improved since last December -- his pain is 80 percent reduced.

"I’m at Day 99 or something since then, and I’m doing a heck of a lot better than I was doing at Christmas," he said.

However, the former senator noted that he deals with nausea, as well as bleeding on his face due to intake of the investigational new drug daraxonrasib.

During the interview, the former lawmaker’s face was covered in dried blood.

Death A Wicked Thief, Says Ben Sasse

Sasse, a father of three, said he felt a “heaviness” with respect to realizing he did not have much time left with his family.

“I didn’t like the idea of my 14-year-old son not having a dad around at 16,” he remarked. “I didn’t like the idea of my daughters, who are 22 and 24, not having their dad there to walk them down the aisle. I felt a real heaviness about that.”

However, the Nebraska Republican said he has “continued to feel peace about the fact that death is something that we should hate.”

“We should call it a wicked thief,” he continued. “And yet, it’s pretty good that you pass through the veil of tears one time and then there will be no more tears, there will be no more cancer.”

What Is Pancreatic Cancer? Know The Warning Signs

Pancreatic cancer has long been one of the toughest challenges in oncology. With a five-year survival rate hovering around 13 percent and recurrence rates approaching 80 percent after treatment, the odds have historically been stacked against patients.

The prevention and early detection remain vital.

Experts warn that pancreatic cancer often masquerades as common ailments, delaying diagnosis. Here are some early symptoms that should never be ignored:

• Abdominal or back pain that worsens over time or eases when leaning forward.
• Unexplained weight loss without changes in diet or exercise.
• Jaundice, including yellowing of the eyes and skin, sometimes with intense itching.
• Changes to urine or stool, such as dark urine or pale, greasy stools.
• New-onset diabetes without obvious risk factors.
• Persistent fatigue unrelated to poor sleep or lifestyle

Three simple lifestyle changes, such as regular physical activity, cutting down sedentary time, and improving sleep duration, may significantly boost your brain's cognitive abilities and reduce the risk of dementia later in life, according to a new study.

Dementia is a neurodegenerative condition affecting an estimated 55 million people globally. It is characterized by a decline in memory, thinking, and social abilities.

Together, the three simple lifestyle changes cut down the risk of late-onset dementia by 25 percent.

Published in the open-access journal PLOS One, the systematic review and meta-analysis of over 69 prospective cohort studies involving millions of cognitively healthy adults aged 35 and above showed the potential benefits of lifestyle behaviors such as regular physical activity, cutting down sedentary time, and improving sleep duration.

According to the Alzheimer’s Association, a person’s overall risk for developing Alzheimer’s disease—the most common form of dementia—is about 11 percent. However, the study found that with the simple suggested lifestyle changes, the average person’s risk decreases to approximately 8 percent.

The study emphasized that people do not need elaborate and expensive longevity hacks to stay mentally sharp as they age.

The reduction is “fairly comparable to the effect sizes sometimes seen with medications for chronic diseases,” said Akinkunle Oye-Somefun, a researcher at York University in Toronto, who led the study, NBC News reported.

Sitting For Long Periods Worst For Your Brain

The findings showed that avoiding sitting for longer periods had the greatest effect and can have a long-term benefit for the brain.

Sitting for more than eight hours a day increased dementia risk by almost 30 percent, at the same time being regularly active, even just going for a walk every day, decreased dementia risk by an average of 25 percent.

Long sitting hours can also spike a person’s risk of other conditions such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and obesity, all of which in turn raise dementia risk.

Getting between seven and eight hours of sleep each night also had a greater benefit on the brain.

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The risk of dementia increased by 18 percent among those who slept less than seven hours, while sleeping more than eight hours per night also raised the risk of the neurodegenerative disease by 28 percent.

Importantly, moderate physical activity “offsets dementia risks even when other risk factors are present,” said Oye-Somefun, NBC News reported.

However, “many people assume that being physically active cancels out the harm of sitting for long periods. It doesn’t,” Oye-Somefun said. “We shouldn’t do one of these things alone; we should do them all.”

Also read: Simple Brain Training Exercise Cuts Dementia Risk For 20 Years, Study Finds

What Is Dementia?

Dementia is an umbrella term used to describe a significant decline in mental function that is serious enough to affect everyday life. It commonly impacts memory, thinking, and reasoning skills.

Dementia itself is not a single disease but a collection of symptoms caused by underlying conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease or vascular dementia.

Common signs include

• memory problems,
• confusion,
• difficulty finding words,
• changes in mood or behavior,
• trouble completing familiar tasks.

These symptoms usually worsen over time and are not considered a normal part of ageing. Although there is no cure, treatment options can help manage symptoms, and early diagnosis plays an important role in care planning.