…and while this video might not make you feel any better if you’ve got it, it is more evidence of the amazing universes around -and within- us all. (A bit of background on the video is here.)

So, try to inhale selectively for the next few months.

 

…but that doesn’t keep it from being cool.

A little something from BBC’s BritLabs collection which introduces, among other things, the spiders that mate on your face and lay eggs in your follicles while you sleep, what various types of body lice tell us about our collective pre-history, and the fact that numerically speaking, we’re more bacteria than human (and about 50% of our DNA is parasitic).

Disgusting? Perhaps. But definitely cool.

 

 

Yes indeed, the Christmas Issue of the 174-year old British Medical Journal has hit the shelves. And while this venerable and respected publication usually focuses it’s material on subjects of a more serious nature, every Christmas, the editors add research … with a twist.

Past years have asked the question of Why Rudolph’s Nose is Red,  investigated using speed bumps in the diagnosis of acute appendicitis and The survival time of chocolates on hospital wards, as well as both attacking and defending Santa Claus as a public health role model.

It should be noted that while the subject matter may be unusual, the science behind the papers and their conclusions are real – so when The Darwin Awards: sex differences in idiotic behaviour points out males are the subjects of more than 88% of examples of  ‘death by idiotic risk,’ you can trust those numbers. A look at the Use of Google Translate in medical communication: evaluation of accuracy is not especially encouraging – though not surprising to anyone who has used it. (In Polish “Your husband has the opportunity to donate his organs” translated to “Your husband can donate his tools.” In Marathi “Your husband had a cardiac arrest” translated to “Your husband had an imprisonment of heart.” “Your wife needs to be ventilated” in Bengali translated to “Your wife wind movement needed.”) A Cross sectional study of political affiliation and physical activity found that people identifying as more strongly left or right were generally more active that centrists, suggesting “…that they might be out agitating in the field, mobilising the community, and actively distributing ideas and propaganda.” An exploration of the basis for patient complaints about the oldness of magazines in practice waiting rooms concludes that it’s not so much a case of old magazines being put out as much as newer magazines ‘disappearing,’ while “Gossipy magazines (≥5 photographs of celebrities on the front cover) disappear more quickly than non-gossipy ones (the Economist and Time magazine).”

Other 2014 papers include;
Nintendo related injuries and other problems: review
Transmissibility of the Ice Bucket Challenge among globally influential celebrities: retrospective cohort study
Medical eponyms: taxonomies, natural history, and the evidence
Utility of Hippocrates’ prognostic aphorism to predict death in the modern era: prospective cohort study

And given the nature of the annual Christmas Edition with its blending of humour and medical science we’ll close with a study from last year’s collection – a Methodical Investigation of Risibility, Therapeutic and Harmful.

Happy Holidays.

 

…they might just tell you to take it easy on the ice cream.

Enjoy this list of ominous-sounding terms for everyday phenomena from Mental Floss.

From the folks at Gizmodo, 22 devices that were a good idea at the time.

… and all through the issue… The British Medical Journal is once again offering research of a distinctly lighter nature.

Past years have recounted studies on “Head and neck injury risks in heavy metal: head bangers stuck between rock and a hard bass,” investigated those in the health professions by testing “…the hypothesis that, on average, male surgeons are taller and better looking than male physicians…,” and investigated Why Rudolph’s Nose is Red. The BMJ has also taken a brave stand against Tooth Fairy Malpractice, and explored using speed bumps in the diagnosis of acute appendicitis.

But the search for knowledge never ends, and this year the Journal dives right in with the results of a pilot study on the preferred state between Being right or being happy. A fascinating question, but as the paper itself admits, this early study has some limitations – specifically,”There was no trial registration, no ethics committee approval, no informed consent, no proper randomisation, no validated test instrument, and questionable statistical assessment. We used the eyeball technique for single patient trials which, as Sackett says, “more closely matches the way we think as clinicians.””

So, not an ironclad conclusion on that one yet, but that’s just one of a wealth of eye- and mind-opening research. Take, for instance Barcelona baby boom: does sporting success affect birth rate? or The Brady Bunch? New evidence for nominative determinism in patients’ health – which draws a positive correlation between the name Brady and the prevalence of bradycardia. (So if your name is Malaria, you really want to avoid the tropics.)

There are practical studies as well, such as The survival time of chocolates on hospital wards: covert observational study. And for art lovers, there’s, “Compulsive plague! pain without end!” How Richard Wagner played out his migraine in the opera Siegfried. (And may we suggest a future study into whether Wagner’s migraines can then be considered communicable through the opera Siegfried.)

Finally, if you’re wondering about the possible medical impact of reading these articles, the BMJ has a Methodical Investigation of Risibility, Therapeutic and Harmful.

Happy Holidays.

 

Yes, the 2012 Christmas edition of the British Medical Journal has hit the virtual shelves, and in keeping with tradition, this year’s issue tackles some unique issues.

(Past offerings -as noted in this space last year- have addressed such phenomena as “Head and neck injury risks in heavy metal: head bangers stuck between rock and a hard bass,” investigated those in the health professions by testing “…the hypothesis that, on average, male surgeons are taller and better looking than male physicians…,”and fearlessly tackled such touchy subjects as, “The case of the disappearing teaspoons: longitudinal cohort study of the displacement of teaspoons in an Australian research institute.”)

This year, readers will be rewarded with insight as to Why Rudolph’s Nose is Red, the medical Case report of E.T.—The Extra-Terrestrial, using speed bumps in the diagnosis of acute appendicitis, and the genuinely surprising news that the Nutritional content of supermarket ready meals is better than that of  recipes supplied by television chefs in the United Kingdom.

There’s still more, like an impassioned plea to prevent Tooth Fairy Malpractice, but the most popular study among current practitioners may well be the well-reasoned argument for an “evidence based uniform” for doctors.  See what you think…

Happy Holidays.

Just two quick links in the interest of timely topicality.

 

The New England Journal of Medicine has been looking in the rearview mirror again – this time with a collection of archived articles related to Olympic Medicine. From historical looks at eugenics and the theory that athletics diverted from more cerebral endeavours and rendered adolescents “listless and stupid,” to more recent concerns about the physical and psychological risks of women’s gymnastics at the elite level, this overview links to more than two dozen articles dating as far back as 1851.

 

Of course, when sport and medicine intersect, there is frequently the question of doping, and if you’ve ever wondered how far back such performance enhancement has existed at the Olympics, ProCon.org’s Historical Timeline … of Performance Enhancing Drugs in Sports illustrates that it’s probably been there from the very beginning. With almost one hundred citations, dating from 776 BC to 2012, the Timeline lists events from Olympic and non-Olympic sports – and includes such ‘legal doping’ examples as Thomas Hicks’ victory in the 1904 Olympic Marathon (above), acheived with the help of brandy and strychnine.

(Ah, how the times have changed.)

As noted previously, the traditional anatomical atlas is far from the only way to depict the inner architecture of the human body, but as you can see from the image below, we may well have come across one of the most labour intensive methods imaginable.

Massachusetts artist Lisa Nilsson has used the ‘quilling’ method of rolling and shaping thin strips of paper (in this case, the gilded edges of old books), to create miniature cross-sections of the human body (you can see a bit of the process in progress here), and the result is almost as awe-inspiring as the real thing.

The level of intricacy is nothing short of spectacular, especially given the small scale of the works (a head and torso cross-section only measures 13 x 9 inches), and those looking for even more detailed views than available at the artist’s site can find larger versions of the files here.

Who says paper is dead?…