Content tagged with “health”

“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…”

“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…”

“ An Austrian man was a dwarf until the age of 20. Then he started growing to end up almost 8-feet fall. ”

“ Chris Duntsch was a very, very bad surgeon. He killed or maimed 90% of his patients, but no one wanted to speak up and embarrass the hospitals where he worked. ”

“ The annual American Psychiatric Association conference is an orgy of the absurd and a symbol of everything wrong with American medicine. ”

“This is and outdated term for a stroke.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….”

“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…”

“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…”

“ A short memoir of a lesbian who transitioned, and what he learned about manhood in the process from the men in his life. Equal parts inspiring and heart-breaking. ”

“This is a sobering book. It’s about dying, and what we can and should do at the end of someone’s life. But it’s a necessary book. The American medical system is designed to keep people alive, no matter what. But is that always the right answer? When is life not worth living? The book is not about…”

“I love Atul Gawande, but I didn’t love this book. It wasn’t what I expected, which I normally take as my own fault, but I don’t think it’s what anyone would expect from this book. But, first, the book is really interesting. He has a total Malcolm Gladwell thing going on with this book – it’s a…”

“This is a book about pooping. Not personally, but as a species. How we deal with our poop, around the world. It’s what I call a ‘vignette book.’ Over 10 or so chapters, the author tells disconnected stories that each explain some aspect of the story of poop. Examples: The World Toilet Conference…”

“I’m a terrible eater. I generally eat too much, only to be partially saved by very good gym habits. I’ve been actively trying to cut back my caloric intake. While counting calories get a bad rap, the fact remains that most people in The First World consume far too many calories daily. Left to my…”

“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…”

“ The US health care system only works because doctors and nurses have little work-life balance and they constantly expand their workflow to fit the demands placed on them. ”

“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…”

“ A new study suggests that cardio interval training as short as four seconds has significant benefit for sedentary, middle-aged adults. ”

“ A type of cheese from Sardinia is infested with maggots on purpose. ”

“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…”

“ A man got AIDS, and, thinking he was going to die, embarked on decades of fraud to finance his lifestyle. He’s still alive. ”

“ In 1954, a Japanese finishing boat accidentally wandered into an active U.S. nuclear test. One crew member died in the immediate aftermath, and the rest suffered health problems, mostly dying young. ”

“ The stated calories for a given food are a very crude measure because the actual calories our bodies absorb and use from that food are different for everyone, and can be dramatically affected by how the food is prepared, stored, and combined. ”

“I heard something that resonated with me the other day (I forget where I heard this): Anything worth doing is worth doing poorly. This, of course, is a play on this common saying: Anything worth doing is worth doing well. But, rather than making fun of an earnest, feel-good aphorism, what the…”

“An interesting book, mainly about addiction. I was a little disappointed with this, because I wanted it to be more about ‘casual’ dopamine, like overeating and spending too much time on our phones. But it goes hard into scary addictions. It starts with (and continually revisits) a guy with a very…”

“ A montage of 50-year-old cigarette television commercials. ”

“A shockingly good book about the history of the greatest disease Man has ever known. The author tracks the history of cancer from when it was first identified in 4,500 BC through to the present day. The approach is holistic – the author examines cancer clinically, scientifically, politically,…”

“A good look at the Christian/Biblical teachings behind physical fitness and a health diet. Turns out, sloth and gluttony are the two deadly sins we tend to cast a blind eye to, because they’re considered socially acceptable sins. Not an Earth-shattering book. If you’re looking for practical diet…”

“I love Steven Johnson. He’s one of my favorite authors. He writes mainly about the history of science and technology. This book is about the history of how we began to live longer. The average lifespan has gone up so much in the last couple of centuries, and what caused that? Here’s the list:…”

“This book could be boiled down to three words: ‘Eat more plants.’ That’s it. That’s the whole book. This is one of situations where someone has a small idea, and they just beat the hell out of it for 275 pages because they had to get to a trade hardcover length to get on the shelves at Barnes and…”

“Thrilling story of a cholera outbreak in London in the 1850s, and the physician who tracked down the source. At the time, illness was thought to come from ‘bad air,’ but a physician named John Snow mapped the illnesses and determined that they were clustered around a water pump in Broad Street. No…”

“ Professional chess players have to be in good physical condition. They burn a surprising amount of energy from mental exertion and stress. ”

“A very mainstream self-help book, with the ‘hook’ that it digs deep into the hormonal science of the brain. It discusses happiness in terms of four chemicals – endorphin, serotonin, oxytocin, and dopamine – why they make us happy, and what we can do to maximize their levels. It’s…okay. The book is…”

“ Ex-NFL players – especially offensive linemen – struggle to maintain weight during their careers and sometimes struggle to take it off when they’re done playing. ”

“ Fascinating perspective from a bartender who watched several of her regular customers spin into self-destruction. A meditation on the culpability of forced, unwitting enablers. ”

“ In the wake of Andrew Luck abruptly retiring from the NFL due to accumulated injuries, a former NFL lineman explains exactly what this is like – how NFL players work through injuries and engage in constant rehab during both the season and off-season. ”

“ A settlement in Antarctica is so remote and isolated, that you can’t still have your appendix and live there because the nearest hospital is so hard to get to that a burst appendix will kill you. ”

“ Addiction may be a universal problem, but rehab is very different when you’re absurdly wealthy. ”

“A client is considering a project having to do with community health, so I read this for background. It’s an introductory textbook and succeeds in providing a broad view on the topic. I was surprised at the range of factors that play into community health: disease, addiction, injuries, environment,…”

“ The story of one man’s descent into, and recovery from, locked-in syndrome. ”

“I love the idea of this book, but I think the practical application is going to be tough. Basically, the book seeks to teach ‘mindful’ eating practices, which is the idea of eating intelligently – understanding when and why you’re eating, not eating more than you should, etc. Basically, the book…”

“ There are still a tiny handful of polio survivors across the USA living significant portions of their lives in iron lungs which are slowly deteriorating. ”

“ Throughout the 20th century, leaded gasoline additives likely have caused more deaths, crime, and intellectual disabilities than almost any other invention. ”

“ A short video about the World’s Strongest Man, who happens to be very tall, and this causes challenges in day-to-day life. The clip of him walking through a small commuter plane is absurd. ”

“ A backstory behind a seemingly successful penis transplant, and the complications and ethical questions it raises. ”

“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…”

“Once, when I was in the military, I was doing a PT with the Marines. I was 19-year-old gym rat at the time, never far from my copy of Muscle and Fitness , and I thought it wise to explain to the drill sergeant that sit-ups were inefficient. They used too much of the hip erector muscles, not the…”

“I enjoyed this article about the myth of water intake: You Don’t Need 8 Glasses Of Water A Day . This idea has been floating around for decades: you must drink more water – specifically eight glasses per day. This threshold appears to be a long-standing medical myth. It’s not even clear where it…”

“ A specific shade of greenish-brown has been deemed ‘the ugliest color in the world,’ and is specifically used for cigarette packaging in many countries. ”

“ For various reasons, older books were created or bound with materials that are poisonous. There is a project to find and catalog them all, and research ways to safely store toxic books ”

“In any driving course, when learning how to recover from a skid, the instructor will always hammer the same thing into you: ‘Look where you want to go because you tend to go where you look.’ it’s good advice, and I can vouch that it works ( seriously ). The same thing is true of your self-image,…”

“This is a book about the start of the pandemic and how public health officers and departments responded to it. It’s sort of a sequel to The Fifth Risk , which was about how the Trump administration failed to staff critical government departments. I didn’t love it, largely because of Lewis’s writing…”

“ An excellent explainer of what the different cancer labels mean, from ‘Stage X’ to ‘Advanced.’ ”

“Okay, it’s time to commit to my next fitness goal. Here it is – At the age of 40, I intend to pass the U.S. Army Ranger entrance exam. This is the physical fitness test you have to pass to be considered for Ranger School . (Keep in mind that this just means you might get to go to the training…”

“ A heart-breaking profile of Roger Ebert, written in the middle of his battle with the cancer that killed him. ”

“ A researcher found that many records of people living over 100 years were concentrated in places that had no birth records and high rates of pension fraud. ”

“ A tragic retelling of the decline of Robin Williams by his wife, as Lewy Body Dementia took its toll. ”

“This book is…different. I think you have to be a certain place emotionally and mentally to appreciate it, and I just wasn’t there. Cecily Strong is one of my all-time favorite SNL players. She’s hilarious. I bought this book brand-new, specifically because I wanted to support her. You need to…”

“ Research suggests that simply by being physically stronger, you’re likely to live longer. ”

“ A bodybuilder talks about what it’s really like to get and stay ripped for a competition. (Hint: it’s not fun.) ”

“ A look at actual representatives of body fat percentages about what’s good, reasonable, and safe. ”

“ An explanation of why a quirk of legislation has caused ambulances to cost so much ”

“ The biggest problem with the American health care system might be, well, Americans. We are terrible at safeguarding our own health and terrible at interacting with health care providers. ”

“ The story of how compulsive eating and the resulting obesity haunted former NFL quarterback Jared Lorenzen. (Five years after this article was written, Lorenzen died of obesity-related complications after shedding 100 pounds from his peak of 500.) ”