Health
Discover facts about health. Small discoveries that change the way you see familiar things.
Health
MEWS protocol stops deadly postpartum blood poisoning
A mother's heart rate naturally spikes during labor, making it incredibly difficult to spot when she is actually going into septic shock from a rogue Strep A…
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A tiny sensor can spot heart trouble early
Waiting until a patient starts gasping for air is a terrible way to treat a failing heart. Doctors now shoot a tiny, battery-free sensor called CardioMEMS…
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Roho air cells block deadly paralyzed tissue rot
Sitting perfectly still for hours isn't relaxing; it cuts off blood flow to the skin pinned beneath the ischial bones, causing the flesh to literally die and…
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The simple fix that can prevent postoperative delirium
Waking up in a sterile room while heavily drugged is terrifying, but stripping away a patient's senses practically guarantees postoperative hallucinations.…
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Why some flu shots contain shark-liver oil
Sometimes your immune system needs a massive kick in the pants to recognize a dead virus, and shark livers provide the perfect wake-up call. Squalene, an oily…
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Why harmless urine bacteria may not need antibiotics
Slapping a powerful antibiotic on every cloudy urine sample in a nursing home is a fantastic way to kill the elderly. Most seniors have harmless bacteria…
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Mupirocin blocks deadly kidney machine pathogens
Hooking yourself up to a filtration machine in your bedroom requires military-grade hygiene, because a tiny plastic tube is a highway for Staphylococcus.…
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Agilent Seahorse machines detect cellular suffocation
Before a new miracle drug is ever allowed to hit pharmacy shelves, scientists must ensure it doesn't accidentally massacre your cellular powerhouses. Enter…
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What your grip strength can reveal about your health
Your chronological age is a shockingly terrible indicator of your actual risk of dying; geriatricians prefer to rely on your frailty index instead. One of the…
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How sewage and drought helped fuel an encephalitis outbreak
Nothing mixes better than severe drought and raw, open sewage. During the 1930 St. Louis encephalitis outbreak, perfectly terrible environmental conditions…
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Pompeii's surgeons had surprisingly advanced tools
We like to think ancient medicine was just leeches and chanting, but the Romans were out here performing complex operations with gear that looks suspiciously…
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The disorder that turns injuries into bone
Your body suddenly deciding to build a second skeleton inside you sounds like a Cronenberg horror film, but it's a real disorder. Fibrodysplasia ossificans…
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The simple pump that made heart-lung machines possible
You can't just stop a human heart for surgery unless you have an immediate mechanical backup plan. Enter the DeBakey roller pump, designed by a medical…
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The neurologist who tested nerve pain on himself
Nothing screams "dedication to the job" like deliberately slicing your own radial nerve. Dissatisfied with his patients' vague descriptions of nerve pain,…
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A sticker on your glasses can correct double vision
Sometimes fixing a neurological glitch just requires putting a sticker on your glasses. When a stroke or nerve palsy causes sudden diplopia (double vision),…
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Medieval tooth extractors sometimes shattered patients' jaws
Before modern dentistry actually cared about your comfort, extracting a rotten tooth involved a medieval nightmare called the dental key. Resembling a heavy…
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The gas leak that poisoned Bhopal overnight
In 1984, due to a cascade of ignored safety warnings, a Union Carbide pesticide plant in Bhopal casually vented 40 tons of highly toxic methyl isocyanate gas…
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A New York neighborhood was built on toxic waste
In the 1970s, residents of Love Canal, New York, noticed an alarming trend of severe birth defects, high asthma rates, and highly suspicious black sludge…
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The anatomy exam that sparked a student riot
In 1870, the fragile male ego was severely threatened by the idea of women looking at medical cadavers. When the "Edinburgh Seven"—the first female undergrads…
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The candy mistake that poisoned 200 people
Cutting corners in 1858 Bradford meant using powdered limestone to stretch out expensive sugar in candies. But because Victorian supply chains were a literal…
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Paper index cards held all medical knowledge
Long before WebMD could misdiagnose your headache as terminal cancer, compiling medical knowledge required an absurd amount of manual labor. Clarence Taber…
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How a 1976 vaccine was linked to paralysis
In 1976, the US government panicked over a phantom swine flu pandemic and fast-tracked a nationwide vaccination campaign. The pandemic never actually…
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The bleach drink sold as a miracle cure
In the darkest corners of alternative medicine, grifters are actively convincing desperate people to drink industrial-grade bleach. Marketed brilliantly as…
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He threaded a tube into his own beating heart
To prove a medical theory, Werner Forssmann completely ignored his superiors, tied his nurse to an operating table to stop her from interfering, and injected…
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