A very chilly question with important implications — Cold water exposure or immersion is an increasingly-popular health fad whereby people shuck the bonds of comfort and descend into the murky, freezing cold depths to improve their wellbeing. It usually involves finding the closest body of extremely cold water and spending at least 10–15 minutes bathing in it while…

The complex answer to a seemingly simple question — It’s 2022, nearly three years since the first cases of an unknown coronavirus were detected in Wuhan, China, and there’s a question on everyone’s mind: is the pandemic over? If not, when will it be done for good? The question seems simple enough. It is anything but.

Why you don’t need to chug down boiled plant leaves to stave off mortality — There’s something wonderful about drinking a cup of tea. Whether it’s the first cup of the day, a short but pleasant break in between other tasks, or hours shared between friends with pot after pot, tea has something almost magical about it that humanity has enjoyed for millennia. And, according…

Why the health benefits of standing up at work might be a bit oversold — The idea behind standing desks in the workplace as a health intervention is fairly simple — we know that a sedentary lifestyle, with lots of sitting, is bad for us. That’s been demonstrated over and over again in dozens if not hundreds of studies at this point. It is undoubtedly…

Why the newest viral fear may not be quite as worrying as it first appeared — As the world heads into the grips of yet another Covid-19 wave, and we all yet again are forced to reckon with the dangers of pandemics in our interconnected globe, a new worrying disease has been making headlines. Dubbed “tomato flu” due to the appearance of tomato-like rashes, the illness…

Why you should be very careful when buying herbal and dietary supplements — The supplement world is a massive business worldwide. A recent CDC estimate suggested that more than half of adults in the United States take at least one supplement regularly, and the rate of use is only increasing rapidly as time goes on. There’s a high likelihood that you, the person…

Why the answer is more complicated than you might think — Of the many ongoing issues in the pandemic, one of the most difficult is Long Covid. Despite being a serious condition plaguing many people who recover from their initial Covid-19 infections, particularly for those who suffer debilitating, long-lasting symptoms, Long Covid is nevertheless often invisible, hard to diagnose, and even…

Why boring simple health advice is more useful than anti-aging pills and supplements — A perennial topic that has been around for almost as long as humanity has been able to write words is the idea of living forever, or at least a lot longer than we currently do. …

A new study estimates the efficacy of Covid-19 vaccines — In the never-ending saga that is the Covid-19 pandemic, no subject is more contentious than vaccines. Partly that’s because vaccines have always been a contentious topic — the idea of making yourself a little bit sick now to stop you from getting a lot sick later has been debated since…