Monthly Archives: March 2008
- March 31, 2008
- Can you die fron Influenza?
Yes, Influenza is a dangerous infection that claims thousands of lives a year.
About 30,000 people a year die of flu in the US. Most healthy people are able to fight it off ok but the young, old, already ill, or weak can die easily from it.
- March 31, 2008
- Why does my pee smell when I eat asparagus?
Asparagus contains a sulfur compound called mercaptan. It is also found in onions, garlic, rotten eggs, and in the secretions of skunks. The signature smell occurs when this substance is broken down in your digestive system. Not all people have the gene for the enzyme that breaks down mercaptan, so some of you can eat [...]
- March 31, 2008
- Does it really take seven years to digest chewing gum?
What is it with seven years? You break a mirror, seven years of bad luck. Each dog year is seven human years. Seven years to digest swallowed gum? What if a dog broke a mirror then swallowed a pack of gum? Sounds like an algebra problem.
Chewing gum is not digestible but it definitely doesn’t sit [...]
- March 29, 2008
- Does marijuana help glaucoma?
There are some important medical uses for marijuana, and some of these lead to solid arguments for legalization. However, the use of marijuana for glaucoma does not appear to have any benefit over available medications.
Marijuana does reduce pressure in the eye, but in order to sustain this reduction you would have to smoke about ten [...]
- March 23, 2008
- Why do boys sleep later in the morning during puberty?
Life requires at least three ingredients – water, heat, and carbonbased molecules. With adolescents, there’s a fourth requirement: beds.
Almost all teens – male and female – seem to crave the opportunity to “sleep in”. this probably seems more pronounced in boys, because it doesn’t seem so long ago when your little tyke was up at [...]
- March 20, 2008
- Will yogurt cure a yeast infection if you put it “inside”?
Yogurt may have some role in helping prevent yeast infections, but only when you put it in the correct orifice – your mouth.
Yogurt does have some very interesting health properties. Some women find eating one cup of yogurt a day while taking antibiotics is helpful in preventing the yeast infections that often follow such treatment; [...]
- March 19, 2008
- Why is one of my breasts growing faster than the other?
None of us is perfectly symmetrical. Unfortunately, especially for girls growing up in our culture, we spend an inordinate amount of time emulating the seemingly perfect bisymmetry of people like Jessica Simpson, Tyra Banks, and, of course, Barbie. But unless you’re made out of extruded plastic in a mold in some factory in Malaysia, there [...]
- March 19, 2008
- Why does your voice change at puberty?
Ah, yes, what a dignified time of life – when, in the course of the same sentence, you can sound like Issac Hayes and Alvin the Chipmunk.
Your larynx is a hollow, tube-shaped piece of cartilage that is located at the top of your trachea (windpipe). There are two thin muscles – called vocal cords – [...]
- March 10, 2008
- Are there any books about farting?
There are several! My favorite is the new book, Who Cut the Cheese: A Cultural History of the Fart by Jim Dawson. This book provides an entertaining and thought-provoking history of the fart in literature, language and society. It is very informative and very funny!
Ben Franklin’s classic Fart Proudly is still in print. [...]
- March 5, 2008
- Can a cockroach get stuck in my ear?
Remember when you were told not to put anything bigger than your elbow in your ear? The roaches weren’t listening. It is not uncommon to see patients in the emergency room with cockroaches in their ears. The cockroaches have an easy time crawling in but they aren’t very good at backing out. A moving cockroach [...]
