Media mash: Artificial jellyfish, HIV cure, broccoli health care & false advertising

HellaWella’s media mash is a weekly feature listing the latest and most interesting health-and-wellness stories we’ve read in the past week, pulled from the Web and linked for your convenience.

 

• Sports drinks, oral supplements, footwear, clothing and fitness devices make health claims left and right, but a recent survey found that not one advertisement (out of 615!) for these types of products could be supported by rigorous scientific research. [New York Times]

 

• Mutations in human DNA are responsible for our inherent love of meat. [The Wall Street Journal]

 

• Get off your iPad [or Kindle, iPhone, insert tech gadget here] and get to sleep! New research suggests exposure to dim lighting at night could be linked to depression. [Time Healthland]

 

• A team of bioengineers has built a living, swimming artificial jellyfish. “Why?” you ask. Because what they learn could save human lives. [Time]

 

• Cargill recalled almost 30,000 pounds of ground beef because of possible salmonella contamination. We can’t help but wonder if this would have happened if they stopped using pink slime. [National Public Radio]

 

• Going on a summer vacation? Here are 10 things to do before you head to your destination. [BrightNest]

 

• It’s illegal to wash two babies at once in Los Angeles. And don’t sleep in — or on top of — a refrigerator in Pittsburgh, plus other weird laws that affect homeowners. [This Old House]

 

• Goodbye to the Big Gulp? An NYC hearing on the proposed soda ban met with strong feelings from both sides. [National Public Radio]

 

• A new study finds that YouTube is an effective way to teach sufferers how to combat vertigo. If only there was a study justifying the need to watch stupid videos. [The Atlantic]

 

• Broccoli is apparently now a symbol in the healthcare debate. Poor broccoli. For the record, we would have chosen beets to take the heat. [New York Times]

 

• If you’ve forgotten what an amazing planet we live on, check out this video of Earth shot from the International Space Station. [Dvice]

 

• Forget about buckling under pressure. Olympic athletes may be risking their chances at gold every time they tweet or post on Facebook. [Huffington Post]

 

• Are baked potato chips really that much healthier than fried? Yes and no. [Food Network]

 

• Find out which U.S. airports are most likely to spread a pandemic. [Yahoo News]

 

• Finding a cure for HIV is a more attainable goal in 2012; and scientists are committed to doing just that. [Los Angeles Times]

 

Tags: advertising, airports, Big Gulp, broccoli, Cargill, depression, ground beef, health care, healthcare reform, HIV, homeowners, iPad, iphone, jellyfish, Kindle, meat, media mash, mental health, nutrition, Olympics, potato chips, recalls, salmonella, soda, soda ban, sports drinks, summer, vacation, vertigo, YouTube

Comments are closed.