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News.com.au
2 hours ago
- Health
- News.com.au
Expert debunks podcast bro's wild health claim about getting sick
If you've ever been irritated by the fact that just about anyone can start a podcast with little to no credentials, this is going to rub you the wrong way. When it comes to health information, it's all too easy to fall into the trap of listening to a fit-looking 'gym guy' behind a microphone, telling you what you should or shouldn't do for your wellbeing. Recently, a clip has been making the rounds on TikTok feeds of fitness and health enthusiasts. It shows a man named Brad Davidson (also known as @fitnesscoachbrad), who tells his podcast audience that if you're never getting sick, it means your immune system is suppressed, usually from stress. While he might be a pro at making a punchy hook to grab our attention (wait, if you're not getting sick, your immune system is bad?!), he's not a doctor. According to his Instagram, Fitness Coach Brad is indeed just a fitness coach named Brad. Mr Davidson says: 'I really started seeing this when working with CEOs. They just go, go, go. And they're never sick, right? They grind until they go on vacation, and as soon as the stress levels come down and the immune system gets more active – boom! It hits them like a ton of bricks. 'So the stress system is very involved. As cortisol elevates, the immune system dampens. As cortisol comes down, the immune system gets more active. And that's because it's supposed to. It's built around sleep-wake cycles.' If you're thinking his buzzwordy 'theory' sounds a bit off, you're not wrong. To set the record straight, we spoke to Dr Zac, a leading Australian GP. 'Yes, stress increases levels of cortisol – your body's main stress hormone – and short-term spikes in cortisol can temporarily suppress your immune response,' Dr Zac tells But here's the catch. 'This suppression may last hours or a few days at most, which means symptoms of illness might be delayed, not prevented,' he continues. 'So if you suddenly feel unwell once you hit the beach, it may just be the timing catching up with you.' Then this is where the TikTok logic really falls apart. Mr Davidson applies this idea to long-term stress, such as that faced by his slew of CEO clients who just 'go go go' all the time – and that is a misrepresentation of the science. 'Chronic stress – the kind that builds up over weeks or months – doesn't keep you 'safe' from getting sick. In fact, it does the opposite,' Dr Zac explains. 'Prolonged high cortisol levels actually lead to a weakened immune system, leaving you more prone to infections and rebound inflammation.' So basically, the idea that 'you never get sick because your immune system is suppressed' is completely backwards. 'If you rarely get sick, it's not because your immune system is broken,' Dr Zac says, 'it's probably because it's functioning well and is properly regulated.' As we suspected. 'The video gets it wrong as it fails to distinguish between short-term stress responses and long-term stress exposure, making the overall claim misleading.' Studies back this up, like this one that looked at the effects of stress on immune function and showed that long-term stress suppresses and dysregulates immune responses. Another study also proved that acute stress can temporarily strengthen immunity, but in contrast, chronic stress inhibits immune functions. And this study went a step further and showed that chronic stress not only suppresses immune function, but increases a person's susceptibility to cancer. So, long story short: take the podcast bro's 'health advice' with a very big grain of salt. And by that, we mean – do your own research or speak to a professional.
News.com.au
3 hours ago
- Sport
- News.com.au
NRL greats stunned by NRL's most vicious fan as club's ‘pathetic' act called out
Forget Payne Haas and Liam Martin – the most feared man in the NRL is an apprentice carpenter turned social media sensation. Jean-Claude Bitar, 25, might not even play in the NRL, but has them running scared thanks to a series of social media videos that have gone viral. Declared the 'funniest man on the net at the moment' by Bulldogs legend Reni Maitua after taking down Dragon's father and son Shane and Kyle Flanagan in an X-rated rant that has been viewed almost 500,000 times, Bitar's hard hitting commentary has attracted the attention of rugby league heavyweights, including NRL 360 host Braith Anasta, who has hailed him as 'ruthless.' 'If that were you or one of your mates he was talking about, you'd want to kill him,' Anasta said. 'Can you imagine watching that if you were Shane or Kyle? Oh my God. But as ruthless as he is and sometimes over the top, he is also creative. I couldn't wait to see what he did after the Sharks (v Dragons) game last week. But could you imagine seeing that if you were following him and you were the player?'. Fresh from taking aim at State of Origin referee Ashley Klein following NSW's failed comeback against Queensland in another video that has stormed the net, Bitar revealed he has been blocked from viewing the St George Illawarra website and their social media accounts after being critical of the club. 'I went to look at the team list about six weeks ago and I couldn't find it,' Bitar told 'I thought maybe there was a glitch. Then I went to TikTok and Facebook, and I realised I was blocked on all accounts. I could not believe they were blocking a supporter because he is speaking the thoughts of every fan.' Being blocked did not deter the carpenter from Belfield. 'Na, I made a video straight away saying they were pathetic and it was one of my biggest hits.' A host of NRL players have personally contacted Bitar. Some tell him they love his work. Others tell him to stop. 'The first person to contact me was Blake Lawrie's brother,' he said. 'I was giving it to him a bit, and then I remember his brother reached out to me and said: 'you have got to stop making these videos. You're gonna get yourself in big trouble.' 'But I didn't stop. Not when I knew the players were actually watching my videos.' Most of his videos are about St George Illawarra given Bitar is a 'die hard' Dragons fan who has supported the club since he could walk – and was even in their junior development squad. 'Most of the players are fans,' Bitar said. 'They come up to me at games and recite my jokes'. Filming his first NRL post in February, Bitar's videos have gone viral, and he has now posted more than 150. 'They are all pretty big at the moment,' he said. 'Right now, there's the Origin one that's going around, that's got 300,000 views. I think my biggest is one about my reaction to a game that got almost half a million.' And in a warning to the NRL's underperforming and out-of-form, Bitar declared he has just begun. 'Regardless of whether they block me, I'm gonna keep going with the videos. 'People are enjoying it. I'm enjoying it. I'm doing this for fun. I'm a footy fanatic and I have the right to express my views. I'm just saying what everyone is thinking,' he said.
Irish Times
9 hours ago
- Politics
- Irish Times
The Irish Times view on the riots in Ballymena: unequivocal political response essential
The recent rioting in Ballymena and surrounding areas is troubling on a number of levels, not least that it is unlikely to be an isolated event. What started out as a peaceful protest following an alleged sexual assault of a teenage girl in Ballymena on June 7th quickly descended into race riots when it then emerged that the alleged perpetrators, two 14-year old boys, needed the services of a Romanian interpreter during their court appearance. Studies of what happened show that Ballymena became the locus of far-right social media activity. At the most acute phase of the rioting, Ballymena was mentioned nearly 80,000 times across different platforms. Crucially, most of these accounts were from outside Northern Ireland. An analysis of these posts shows that many of them fall within the legal definition of incitement to hatred. It also became clear that many of the rioters were not from Ballymena and were intent on exploiting local tensions. Sporadic violence spread elsewhere in Northern Ireland as well. READ MORE This is similar to what happened in Southport in southern England last year. Far-right activists are opportunistically co-ordinating through social media to stoke tensions and foment race riots. There are some lessons to be learned. One is the need for ongoing improvement in social media controls. Elon Musk, the owner of X, has dismantled most of the guardrails on his platform on the basis that they undermine free speech. The reality is that X has become an unmediated platform for hateful content that has very real consequences for the more vulnerable in society, such as the migrant community in Ballymena. Against this backdrop, the EU has no choice but to resist any pressure from the Trump administration to lessen controls on social media as a quid pro quo for a US-EU trade deal. A key goal of the EU rules is to place responsibility on social media companies to ensure online content is safe, fair and secure. However, local factors were also at play in Ballymena. The town has become an unemployment blackspot in recent decades. Meanwhile, the 2021 census shows the arrival of non-English speaking migrants into the town and surrounding areas in recent years. While some tensions have been reported, the recent riots are a dramatic and worrying escalation. In responding to this, political leadership is important. Wrapping criticism of thuggish, racist violence with suggestions that shortcomings in managing immigration in some way provide a rationale – as at least some politicians seem to have done – is not acceptable. Condemnation of what happened must be unequivocal.
Al Jazeera
11 hours ago
- Business
- Al Jazeera
US extends TikTok sale deadline by another 90 days
United States President Donald Trump has signed an executive order extending the deadline for China-based ByteDance to divest its US assets of the short-form video app TikTok by another 90 days, he says, despite a law that mandated a sale or shutdown. 'I've just signed the Executive Order extending the Deadline for the TikTok closing for 90 days (September 17, 2025),' the president said in a post on Thursday on his social media platform, Truth Social. The ban would have otherwise kicked in on Thursday. 'We are grateful for President Trump's leadership and support in ensuring that TikTok continues to be available for more than 170 million American users and 7.5 million US businesses that rely on the platform as we continue to work with Vice President [JD] Vance's Office,' TikTok said in a statement. Vance's office has been involved in negotiations with the platform. Passed in April 2024 and known as the the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, the law required TikTok to stop operating in the US by January 19 unless ByteDance had completed divesting itself of the app's US assets or demonstrated significant progress towards a sale. The law was challenged in the Supreme Court in January, but the nation's highest court upheld the ban. This is the third time the president has extended the deadline. Trump began his second term as president on January 20 and opted not to enforce the law. He first extended the deadline to early April and then again last month to June 19. Democratic senators argued that Trump has no legal authority to extend the deadline and suggested a deal under consideration would not meet legal requirements. The White House on Tuesday said the app will be 'mandated a sale or shutdown absent significant progress'. 'President Trump does not want TikTok to go dark,' White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters on Tuesday. She added that the administration will spend the next three months making sure the sale closes so Americans can keep using TikTok with the assurance that their data is safe and secure. In March, Trump said he would be willing to reduce tariffs on China to get a deal done with ByteDance to sell the app. A deal had been in the works this spring that would spin off TikTok's US operations into a new US-based firm majority-owned and operated by US investors. That was put on hold after China said it would not approve that deal because of the tariffs imposed by the Trump administration. TikTok has a wide US user base, especially among younger audiences. According to a survey from Pew Research conducted in December, a third of all US adults use TikTok, and among the under 30 demographic, it is higher at 59 percent while 67 percent of teens use the platform.
Yahoo
12 hours ago
- Yahoo
Mike Trout's solo home run (12)
Kansas City TikTok hoax about 'Andre Tillman' is AI-generated scam A TikTok story with Kansas City origins began circulating ad nauseam on social media last week and quickly pulled at the heartstrings. It tells the tale of 38-year-old Andre Tillman, described as a local electrician and basketball coach, who allegedly saw broken lights at the Swope Park courts and brought in a cherry picker to fix them. 1:53 Now Playing Paused Ad Playing
