Italian Scientists Report Patient Who Sweats Blood
Profuse sweating can lead to embarrassing pit stains and discomfort, sure. But you are sweating sweat. This Italian patient sweats blood.
Georgia Rep. Betty Price Ponders Whether State Could Just 'Quarantine' People With HIV
Georgia State Rep. Betty Price—spouse of former Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price, who recently left his role in Donald Trump’s administration after taking a few too many taxpayer-funded charter flights—casually asked a state epidemiologist whether it would be more cost-effective to just force HIV-positive…
The Butchering Art: Victorian Medicine, From Blood-Caked Aprons and Body Snatching, to Antiseptic
“Ticketed spectators watched anatomists slice into the distended bellies of decomposing corpses, parts gushing forth not only human blood but also fetid pus. The lilting but incongruous notes of a flute sometimes accompanied the macabre demonstration. Public dissections were theatrical performances,” writes Dr.…
It’s Not Legal to Get an Abortion Online, But Maybe It Should Be
Almost half of all early abortions are done with the simple action of taking a few pills. The pills are safe to take at home, with very low rates of complications. So why can’t you get them through an online doctor’s service, like we can with birth control pills and other medication?
The FDA is Considering a Landmark Approval of Gene Therapy to Cure Blindness
On Tuesday, a US Food and Drug Administration review committee published a document signaling that a historic moment in medicine may be on the horizon. The committee found that an experimental gene therapy for a rare inherited form of blindness improves vision, at least in the short term. If approved, the technique…
Injectable ‘Elastic Glue’ Seals Wounds in Just 60 Seconds
An innovative surgical glue developed by researchers from the United States and Australia seals wounds quickly and without the need for staples or stitches. The squirtable substance could eventually be used in surgeries and in emergency situations, though it still needs to be tested on humans.
Watch Freakishly Agile Lice Swing on Pubes Like Trapeze Artists
If you’ve ever had to deal with an infestation of lice, you know that these parasites really like to get in there. A horrifying new video reveals the mad acrobatic chops that enable lice to make your hair their home, flinging themselves from strand to strand with the greatest of ease.
Out-of-Control Plastic Surgeons' Snapchat Hijinks Are Putting Patients at Risk
Plastic surgeons can get a lot of business through social media, but some surgeons take the entertainment aspect to extremes: dancing on camera during surgery, for example, or cradling someone’s excised tissue like a baby. The American Society of Plastic Surgeons wants to crack down.
Puerto Rico Is on the Brink of a Terrifying Public Health Crisis
When Hurricane Maria struck Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands as a Category 4 storm this past month, it immediately brought devastation from winds, flooding, and storm surge to many Americans. The entire island lost electricity. While there’s been some recovery to the power grid and shorter gas lines, the next…
Do Please Enjoy This Clip of a Boy Who Inhaled a Whistle Whistling When He Inhales
Take it from a wise 20-something: you will, at some point, require medical attention for something entirely avoidable and at least somewhat embarrassing. Just how embarrassing it is may vary, but it’s OK. It happens to the best of us.
Here's How The Body Keeps Time, Thanks to This Year's Nobel Winning Science
The human body is like a computer in a whole lot of ways. It’s got a processor, it’s got memory, it needs energy to run, it can solve problems, and, uh, it sees its fair share of porn. But it also has a clock—one whose mechanics have only been delved into fairly recently.
New ‘Chemical Surgery’ Technique Repairs Mutations in Human Embryos
For the first time, a research team from China used a new technique to fix a blood disorder in human embryos. The scientists performed “chemical surgery”—a procedure that rewrites errors in genetic code instead of snapping and replacing strands of faulty DNA, which is the central strategy employed by the CRISPR gene…
Man Learns Suspected Lung Tumor Is Playmobil Traffic Cone He Inhaled 40 Years Earlier
In many ways, the human body is a storage locker. For hopes and petty frustrations, for meat and way too many bones, and—as one 47-year-old British man recently discovered—sometimes even childhood toys you forgot you inhaled several decades ago.
A Mutated Strain of ‘Super Malaria’ Is Spreading at an Alarming Rate
In a disturbing development, a newly-mutated strain of drug-resistant malaria has spread into Vietnam, complicating efforts to contain the the mosquito-borne virus in Southeast Asia, and potentially posing a global threat.
Opioids Are Shaving Months Off U.S. Life Expectancy
The United States has an opioid problem. Heroin overdose deaths rates have tripped since 2010 according to one report—and overall opioid overdose death rates have tripled since 2000. It’s not going away.
Horrible Flesh Eating Parasite Could Get a Vaccine One Day
Being healthy is good. That is what we should all aspire to be: Not dead, but with all of our flesh on our bodies intact. Unfortunately for us humans, having our flesh eaten is one of the possible side effects of being alive.
Why a Drug Company Is Selling Patents to a Native American Tribe
Some especially strange and unprecedented news broke late last week: Drug company Allergan sold the patent for its medication Restasis to the St. Regis Mohawk Tribe in Upstate New York. The tribe will exclusively license the drug back to the company, saving the potentially vulnerable patent from the competition of…
Particles in Tattoos Can Travel to Lymph Nodes, Study Finds
Tattoos are very cool and I do not want to say bad things about them. Evidence of tattooing dates back thousands of years, and the art form has a long history across the world in various cultures. Tattooing has associations with wealth, crime, or seafaring depending on where in history you look. Today, there’s no…
CDC Finds Lead Poisoning in Child Who Wore 'Homeopathic Magnetic Hematite Healing Bracelet'
Homeopathy is, at best, worthless and potentially dangerous. Lead poisoning is always bad and dangerous. Lead poisoning from a supposedly homeopathic product is thus ultra-terrible.
Why These Bats Laugh in the Face of North America’s Most Venomous Scorpion
When pallid bats are stung by an Arizona bark scorpion, they shrug it off as if nothing even happened, which is odd considering this predatory arachnid is the most venomous scorpion in all of North America. New research explains how this unusual level of immunity is possible—a finding that could translate to an…
