This quiz will give ~salty~ a whole new meaning.
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Can You Find The Food With The Most Sodium?
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Here's What Actually Happens When You Pee On A Jellyfish Sting
Ur-ine for a big surprise.
The ocean is wonderful, but it's also full of jellyfish: evil gelatinous bags that will sting you.
The type of jellyfish you'll encounter depends on which ocean you're in and the season, but they're all universally annoying. Jellies in the Atlantic tend not to be as large or poisonous and usually show up when the water is warmest in the summer.
Pacific and Indian oceans have scarier ones, like the Box jellyfish and Portuguese Man O' War, which can kill you if you're stung badly enough. You can always do research before you go to the beach to find out if it's jellyfish season and which kind to expect.
Merve Sarac / Getty Images / Via thinkstockphotos.com
You've probably heard that the the best way to reduce the pain and swelling from a sting is to pee on it immediately.
Remember that episode of Friends where Monica reveals the story of when Chandler had to pee on her leg? It's a very popular ~natural~ remedy, and chances are you've probably been peed on or peed on someone else after jellyfish ruined yet another perfectly good beach day.
But is that really a thing? BuzzFeed Health reached out to board-certified internist Dr. Vandana Bhide at The Mayo Clinic in Florida, to find out
Flickr User Erin G. CC / Via friends.wikia.com
First, let's go over how a jellyfish actually stings you.
Their tentacles are covered in barb-shaped stingers, called nematocysts. The stingers are often microscopic, so you can usually only see the marks and bumps on the skin above them. One end of the stinger is a bulb filled with venom, which bursts and releases toxins under the skin. That venom is highly alkaline and can only be neutralized with acidic compounds. It affects the nerves of the skin — causing pain, stinging, burning, and tingling.
If there's a high enough concentration of venom, it can enter the bloodstream and cause a coma or death. "This is how jellyfish use their tentacles to kill prey, but the stingers rub off on anything the tentacle touches, like a limb in the water," says Bhide. So jellyfish aren't really stinging you on purpose, but instead accidentally brushing against your skin as they swim.
Flickr User Erin G. CC / Via Flickr: character
But — SURPRISE! — there's actually no evidence (other than personal anecdotes) that urine can heal a jellyfish sting.
"There's no proof that the urine helps neutralize toxins from the jellyfish or bring the stingers to the surface of the skin," says Bhide. Urine probably won't harm the sting, but it definitely isn't healing it.
Turbotorque / wikimedia / Via commons.wikimedia.org
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Tell Us The Weirdest Thing You've Accidentally Swallowed
Gulp.
Swallowing is mainly for the purpose of getting food and liquid from our mouth to our stomach.
Skalapendra / Getty Images
But sometimes accidents happen and you swallow something that you definitely were not supposed to.
Maybe you accidentally swallowed your retainer one night.
gifbin.com / Via reddit.com
Or you wolfed down a piece of food that contained a ~surprise object~.
Instagram: @maria_larosa_wx / Via instagram.com
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15 Facts About Pool Water That Are Slightly Horrifying
You’ll never think about swimming pools the same way again.
Pools are a glorious part of summer, but they aren't always as clean as they look.
Don’t worry, this isn’t a post for germaphobes about why pools are disgusting and why you should avoid them forever. We don't live in a sterile world, so it's totally normal for pools to have germs, like everything else. Besides, many bacteria are harmless and found naturally in the environment and on our skin. It's the pathogens you want to avoid: any bacteria, virus, or other organism that causes infection and disease.
Peangdao / Getty Images / Via thinkstockphotos.com
Most people (looking at you!) accidentally swallow some pool water while they're swimming.
Adults ingest on average half an ounce of water every time they swim, while kids usually swallow double that, germ expert Kelly Reynolds, PhD, at the University of Arizona, tells BuzzFeed Health. All that splashing, diving, and spitting can actually allow waterborne pathogens into your system, like ones shed from actual poop, which can obviously make you sick.
Moodboard / Getty Images / Via thinkstockphotos.com
Erikreis / Getty Images
Over 89 million people swim in public pools each summer, which makes it a popular place to swap germs.
Honestly, most public pools will probably test positive for a disease-causing pathogen, according to Reynolds. Even if the pool is maintained and properly chlorinated, you're dealing with A LOT of people in a SMALL amount of water, creating basically a breeding ground.
"Because so many people go into pools, there's a huge exposure potential if there happens to be disease-causing bacteria or pathogens — so a single pool can cause a mass outbreak," says Reynolds.
bTV / Via imgur.com
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Is It Actually Bad To Stare Into The Microwave?
Let’s settle this, once and for all.
Microwaves are a beautiful invention.
These magical little ovens make cooking possible for the lazy, college-aged, and/or culinary-challenged folks everywhere. Plus, they've made reheated leftovers the new main course. (And if you don't think reheated pizza is the best pizza, we can't be friends.)
youtube.com / Via giphy.com
Just don't stare directly at it when it's on! Or...at least that's what you've heard, right?
You've probably been told — whether as a child or an adult — that peering into a microwave while it's cooking has all sorts of bad consequences, like poor vision, blindness, cancer.
Ezumeimages / Getty Images / Via thinkstockphotos.com
But do microwaves actually do any damage to your vision?
We reached out to Dr. Thomas Steinemann, board-certified ophthalmologist and spokesperson for the American Academy of Ophthalmology in Cleveland, to find out if looking inside your microwave is actually bad for your eyes or this is all a big myth.
ABBPhoto / Getty Images / Via thinkstockphotos.com
Actually, there's no evidence to suggest that staring into a microwave will nuke your peepers.
"The answer is no, looking into a microwave while it's on will do no harm to your eyes," says Steinemann.
HBO / Via vodkacranberryclooney.com
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Here's What You Need To Know About The Five-Second Rule
WAIT. Before you eat that chip off the ground, read this.
We all do it — don't even try to deny it.
Drop a few French fries? A cookie? A freshly toasted bagel? As long as it's been on the ground for less than five seconds, then it's good — right?
NBC / Via wibblywobblywrackspurt.tumblr.com
The rule assumes that if food only touches the ground for a few seconds, it hasn't even picked up enough germs to be inedible.
But...is that true? We reached out to germ expert, Dr. Charles Gerba, professor of microbiology at the University of Arizona, to find out if there's really a time limit on eating food off the floor.
Lofilolo / Getty Images / Via thinkstockphotos.com
Here's the thing: Food instantly picks up all the germs from the ground wherever it falls. So the rule is pretty much bogus.
Germs don't wait. The second a piece of food makes contact with the floor, any germs on that spot will transfer to the food. Bacteria and viruses can't jump or move around, so it's not like they're slowly crawling onto a piece of food from the floor and increasing with every second.
"Countless studies have shown that food has the same amount of germs from the ground whether it's been five seconds or ten minutes," says Gerba.
Basically, the rule is more psychological than scientific.
Greg Williams / Pengo / Wikimedia Commons / Via en.wikipedia.org
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Are Your Physical Traits Mostly Dominant Or Recessive?
We promise you won’t need to remember high school science class to find out.
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25 Things People Definitely Weren't Supposed To Eat
“Many years later, I still feel unclean.”
Glowstick fluid.
"I put half of a glowstick in my mouth to crack it, and ended up bursting the whole thing. I think my pee glowed for a little after that?"
Cool Glow / Via coolglow.com
Two teeth...from another person.
"Two teeth. Not my own."
Bravo
A 2,000-year-old person.
"I once accidentally swallowed bone dust from a 2,000-year-old individual while analyzing an archaeological site in college. It was not appropriate."
Nickelodeon / Via winemomrealness.tumblr.com
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23 Things That Sound Fake To People With ADHD
Sorry but empty email inboxes are a MYTH.
Only having a few browser tabs open.
A desktop that looks like this:
Always being ready when a friend picks you up.
Ordering food from a menu immediately.
IFC / Via katwalla.tumblr.com
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Show Us Your Most Ridiculous Sunburn
Let us sympathize with your poor skin.
Sunshine is a wonderful gift to us from Mother Nature.
But if you aren't careful, the sun can also wreck you.
Whoever believes the old saying that "you can't have too much of a good thing" apparently doesn't know how the sun works.
Maybe you forgot to apply sunscreen to a certain part of your body.
Or you accidentally drifted off into a nice long nap while lying out in the sun.
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21 Products For People Who Are Incredibly Accident-Prone
~Protect yourself~ before you wreck yourself.
A no-tip coffee mug for your desk so you'll never worry about keyboard spills again.
Rest assured that your keyboard, laptop, or any other desk items will never get a splash of coffee.
Buy it here for $12.99.
Lowrider / Via amazon.com
Silicone rack protectors to prevent accidental forearm burns while reaching inside the oven.
Buy them here for $9.98.
Perfect Life Ideas / Via amazon.com
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29 People Who Probably Had A Worse Summer Than You
BRB, slathering myself in SPF 100.
And even though these people can laugh now, there's no doubt that they were in pain at the time. Not to mention, sun damage can have long-term effects on your skin and health. So in addition to making you laugh and cringe, we hope this serves as a PSA for the many benefits of using sunscreen properly.
This Irish lad who had a mishap with spray sunscreen:
"15 minutes in the sun... Irish skin at its finest... "
This person who was apparently listening to lullabies on their iPod.
"One day at the beach, I got worn out after playing in the water for a few hours and proceeded to take a nap… for two hours. When I woke up, my whole body was burnt except for where my iPod and headphone string were sitting on my stomach…"
This girl who looks like she put blush on in the dark:
"Absolutely no filter on this photo. This was taken in 2008, back when I thought going tanning twice in one day was a cool and sexy idea. I’m grimacing because it actually hurt to smile. You could have fried an egg on my face."
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Only A True Muscle Expert Can Pass This Quiz
Hope your brain is SWOLE.
Bridgeport8 / Getty Images / Via thinkstockphotos.com
Anatomical information sourced in part from:
-"The Princeton Review Anatomy Coloring Workbook," 3rd Edition, I. Edward Alcamo, PhD, Pengiun Random House 2012.
-The Medline Plus Information Database of The National Institute of Health (NIH) and U.S. National Library of Medicine.
-Healthline Human Body Maps 3D Visual Tool
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This Skin Fungus Is Super Common And You'll Probably Get It At Some Point
There’s nothing fun about FUNgus.
The summer is a glorious time.
Instagram: @anniemdaly / Via instagram.com
But by the end of summer, many people notice some blotches on their chest, back, or face.
But we're not talking about spots that can be attributed to peeling after a sunburn. We're talking about lighter (or sometimes darker) splotches that seem to just pop up out of nowhere.
This is actually a fungus called tinea versicolor, and it's caused by an overgrowth of yeast that already lives on the skin.
Don’t freak out — tinea versicolor is a harmless fungal infection and it’s one of the most common skin conditions dermatologists treat during the summer.
The yeast (called malassezia) is found naturally on about 98% of people, so it’s actually a normal part of our microbial skin flora, says Dr. Camila Janniger, member of the American Academy of Dermatology and clinical professor at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School.
Malassezia yeast is usually benign, but under certain conditions it can develop into a more aggressive form and grow out of control into the tinea versicolor fungus.
flickr.com / Via commons.wikimedia.org
Yeast overgrowth is triggered by hot and humid weather, sweating, tight clothes, and oily skin.
Malassezia yeast is opportunistic — so it only causes infections if the skin is optimal for yeast growth or your immune system is weak. "Yeast loves warm, moist areas so it will grow when your skin stays hot and sweaty in the summer, or if you sit around in damp exercise clothes which trap moisture," says Dr. Whitney Bowe, board-certified dermatologist in New York City.
The most vulnerable parts of your body are areas where sweat builds and your skin secretes more natural oils, such as the back, chest, forehead, and neck.
“It’s most common in young adults and adolescents, likely from hormonal changes or increased oil secretion in the skin," says Janniger. It's also much more common among populations in tropical or sub-tropical climates, where it's hot and humid all year long.
M-imagephotography / Getty Images / Via thinkstockphotos.com
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27 College Health Tips They Won't Teach You At Orientation
Spoiler alert: it’s probably mono.
College is an amazing time.
Nickelodeon / Via Twitter: @ColIegeStudent
But the hectic college lifestyle and abundance of germs on campus means that students get sick... a lot.
It's easy to get sick in college for several reasons:
* Infectious diseases tend to spread where large groups are clustered together — like in dorms, libraries, lecture halls, gyms, and frat houses. Everything from a head cold and strep throat to serious bugs like norovirus and meningitis flourish among college students.
* And communal living means that most students will spend all four years sharing bathrooms, bedrooms, or living spaces with friends or strangers.
* Also, college can be a stressful shitshow. Taking care of yourself can often go overlooked, so students tend to have a lowered resistance when it comes to infections.
Oprah Winfrey Network / Via cdn1.theodysseyonline.com
BuzzFeed Health spoke to Dr. Pritish Tosh, infectious disease specialist at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, and germ expert Kelly Reynolds, PhD, director of environmental health sciences at the University of Arizona, about how college students can stay healthy when the odds (and germs) are against them.
Don't share cups at parties.
It's basically like taking a sip of all the germs, bacteria, and viruses in the other person's mouth. Sharing cups or bottles is a quick and easy way to expose yourself to a number of things, from cold sores to mononucleosis (mono).
Mono is usually called the kissing disease because it's transmitted through saliva, but you can also get it from sharing drinks, so it spreads like wildfire on college campuses. It can cause fever, fatigue, spleen issues, and a sore throat lasting up to six weeks, which is a very long time to be out of commission in college.
So just don't share cups. Even during beer pong. It will not destroy your skill or credibility to take a drink out of your own damn cup or can, and not the one that grimy pong ball landed in.
Mikeygen73 / Getty Images / Via thinkstockphotos.com
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Show Us Your Craziest Allergic Reaction
Some allergies are impossible to hide.
Allergies are no joke.
As anyone who has allergies knows, an allergic reaction happens when your body is super sensitive to something which might be harmless to most people — like a certain food, chemical, plant, animal hair, etc. — and that reaction can be anything from annoying stuff like sneezing, skin rashes, or diarrhea to the most serious and life-threatening reaction, anaphylaxis.
simpsonsworld.com / Via FOX
And sometimes allergic reactions can cause ~pretty noticeable~ symptoms on the face and body.
Often, severe allergic reactions can cause very noticeable skin rashes, hives, eczema, swelling, and more. So it's impossible not to notice when the person is having an allergic reaction.
E! / Via giphy.com
Like this girl, who is very allergic to poison ivy and also got it on her eyes.
Emily Petrozza / Via Twitter: @lauren_petrozza
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Here's Why Alcohol Messes With Your Poop
“Blame it on the a-a-a-a-a-alcohol.” —you, singing from the toilet
You may have noticed that drinking alcohol can sometimes make your poop habits a little...shitty.
If alcohol doesn't mess with your poops at all, consider yourself lucky.
FOX / Via giphy.com
Maybe it happens while you're drinking, and you end up trapped in a bar bathroom praying for mercy.
You know it's bad when you actually have to sit down on those gross toilets.
NBC / Via giphy.com
...or you spend the entire morning after on the toilet.
Either way, alcohol poops are no fun. To get to the bottom of this, BuzzFeed Health reached out to two experts: Dr. Lisa Ganjhu, gastroenterologist at New York University Langone Medical Center in New York City, and Dr. Ali Keshavarzian, director of digestive diseases at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago and grantee of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA).
So, here's why booze can be a literal shitshow sometimes:
FOX / Via imgur.com
First, let's go over how alcohol is actually processed through your digestive system.
When alcohol hits the stomach, a little bit is absorbed through the stomach lining. The rest ends up sloshing around in your stomach before it goes to the small intestine. In the small intestine, alcohol is absorbed directly into the bloodstream. What's left after that is waste products and water, which moves through the large intestine (colon) until it reaches the rectum, and leaves the body...as poop.
Along this magical journey, alcohol can screw with everything from your stomach enzymes to the speed of digestion, all of which can wreak havoc on your poops.
Skalapendra / Getty Images
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31 Allergic Reactions That Actually Hurt To Look At
*buys all of the allergy medicine just in case*
Folks, we’re definitely not making light of severe allergies here. Even if some of these people can look back and laugh now, there's no doubt they were in pain and probably panicking at the time — but we'll let their stories tell you more about all that.
FYI: An allergic reaction can be anything from sneezing or skin rashes to the most serious and fatal reaction, anaphylaxis. Many allergy sufferers rely on medications like the EpiPen to stop their reactions — which is especially important given the recent 500% price hike. So in addition to making you cringe or laugh, we hope this post serves as a reminder of why allergies should always be taken seriously.
This woman who got a little too close to dust mites:
"Apparently I’m allergic to dust mites. My breathing was never affected, and I only itched a little, but my boss wouldn’t let me go to work that day, as I worked in retail."
This girl who is a PSA about the dangers of eyelash tinting:
"I have red eyelashes and was offered free eyelash tinting at the office I worked at. Everything went great until I woke up the next morning and saw my reflection in the mirror. My family called me Quasimodo. Each day it kept getting worse and I also couldn’t see. I was put on oral and topical steroids, which made my face even more swollen. It turns out I’m severely allergic to the zinc in tinting dye. The worst part is this happened the day before my sophomore year of college."
This guy who just wants the ~kombucha trend~ to end:
"Ever heard of the drink kombucha? Well, neither had I, until my friend offered me just one small swig. This is my face 30 minutes later."
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Ben Stiller Reveals He Was Diagnosed With Prostate Cancer
The actor says he was diagnosed with aggressive prostate cancer years ago and has since had surgery to treat it.
On Tuesday, Ben Stiller spoke publicly for the first time about being diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2014.
The actor went public with it on Howard Stern Tuesday morning, and published a personal essay about it on Medium.
Stiller was joined on the show by his surgeon, who discussed the controversial screening method which led to Stiller's diagnosis.
Rob Kim / Getty Images / Via gettyimages.com
Quick refresher: The prostate is a walnut-sized gland located under the bladder that helps produce semen.
The gland's function is to produce seminal fluid, which helps nourish and transport sperm as it leaves the body through ejaculation. It tends to cause more issues (especially with urination), as men age, and it's checked during a routine digital rectal exam, where a finger or instrument is inserted in the anus to feel for abnormalities.
Prostate cancer is common — about 1 in 6 men will get it, according to the American Cancer Society.
Kocakayaali / Getty Images
Stiller wrote that when he was 46, his doctor gave him a "baseline PSA test," which is sometimes given to average or low-risk individuals.
The PSA test measures levels of prostate-specific antigen; anything over level 4 is suspicious, Dr. Robert Segal, medical testing expert and co-founder of LabFinder.com, told BuzzFeed Health. It's a screening tool to determine prostate cancer risk, not detect the cancer itself. After an abnormal PSA test, you'd usually go to a urologist, said Segal, who follows up with a rectal exam and MRI before they decide if you need a biopsy.
"It's sensitive but not specific, meaning it detects a high PSA but we don't know if that's from a fatal cancer, a low-grade cancer, or even just a benign inflammation or infection in the prostate," Dr. Harry Fisch, clinical professor at Weill Cornell Medicine and NewYork-Presbyterian, told BuzzFeed Health.
"The PSA test saved my life," Stiller wrote.
After that initial test showing a high PSA, Stiller said his doctors monitored his PSA levels for two years until they eventually did an MRI and biopsy to screen for cancer.
The biopsy came back positive, Stiller wrote, showing he had “mid-range aggressive cancer." Doctors recommended surgery to remove the tumor, and Stiller said he got the phone call that he was cancer-free in September 2014.
Michael Reaves / Getty Images / Via gettyimages.com
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How Much Do You Actually Know About Sleep?
Don’t snooze or you’ll lose.
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