Health
Discover facts about health. Small discoveries that change the way you see familiar things.
Health
Dark chocolate isn't as healthy as you think
The cacao is only one part of the bar. Commercial dark chocolate can deliver beneficial cacao compounds alongside plenty of sugar and saturated fat, so the…
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Clove oil once numbed aching teeth
Eugenol, a compound in clove oil, can briefly numb the nerves around a sore tooth and has mild antiseptic action. The odd trade-off is that pain may fade…
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Why humans are born craving sweetness
Sweet taste can signal that food contains usable energy, so humans come into the world inclined to like it. Candy taps into that ancient preference especially…
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For some blind people, bedtime slowly travels around the clock
Light normally helps synchronize the body's internal timing with the 24-hour day. In non-24-hour sleep-wake disorder, that synchronization fails and sleep…
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The Master Cleanse Is Just Spicy Lemonade
For 10 days, the Master Cleanse replaces food with water, lemon juice, maple syrup, and cayenne pepper. That mixture supplies some sugar and fluid, but it…
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Human teeth are as hard as shark teeth—but don't regrow
The hardness comes from mineral crystals in enamel, a material also found in great white teeth. But sharks can replace teeth again and again, while humans get…
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Why buses may be safer than poorly ventilated restaurants
On a modern bus, some air is continually replaced with fresh air and some is cleaned by filters. That can leave fewer airborne particles than in a restaurant…
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Why you shouldn't tilt your head back during a nosebleed
When your head tips back, gravity can send nosebleed blood toward your throat. Swallowing that blood can irritate the stomach and trigger vomiting—an…
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A cooler bedroom can help you sleep
As bedtime approaches, your body sheds heat and lets its core temperature drift downward. A cooler room helps that heat escape, so your body can make the drop…
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Why surgeons usually leave failed kidneys in place
Surgeons place the donor kidney low in the pelvis and connect it to the body’s circulation and bladder. Since the original kidneys can stay where they are,…
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Pectoralis major primarily forces internal arm rotation
The pectoralis major spans the chest and attaches to the upper arm, so when it contracts it pulls that arm toward the torso and rotates it inward. Those…
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Your kidneys filter your blood again and again every day
Your kidneys filter about half a cup of fluid from the blood every minute, but that is not half a cup of urine. They sort through the fluid, return most of…
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Your body makes millions of new cells every second
Bone marrow is continually making blood cells, and tissues such as skin are replacing cells lost through ordinary wear. The body runs both jobs at once,…
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Why night vision loses color
As the light fades, your eyes lean on rods instead of the cone cells that tell colors apart. Rods catch dim light well, but they give your brain a…
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Sleepwalking occurs primarily in deepest unconsciousness
Sleepwalking usually happens during deep sleep, when higher reasoning is largely switched off. The brain can still produce movement while judgment and…
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Practicing forgiveness significantly lowers chronic stress
A grudge can keep the mind revisiting an old conflict, using energy long after the moment has passed. Releasing it may reduce that continuing strain; the…
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White noise merely masks other environmental sounds
A fan adds a steady wash of sound across many pitches, covering some of the differences that make traffic noises stand out. Your brain still receives the…
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How the uterus expands to hold an entire human
During pregnancy, cells in the uterus grow and multiply, and its muscular wall stretches as the baby develops. The organ expands from about the size of a pear…
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Exercise trials can measure changes at the ends of chromosomes
Telomeres are protective stretches of DNA at chromosome tips. A randomized training study reported changes in telomere length and telomerase activity after…
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A detox foot pad can turn dark without removing toxins
Moisture can darken the pad's ingredients even without a foot involved. The color change looks like visible evidence that something dirty left the body, but…
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Neurological action potentials fire as all or nothing spikes
When a neuron reaches its firing threshold, it sends a complete electrical spike; below that point, it sends none. The brain can distinguish stronger input by…
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Introns are entirely discarded genetic code
A cell first copies a gene into a longer RNA message that includes introns. Before that message can guide protein-building, the cell cuts the introns out and…
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Brown sugar is barely different from white sugar
Brown sugar is refined white sugar with a little molasses added back for color and moisture. That molasses contributes trace minerals, but not enough to make…
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Lucy Hobbs Taylor became the first female dentist
After dental schools refused to admit her because she was a woman, Lucy Hobbs Taylor opened her own practice in 1861. A dental college later awarded her a…
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