Just a reminder that BPA-free plastic may be just as bad for you! It’s not that companies are purposefully misleading consumers, but rather a case of using a new, untested additive to replace BPA, but an additive with similar function. The replacement, BPS, is showing up in urine samples in 81% of Americans. Read more at Scientific American, also this post from earlier this year.
Researchers create pandemic-level H1N1 virus variant
In an effort to learn more about how viruses work and how to help design new vaccines, researchers used a natural selection type of process to create a virus based on H1N1, but one that would be resistant to vaccination. The sort of thing that, if it escaped the labs, could likely create a global pandemic. Yikes. I really question this line of research…though what scares me more is the potential for the same techniques to be used by sinister minds. Science is awesome…but we must maintain our respect for nature.
Walking boosts creativity
A recent study has found that walking boost creativity by about 60% compared to sitting. Surprisingly, it didn’t matter whether study participants were walking on an indoor treadmill, or walking outdoors, both were beneficial. The mental boost continued for around eight minutes after sitting down. So, get out there and walk!
You can read more about the study at The Entrepreneur.
Forget standing desks – use a fetal position desk instead ;)
Standing desks may be the latest trend (with some solid health benefits!), but now there’s a new trend emerging – fetal position desks! Check out the very informative 😉 video below. Just some Friday humor for you from The Onion…
10 health tests guys should be getting
I came across a neat article at Care2 called “10 Health Tests Every Father Should Get.” (most of those tests would apply to women, too!). It’s a nice little reminder that I need to start going to a doctor more regularly for checkups! I’ve become more focused on monitoring my health with an activity tracker and wifi scale…these will be further data points to keep track of.
The 10 tests they recommend are (read the link above for details):
- Blood Pressure
- Diabetes
- Cholesterol
- Colorectal Cancer
- Prostate Cancer
- Vaccines
- Audiogram
- Eye Exam
- Lipid Profile
- Electrocardiogram
Which has me wondering about Apple’s forthcoming Health App. In iOS8 (due this fall), they’ll be offering a way to track all sorts of health metrics, and share that information with your doctor. It has the potential to be a great place to keep track of results from the tests mentioned above…I can’t wait to try it!