Red Wine Keeps Muscles Big

JAMES HAMBLIN

"Exercise in a bottle?" Well, not in a bottle, but somewhere. And if you can't exercise, you can drink red wine because it has this thing they just discovered called resveratrol in it, which may counteract the effects of a sedentary lifestyle. Specifically, rats in weightlessness preserved their muscle mass and bone density when they got resveratrol, whereas those who didn't take it showed atrophy and early diabetes.

So, this is good for astronauts. And what's good for the astronauts, is good for America.

        

[image via]

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Classified Bad Guy Tells

JAMES HAMBLIN

The TSA Security Director at Logan Airport on NPR this morning discusses how they spot "a bad guy planning to do bad things":

"The movement of the eyes, perspiring in a cool environment, the Adam's apple movement. I can't be more specific because they are somewhat classified."

So: shifty eyes, sweating, and gulping. Among other somewhat classified things. 

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"It makes life easier for girls at festivals"

"Pollee is an open air, touch-free urinal made for a semi-squat position. It can handle four women at a time compared with a traditional toilet's inefficient quantity of one. It also features the clean, rounded lines of contemporary Danish design.”

This is part of Danish company UiWE's Peebetter campaign. So, so much better.

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It's An Eye. You Have To Kind Of Squint, But, Yeah, It Is.

Huge news in the journal Nature, researchers in Japan were able to create a retina out of embryonic stem cells.  That’s a great step towards a treatment for many types of blindness, not to mention a step towards synthesizing all kinds of organs that many people desperately need.

Every time the lady stem cell looked over to that corner of the bar, there he was, peering at her suggestively.  She waited all night, but the guy stem cell never came over to her, so finally she went to him.  

“Hey,” she said.

“Hey,” he said.

“Are you making eyes at me?” she asked.

“No,” he said.  “We’re making them together.”


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Clean Your Ears Regularly!

JAMES HAMBLIN

Instead of using a Q-tip or finger, you should clean your ears by putting four or five drops of vinegar water in them once a week. That way, recommends Dr. Weil, you don't risk breaking your eardrums. 

How do you clean your ears? With a Q-tip? On an airplane, in turbulence? Does the Q-tip sometimes go all the way in, an you need tweezers to get it out?

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The Real-Life Like Button

JAMES HAMBLIN

What compels us to share things on Facebook/Twitter/etc? A study at Penn tells us that when an article evokes a "high arousal" emotion (anxiety, amusement), we're more likely to share it. That's not too surprising, right, but the cooler part to me was the corollary study in which people read a neutral article while either sitting or running on a treadmill. The people who were running when they read the article ended up being more likely to share it.

So we should all be running all the time? Because running elevates your mood and you're more likely to share when you're happy? Or just people who run are more likely to be disoriented and lightheaded, clicking buttons to and fro?

I think there should be actual "Like" buttons on physical things out in the world. Big, blue, glowing things that make pleasing noises when you push them. They could read your fingerprints and synch to your account. And when you're at a certain store, you can just hit this giant Like button on the wall. Or if you like a certain kind of car, you can hit the button on that car. If you see a famous person, you can like them on their forehead.

I don't know, but then maybe the runners would go around liking/sharing tons of stuff while they're out and about, and Mark Zuckerberg could get rich. Then he would issue everyone free blue running shoes in the mail, and on and on and on.

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Swimsuit Confidence & You

JAMES HAMBLIN

Wellness Coach Ellen Goldman over at Spark People has some hot tips for summer:

i.e., Don't [bare it all]. But still: 

That one belongs on pretty much every list for this summer. How to look your best at a barbecue, how to ride a summer bus, how to win friends and influence people on sunny days, etc. Also in other seasons, pay attention to your grooming. Unless, of course, grooming makes you unhappy. Because "we are at our best when we are engaged in experiences that make us happy." 

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How To Be 100 And Live To Answer Surveys

JAMES HAMBLIN

Don't you really want to live to be 100? The New York Times tells us how easy it is. A study of 477 ninety-five-year-old Jewish people that found they actually didn't have better health habits than their friends who died younger. They didn't exercise more, smoke or drink less, weigh less, or even have more positive attitudes. So why'd they get to live so long? 

Basically, the only variable they identified was that they had long-lived family members. So, get a good family! 

If you don't have the money or likable characteristics necessary to get a good family, but you still want to be 100 (95) years old, do these things I just made up:

-Walk very slowly and cautiously, all the time. Look twice each way before you exit any room.

-Keep your eyes moving. Never not moving with the eyes.

-Love with a moderate, safe amount of passion.

-Don't cut your fingernails too short.

-Don't let your fingernails grow so long they get infected.

-Don't eat anything you don't have to.

-DO not cling to life. Don't smother it. Give it space.

Anything else working for anyone out there? What's keeping you alive?

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Rebuff!

JAMES HAMBLIN

Guidelines from the British Medical Association recommend that physicians "politely refuse" Facebook friend "overtures" [requests] from patients. 

But, BMA, guys, where are you going! Politely! How ? 

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Dermatology v. Insect Bites

JAMES HAMBLIN

The American Academy of Dermatology disheartens us with their update on insect bites being: don't get insect bites. But then after that:

“Maggots hate to have the hole in the skin covered, so the best way to get them out is to slap a piece of pork fat or meat over the affected area of the skin for a few hours,” said Dr. Rapini. “The maggot is naturally drawn to the meat and will come out from under the skin and attach itself to the meat instead.” While not painful, Dr. Rapini added that a maggot holed up beneath the skin can be uncomfortable and should be removed.

Did you catch that last part? If you have maggots, yes, remove them.

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[image via]