According to an article from The Cochrane Library, colic in babies can be actually be helped by adjusting their spinal alignment (ie, chiropractic and osteopathy methods). Say hello to about 1 hour fewer of crying per day (I’d say that’s completely worth it)!
Colic usually happens in the first 6 months of life and affects about 16% of babies. See the full “Manipulative therapies for infantile colic” article here.
When people comment that I must have a sweet tooth, I counter with “Actually, they’re all sweet.” I LOVE sweets. I tried to live almost solely on them my first semester of college.. All-you-can-eat ice cream at the diner, every night?! Didn’t work out so well. Hello, freshman fifteen!
Why is the call of sweets so powerful? When was the last time you just had to eat something sweet? For me, it was this morning.
Today I realized our hypothalamus has a bunch of answers to the 3 o’clock need (or all-the-time need) for sweet things. It basically keeps tabs on how much energy you have stored, while also keeping an eye on blood sugar levels. Of course, it’s also influenced by personal preferences and experiences with food.
This article explains the cycle of eating that first bite of delicious food and whether you reach back for another bite, and what makes you feel full vs. still hungry for more (hint: FRUCTOSE isn’t the fairy godmother that you thought it was).
If you haven’t yet seen the 2012 documentary Marley, make some time to watch it, it’s a fascinating portrait of reggae superstar Bob Marley, who died super young at age 36 from melanoma. The cancer was detected under one toenail in 1977, went untreated, and spread to his lungs and brain, ultimately killing him in 1981. May is skin cancer awareness month, so it’s not a bad time to remember to check your moles for any signs of melanoma. Have fun, get naked with a friend and go on a mole hunt with our bilingual skin check chart to guide and take care of the skin you’re in.
The cherry blossoms are at full peak today, and we love that people are flocking to DC to gape at a bunch of trees. We are busy packing for next Saturday’s 53rd annual Sakura Matsuri street festival in downtown Washington DC! The family-friendly festival features an exciting spectrum of Japanese culture, music, dance, martial arts, visual arts and food, including green tea ice cream. Just a to mention a few things to see and do: taiko drumming, kimono fashion show, calligraphy, learn Japanese booth, origami, Sodoku, Go games, tea, bonsai, manga, all things kawaii, green tea ice cream, Pokemon, anime, Harajuku girls, Domo-Kun, and the list goes on. Taste of Japan will host 25 different Japanese and Asian food vendors, green tea ice cream, plus two Kirin beer gardens and a sake tasting station. If you are Japanophiles like we are, then don’t miss it! Come and visit us Saturday April 13th from 10:30 am to 6:00 pm we will be bringing gutsy plush — including new plush organ friends Heart of Gold, Tooth and Eyeball — and t-shirts for sale, we hope to see you there, should be a gorgeous day! Did I mention the green tea ice cream?
You can count on us to keep current with the newest in gallbladder removal techniques; we are, after all, crazy about gallbladders! The newest approach to gallbladder removal uses a robot to cut a tiny cut (2.5 cm) in the bellybutton. It only takes a few hours to recover enough to go back to work (both a good and bad thing, we guess). For those of you who aren’t squeamish, here is a great photo of a gallbladder being removed through the belly button!
Happy cholecystectomies!
Eyeballs may be the future in smartphone security! Instead of saving all of your passwords and login information in a text file (which we are always told to NEVER do, but we all do it anyway), you could just have your smartphone camera track your eye movements to sign in. The newer Samsung smartphones (and now LG, too) already track your eye movements so that the screen only dims once you look away. New smartphones will also let us scroll across pages with our eye movements, too!
Sometimes I wonder what I would do if I didn’t have teeth. The most upsetting thing would be all the trouble eating chewy and hard foods. But it would also be awful to have people run away in fear, after seeing me without teeth (similar to my reaction when I saw Actresses Without Teeth).
Because of our enthusiasm for teeth here at I Heart Guts, we decided to make our own! This one won’t make eating steak any easier, but just might make you crack a smile full of pearly whites.
When was the last time you thought about your sweat glands? Sweat is actually pretty cool. It keeps you from getting too hot, guards against bacteria by making the skin acidic, and even drains away extra fluid and electrolytes from the blood. Hello to night sweats after a heavy night of drinking!
There are 2 main types: apocrine and eccrine. Sometimes the eccrine sweat glands get a little too excited about their cushy job, and ta-da: hyperhidrosis happens! These lucky people get extra sweaty when their sympathetic nervous systems kick into gear.
Bladders and eyes and surgery, oh my!
A blind blue heron was recently operated on to fix its broken corneas. A surgeon covered the corneas with bits of pig bladder, which is known to help tissue regenerate. For now the bird gets to stay in a pond full of fish; here’s hoping he’ll recover enough to see ‘em!
I see Mexican food in my near future.
Did you know that the pituitary gland releases endorphins whenever you eat spicy food?
Endorphins are the lovely chemicals that get released in our brains, both in response to pain and love. They have a huge fan base because they dampen pain messages in the brain. These natural painkillers go about doing their delightful deeds whenever you exercise, are excited, and even when you’re afraid!
So if you’re feeling blue, try some habaneros, wasabi, or just plain old hot sauce. Disclaimer: We cannot be held responsible for watering eyes, burned mouths, or public embarrassment.
