Health

I Toned My Weak Vagina With This Little Blue Blob

The thought was delivered just after my newborn’s placenta: A sneaking suspicion that things were not quite the same down there, and they might never be again. I was reminded of the kGoal, a device that claimed it could tone my ladyparts back into pre-baby shape. Once my daughter had finished using my vagina as…

A Sick Note We All Wish Our Doctors Would Write

In Canada and elsewhere, it’s common practice for employers to demand a doctor’s note when calling in sick. But as this letter from a doctor in Calgary so eloquently points out, it’s not just a headache for employees — it’s also a burden on the system. Image: Reddit via eagle66 This unverified sick note was…

The Most Popular Antidepressants Are Based On An Outdated Theory [UPDATED]

One in ten Americans takes an anti-depressant drug like Zoloft or Prozac. These drugs have been shown to work in some patients, but their design is based on a so-called “chemical imbalance” theory of depression that is incomplete, at best. Image Credit: Tom Varco | CC BY-SA 3.0 The number of people taking antidepressants has…

How Does Genre Affect Popular Musicians’ Life Expectancy?

Do all popular musicians live hard and fast, take risks and die young? Image Credit: Surian Soosay via flickr | CC BY 2.0 This article is the third in a series examining mortality in popular musicians. To recap, the first article examined longevity, suicide, murder and accidental death rates in pop musicians compared with population…

The Science of Why Chicken Goes Bad So Quickly

Food-borne bacteria are the primary cause of spoilage and food poisonings. Thriving in moist, low-acid environments where lots of protein is present, pathogens like Salmonella, Campylobacter and E. coli live with the bird during its life and stay with its meat after slaughter; likewise, other bacteria, such a Acinetobacter and Pseudomonads fluroescens, putida or fragi,…

Do You Suffer From ‘Exploding Head Syndrome’? You’re Not Alone.

New findings indicate nearly one in five college-age students has been startled awake by an abrupt, loud noise that doesn’t actually exist. Known as “exploding head syndrome,” the psychological condition appears to be more common and disruptive than previously thought. Art by Jim Cooke. Some of you may already be familiar with exploding head syndrome…

Wondering What To Expect After A Medical Abortion? Read This.

The latest installment of Oh Joy, Sex Toy offers an accessible, informative, and non-judgmental overview of medical abortion, one of several choices available to newly pregnant persons. The comic is well worth reading in its entirety. It links to a number of resources and medical studies, and deals with everything from basic anatomy to abortion…

Nootropics and the Human Lab Rats of Reddit

Eric Matzner tells me he takes 30 to 40 pills a day. He is 27 and perfectly healthy. Thanks to the pills, he says he hasn’t had a cold in years. More importantly, the regimen is supposed to optimize the hell out of his brain, smoothing right over the ravages of aging, sleep deprivation, and…

How a Bee Sting Saved My Life

Ellie Lobel was ready to die. Then she was attacked by bees. Christie Wilcox hears how venom can be a saviour. “I moved to California to die.” Ellie Lobel was 27 when she was bitten by a tick and contracted Lyme disease. And she was not yet 45 when she decided to give up fighting…

Timing your meals can have all sorts of effects — good and bad. NPR talked to scientists about how eating late at night can be detrimental and eating early in the morning can be healthy.

Can an On-Demand IV Really Cure a Hangover?

Last night, I drank a lot of tequila. It was very good tequila! But it was a lot, probably an irresponsible amount for a school night. I slept poorly, and when I woke up, my brain felt like an egg yolk getting swirled around in a bowl, ready to break. I needed a cure. The…

Americans — Why Is Your Insulin So Expensive?

Insulin has saved countless lives since its discovery in 1921. But nearly a century later, there is somehow still no cheap, generic version of insulin available in the U.S—making the “wonder drug” too expensive for many patients. Why? In the New England Journal of Medicine, Jerome Greene and Kevin Riggs call it the “paradox of…

Why You Need To Avoid Those All-Too-Frequent “Sad Desk Lunches”

You know by now that sitting prunes lifespans, negates workouts, and outright kills people. Ugh, sitting. The worst, right? Well, not technically. Standing too much is also bad for you, and apparently plain old sitting can’t hold a candle (in terms of sheer terribleness) to eating lunch while sitting at your desk. And yet, an…

What Disabled People Can Teach Us About Sex – And Why We Should Listen

The sexuality of disabled people has long been suppressed and exploited. But in recent years, people with physical and cognitive impairments have been pushing back, fighting for sexual citizenship, and upending standard notions of gender, pleasure, and sexuality. Top photo featured by kind permission of Sofie Middernacht and Maarten Alexande Millie Dollar sashays onto the…

Yes, Dangerously Low Vaccination Rates Are Fueling The Measles Outbreak

A new research letter published in JAMA Pediatrics is the first to positively link low vaccination rates to the Disneyland measles outbreak that emerged in California late last year. The new research also shows how frighteningly fast measles can spread in a population that’s insufficiently immunized against the highly contagious virus. Calculations made by a…

Knuckle Cracking is Probably Not Dangerous, Just Annoying

Is cracking your knuckles dangerous? Is it really going to give you arthritis, or, like the rumor that gum will sit in your stomach for seven years, is this just another thing your mom made up to straighten out your bad habits? For those who’ve made a lifelong habit of creaking and cracking their joints,…

South African Surgeons Claim “First Successful” Penis Transplant. Is It?

After losing all but one centimeter of his penis to a botched circumcision, an anonymous 21-year-old man from South Africa has found himself on the receiving end of the world’s first successful penis transplant, according to the surgical team that performed the procedure. But was it actually the first? Above: The surgical team behind the…

Measles Could Cause More Deaths Than Ebola In West Africa

West Africa’s Ebola outbreak could be stanched by mid-year – but in the epidemic’s wake, another public health crisis looms. Disruption of the region’s already feeble health care systems has derailed health campaigns targeting childhood diseases, leaving the door wide open for measles and other preventable illnesses. Above: A mother brings her sick child for…

Many People Hear Voices — and It Isn’t Always a Sign of Illness

Have you ever had a voice in your head that didn’t feel like your own? Or heard a voice speaking out loud that you know wasn’t really there? Psychologists used to say these were signs of mental illness. But now it turns out that they aren’t that unusual — and even people who hear a…

How The Sugar Industry Continues To Subvert Public Health Policies

A recent analysis of nearly 320 internal sugar industry documents from 1959 to 1971 shows how the industry sought to influence the setting of U.S. research priorities during that time. Disturbingly, it’s a strategy that continues to this very day. Forty or 50 years ago, at least in the United States, tooth decay was seen…