Spoiler: probably not — Kimchi is the name that, outside of Korea, is generally given to a dish made of spicy fermented cabbage — in Korea it refers to a wide variety of pickled and otherwise preserved vegetables. Much like sauerkraut and similar dishes, Kimchi is an acquired taste, but once you love it…

Some fantastic news about vaccines — There’s no two ways about it: cancer is shit. There are thousands of diseases that make up the thing that we collectively describe as cancer, and while they are all incredibly diverse they all have one thing in common, which is that they all really, really suck. For everyone who…

Why people who have less severe initial infections are less likely to experience long-term symptoms of COVID-19 — Long COVID remains one of the biggest topics on people’s minds when it comes to the pandemic. While the immediate impact of COVID-19 has reduced for most individuals — you’re much less likely to die of the disease now than when it first emerged in 2020 — there is still…

Demonizing weight loss medications like semaglutide (WeGovy/OZempic) and tirzepatide (Mounjaro/Zepbound) is just another example of weight stigma — The last few years have seen a genuinely remarkable breakthrough in the world of medicine. Excess weight is an objectively big problem for society, and we’ve gone from having essentially no effective medications to help with the issue to already having two very good ones — semaglutide and tirzepatide —…

What are we likely to see with the risk of Long COVID into the future? — Minor update — it was pointed out to me that the upper bound of seasonal non-COVID coronaviruses incidence is likely higher, so I’ve updated the text to reflect this. As the COVID-19 pandemic has progressed, one thing has become ever more clear — the individual risk from the disease is…

Why the headlines are probably wrong about the spicy condiment — Wasabi is a fascinating condiment. It’s incredibly hard to grow, with commercial operations outside of Japan largely failing to reproduce the conditions required to harvest it on masse, which makes it not just rare but extremely expensive. …

Why you should never do a coffee enema — Coffee enemas are one of the strangest health fads of the last century. …

Why you probably don’t have to worry about your little swimmers just yet — There’s nothing we love to hate more than man-made substances. As a society, we have decided that things which we collectively make, regardless of how useful they may be, are secretly killing us in a myriad of ways. …

Looking at the science behind the headlines — As a society, we love a good news story about health. You see dozens of these a week, from the stories about coffee saving your life, to the industry-funded belief that blueberries are uniquely healthsome and good for your heart. This week’s story is that Tai Chi — a Chinese…