Health

Health Officials Blame Hook Up Apps for Syphilis Spike

The number of syphilis cases is on the rise, and some public health officials think it’s because of Grindr. Well, Grindr and Adam4Adam and, presumably, Tinder and Hinge and OkCupid. These apps all make it easier to find people to have sex with, so naturally they cause more people to get STDs, right? Not exactly.…

Garmin Vivofit Review: Some Good Ideas But Not Quite There

In the ever-expanding pantheon of wearable fitness trackers, Garmin is looking for an open seat, ideally at the Cool Kids’ Table (CKT). Garmin makes some of the best GPS sports watches out there, so expectations were high for the company’s first tracker. While it adds a nice trick or two, the holes are just too…

Inside the Teenage Brain

The teenage brain can be a very strange place indeed—for the owner and anyone around it. This video peers inside the adolescent skull to explain exactly why that’s the case. We all think of adolescence as being a time of physical development, but in fact many of the hormones responsible for those changes also affect…

Why Proper Sterlization Procedures Are Used During Lethal Injections

Besides the fact that manufacturers sterilize the needles (so no real extra effort is needed), other sterilization procedures are also used in these executions for good reason. You see, a stay of execution may happen at the last minute. If this happens, but then the condemned later dies from infection, a wrongful death suit could…

How Implants and Prosthetic Limbs Get Recycled and Reused

Every year, millions of pacemakers, metal hips, and prosthetics outlast the bodies they’re designed for. But these medical devices could very well go on to have a second-life—in cars, wind turbines, and even another person. The implants are, after all, full of valuable metals like titanium or cobalt alloy. Cremation makes the metals easily recoverable,…

How Much Coffee Is Too Much?

Whether it’s served in a demitasse mug or a venti mochachino bucket, coffee is an essential, eye-opening morning ritual for many of us. But at what point does throwing back another vente doing you more harm than good? As you probably know, coffee’s main health concern—its caffeine content—is also why you drink so much of…

Why gluten-free foods aren’t necessarily healthier

Now that many of us are trying to avoid gluten like the plague, a slew of gluten-free products have started appearing in our stores. Unfortunately, many of these foods are advertised or understood as healthy alternatives, which is often far from the truth. Before we get into this, it needs to be pointed out that…

What Is the Resolution of the Human Eye?

The new iPhone camera is 8-megapixels. Meanwhile, Canon is reportedly testing a new DSLR with 75-megapixels. But how many megapixels is the human eye? That is, how many megapixels would an image the size of your field of vision need to be to look normal? Well, as Vsauce explains in its latest video, the better…

Peeing in swimming pools isn’t just gross—it may also be hazardous

While some people are disgusted by the thought of human pee in their pool water, others figure there’s no harm in letting loose a little urine while swimming. It turns out, however, that when urine reacts with chlorinated water, it may be creating chemical byproducts hazardous to everyone in the pool. Cyanogen chloride (CNCl) and…

New Test Predicts Alzheimer’s at Least Three Years in Advance

A new blood test developed by scientists from Georgetown University in Washington DC is capable of predicting onset of Alzheimer’s with 96 percent certainty three years in advance—and that figure could soon stretch to decades. The researchers report their new test in Nature Medicine, explaining that it identifies 10 chemicals in the blood which are…

Reaching a Child with Autism through Disney

When Ron Suskind’s son, Owen, was just shy of three years old, the once talkative child fell silent and turned inward. “Regressive autism,” doctors told Suskind and his wife. The boy became unreachable – until one day, while watching The Little Mermaid, a glimmer of hope. Could the world of Disney serve as a portal…

Meet the World’s Top Virus Hunter

Ian Lipkin, world-renowned virus hunter, is often jetting off to far-flung countries—countries in the middle of strange epidemics, that is. From SARS in China to MERS in Saudi Arabia, his lab has discovered or characterized over 500 viruses previously mysterious to humans. But what’s it like working on the frontlines of an epidemic? How do…

Is Eating Your Boogers Good for You?

Does physically taking boogers out of your nose, putting them in your mouth and swallowing boost your immune system? The short answer is probably not. You ingest your snot all the time without needing to channel it through your mouth. So if there is a benefit here, you get it without needing to munch your…

This Slim iPhone Case Works Like a Real-Life Tricorder

You’ve seen the iPhone accessory that can check your blood pressure, as well as the one that can monitor your heart rate. There’s even one that can turn your phone into an electrocardiogram (ECG). But, now, there’s an iPhone case that can do all of that—and more. Meet Wello. This thin, ultralight iPhone case can…

Sanjay Gupta “Doubles Down” on Weed

Last August, CNN’s Sanjay Gupta publicly apologized for dismissing outright the medical potential of marijuana, and for “[his] own role in previously misleading people.”Now, after months of continued investigation, Gupta says he’s “doubling down” on medical marijuana. Gupta writes extensively on what he calls “a medicine, known scientifically as cannabis” in an article posted yesterday…

A second child may have been cured of HIV

Last March, Mississippi doctors announced that early and aggressive treatment of an HIV-positive newborn had cured the child of her infection. Today, Los Angeles doctors reported that a second child may have been cured by a similar course of treatment, and could help prove that the Mississippi child’s recovery was more than a stroke of…

I Did the World’s First Ice Cream Cleanse: Yes, Really

Back during the no-carb diet craze of the early 2000s, I joked that I wanted to try a diet consisting of nothing but carbs and lipids. I would call it the Fatkins Diet. Guess what? I just did exactly that. I ate ice cream, and only ice cream, for four days straight. Yes, it’s the…

City Cycling: Health Versus Hazard

Are the fitness benefits of riding your bike worth the risk of an accident? Lesley Evans Ogden takes a tour of seven cities on two wheels to find out. It was just another morning commute. That is, until a bus driver ran a red light, turned right, and drove straight into Ann-Doerthe Hass Jensen. The…

Biologists have discovered a rare mutation that kills off the gene responsible for Type 2 diabetes. The mutation, which reduces risk by up to two-thirds (even in obese people), destroys a gene used by pancreas cells where insulin is made. It’s a promising discovery that could result a drug that mimics the mutation’s effect.

Why dark chocolate is good for your health

Confirmed: Dark chocolate is good for your heart. Really good. What’s better, scientists have discovered that people who eat 70 grams of chocolate every day increase their vascular health dramatically by “restoring flexibility to arteries and preventing white cells from sticking to the walls of blood vessels.” The research published in the March 2014 issue…