Human health findings aren’t always dignified. Sometimes, they’re wacky, goofy, or maybe a bit head-scratching. But here’s a great thing about them: no matter how downright silly sounding they may seem, they’re still usually useful. Or at least, they provide an amusing tidbit to share with a friend over your beverage of choice.
The following goofiness encompasses the wackiest new health stories of the past few years. They may sound ridiculous, and they are, but they also meaningfully reveal humanity’s health habits.
Related: 10 Ways Naturism Is a Healthy Lifestyle
10 A New Safety Threat for Kids: Their Own Crocs
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Gen Alpha is the first generation to be wholly of the 21st century. As with its predecessor, Gen Z, these generations grew up technologically and are more digitally tuned. However, they’re being preyed upon by a much less advanced technology: footwear.
Apparently, multiple schools are banning Crocs as an acceptable form of footwear due to safety concerns. As might be evident at a glance, this type of footwear does not promise stability or athletic performance. So even though Crocs and jibbitz (badges to stick on your Crocs) are booming in popularity with the younger crowds, they’re plummeting in popularity with school dress codes.
Overall, it’s said that Crocs lead to more trips and falls than other shoes. Crocs also lack arch and heel support, and they increase skin moisture, leading to blisters.[1]
9 Sea Squirts Are Great for Your Brain and Hair
Sea squirts are kind of cute. They’re the tiny, water-squirting jelly-blobs that affix themselves to sea rocks. Now, it appears that these somewhat plant-resembling animals are super rich in “plasmalogens.” These molecules are phospholipids that come together to form the cell membranes that keep all our liquids inside our body, which is a pretty useful service.
Vitally, these compounds are found throughout the body, including in such important parts as the brain and heart. Yet a lack of these molecules is implicated in various bodily woes, including neurological diseases like dementia. To test whether plasmalogens had a benefit, scientists fed them to mice. Lo and behold, the mice showed improvements in learning and, possibly more importantly, hair quality. Who knows, a future plasmalogen-based supplement could give us all the luxuriously glossy hair of a lab mouse.[2]
8 Extremely Toxic Snail Helps Create Better Medicine
The geography cone is an animal, a predatory cone snail, though it sounds like a dunce cap for people who fail geography. The snail is extremely toxic and one of the most venomous creatures on the planet. Its venom stuns prey by plummeting their blood sugar levels, preventing them from recovering and causing a coma.
Yet scientists found that one part of the snail toxin cocktail, consomatin, is more specific and stable than the human version of the substance, somatostatin. Both compounds work by stopping the rise of certain biological substances, like hormones, blood sugar, and various molecules.
Since the snail version is more potent and longer-lasting, scientists are beginning to use it as a blueprint for creating drugs that could better help people with hormonal issues or blood sugar disorders.[3]
7 Smelling Things While Sleeping Improves Memory
Smelling things can improve memory, even when the smellers are asleep. Our sense of smell, the olfactory system, is possibly our least-appreciated sense. It’s necessary for our sense of taste (many people’s favorite), warns us of dangers, and is strongly linked to memories.
Not too long ago, scientists showed that older participants who smelled things in their sleep enjoyed improved cognitive capacity: an increase of 226% compared to a control group. Every night for two hours, over a span of six months, researchers wafted scents through the bedrooms of a group of older individuals with memory problems. Those who smelled these in their sleep showed major improvements on an established word-list memory test. Also, deeper slumber.
Accordingly, loss of smell is a predictor for more than 70 neurological disorders, yet this is among the first studies that attempt to intervene in patients’ olfactory losses.[4]
6 Exploring Meditating Monks for Gut Health
Mindfulness can help improve mental and physical wellness. So much so that health plans are increasingly prescribing meditation to treat disorders like anxiety, depression, and chronic pain, among others.
Recently, a small comparative study of Tibetan monks and their secular neighbors suggested a link between regular, long-term meditation and gut health, in addition to a lower risk of various physical and mental health issues.
The monks were compared to local non-monks and matched for factors such as diet, age, blood pressure, and heart rate. Additionally, none had recently taken medicines or other substances that could affect the gut microbiome.
It turns out the monks had way better microbiomes, which would affect anti-inflammatory processes and metabolism. They also had much lower risk factors for cardiovascular diseases, including decreased cholesterol.[5]
5 Chinese Researchers Are Fighting Digital Addictions (with Sports)
Internet addiction hinders many people, and it’s easy to see how the World Wide Web (is that still used?) can take over one’s life. With the entire world at your fingertips, finding a balance between “real” life and the virtual one may be challenging.
As a sign of the times, much research is being devoted to treating digital addictions. As per a new Chinese study, one timeless, multi-beneficial treatment is exercise. China is particularly hard hit by digital addictions and previously made global news for its sometimes-extreme, potentially torturous digital addiction camps.
Thankfully, China is testing something less brutal on its college internet addicts: exercise. The best health results are due to a combination of “open motor skill” and “closed motor skill” exercise. The first is unpredictable things, like sports, and the second involves exercises like swimming or running.
The addition of unpredictable exercise, and ostensibly the social aspect, helps improve internet addiction and also loneliness, feelings of inadequacy, anxiety, depression, lethargy, and similar other depressive symptoms that keep many people screen-locked.
Pop down to the park for a pick-up game for an hour or so a few times a week. Or take a walk to help free yourself from TikTok’s shackles.[6]
4 What’s Healthier, Walnuts or Butter?
A recent study found that a breakfast of walnuts boosted brain function all day. Nothing wacky so far. Walnuts are full of good fats and provide a substantial calorie boost, so the improvements in cognition make sense. But here’s how the study was done: Two groups ate different breakfasts.
The walnut-eaters’ breakfast was anchored by walnuts. It also featured muesli (like a European granola) and yogurt. Obviously, the control group couldn’t have walnuts, so they received a calorie-matched control. Now, here’s the wackiness because the calorie-matched control was… butter!
They still got the muesli and yogurt like the walnut group, but instead of walnuts, the researchers had them eat 40 grams of butter with their yogurt-y granola. It seems pretty goofy that butter, of all things, was chosen to calorie-match with walnuts, but then again, who doesn’t love a bowl of buttered yogurt?[7]
3 Scratching Yourself May Boost Immunity
All of us have had an itch at some point and then been reprimanded for scratching it. Now, when some Draconian authority tries to arrest your scratch, you can reply with science.
A mouse model suggests that scratching does two things. It increases inflammation, sure, which can be annoying by perpetuating the itch. Yet a new study found that scratching also attracts neutrophils, one of the main white blood cells and first responders at infection sites. Neutrophils neutralize threats, like viruses or bacteria, by ingesting and destroying them with enzymes.
Depending on the cause of the itch, scratching may also help to prevent local microbiota imbalances at the itch site. Therefore, researchers say that scratching serves as an “evolutionary mechanism” that helps protect us against infections. So there you have it, scratch away (unless it’s a chronic dermatitis condition).[8]
2 Suffering from Bipolar Disorder? Try Keto
Ketogenic diets may be painful, but science has known for a long time that they help with certain brain disorders. And that makes sense, as entering ketosis changes how the brain sources energy.
New science shows the benefits of ketogenic diets for bipolar disorder, which is also linked to metabolic problems. However, going low carb seems to improve both the bipolar issues and the metabolic dysfunction. Ketogenic diets aren’t just low carb and high fat; they must also be low protein to force the body into ketosis, a metabolic pathway that uses ketones as a fuel source.
In the study, scientists saw that a ketogenic diet reduced the action of “excitatory neurotransmitters” in two brain areas linked to bipolar disorder. Intriguingly, this is another piece of the puzzle that bridges metabolic and mental disorders. The next step is to mimic the effects of ketosis without the torture of avoiding carbs.[9]
1 Don’t Ever Take Health Tips from the World’s Oldest People
Finally, a reminder to keep with you throughout your (hopefully long) life. This is the scientific advice proffered after examining some of the world’s oldest folks: centenarians, those lucky (or unlucky) enough to live past 100. The suggestion makes sense because their advice may not always be great—survivorship bias means they may have lived incredibly long lives despite their habits rather than as a result of healthy behaviors.
In fact, many of these centenarian folks had not-so-great habits. They didn’t exercise much, had sub-par diets, and some even smoked. In addition to plain everyday luck, genetics obviously plays a significant role, so the advice these people impart may not be relevant to someone who got a poorer draw in the genetic lottery.
Of course, this doesn’t mean you should disregard all health and safety advice. But still, enjoy a slice of cake every now and then.[10]