Health

Yet another reason to be grateful that pubic grooming is on the outs

If de facto trend-barometer American Apparel is any indication, the bush is, indeed, back. That’s excellent news for American genitals. Analyses of American emergency room data indicate genital injuries related to pubic grooming had increased nearly sixfold between 2002 and 2010. Things were getting out of hand. https://jezebel.com/american-apparel-now-accessorizing-mannequins-with-full-1502658610 https://jezebel.com/pubic-hair-is-back-or-something-again-1470982238 https://gizmodo.com/what-happens-when-you-break-a-penis-5890534 https://gizmodo.com/draft-penis-captivus-is-a-real-condition-and-it-so-1494614954 Top photo by dullhunk…

Why you should avoid flu medication when you’re running a fever

Many of us take over-the-counter flu medication to suppress a fever, but as a Canadian mathematician has shown, this practice actually works to encourage its spread — a problem that costs as many as 1,000 preventable deaths in the U.S. each year. Fevers make us feel like crap, no doubt about it. But they actually…

Here’s how city life is actually affecting your health

There is a truism, often bolstered by pseudoscience, that people in the country are healthier than people in the city. Certainly there are many health problems associated with the metropolis. But it turns out that urbanites are often in better shape and live longer than their rural counterparts. Most of our data on the health…

These Robotic Super Socks Will Aid Rehabilitation

Science fiction has given us a vision of the future where humans might one day enjoy super-strength and abilities while wearing a rigid robotic exoskeleton suit. But back here in reality, researchers at Carnegie Mellon University have developed a soft bio-robotic socks designed to assist those who have difficulty with something as simple as walking.…

This Digital Stethoscope Can Spot Extra-Subtle Heart Murmurs

Physicians have been successfully diagnosing heart conditions using just their stethoscopes and ears for years now. But how many particularly subtle issues, like heart murmurs, have gone unnoticed? With the ViScope MD from HD Medical Inc., hopefully none ever do. It adds audio filters, a visual readout, and automatic murmur detection to a standard stethoscope…

All of these outbreaks could have been prevented with vaccines

Vaccines are something most of us take for granted, but as these maps compiled by the Council on Foreign Relations show, we’re still a long way from ensuring everyone’s safe from some of the world’s most dreaded — and preventable — diseases. The CFR is a nonpartisan think tank that’s been tracking news mentions of…

This Is How People Thought of Fever Before They Knew What It Was

Having a fever can be pretty terrible—but imagine having it before there was any cure, when nobody really knew what it was. This picture, from the 18 century, depicts just that. One of 100,000 pictures depicting the history of medicine which were made freely available this week by Wellcome Images, this picture shows how artist…

All the World’s Preventable Disease Outbreaks, Visualized

Although medical science has advanced immeasurably in the last century, many preventable diseases still claim lives due to ineffective vaccination programs. This map shows when and where that happens. The Council of Foreign Relations Global Health Program began tracking vaccine-preventable disease outbreaks in 2008, and now it’s produced an interactive map that visualizes the data.…

Toilet seats are actually quite clean, and those bacteria they do harbor are mostly harmless. Over at Slate, microbiologist David Coil explains why he’d sooner lick a porcelain throne than a cell phone – and why neither is likely to do him any harm.(Now let’s see him put his money mouth where his mouth is.)

This Table Detects Breast Cancer Using Sound Waves, Not X-Rays

Traditional mammography machines—besides being uncomfortable—rely on ionizing radiation to image a patient’s breasts. And as all we all know, radiation ironically increases the risk of cancer developing. So a company called Delphinus Medical Technologies has developed a safer alternative called the SoftVue which instead uses ultrasonic sound waves bouncing around inside a large water tank.…

Google Is Making Smart Contact Lenses for Better Health Monitoring

A late-breaking surprise just came out of the Google camp with the revelation that it’s going to start making smart contact lenses. As in contact lenses with integrated sensors and circuitry. Yep, it’s that time in the future. But it might not be what you’re hoping for. It isn’t the next generation of heads-up display…

New Class of Drug Shows Promise in the Treatment of Herpes

Genital herpes, one of the most common sexually transmitted infections, remains incurable. But now, newly published findings suggest one of the most promising experimental herpes- treatments in decades can significantly reduce the virus’ ability to replicate and spread, and do so without the side-effects of current therapies Above: TEM micrograph of a herpes simplex virus…

Should you have your next doctor’s visit online?

The house call is long dead. But will over-the-phone and online doctor’s appointments replace it? Mother Jones took a look at the practice of skipping the in-person doctor’s appointment in favor of a phone call, an email, or even the very occasional Skype-appointment to get a prescription — and some of its advantages and disadvantages:…

Scientists Use Gene Therapy to Stop Six People Going Blind

A team of surgeons in Oxford have used a pioneering new form of gene therapy to stop six of their patients going blind--and it’s hoped the technique could be used to treat blindness more generally. The patients all suffer from a genetic condition known as choroideremia, which causes the light-detecting cells at the back of…

How Wind and Dust Are Spreading a Deadly Fungal Disease

Called the “silent epidemic,” a little-known fungal disease called valley fever has become ten times more common in the past decade. Its fungal spores are being spread by dust storms in the American Southwest. Exactly why valley fever suddenly increased has nagged at public health officials, but a piece in The New Yorker suggests something…

Anti-marijuana laws were based on racism, not science

Is marijuana’s beer-like buzz more damaging than what people get from hard liquor? Is there a scientific reason why this drug is deemed so dangerous and illegal? Nope. It turns out that marijuana prohibition laws in the 1930s were designed to prevent “darkies” from thinking “they’re as good as white men.” Over at The Fix,…

Pioneering Womb Transplant Surgeries Prove Successful

Nine women in Sweden have successfully undergone transplant surgery that saw them receive donor wombs from their relatives. The women, mostly in their 30s, will now attempt to have children where it was once thought impossible, having either been born without a uterus or having had it removed due to cervical cancer treatments. The procedure…

No but really, why do we all burp and fart so much?

What makes humans so damn gassy? In a recent installment of SciShow, Hank Green explores the science behind our bodies’ various “gaseous emissions.” Complement with: Why does coffee make you poop? When people explode during colonoscopies Why can farts be set alight?

Drinking Up to Four Cups of Coffee Won’t Dehydrate You At All

The received wisdom is that coffee dehydrates you. Fact. Period. No arguments. But a new study shows that, actually, in moderation, coffee is no less hydrating than water. A team of researchers from Loughborough University, UK, were interested in accurately establishing the effects of coffee drinking on people’s daily balance of fluids. In fact, they…

Why We Need To Sleep In Total Darkness

The modern bedroom is full of lights, from glowing computer monitors and clock radios to any number of blinking and glimmering electronic devices. Trouble is, chronic exposure to light at night leads to a host of health problems. To understand why chronic exposure to light at night is so bad, we need to consider human…