Health & Body

Health & Body Vitamin A enriched rice, developed nearly 15 years ago, could have prevented hundreds of thousands of cases of childhood blindness. It has never been used due to concerns over GMO foods. October 29, 2020

Health & Body In 1984 an 8 year old girl with sickle cell disease developed acute myeloid leukemia. To treat the cancer, the doctors gave her chemo and a stem cell transplant from her sibling. Not only did this cure her cancer, but it cured her SCD too. She remains disease free nearly three decades later. June 17, 2019

Health & Body Dartmouth (and a few other schools) makes all its students pass a swim test before the graduate, so that they won't drown and waste their education. June 17, 2019

Health & Body Meet a new disorder "Orthosomnia," wherein someone is so obsessed with getting good sleep that they actually lose sleep over it. June 11, 2019

Health & Body Blowing out birthday candles increases bacteria on cake by 1,400% June 11, 2019

Health & Body Meet Continuum, a pseudoscientific magazine that denied the existence of HIV/AIDS. It ran from 1992 until 2001 and ceased publication because the editors had died of AIDS-defining clinical conditions. June 3, 2019

Health & Body During WWII, Russian soldiers took "heat pills" that kept them warm in the winter; however, they would also lose weight despite eating well. 2,4-dinitrophenol spikes metabolic rate as potential energy is lost as heat-it is banned as a weight loss aid (U.S.) as overdose can cook people to death. May 20, 2019

Health & Body A key symptom of depression is anhedonia, typically defined as the loss of ability to experience pleasure. It is a core feature of depression, but it is also one of the most treatment-resistant symptoms. Using ketomine, researchers found over-activity in the brain blunting reward seeking May 19, 2019

Health & Body During WWI, cotton was in high demand for the manufacture of uniforms and explosives. For bandages, doctors turned to using sphagnum moss. It can hold up to 22 times its own weight in liquid -- twice as absorptive as cotton. The moss is also antiseptic, making the surrounding environment acidic May 2, 2019

Health & Body In a Johns Hopkins Survey, 90 percent of doctors said they'd rather die by cardiac arrest than be resuscitated. Only a quarter of the public feels the same way. April 26, 2019

Health & Body The US Navy used to forbid "obscene" tattoos, which led to a boom in tattoos of nude women among men who didn't want to serve. If they joined the navy later, they had to have a tattoo artist "dress" the woman. April 18, 2019

Health & Body Mike Tyson's Training Regimen included waking up at 4am, jogging 5-miles. Then he would do 2000 sit-ups, 500 pushups, 500 dips, 500 shrugs and about 30 minutes of neck bridges daily. He repeated this 6 days a week. April 17, 2019

Health & Body In 1988, a man with OCD and extreme germophobia tried to commit suicide by shooting himself in the head with a rifle. However, he survived, and the bullet completely eliminated his mental disorder without causing any other damage to his brain. April 6, 2019

Health & Body Until the mid-1960s in Britain, pregnancy tests were done by sending a woman's urine to a lab, where it would be injected into a toad. The toad was checked two hours later and if it had laid eggs, the woman was pregnant. April 6, 2019

Health & Body What is the Rarest Blood Type? April 1, 2019

Health & Body Dr. Carlo Urbani recognized the emergence of a outbreak of pneumonia as a new epidemic and immediately notified the WHO, personally flying to Hanoi to investigate. He would die this day in 2003 of SARS, having triggered the most effective response to an epidemic in history. March 30, 2019

Health & Body "Shots to roughly 80 percent of targets on the body would not be fatal blows" and that "if a gunshot victim's heart is still beating upon arrival at a hospital, there is a 95 percent chance of survival" March 27, 2019

Health & Body Dessert stomach is a real thing, your gut expands upon contact with sugar and therefore makes room for dessert even after having the feeling of being full. March 27, 2019

Health & Body Meet "Latchkey Incontinence" - a phenomenon where the urge to urinate gets stronger the closer you are to a bathroom. One example would be when you put your key in your front door when returning home from work. March 25, 2019

Health & Body Depression actually alters vision, making the world appear far more dull and monochrome. This is due to lower Retinal activity in comparison to someone that doesn't suffer from Depression. March 24, 2019