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Weird Health Archive
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Weird Health Wednesdays – Marshmallow and Licorice “Medicine”
In the original incarnation of Weird Health Wednesdays, candy posts always brought the most traffic. Maybe candy stories are irresistible because they remind us of childhood or maybe because, hello? It’s candy. It’s sweet, yummy goodness in a pocket-sized package. At any rate, look at two common treats with a long history of medicinal use: Marshmallows [...] -
Weird Health Wednesdays – Safety First
Scaring the crap out of children, one traffic tip at a time: This image comes from It’s great to be alive! an old children’s safety brochure full of starkly bleak images like this one that warn kids about strangers, traffic, and other dangerous elements. To see my other favorite page, “While hiding in a leaf pile [...] -
Weird Health Wednesdays – Medical Stand-Up Comedy
Welcome to the return of Weird Health Wednesdays! You may already know who Brian Regan is. You might have seen some of his brilliant stand-up already. But have you seen his routine about the emergency room yet? “Just come on in. I’ll be lying on the floor.” “It seems like everything on my inside wants to be on [...] -
Another Day, Another Lung Garden
Hey, do you guys remember that one Russian guy who thought he had cancer and then found out he had a teeny fir tree growing inside his lung instead? It happened again. After two weeks of testing, an ambulance ride, and a collapsed lung, doctors found a pea plant growing inside this man in Massachusetts. Apparently the [...] -
The Mad Science of Lab-Grown Lungs
Finding stories medically relevant to this site on science fiction blogs is always entertaining. In this instance, I’m talking about io9’s fascinating piece on the first lab-grown lungs that actually work. The creation process: Led by biomedical engineer Laura Niklason, a team at Yale constructed the tiny lungs for rats using a relatively new process called “decellularization.” By [...] -
Lung = Fertile Soil for Tree Growth?
Artyom Sidorkin thought he had lung cancer and, after x-rays displayed what looked like a tumor, so did his doctors. But when surgeons opened up this Russian man’s chest to biopsy and remove part of his lung, they discovered a tiny fir tree growing inside. Seriously: -
Weird Health Wednesdays – Medical Mysteries, Science Hoaxes
4 Major Science Hoaxes To observe April Fools’ Day, National Geographic put together this gallery of four false “discoveries” throughout recent history. 11 Medical Mysteries This round-up includes some rare but known ones, like music-induced seizures, as well as unexplained symptoms that doctors have no name for yet. Consider, for example, #5 – Wim Hof from the Netherlands. [...] -
Weird Health Wednesdays – Fried Insects & Asthma, Candy Therapy
So many good links today and all of them about food: Asthmatics: Don’t Eat Too Many Fried Bugs Actually, this is kind of serious. In Thailand, where citizens can buy fried insects at street stalls, 118 people ended up in the hospital between mid-December/early January. The insects contain a hefty dose of histamine that can cause asthma [...] -
Weird Health Wednesdays – Toads, Cousins, a Genius
Toads Will Mate, So Roads Will Close I write about the effect of habitat loss on biodiversity sometimes for my Celsias gig, so this story is a welcome change of pace. The Philadelphia Streets Department will close two streets so toads can make their spring mating migration safely. Apparently, the toads haven’t fared so well in [...] -
Weird Health Wednesdays – Frog Legs, Amazing Surgery, Vampires
What Happens When a Frog Breaks Its Legs? Frog casts, of course. Girl Has 6 Organs Removed in Tumor Operation Doctors had to remove Heather McNamara’s stomach, pancreas, spleen, liver, small intestines, and large intestines in order to cut out a life-threatening tumor. They chilled the child’s own organs, basically treating them as organ transplants, and were able [...]
