989 On: Health

One of the articles I’m going to reference today is from NASA. As part of the planning for the early probes to the planet Mars in the 1970’s, the scientists involved with developing the scientific experiments - most importantly, the tests to search for alien life - were looking for a sugar that would respond predictably to any alien microbes that might be in the Martian soil, but not react to normal chemicals that might be present in sterile Martian sand. They were trying to avoid false positives. And it turns out, normal sugar can’t achieve that goal - it’s too reactive. So what to do...?

Back in the day - if you’re a hunter gatherer, finding anything sweet would have been a treat, and this is the ‘an event or item that is out of the ordinary and gives great pleasure’ definition of ‘treat’ - not the ‘I bought another five-pound bag of’ definition. Finding sweet foods in the environment was hard, and often was only available during certain seasons - maybe some berries, a bit of honey - and you might have to fight off a bear and a swarm of bees to earn your sweet reward.

Acupuncture Physician Brandon discusses a new product available on the market - a cocoa powder designed to be inhaled through the nose.

Gamification is the process of adding games, or game-like elements, to any task. There are different applications depending on whether you’re talking about big business, or education, or - as you’ll see in today’s episode - health. The goal is always the same - to encourage participation and engage “players” to stick with their goals and accomplish their tasks.

Look! Up in the sky! It's a bird! It's a plane! It's a Swedish life-saving drone! Vad händer med det?

As long as vaccination has existed, there have been people opposed to it, for a wide variety of reasons. We'll explore what a vaccine is, and vaccine side effects, entering a dark and scary world of vaccine controversies - there are a lot of theories and accusations, everything from autism to compulsory sterilization to diabetes.

Figuring out how organisms behave and grow in space is an important step toward humanity spreading out among the stars.

When the average person thinks about yoga, they probably think about something that’s a combination of a low-impact physical exercise and a form of light meditation. But there's a lot of complexity behind that simple description.

There are two major categories of high tech body modification - first is the bleeding edge medical grade variety, and the next is a ‘body hack’, which is far more low-level.

There are many different approaches science has tried to better understand consciousness, and most of them get debunked after further study - it might be something like the struggle between classical physics and quantum physics - we may need to start over with a totally new model.

Research specific to the effects, either short or long term, of adopting a paleo diet is pretty sparse. There have been a few preliminary studies - a properly maintained, carefully observed paleolithic diet has shown some potential to decrease liver fat, help type 2 diabetics regulate blood sugar, improve cholesterol levels, even lower blood pressure.

One common misconception is that gluten is only found in wheat, but in fact it’s also present in barley and rye. A very wide variety of products contain gluten. Most folks know to expect gluten in baked goods like crackers, cookies, breads, and cakes - but it's also in beer.

'Artisanal' generally refers to an item being made in a non-mechanized way - essentially ‘hand-made.” Most medical equipment is mass-produced, fabricated in large factories, engineered to very specific tolerances to produce precise, consistent results - but not everything needs to be as finely tuned as an MRI Scanner...

There are a fair number of theories about how the process of fermentation was discovered and introduced. One theory suggests the Neolithic age as a likely origin, about 7000 years ago. We'll explore the health benefits and health risks of fermented foods.

Most of the ‘future in medicine’ shows out there are about research and development projects that are amazing everyone with their results… but while human trials seem ‘right around the corner’, none of these miracles never actually show up on the menu at my doctor’s office.

The processes that the body has to take to break down and absorb even the most mundane or common items are astonishing; add to basic digestion the additional systems brought into play when taking a medication and you end up with a mind boggling series of bodily functions to understand.

The average viewer picks up a lot of important information when they’re watching a medical show - every week, the shows need new sick people to treat, and these people have diseases, and seeing doctors discuss and treat health problems on-screen demystifies a lot of illnesses, and they seem less unknown and scary.

Acupuncture is still gaining momentum here in the United States, so today’s episode might help people who are a little nervous about booking their first appointment with an acupuncture physician.

Electronic Cigarettes! The idea seems to have started as another way to help people stop smoking, since it’s easier to adjust the amount of nicotine very precisely, and wean yourself from your cravings over a period of time. But there's a lot more to vaping than meets the eye...

SUGAR WILL KILL YOU! Not really. But MAYBE! No no... ALTHOUGH!! Okay... look, it's complicated. You're just going to have to listen to the episode.