September 16 – Heart To Heart
Today’s factismal: The technical name for a blood pressure cuff is sphygmomanometer. Every time you go to a doctor’s office, you meet a nurse carrying one. Most drugstores have an automatic one. And...
View ArticleSeptember 30 – Open Season
Today’s factismal: Flu season starts tomorrow – are you protected? Every year about this time two things happen: malls start blaring Christmas carols and doctors start urging people to get flu shots....
View ArticleNovember 1 – Sweet!
Today’s factismal: November is National Diabetes Awareness Month Diabetes mellitus (its name means “passing through sweet”, a reference to the increased sugar levels in the urine of diabetics) is one...
View ArticleNovember 18 – Would you like to play a game?
Today’s factismal: The first video game was invented in 1947, 1951, 1958, 1961, or 1977. Invention is a hard thing to define. Though we may think that we’ll know it when we see it, it is more common...
View ArticleMay 12 – I Feel For You
Today’s Factismal: Nearly ten million people in the US suffer from fibromyalgia. Imagine that your skin is wrapped in razor-sharp barbed wire coated in acid, so that the slightest pressure causes you...
View ArticleMay 14 – Controversy
Today’s factismal: Vaccines were invented 220 years ago. In 1796, Edward Jenner performed a desperate experiment. A smallpox epidemic was sweeping through England and people were dying by the score....
View ArticleMay 27 – The Beautiful Ones
Today’s Factismal: The Friendship Oak in Long Beach, Mississippi, is 500 years old. Everyone knows that oaks live for a long time. But what many do not realize is how long that time might be. One...
View ArticleAugust 1 – A Real Shot In The Arm
Today’s factismal: August is National Immunization Awareness Month. If you want to be thankful for modern medicine, all you have to do is look at what used to kill us. In 1900, influenza was the...
View ArticleSeptember 8 – Something’s In The Water
Today’s factismal: 162 years ago, a cholera epidemic was stopped by removing a pump handle. Cholera is one of those disgusting diseases that nobody likes. Princesses never die of it in fairy tales and...
View ArticleSeptember 12 – One Small Pox
Today’s factismal: The last death due to smallpox happened thirty-eight years ago. Normally, extinction is not something that we’d celebrate. It means that something is gone forever, taking its unique...
View ArticleOctober 7 – A Real Shot In The Arm
Today’s factismal: In 1900, influenza was the leading cause of death in the USA; thanks to vaccines, it is the ninth most common cause today. Flu season officially started this week. Of course, there...
View ArticleNovember 1 – Not-So-Sweet
Today’s factismal: November is National Diabetes Awareness Month Diabetes mellitus (its name means “passing through sweet”, a reference to the increased sugar levels in the urine of diabetics) is one...
View ArticleDecember 7 – Who Flu There?
Today’s factismal: Just 2,500 Americans have had the flu thus far this season. Every year, the influenza virus strikes (actually, a couple of them strike). And every year, millions of Americans and...
View ArticleAugust 26 – Cough, Cough
Today’s factismal: Fears of the DTaP vaccine in the 1970s and 1980s have led to the rise of vaccine-resistant whooping cough today. This year’s Disneyland measles outbreak has shown what happens when a...
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