health

Article

How Long Will You Live?

Dan Buettner, a writer, explorer, and endurance bicycler, gave a TED Talk in September 2009 entitled: How to live to be 100+. In the talk, he cites the Danish Twin Study, suggesting that much of our lifespan (within certain biological limits) is dictated by our lifestyle, not our genes. So what is the optimal lifestyle? Which diet is best? What sort of exercise is best? How do spirituality and social life affect lifespan? Buettner decided to initiate his own study, in which he studied the world's... READ ON

Article

What Not to Eat: Chain Restaurant Pasta

The Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) has an eye-opening video demonstrating the health hazards of eating at major Italian-style restaurant chains (they focused on the Olive Garden and Romano's Macaroni Grill, the two largest such chains in the US). Remember when the CSPI called fettucini Alfredo a "heart attack on a plate" in 1994? Well, there are more heart attacks where that came from. How about the Olive Garden's innocuous-sounding Spaghetti with Meatballs...well, it's got roughly... READ ON

Article

Dogs May Prevent Asthma In Kids

A recent study by the University of Arizona has shown that having a dog around children will not cause asthma, and may actually help prevent it. The National Institutes of Health were so impressed with the results of the study that they are investing almost a million dollars into a grant to have the researchers make their results more conclusive. "Several longitudinal studies have shown that exposure to certain domestic animals, for example, indoor dogs, during a person's early life (even... READ ON

Article

Airing TONIGHT on PBS - NOVA: What Are Dreams?

NOVA: What Are Dreams? airs on PBS stations in the US tonight, Tuesday, November 24. This is a terrific documentary on dreams, packed with specifics on the science of sleep. If you've ever wondered about sleepwalking, why we dream, or why sleep is necessary, this is the documentary for you! Note: after the air date, the entire program will be available for streaming for one full week on the Nova: What Are Dreams website. I'm a big fan of NOVA, the science program aired on PBS stations in the US. I... READ ON

List

7 Famous Hoarders

Do you have trouble throwing stuff out? Afraid to let go of that old remote control for the broken TV you've got stored away in the basement just in case you might need it someday? You might be suffering from disposophobia, sometimes called pathological hoarding. Of course, there's a big difference between needing to exorcise your clutter and hoarding, pack rat-style. Disposophobia is a serious form of OCD, and one not to be taken lightly, as the following seven people prove. 1. & 2. Homer and Langley... READ ON

Article

What Does it Matter if I'm Allergic to Eggs? (A Flu Shot FAQ)

Since we're right in the middle of flu shot season, here are the answers to a few questions you might be mulling over on your way to get your injection of this year's vaccine cocktail. How long have flu shots been... READ ON

Article

We See With the Eyes, But We See With the Brain as Well...

"We see with the eyes, but we see with the brain as well, and seeing with the brain is often called 'imagination,' and we are familiar with the landscapes of our own imagination, our 'inscapes,' we've lived with them all our lives. But there are also hallucinations as well, and hallucinations are completely different...they seem to come from the outside, and to mimic perception." With those words, world-famous neurologist Oliver Sacks begins a fascinating twenty-minute talk on hallucination, which you... READ ON

Article

Baby Powder: Killing You Softly?

The Greeks used it to construct building materials. The Romans used it to clean up blood after gladiator contests. King Charlemagne is said to have sprinkled it in with egg whites to keep his hair stiff and glistening on the battlefield, a sort of ancient-school mousse. Yes, talc has been used in one way or another for centuries. Besides being the main ingredient in baby powder, these days talc can be found in everything from flea and tick powders to deodorants, chalk and crayons, soap, and circuit boards.... READ ON

Article

Do Blind People See Things in Their Dreams?

A question from reader Josiah: "Do blind people see when they dream?Â I think there are two sides to the question, dealing with people who were born blind, and those who used to be able to see." Whether visual imagery is present in the dreams of the blind has been pondered by scientists since the early 19th century. Josiah is right about that last part. People who are sighted, people who were born sighted but were blinded later in life, and people who were born blind all dream differently. As the... READ ON

Article

How Does Scratching Relieve an Itch?

If you have an itch, you scratch it. Scratch and itch; they go together like peas and carrots and everyone—humans, apes, dogs and cats—knows it. What we didn't understand for a very long time was the physiological connection between the two—why a good scratch relieves a bad itch. A study by a group of neuroscientists at the University of Minnesota recently explained the itch-scratch link.* The group hypothesized that the relief mechanism doesn't take place along the... READ ON