Category Archives: Health
- July 26, 2008
- Does a calcium deficiency cause rough nails?
There are two facets of our anatomies that are basically dead. (By dead, I mean not sentient, not comprised of living cells, inanimate, muerto, y’know…dead.) Our hair and nails. (The parts we cut, shave, and clip.) And yet we seem to spend an inordinate amount of time worrying about these very parts…
Ironic, isn’t it? I [...]
- July 25, 2008
- Can you get toe fungus from a pedicure?
Is there danger lurking down at the local Happy Nails? The fungus among us is something doctors affectionately call onychomycosis, and it’s fairly common. Some 15 percent of us have it and almost half of people over the age of seventy suffer from this ailment, which causes the toenail-particularly on the big toe-to become thick [...]
- July 23, 2008
- Can you get herpes from a hot tub?
So, you settle in for a nice soak, without a care in the world. But is there danger lurking in the water?
Well, we don’t want to be the bearers of bad news, but if that whirlpool or hot tub isn’t properly cleaned or chlorinated, you could end up with a nice body rash. The Centers [...]
- July 18, 2008
- Why does your get thinner as you age?
As we get older, there are some unavoidable processes at work that age our skin. This is something we will all experience and there’s not really much we can do to prevent it. When a person ages, his or her epidermal cells-the cells at the outer skin layer-become thinner, which makes the skin appear noticeably [...]
- July 16, 2008
- Do growing pains really exist?
Growing up-in and of itself-is an enormous pain in the butt. The grades, the melodramatic infatuations, the looming necessity of earning a living… And hey, why do homework when , in five billion years, the sun is going to exhaust all its nuclear fuel and collapse into a dead, cold, shrunken cinder? And I didn’t [...]
- July 14, 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-that are stretched across the trachea, [...]
- July 12, 2008
- Does drinking milk really make you taller?
We know our response to this one is going to be greeted with howls of indignant protest from moms all over the world… But the answer is no.
There is no special “growth factor” in milk. Not that milk and other calcium-rich dairy products aren’t wonderfully nutritious. Calcium is essential for helping promote stronger bones. And [...]
- July 12, 2008
- Does falling in love really cause chemical changes in your brain?
Why does falling in love turn seemingly rational, even-keeled, considerate people into deranged, raving, volatile, self-centered psychos in dire need of an exorcism, especially teenagers?
Welcome to Cupid’s laboratory. There is indeed a biochemistry of love. Helen Fisher, an anthropology professor at Rutgers University-along with two colleagues, Arthur Aron and Lucy Brown-used an MRI machine to [...]
- July 5, 2008
- Does television really rot kids’ brains?
How many parents have gazed despairingly at their children who sit comatose in front of the TV for what seems like eons of uninterrupted viewing, their eyes glazed, their sallow faces awash in that bluish glow? Surely this is rotting their brains, wiping clean whole neural networks, all cognitive functioning flickering off, neuron by neuron [...]
- July 3, 2008
- Why should you breathe into a paper bag when hyperventilating?
This is a classic home remedy and something that we occasionally rely on in the emergency room, but not everyone who is hyperventilating should be given the bag. Hyperventilation is a fancy word for rapid deep breathing. It is usually caused by anxiety or panic, but many conditions can cause hyperventilation including: asthma, heart attack, [...]
- July 1, 2008
- Does washing your hands really prevent disease?
Do those instant hand sanitizers really work?
The answer is a resounding yes! Few things are as certain as this in medicine. There is no doubt that washing your hands can prevent disease.
The problem is getting people to do it. A study in the Annals of Internal Medicine looked at the rate of hand washing among [...]
- June 27, 2008
- Does laughter have healing powers?
You might be surprised to know that there is significant evidence that humor can do a body good. Perhaps you have read “Modulation of Neuroimmune Parameters During the Eustress of Humor-associated Mirthful Laughter” in the March 2001 issue of Alternative Therapies in Health & Medicine. This study tested blood samples of over fifty men, before [...]
- June 23, 2008
- How can we still not cure the common cold?
We can map the human genome, clone a sheep, send a man t the moon, and even infuse bottled water with 100 percent of the daily recommended allowance of vitamins and minerals… So how is it that we still can’t cure the common cold?
It’s not as though scientists haven’t tried. It’s just that the odds [...]
- June 22, 2008
- Why don’t people who take nitroglycerin for their heart ever blow up?
If you are a fan of the old Roadrunner cartoons, you probably remember the coyote blowing himself up time and time again trying to handle explosive nitroglycerin. If the coyote had so many troubles, why can heart patients carry around their nitroglycerin pills without any danger?
This question is made even more intriguing by the fact [...]
- June 20, 2008
- Why do dog and cat farts smell so bad?
A carnivore’s protein-rich diet produces relatively small amounts of intensely stinky gas because proteins contain lots of sulfur. A dog’s or cat’s farts are rarely audible, but the odor is overwhelming. I have asked biologists why dogs and cats generally fart silently, and their theories include:
the amount of gas produced is small, but [...]
- June 18, 2008
- Is Propecia or Rogaine helpful for hair loss?
There are many options for people who are suffering from hair loss. Options include: shaving it all off like Kojak or Michael Jordan, growing the remaining hair as long as possible and attempting a “comb-over”, or enrolling in the Hair Club for Men and taking the toupee route. If none of these choices work for [...]
- June 16, 2008
- Do magnets work to cure pain?
Thanks to a variety of questionable claims, the medical magnet business is booming. Annual sales are about $300 million in the United States alone and over $1 billion worldwide. Magnets have been said to increase circulation, reduce inflammation, speed recovery from injuries, relieve low back pain, and even increase longevity and aid in cancer treatment. [...]
- June 15, 2008
- At what time of day is a gentleman most likely to fart?
A gentleman is mostly likely to fart first thing in the morning, while in the bathroom. This is known as “morning thunder,” and if the gentleman gets good resonance, it can be heard throughout the household.
- June 10, 2008
- What is Maggot Therapy and Leech Therapy?
Maggot Therapy and Leech Therapy
It is not uncommon for us to see a homeless patient come in with a leg infection that is covered in maggots. After we brush away the “bugs” (maggots are actually flies at a larval stage), the wounds are surprisingly clean.
Yes, maggots eat away dead tissue and leave only the healthy [...]
- June 10, 2008
- Is it true that some people never fart?
No, not if they’re alive. People even fart shortly after death.
- June 8, 2008
- Why do they call it your funny bone if it hurts so bad?
Now, this is some serous medical humor. The “funny bone” refers to the superficial site where the ulnar nerve crosses the elbow. The name funny bone apparently came from a pun in the 1800s. It’s a play on the word humorous and the upper arm bone, the humerus.
Try and contain your laughter.
The pain that you [...]
- June 8, 2008
- Do even movie stars fart?
Yes, of course. So do grandmothers, priests, kings, presidents, opera singers, beauty queens, and nuns. Even Yoda farts.
- June 6, 2008
- Does arthritis flair up in bad weather?
We know what’s going to happen when we say that there is no relationship between weather changes and arthritis. It will happen on some obscure radio program in Scottsdale, Arizona. The host will take calls, and some angry senior will call in, get all indignant, and berate us about the misinformation that we are irresponsibly [...]
- June 5, 2008
- How does aspirin find the pain?
Aspirin is really a magical little pill and probably one of the most important medications available. Aspirin has a very powerful preventive effect associated with strokes and heart disease. But most of us know it for curing pain, and it’s common for people to wonder just how aspirin knows how to find that aching area.
The [...]
- June 5, 2008
- How long does it take fart gas to travel to someone else’s nose?
Fart travel time depends on atmospheric conditions such as humidity and wind speed, as well as the distance between the fart transmitter and the fart receiver. Farts also disperse (spread out) as they leave the source, and their potency diminishes with dilution. Generally, if the fart is not detected within a few seconds, it will [...]
- June 3, 2008
- Why do feet smell?
The fancy term for smelly feet is bromohydrosis. Hyperhidrosis refers to sweaty feet. In our family we call it “swamp foot”.
Foot odor is caused primarily from sweat, and the feet contain an estimated quarter of a million sweat glands. Just as in the armpits, foot sweat is odor-free when it comes out, but the bacteria [...]
- June 3, 2008
- Why does it feel so hot outside when it is 90 degrees if our body temperature is 98.6?
This is a great question that we have been asked many times. There is a relatively simple explanation.
It’s all about the thermoregulation. Doesn’t sound very simple, does it? That’s why we’re here. Our bodies are constantly producing heat from our metabolism. This heat needs to go somewhere. Thermoregulation is the mechanism by which our body [...]
- June 1, 2008
- Why does sucking on helium make your voice sound funny?
Helium is a colorless, odorless noble gas. The noble moniker doesn’t make sense when you imagine a grown man at child’s party taking a balloon, inhaling, and then giggling like a five-year-old when he hears his own squeaky cartoonlike voice.
Helium causes this voice change by altering the environment where sound is formed. In normal conditions, [...]
- May 30, 2008
- How much gas does a normal person pass per day?
On average, a person produces about half a liter of fart gas per day, distributed over an average of about fourteen daily farts.
Whereas it may be difficult for you to determine your daily flatus volume, you can certainly keep track of your daily numerical fart count. You might try this as a science fair [...]
- May 28, 2008
- What turns snot green?
People are obsessed with the color of their secretions. In the hospital, you often get detailed descriptions about the color changes in a person’s stool, urine, or sputum. Stool color changes can reflect illness, but urine color is rarely helpful unless blood is present. As for snot, identifying the rainbow of possibilities may be helpful [...]
- May 28, 2008
- Why do farts make noise?
The sounds are produced by vibrations of the anal opening. Sounds depend on the velocity of expulsion of the gas and the tightness of the sphincter muscles of the anus.
- May 26, 2008
- Why do older people fart more than younger people?
We tried to find the derivation of the expression “old fart” but were unsuccessful. We will have to assume that is has something to do with an older person’s propensity to let his flatulence fly without any regard for where he is when he is passing wind.
There are some reasons why the elderly would be [...]
- May 25, 2008
- Can bald men get lice?
So you are going bald, but trying to look on the bright side, right? You make a list of all the positives: no wasting time in the morning with hairstyling, less money spent on products, no more hat head, no dandruff, and of course, no head lice.
Well, you may not be so lucky. You don’t [...]
- May 25, 2008
- How many parts does the human heart have?
The human heart is made up of four different blood-filled areas, and each of these areas is called a chamber.
There are two chambers on each side of the heart. One chamber is on the top and one chamber is on the bottom. The two chambers on top are called the atria. If you’re talking only [...]
- May 25, 2008
- What makes farts stink?
The odor of farts comes from small amounts of hydrogen sulfide gas and skatole in the mixture. These compounds contain sulfur. The more sulfur-rich your diet, the more sulfides and skatole will be produced by the bacteria in your guts, and the more your farts will stink. Foods such as cauliflower, eggs and meat are [...]
- May 23, 2008
- Why are beans so notorious for making people fart?
Beans contain sugars that we humans cannot digest. When these sugars reach our intestines, the bacteria go wild, have a big feast, and make lots of gas!
Other notorious fart-producing foods include corn, bell peppers, cabbage, milk, and raisins.
A friend of mine had a dog who was exceptionally fond of apples and turnips. The dog [...]
