What your Pee and Poop are Telling You About Your Body - INFOGRAPHIC

Far from crude, this infographic has a lot of information that could let you get a picture of your health.

Too refined to talk about poop? Well, you might not want to let the subject be completely ignored… Your poop can tell you if there is something seriously wrong with you.

The author asserts the three S’s that could save your life : size, shape, smell and shade. If you ever turn around after relieving yourself too see any of these 4 S’s strikingly unusual, you might want to see a doctor. No, I’m not advocating that you carefully inspect your excrement regularly. Just that you keep an eye out for oddities. These can be indicators of serious problems. Don’t let them go unnoticed.

A spider in Brazil can cause erections that lasts for hours

The Brazilian wandering spiders appeared in Guinness World Records 2012 as the world's most venomous spider. Its venom can cause priapism in humans. Priapism is a potentially painful medical condition, in which the erect penis or clitoris does not return to its flaccid state, despite the absence of both physical and psychological stimulation, within four hours. A component of the venom (Tx2-6) is being studied for use in erectile dysfunction treatments.

The eight-legged creature - also known as the armed spider, banana spider or Phoneutria nigriventer - is native to South and Central America.

Meet Ralph, the giant Schnauzer who helps children to walk and smile

Ralf has gained a reputation as something of a miracle worker since joining Royal Children's Hospital, in Melbourne, Australia. The selfless pooch walks the wards and looks in on his young patients every Monday. He even sits with some during gruelling chemotherapy therapy sessions.

Ralf got two-year-old Claire Couwenberg to walk for the first time in the five days since her surgery to remove a cancerous kidney. And he brought a smile to 15-month-old Zeke Harrison, who has a rare genetic disorder where his body is unable to break down protein and too much can kill him.

(click to enlarge)

Ralf is one of a handful of dogs to visit the RCH each week in a program that has been boosted so more pooches are popping in on more little patients.

New Study Reveals We Are Happiest At Age 33

Forget the old adage that your schooldays are the happiest of your life - a study has found that 33 is the age at which people are most content. Seven out of 10 people over the age of 40 picked the year they turned 33 as their happiest in a survey by website Friends Reunited.

More than half of those surveyed - 53 per cent - said life was more fun and 42 per cent said they felt more optimistic about the future.

One in three said their happiness stemmed from having children while one in five said happiness came from success at work.

Chemical in fake tan and make-up is linked to obesity and diabetes

Chemicals called phthalates in plastics, cosmetics and toys are the latest reasons why one may have higher chances of developing diabetes, a study reveals. A study in Sweden has found that people with 'modest' levels of the chemicals in their blood are twice as likely to develop diabetes.

Phthalates are used as a softening agent in plastics but they can be used in cosmetics such as self-tan and perfumes.

The researchers analysed data from 1,000 people aged over 70, of which 114 developed diabetes. After taking into account factors known to cause type 2 diabetes, including obesity and high cholesterol, they found people with higher levels of phthalates were more likely to develop diabetes, the journal Diabetes Care reported.

Monica Lind, associate professor of environmental medicine at the Uppsala University, Sweden, said: "Although our results need to be confirmed in more studies, they do support the hypothesis that certain environmental chemicals can contribute to the development of diabetes," according to a university statement.

Why you shouldn't even bother trying to remember last night!

Why you shouldn't even bother trying to remember last night: Drunken blackouts are caused by alcohol switching off brain’s memory function, study shows

It’s often said that alcohol killing off brain cells is behind the blackouts, but according to a study what’s actually happening is that booze is preventing new memories being recorded in the first place.

Yukitoshi Izumi, research professor of psychiatry at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, said: ‘We’ve found that exposure to alcohol inhibits some receptors and later activates others, causing neurons to manufacture steroids that inhibit memory formation.’

The brain cells affected by alcohol are found in the hippocampus and other brain structures involved in advanced cognitive functions. When the hippocampal cells are treated with moderate amounts of alcohol, the key areas for memory formation are unaffected, but exposing the cells to large amounts of alcohol inhibits the memory formation mechanism.

‘Some people may be more vulnerable to alcohol’s effects than others. In other words, just because your friend may be able to drink a certain number of drinks and appear to be functioning fine, it does not mean that you or everyone else can.’ said lead author Reagan R. Wetherill.

‘Blackouts’, where very heavy drinkers wake up and are unable to remember anything that happened, are quite rare, says Weatherill – but their cousin, the ‘brown out’, where details vanish, is much more common.

via

Starbucks Uses Insects In Strawberry Frappuccinos

Starbucks uses cochineal extract, which is the ground-up bodies of INSECTS, as a dye for their popular rose-coloured Strawberry Frappuccinos.

Bugs from mainly Mexico and South America are dried out before they are ground and used in the milky-based Frappuccino drink. As stomach-turning as it may sound, the ingredient is in fact harmless. Commonly used to help liven up the dull hues of jams, meats, cheese, baked goods, alcoholic drinks and more, cochineal extract has been used as a colouring agent in food and drinks for centuries. It has been deemed safe by the United States’ Food and Drug Administration.

Starbucks said it had decided to use cochineal extract to help limit the use of artificial ingredients in its products.

Popcorn Has 'More Antioxidants Than Fruit and Vegetables', New Study Says

Popcorn, when it’s not slathered in butter and coated in salt, is already known to be a healthy snack food and now a group of scientists say it may even top fruits and vegetables in antioxidant levels.

The new research has revealed that popcorn is made up of just 4% water so the antioxidants are less diluted than in fruit and vegetables, which can be made up of up to 90% water. The study found that one serving of popcorn contains up to 300mg of antioxidants - known as polyphenols – nearly double the 160mg found in a serving of fruit.

The researchers also found the crunchy hulls of popcorn (those bits that have an annoying habit of sticking in your throat) have the highest concentration of antioxidants and fibre.

Researcher Jo Vinson said: “Those hulls deserve more respect. They are nutritional gold nuggets.”

Describing popcorn as “the perfect snack food”, he added: “It's the only snack that is 100 per cent unprocessed whole grain.

“All other grains are processed and diluted with other ingredients, and although cereals are called 'whole grain', this simply means that over 51% of the weight of the product is whole grain.