A Laboratory of the Future Human Experience
Sick but clever!
I harbor the superstitious belief that I will catch a cold from watching TV shows depicting people who are sick. I usually stop watching any program that has someone sniffing and sneezing. But it turns out that looking at images of sick people actually boosts your immune system, according to researchers at the University of British Columbia…
Continue reading… “Looking At Photos Of Sick People Boosts Your Immune System”
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HHRKkXtxDRA&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]
Just what we need. Murray Hill Incorporated has just announced its intention to run for Congress in Maryland’s 8th Congressional District.
Murray Hill Inc. is believed to be the first “corporate person” to exercise its constitutional right to run for office. As Supreme Court observer Lyle Denniston wrote in his SCOTUSblog, “If anything, the decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission conferred new dignity on corporate “persons,” treating them — under the First Amendment free-speech clause — as the equal of human beings.”
Continue reading… “A Corporation Has Announced It Will Run For Congress”
Health experts have long warned of the risk of obesity, but a new Japanese study warns that being very skinny is even more dangerous, and that slightly chubby people live longest.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control have downgraded warnings about travel to Mexico but deals still abound to get tourists to come back.
Early on in the swine flu outbreak, the CDC urged people to avoid nonessential travel to that country, but that was changed May 15 to just a precaution for people at high risk of flu complications.
Meanwhile, a group of resorts in Mexico are so sure you won’t get swine flu there that they’re offering three free trips if you do.
“The ‘Flu Free Guarantee’ represents our certainty that Mexico is a safe and healthy destination,” said spokesman Alex Zozaya. Continue reading… “Free Trips If You Catch The Flu”
Eating a vulture won’t clear a bad case of syphilis nor will a drink made of rotting snakes treat leprosy, but these and other bogus medical treatments spread precisely because they don’t work. That’s the counter intuitive finding of a mathematical model of medical quackery.
Ineffective treatments don’t cure an illness, so sufferers demonstrate them to more people than those who recovery quickly after taking real medicines. Continue reading… “Quack Remedies”
If you thought the airport denizens of the TSA were already obnoxious, wait until they get their mitts on a Sick Traveler Detector. It’s a software idea by Belgian company Biorics, which can determine if travelers are sick by the sound of their coughs. If you frequently get sick after flying, you might welcome such an intrusive technique that singles out hacking, virus-spreading passengers.
For the disabled or the infirm, there are a large number of expensive pieces of equipment to help you get around and live your day to day life. There’s the wheelchair, the stair climber and the sick bed, all of which involve moving from one to the other. The Home Chare, however, combines all three, removing the need to be lifted from one apparatus to another.
Continue reading… “Home Chare: Wheelchair, Bed and Stair Climber Combined”
Zapping frozen meals in the microwave may be fast and easy, but it also can make you sick if it’s not done properly.
That message has been slow to catch on, despite a spate of illnesses last year from improperly microwaved frozen foods. On Sunday, the government issued a new warning urging consumers to thoroughly cook frozen chicken dinners after 32 people in 12 states were sickened with salmonella poisoning.
Continue reading… “Microwaving Frozen Foods Can Make You Sick”
Employees who take long spells of sick leave more than once in three years are at a higher risk of death than their colleagues who take no such absence, particularly if their absence is due to circulatory or psychiatric problems or for surgery, concludes a study on the British Medical Journal website.
Continue reading… “Sickness Absence Reasons Can Predict Employee Deaths”
Are patients swimming in a sea of health information? Or are they drowning in it?
Children born to older fathers might have an increased risk of developing bipolar disorder, Swedish researchers report in the September Archives of General Psychiatry.
Pete Hodgson, the Research, Science and Technology minister of New Zealand was excited when he had his blood pressure measured by a robot.