Monthly Archives: November 2008
- November 20, 2008
- Why shouldn’t pregnant women dye their hair?
There are several studies that look at the relationship between maternal hair dyes and childhood diseases, including childhood brain tumors. Don’t expect ot find any information that praises the health benefits of hair dyeing, but you won’t find any evidence that it is particularly dangerous either.
Even though there are no studies linking hair dyes to [...]
- November 17, 2008
- Why do you have a “bionic” sense of smell when you are pregnant?
The journal Chemical Senses isn’t usually at the top of my reading list, but it certainly came in handy to answer this question. In 2004 it published an article entitled “A Longitudinal Descriptive Study of Self-Reported Abnormal Smell and Taste Perception in Pregnant Women.” The article described the “odor hedonics” of pregnancy. Say what? I [...]
- November 15, 2008
- When you are on antiretroviral therapy, can you transmit the virus to others?
Antiretroviral therapy for HIV does not prevent an infected person from passing on the virus to others. It can keep viral load down to undetectable levels, but HIV is still present in the body and can be transmitted to others through sexual contact, by sharing injecting equipment, or from mothers to their infants during pregnancy, [...]
- November 15, 2008
- Is it true that some people eat the placenta?
The closest thing that we found when looking for documentation of human placentophagia was that certain mammals do eat the placenta. Oh, and Billy’s friend Gail likes Polenta. But that really doesn’t have much to do with the answer.
The internet has many references to eating the placenta and recipes abound. It is unclear whether this [...]
- November 6, 2008
- Will eating extra protein help build muscle mass?
If you have ever spent any time in Venice, California, or in Leyner’s kitchen, you might have seen someone gorging himself on obscene amounts of egg whites prior to a workout.
Protein is a very important component of the diet, especially for athletes, but the amount of protein needed is often grossly overestimated. Eating tons [...]
- November 6, 2008
- Should you eat a lot of carbohydrates the night before a marathon?
If you plan to run the New York City Marathon this year, you should reserve your Saturday night for the annual marathon eve dinner at Tavern on the Green. You can be sure that it will be a carbohydrate-heavy meal since its sponsor is a pasta company. Most marathons have similar meals, but these pre-event [...]
- November 3, 2008
- Do animals masturbate?
Yes, animals masturbate, as anyone with a leg that has been vigorously humped by a randy Jack Russell terrier will readily attest. (I know, humping may also be a form of play and an expression of dominance, but it’s obviously sexual, and some dogs have orgasms doing it, so let’s be real about it.)
According to [...]
- November 2, 2008
- Do toads cause warts?
Poor poor toads. They seem to always take a backseat to frogs. Frogs get kissed and turn into princes and turn into princes and toads just get to cause warts. Well, here is some good news for toads. Toads do not cause warts. Toads do, however, produce a substance from the parotid gland behind the [...]
- November 1, 2008
- Are some people really tone deaf?
All you have to do is listen to Billy and his wife sing in the car and you will know that the answer is yes.
Tone deafness is the inability to recognize musical tones or reproduce them. It is also called amusia or dysmelodia. This can occur after a traumatic brain injury, but it can also [...]
