Unusual facts about the state of physical, mental and social well-being in which disease and infirmity are absent.
Muscle strength in 10 year olds has fallen by 20% to 30% over the 16 year period between 1998 and 2014. Researchers from the University of Essex took a random sample of ten-year old students from students in Chelmsford, Essex in 1998, 2008 and 2014. They had the same number of boys and girls and …
Children are a third weaker than twenty years ago Read More »
The average count of viruses in 1ml of surface layer water is about 10,000,000. The world’s oceans are teaming with viruses. A litre of seawater typically contains billions of viruses – the vast majority of which remain unidentified. Viruses: Essential to human existence Viruses play an essential role in the life of microorganisms like plankton. …
There are 10 million viruses in one drop of sea water Read More »
If you’re on medication, maybe think twice before tucking into your morning grapefruit. Taking drugs at the same time as eating grapefruit can exacerbate the effect of the drugs and cause serious side effects. Grapefruit contains a chemical that affects your enzymes and makes the effect of many medicines much stronger than normal. The chemical …
Why you should never eat grapefruit before taking drugs Read More »
The British Department of Health recommends that we eat 5 portions of fruit and veg a day. However, the Japanese government, recommends to its citizens to eat 13 portions of fruit and veg a day. So why should the Japanese need more fruit and veg? “There must be a balance between what is healthy for …
Not a fun fact but perhaps surprising. In 1918 an epidemic called ‘Spanish Flu’ killed about 50 million people or 3% of the global population. It claimed more lives than the First World War (8.5 million) or the Black Plague (20 million). Bonus fact: Why was it called Spanish flu? The global pandemic became known …
Spanish flu killed 5 times more than WWI and the Black Plague put together Read More »
The word vaccine comes from “Variolae vaccinae ” which is Latin for ‘smallpox of the cow’. This is because the first vaccine was made with cowpox.
The word quarantine comes from quarantena, the Venetian for ‘forty’. This is because during the times of the Black Death (15th century) ships returning to Venice were ordered to remain on an island for 40 days( which is where we get the word ‘isolation’ coming from the latin ‘insula’ meaning island). Why 40 days? The …
This is not a fun fact but… There has been considerable media coverage on the Covid 19 Coronavirus outbreak. Since its outbreak at the beginning of the year, the disease has killed 7,100 people, around half of whom, in developed western countries. Meanwhile, at the same time, Malaria has already killed an estimated 75,208 people …
Since Coronavirus, around 75,000 people have died from Malaria; a curable disease Read More »
If you lost your sense of smell you may soon die. A study showed that people who lost their smell died within the next five years. Doctors Jayant Pinto and Martha McClintock tested 3,000 people aged 57 to 85 to identify scents such as orange, peppermint, rose, leather and fish. They then followed the lives …
The mysterious link between loss of smell and imminent death Read More »
A French researcher has suggested that wearing a bra encourages sagging by weakening the breast’s supporting tissue. In a 15-year study, a sports science expert from the University of Besançon Rouillon found that women who never wore bras had nipples on average seven millimeters higher in relation to their shoulders each year than regular bra …
The average human temperature has dropped by about a degree in the last 150 years. In 1851 German doctor Carl Reinhold August Wunderlich (what a name) calculated that the average armpit temperature of 25,000 patients was 98.6F (37C). Scientists at Stamford university of studied thousands of historic medical reports including medical records of civil war …
A U.S. postage stamp contains roughly one-tenth of a calorie per lick, whereas British stamps contain, on average, 5.9 calories. Nutritional information from the United States Postal Service posted on the DietFacts.com
A University College London study of 14,000 British families showed that on average younger brothers and sisters are shorter than their older siblings. In a family of four children, the siblings were 2.5cm shorter than average, according to the study. The youngest siblings were worse affected. The reason is unclear but it is presumed likely …
In aid of World Oral Health Day today the UK’s leading dental charity, the Oral Health Foundation, have looked at just how long we spend brushing our teeth during our lives with some amazing findings. The charity has discovered that, with the UK’s average life expectancy currently standing at 81.5 years, if a person brushes …
We spend 82 days of our lives brushing our teeth Read More »
Tests on mice have shown that they are less able to remember things in the morning compared to the evening. Mice and humans have very similar brain architectures so it is likely that the same effect will be observed in humans. Tokyo University https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/12/191218090152.htm
