Content tagged with “health” under “Stuff I Looked Up”

There are 9 item(s) tagged with “health” in this section.

See items tagged with “health” across the entire site.

Other tags used by these items: pharmacy, vaccines, history, math, geography, obesity

1976 Swine Flu Vaccine
Explanation
February 13, 2022
692

“I am a vaccine skeptic skeptic , meaning I absolutely believe in vaccines and have little time for people who imagine negative health outcomes from them. I think there’s ample evidence that vaccines are the single greatest health advancement that Mankind has ever known, and most beliefs that…”

Active Ingredient
Explanation
124

“This is the ingredient in a medicine or treatment that is biologically active, meaning it has some interaction or effect on cells in the human body. Colloquially, it seems to mean ‘the thing in this medicine that actually does something,’ as opposed to other aspects of a medicine that are related…”

Apoplexy
Stuff I Looked Up
Explanation
September 29, 2024
170

“This is and outdated term for a stroke. It was used to refer to someone dying spontaneously, usually due to some internal bleeding, often cerebral. As an adjective, to be ‘apoplectic,’ is to be angry to the (figurative) verge of having a stroke. I don’t think anyone was every literally apoplectic….”

Apothecary
Stuff I Looked Up
Explanation
December 23, 2021
259

“This is an old name for what would be called a ‘pharmacist’ today. I’m not saying it was a pharmacist, because usage of the name stretches back thousands of years, and we wouldn’t call what they did back then ‘pharmacy.’ However, it filled the same basic role. Apothecaries prepared medicines, old…”

Autoimmune Disease
Stuff I Looked Up
Explanation
August 3, 2024
137

“This is any number of different conditions where the human body’s immune system attacks healthy systems – the body essentially fights itself. The descriptor ‘autoimmune’ is a category, not a specific condition. Common autoimmune diseases include: Arthritis (the body attacks joint tissue) Crohn’s…”

Breathing Into A Paper Bag
Stuff I Looked Up
Explanation
September 8, 2021
201

“This is a supposed treatment for hyperventilation. Hyperventilation is when someone starts breathing rapidly due to stress. It’s become a common trope to represent a character reacting unfavorably to something. For most people, this is rare. When someone breathes too rapidly, this lowers the carbon…”

Calculus
Stuff I Looked Up
Explanation
January 16, 2025
150

“Calculus is the hard substance that plaque turns into if it’s not removed – otherwise known as ‘tartar.’ This is the stuff that the dental hygenist is scraping off your teeth during your visit. It can also refer to a hard mass of some kind, often one in the kidney or the bladder. The name comes…”

Cataract
Stuff I Looked Up
Explanation
October 1, 2022
520

“This is from the Greek ‘kataraktes,’ which means ‘downrush.’ Clearly, most people know ‘cataract’ from the disorder of the mammalian eye. So, how did that get named for a waterfall? Wikipedia has some theories : As rapidly running water turns white, so the term may have been used metaphorically to…”

Metabolic Syndrome
Stuff I Looked Up
Explanation
December 25, 2022
156

“There are five conditions which are very common among people who are generally unhealthy. They are: High blood sugar Low levels of HDL (‘good’ cholesterol) High levels of triglycerides Large amount of abdominal fat High blood pressure If you have three of these conditions, that is considered to be…”