A study from Harvard University finds that having no friends can be just as deadly as smoking. Both affect levels of a blood-clotting protein.
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A study from Harvard University finds that having no friends can be just as deadly as smoking. Both affect levels of a blood-clotting protein.
The post A study from Harvard University finds… appeared first on Crazy Facts.
If you’re fast approaching middle age (like I am) or are staring down the later years of your life and hoping to spend most of them lucid and enjoying the fruits of your labor, then keeping your mind in tact is likely something that interests you.
Dementia is scary, and it affects so many of our family and friends – which is why there’s so much research that goes into finding ways to combat it.
Most recently, a team from Cambridge University found that people who regularly swim outdoors in the winter had elevated levels of a protein that plays a key role in forming brain connections.
Image Credit: iStock
The protein in question has been found to help protect the brain against other neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s, too.
Professor Giovanna Mallucci, the Associate Director of the UK Dementia Research Institute, talked about the results in an online lecture.
Researchers have known for some time that the process of forming new synapses declines over time, and also that this process can be influenced by temperature. Hibernating mammals, for example, experience a loss of synapses when they sleep through the winter, but they are restored upon awakening in the spring.
A previous paper, published in Nature, revealed that a “cold shock” protein in the brain – RBM3 – is responsible.
In mice, exposure to freezing temperatures caused a loss of synapses… but that their RBM3 levels skyrocketed as they warmed up, allowing them to form healthy new ones.
Image Credit: iStock
Researchers then measured RBM3 levels in a group of outdoor swimming enthusiasts, all of whom became hypothermic during their chilly dips.
When compared to a group of non-swimmers, the ones who swam in cold water had higher levels of RBM3 in their blood, leading to the belief that hypothermic conditions does trigger the release of this key protein in humans, too.
This foundation is exciting and strong, but without peer-reviewed research or other, similar findings, we can’t say for sure that taking winter dips in the water will keep your brain healthy for years to come.
Image Credit: iStock
Letting yourself get too cold, or wandering too far down the path to hypothermia, is also deadly – so don’t try this at home until the scientists are sure it’s something that works.
So… just don’t do it alone. Or do it at the gym if they have a cold dip pool. We just don’t want you to drown or get hurt.
The good news for those of us how HATE being cold? If the RBM3 protein is shown to help regenerate skills, we’ll likely see the development of drugs that can help stimulate the desired responses without having to go swimming in the freezing cold.
Three cheers for science!
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Country music became popular in America partially through a pirate radio station of a quack doctor based out Kansas who built a fortune on a procedure to implant goat testicles into men’s scrotums.
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One reason Lyndon B. Johnson did not run for re-election was because a study he commissioned had predicted he would die at 64 and thus may not make it through a 2nd term. True enough, he would die on 22 January 1973 at 64, 2 days after what would have been the end of his […]
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Guess what, everyone?
The pandemic isn’t over yet! Not even close, in fact…
And, while we’re seeing a lot of people out there ACTING like things have improved, we all need to be smart about wearing a mask, keeping our distance from people, and washing our hands.
Regardless of all those pesky FACTS, people have been tweeting out what they’re going to miss about lockdown…whenever that happens. It’s good to dream, I guess…let’s take a look at what people had to say! Stay safe out there!
Trust me, you’ll be able to hibernate this whole winter.
#ThingsIWillMissAboutLockdown: Being able to hibernate in your room all day without having to think of excuses for not wanting to see people ??
— Sʜᴀɴ? (@shxnshxnxo) July 5, 2020
Looks like a good companion.
Being with my bestie 24-7 #ThingsIWillMissAboutLockdown pic.twitter.com/7MBhoOA340
— Andrea Parker…Conos mummy (@PaccaAndrea) July 5, 2020
Let’s all keep ’em clean when this is over, okay?
#ThingsIWillMissAboutLockdown
Clean streets pic.twitter.com/vM5tgykc28— R O B (@robbiedani1) July 5, 2020
What’s YOURS?
Having the perfect excuse not to leave the house ? #ThingsIWillMissAboutLockdown
— Emma-Jayne ? (@emmajayne7586) July 5, 2020
You gotta love that!
#ThingsIWillMissAboutLockdown
Having someone at my beck and call all day! ? pic.twitter.com/M7r5cMT2Ww— Lisa Champney (@ChampneyLisa) July 4, 2020
That can be good or bad…just ask your pets.
Trying new things to pass the time. pic.twitter.com/M6KIDvKA8p
— Sonya ✖️ (@Sonya_PDX) July 4, 2020
You still have a good amount of time to enjoy all of this.
#ThingsIWillMissAboutLockdown
– Clear skies
– Quiet
– Clean streets
– No travelling unless I had to
– Lack of urgency to get my nails done
– Lack of urgency to have hair done
– No makeup
– Less people at the supermarkets
So much more— Be Kind, Rewind (@thespeshialk) July 5, 2020
That’s cheap!
#ThingsIWillMissAboutLockdown gas prices hands down pic.twitter.com/N12S4Lnu5g
— Cordarro Patrick (@cordarroakacp) July 4, 2020
Like I said, lockdown ain’t going anywhere, so keep on enjoying it.
#ThingsIWillMissAboutLockdown
We’ll miss
– Working out anytime of the day
– Not wearing a bra…
– Staying in jogging bottoms all day
– Watching Netflix on our lunch break
– Baking brownies every other day
What will you miss about lockdown?— Results Wellness Lifestyle (@resultsRWL) July 6, 2020
You know your co-workers love it!
My cat making a special guest appearance on every single meeting. She hears people talking, butts in, wreaks havoc, then sashays off as soon as they're over. She'd make a good Project Manager. #ThingsIWillMissAboutLockdown
— Paul Burley (@paulxdesign) July 7, 2020
I’m sure they love having you there!
#ThingsIWillMissAboutLockdown is the fact I got to spend 4 months back in my hometown, back in my parents house surrounded by mountains and lakes. When will we get this time again in our busy lives? pic.twitter.com/YPGBA6REdd
— Glyn Wise (@GlynWise) July 5, 2020
Give people a chance! It’s worth it!
Having an excuse not to see people #ThingsIWillMissAboutLockdown pic.twitter.com/Do3EWStq7F
— Mister Race Bannon (@MrRaceBannon) July 4, 2020
Sorry, folks, but we still have quite a ways to go before we can get back to normal again…
Now we want to hear from you!
How are you spending your time during the lockdown?
Talk to us in the comments! And stay safe out there!
The post People Are Sharing Things They’ll Miss About Lockdowns appeared first on UberFacts.
We’re all thinking more about germs and what we touch when we’re in public these days, and that goes double for indoor, confined spaces like airplanes. And while you’re probably not under any kind of illusion that commercial aircraft are super duper clean places, this flight attendant’s TikTok should probably still come with some kind of trigger warning.
Seriously, if you were a germaphobe before the whole pandemic situation, you might not want to subscribe to Kat Kamalani’s TikTok.
Kat has gone viral will all kinds of insider videos, in which she shares tips, tricks, and behind-the-scene knowledge from the airline industry.
This video, though, shows all of the places on airplanes that people touch and touch and touch – and that only get cleaned at the end of the day.
As someone with a fairly severe peanut allergy, I’ve known for years that planes don’t really get cleaned between flights – which shouldn’t come as a surprise to you, either, given how quick the turnaround is between deplaning and boarding the next set of passengers, right?
Image Credit: TikTok
If I don’t wipe down everything in my tiny sphere, I will end up with puffy eyes and more sneezes than I can clean up with a travel pack of Kleenex.
Which means someone (or many someone’s) have been there before me, touching everything in sight with peanut oil on their fingers.
@katkamalani Flight attendant hack. GROSS things on airplane. #flightattendants #fyp #flightattendantlife #lifehack #travelhacks
So, Kat’s video is just confirming all of that for me – and now you, too.
Her video has been viewed over 1.2 million times.
The next time I travel, I’m going to bring plenty of Clorox wipes and hand sanitizer along for the ride…providing I can find them on the shelves.
The post Flight Attendant’s Video Highlights All of the (Many) Things You Should Never Touch on an Airplane appeared first on UberFacts.
In 1999, Kraft met with America’s other biggest food companies to discuss the growing public health concerns over packaged and processed foods. They decided to not down-regulate the usage of salt, sugar and fat, as it would make the food taste not as good and their shareholders would lose money.
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Drayton Daugherty was a doctor who cured a dying man by pretending to undo a voodoo hex in a last ditch effort after modern medicine didn’t work. The man believed he was cured and lived for ten more years.
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I’d like to think that when my time is up, I’ll have no regrets.
But I guess you never really know what that will be like until you reach the end of the road, right? I think that we can all agree that listening to people talk about regrets when they’re close to passing away has to be very hard…
Let’s take a look at these stories from folks on AskReddit.
“I worked as an oncology nurse right out of nursing school. I was barely 21 years old.
Had a patient about my age who was dying of lung cancer. A few hours before he died I sat with him and he was telling me how much he wished that he would have had more time-to maybe fall in love, marry, have kids. He was so young.
He asked me to call his parents and he died shortly after they arrived. It was awful. His regrets were more about the life not lived. Many older patients had some interesting life stories and most wanted to tell them before they died.
Most were at peace with the life they lived. Many regretted working so much and not spending enough time with family.”
“I was a hospice nurse. One of my elderly patients had skin cancer, a huge malignant melanoma on the side of his neck that was growing rapidly.
He had been a farmer all his life and never married. One night we were talking and I asked him if there was anything he wished he had done differently in his life, and he thought about it a minute and said he wished he had worn a hat when he was farming.
I wish he did too.”
“There was an old man. I’d play cards with him.
We’d talk about working on the farm we had. He was a nice guy. He figured out I was being physically abused. His health started declining and he couldn’t play cards or get out of bed. The last time I saw him.
He said he was sorry he wasn’t younger and that he couldn’t help me. Almost 25 yrs ago and I still remember him.”
“”Not yet! I can’t die yet. I still have so much growing to do. I want to see my children and grandchildren grow up…”
I am a physician trainee who has done a decent amount of palliative care. I have been privileged to hear many stories and be part of many deaths, but I still can’t explain why it is that certain lines remain with me and hit me so much harder.
The gentleman who told me the line above was in his late 60s-early 70s. It made me reflect on how I view patients in this age group – yes, much older than myself, but still with growing and living to do.”
“I think of a woman in her 50s I met early on in my training.
She and her female partner had never married – partly due to laws, partly because it had never seemed important. When she was diagnosed with metastatic pancreatic cancer, they regretted never making that step.
I attended their small wedding in the hospital. She died a few days later.”
“I had a patient who I was in the room with when her doctor explained she only had a few weeks to live. I knew her well, spent quite a bit of time talking to her up to the news.
The days that followed, she seemed to have accepted she was dying. She lived this beautiful, independent, and successful life, maybe not money successful, but just plain happy.
Anyways when I was helping her to the tub on day 10 since receiving the news, she just broke down crying and couldn’t stop crying about how much she wished she didn’t put her dog down b/c they could have died together.
Come to find out her dog was on his death bed too. I guess she put her dog down a few days before going into the hospital, she knew her life was over so she put him down first. She hated herself for it and for the fact she blew the opportunity for them to spend their last moments together. Really heartbreaking to watch, to hear that unfold.
She passed early in the morning two days later. I took a couple of mental health days off after she passed and spent some time looking up dogs to adopt and new jobs to apply for.”
“I had a 17 year old girl that came in on a Tylenol overdose.
I normally don’t listen or really even get invested with patients because it’s usually the same faces on a loop but she kept trying to strike up a conversation and eventually I relented and she told me how stupid she was and it was over a boy and where she was going to go to college and what she wanted to do and basically her life story.
I left and she was stable in the ER. Next day I came in and asked if she went home or if she was in an inpatient unit. They told me she died a few hours after my shift.
It’s been like 5 years and thinking about it I start crying like a baby. I don’t cry. I think the last time I cried other than this was my grand pa passing but even that I can discuss without crying now.
Her death is the only thing that completely breaks me down.”
“Top regret was not spending time with family and/or lost time due to a family feud.
Probably number two was wasting their life with their spouse (for various reasons) when they could have possibly been with someone they loved/met a soul mate.
Number three was usually not accomplishing a bucket list item such as living in a foreign country.”
“27 year old male who tried to end his life, died from the injuries. I still remember it clearly, he told me his entire life story. I didn’t sleep for a few days after hearing it and sometimes it still haunts me to this day.
He was bullied in middle school straight until the end of high school. He had mild Aspergers and was quite intelligent but because of his looks and weird mannerisms he was picked on.
Then it got worse.
The girls would make him drink out of the toilet, the guys would chokehold him until he passed out or tied him up inside the gym and woke up alone after school ended, only to go home and get beaten by his parents for being late.
The girls would often make up fake accusations and he’d be suspended, only to be beaten up by parents once more. The guys would steal his clothes and toss them in the dumpster only for him to go crawling in it while naked.
The girls would replace his lunch with rotten food or feces, the guys would pelt him with rocks. It was just unf*cking believable.
He finished high school but just barely, dropped out of college and left home to go into the service industry but it only got worse for him there as he couldn’t do well with stress.
He had his own issues, said he was one of those incels and his only reason for living was so that others could abuse him to make themselves feel better. Told me he tried to end it because he was tired of it and also financially broken by then (this was around 2008 mind you).
He said he wish he stood up for himself from the start, perhaps things would have turned out differently for him.
He passed away a few days later while I was off shift. We all knew inside that he wasn’t going to make it from the start given his injuries, but I still listened to the story and it haunts me to this day.
I hope he’s at peace now.”
“I remember of this 40 year old patient that I had was dying from breast cancer that spread throughout her body. She was diagnosed with breast cancer 10 years earlier and had a mastectomy.
The doctor recommended for her to have a bilateral mastectomy with reconstruction due to high risk of recurrence of cancer. She said that she wanted to keep her breast (a real breast rather than an implant) incase she remarries and will be somewhat whole.
She regretted not getting the bilateral mastectomy. If she did, she would not gotten cancer in her remaining breast and dying at such a young age. The patient never ended up marrying after all.
A week later, I was diagnosed with breast cancer. I instantly told the doctor that I want a bilateral mastectomy with reconstruction. I also had an aggressive form of cancer.
My doctor kept pushing a lumpectomy which I probably would’ve gotten before I have heard how much she regretted her decision. I feel that she actually saved my life sharing and opening up with her regret of all time.”
“He wished he had been a better father to his daughter.
He wished they had reconnected. His dementia prevented him from remembering they had reconnected years before and that she visited often.
I wish I could have made him aware that he had accomplished his last wish. But he died not really understanding that.”
“I’m a hospice social worker, so I have the honor of getting to listen to peoples’ life stories, including favorite memories and regrets. Most regrets center around what they didn’t get to do, like never traveling to Italy when their family was originally from Naples.
Some regret not getting specific education – wanting to go to college but never doing it. Some regret their choice in partner, especially when alcohol/drug abuse was involved, or cheating. Many express a sadness that looks a lot like regret if they are estranged from family. And some have anticipatory grief from knowing they will miss a milestone, like the birth of a grandchild.
Some regret not taking better care of their health (people with COPD who regret ever having a cigarette). In general life is long and time smooths some of the rough edges, so people tend to focus on the good.”
“I work in a hospital. Whenever someone is at the end of their life, they always just want to be with their loved ones.
Any regrets I’ve heard is always family related. They wanted more time with the people they love. Most people are at peace with things though.
People also tend to wish they took their health seriously.”
“He was one of my first patients as a nursing student, named Frank. He was 92.
After knowing him a few days, he disclosed to me his regret was outliving everyone he loved.. that he and his wife hadn’t had kids, and he was “all that was left” and that he wanted to see his wife again.
I wasn’t sure how to respond , so I just listened… and it made me realize how living so long isn’t great if everyone you love is gone.
He passed away later that week, and while I distinctly recall some of my classmates being upset, I felt relief for him. I knew he was where he wanted to be. I’ve had many patients since, but you tend to remember your first ones.”
Have you ever heard any last words from someone?
Patients? Friends? Loved ones?
Please share your stories with us in the comments.
The post Hospital Workers Discuss Regrets They’ve Heard From Dying Patients appeared first on UberFacts.
Bedtimes can be sort of controversial because everyone does things differently, and yet everyone thinks they’re right.
Here’s my take: you can’t really win. Your kid is going to sleep or not according to their whims.
If you put them to bed early, they’ll wake up at the crack of dawn, but if you put them to bed late, they might still be up with the sun.
Image Credit: iStock
If you miss your window, and they get overtired? Forget having an evening to watch television and veg with your partner, my friend.
If you’re wondering what the experts have to say about appropriate bedtimes for your child’s age, this handy dandy chart should be able to help.
One thing we know for sure is that kids need more sleep than adults, and not getting enough can negatively impact their ability to thrive and learn throughout the day – which is why it makes sense that an elementary school is who posted the chart to Facebook in the first place.
Helpful information!
Posted by Wilson Elementary on Friday, August 28, 2015
Parents have a lot of thoughts, many of which are that it’s not exactly possible to make these bedtimes happen for a slew of reasons – sports, illness, schoolwork, etc.
That said, I think the point is to remind parents that sleep is important, and kids who are under 13 shouldn’t be allowed to set as late a bedtime as they would like.
There’s been plenty of discussion, considering the post has 64,000 reactions, 463,000 shares, and over 14,000 comments, but the people who posted it are staunch in their belief that guidelines aren’t rules, and both have to be applied to individual children and families.
Image Credit: iStock
Hopefully that means you’ll get some much-needed shuteye of your own!
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