ArcaMax

If you have a tickly nose and frequent sneezes when you're indoors, don't stifle it. One man in England did just that, and according to the report in the journal BMJ Cases, he tore a hole in his windpipe. A better move: Get rid of the offending allergens. They commonly include dust mites, cockroaches, mold and pets, and can lurk in bedding; ...Read more

More than 2,500 years ago, refined sugar was developed in India. But it wasn't until 700 years ago that the exotic flavoring made its way into the Mediterranean area with Cyprus and Sicily becoming centers of production for the rare and expensive spice. That first taste evolved over the centuries into a global obsession. Today every American ...Read more

"HuggieBot 1.0" is a machine that provides a substitute for loving hugs that the world is short on during this pandemic. And despite its inanimate nature, many people enjoy its embrace, according to Alexis Block, the developer at the Max Plank Institute for Intelligent Systems. But if the idea of an automated hug seems kind of nuts (and bolts), ...Read more

Many folks report hearing Jimi Hendrix's lyric "excuse me while I kiss the sky" as "excuse me while I kiss this guy"! It is funny to get lyrics wrong, but it's no laughing matter if your cholesterol and blood pressure readings are inaccurate.

So, for an accurate cholesterol blood test:

-- A 2019 study in JAMA Internal Medicine found it isn't ...Read more

In the 2008 movie "Pineapple Express," Seth Rogen plays a process server on the run when, during an attempt to notify a drug kingpin of a court appearance, he accidentally witnesses a murder. Seems in that movie, nothing much good comes from serving up a process notice. Just like nothing much good comes from serving up ultraprocessed foods.

We'...Read more

When Beyonce gave birth to Blue Ivy in January 2012, it followed a year's timeout, during which she backed away from the intense stress of life on the road and in the public eye. Turns out that may have helped her conceive as well.

New research has confirmed what Harvard Medical School's Alice Domar has been telling couples for decades -- ...Read more

Finnish hockey star Toni Leinonen climbed 426 stairs up the Malminkartano Hill near Helsinki in an astounding 58.75 seconds. Impressive, but fortunately not necessary to get the measure of your heart health, according to research presented at a 2020 meeting of the European Society of Cardiology.

Researchers evaluated how much time it took 165 ...Read more

The heaviest man ever is thought to have been Jon Brower Minnoch. When he was admitted to Seattle's University Hospital in 1978, his endocrinologist estimated he weighed 1,400 pounds. While that degree of obesity is extraordinarily rare, the latest information from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reveals that 73% of U.S. adults ...Read more

Comedian Kevin Hart, 41, is 5 feet, 2 inches tall and weighs 141 pounds. He doesn't seem overweight. That's because a healthy weight depends on age, muscle-fat ratio, height, sex and body fat distribution. Athletic and muscled folks may have a higher body mass index but not have excess body fat. Hart's BMI registers as overweight (normal weight ...Read more

Between 2006 and 2016, the incidence of diabetes in dogs increased almost 80%! It's now estimated that one in every 300 pooches will get the disease. Beagles, bichons frises, cairn terriers, dachshunds, fox terriers, keeshonds, poodles and pugs are the most often diagnosed.

As dismaying as that info is, it turns out that it also foreshadows ...Read more

In the 1984 comedy "Splash," Madison, a mermaid played by Daryl Hannah, finds herself at a fancy restaurant on a date. She's literally a half-fish out of water, but when a steamed lobster arrives on her plate, she gleefully picks it up and takes a bite out of the crustacean.

Mermaids shouldn't be the only females excited about dining on this ...Read more

Movie remakes we don't want to see: "Fast Food at Ridgemont High" or any in a "The Fast Food and the Furious" series. Fast and ultraprocessed foods have flooded movie screens, according to a JAMA Internal Medicine study, reinforcing tweens' and teens' inclination to load up on unhealthy foods.

In fact, the American adolescent's diet had gotten ...Read more

"Resistance is futile," declared the Borg on "Star Trek: The Next Generation." But it's not, at least when it comes to insulin resistance. Insulin resistance is an active assault on your health -- and you can resist it, to great benefit.

Insulin resistance means that your muscle, liver and fat cells don't respond sufficiently to the message ...Read more

Seventeen years ago, Robert De Niro was treated for prostate cancer. Warren Buffet is eight years out. Diagnosed in early stages, these guys beat cancer. But not everyone is so fortunate. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently revealed that the number of men diagnosed with metastatic prostate cancer (advanced cancer that's ...Read more

Renee Zellweger gained 30 pounds to play Bridget Jones in 2001, 2004 and 2014! Each time, after filming ended, she returned to her normal weight in the next six to 12 months by getting back to her exercise routine and eating a healthy diet.

That's fortunate, because a new study shows the longer you're overweight, the more damage you do to your ...Read more

Last year, we found out that astronauts circulating about 240 miles above Earth in the International Space Station have to scrub down the interior of their ship to beat black mold that is smoldering in the walls. Scientists now know spores of the two most common types of mold on the ISS, Aspergillus and Penicillium, can survive X-ray exposure at...Read more

Legumes -- what the heck are they anyway? And why can't you just say "beans"? Well, the word legumes first appeared in English around 1600 and comes from the Latin verb "legere" -- to pick a crop. And what a crop it is!

Legumes include beans -- and much more. Among the thousands of types, favorites include butter, pinto, lima, navy, black-eyed,...Read more

When Sherri Shepherd, former co-host of "The View," was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes, she promptly modified her diet and started doing short bouts of lower body exercise. "Those squats are trying to take me out!" she told Parade magazine.

Sherri's commitment to blasts of exercise appears to be the right prescription for her condition. A new ...Read more

The next Batman, Robert Pattinson, has been caught smoking and vaping -- and he contracted COVID-19 in September. A coincidence? Maybe not. It turns out both smoking and vaping substantially increase your risk of contracting the virus -- probably by altering your immune response to infection. According to a study published in the American ...Read more

Last April, Chrissy Teigen sarcastically confessed, "I have hit the double-digit mark on quarantine weight gain, so that's fun!!" Justin Bieber and Gayle King have also admitted to pandemic padding.

Well, it's more than inactivity that's got them -- and you -- putting on weight. Seems "hungry for love" is not a metaphor. Isolation may make you ...Read more