It sounds like the stuff of fairy tales or a thing that could only happen in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Imagine a doctor writing the words “ice cream” on a prescription […]
Research Proves Benefits When Doctors Prescribe Ice Cream
Play the Game That Was Invented to Help a President Lose Weight
Dr. Joel T. Boone had a problem with one of his patients. The man under his care was in a stressful job and was in danger of working himself to death. His […]
Can A Person Be Shocked Back to Life After Flatlining?
How many times have you seen it? You are watching a dramatic scene that takes place in a hospital’s operating room or emergency room. The slow, steady beep of the EKG abruptly […]
A Warning for Women About the Dangers of Bicycle Face
Nineteenth-century life had more than its share of challenges for women. Disenfranchisement, substandard medical care, and the need to wear corsets are just a few of the downsides they had to face. […]
How a Medical Legend Maneuvered Celebrities into Treating AIDS Patients With Malaria
Each year 1-3 million people die from malaria. Another 1 million annually succumb to AIDS. You don’t need to be a physician to realize both of these diseases are pretty bad. Anyone […]
How a 20th-Century Doctor Treated Patients By Sticking an Ice Pick Into Their Brains Through Their Eyes
“It isn’t brain surgery.” We use the phrase to describe simple tasks that anyone should be able to do. The unstated assumption behind this is that brain surgery is far from simple […]
The Strange Case of the Woman Who Urinated From Her Ears, Eyes, Nose, and Navel
If you have suffered through a long car ride in which the driver refuses to stop for a bathroom break, you may have felt as if your eyeballs were floating. Possibly you […]
Who Would Want to Be the Shepherd of the Royal Anus?
What is the weirdest job you could list on your resume? It probably doesn’t hold a candle to “Shepherd of the Royal Anus.” Despite what you may think, having that job was […]
Law & Order – Hammurabi’s Code Division
In Babylon’s criminal justice system, the people were governed by a code of justice and the king who wrote that code. These are their stories. Welcome to Law and Order: Hammurabi’s Code […]
Why Do Drug Commercials List All Those Crazy Side Effects?
Do you feel like you don’t know enough? Do you find yourself at a loss for things to talk about at social gatherings? Do you wish you knew some interesting tidbit of […]
How Freak Shows Revolutionized Medical Care for Babies
Once upon a time, there was a place called Wonderland. No, this is not a story about the mythical place created by Lewis Carrol. The Wonderland of this story was real. It […]
One-Fourth of Orthopedic Surgeons Have Operated On the Wrong Limb
Did you hear about the surgeon who accidentally amputated a patient’s right leg, when it was the left one that was to be removed? Once he realized the error, he had no […]
The World’s Luckiest Man Died, Was Revived, and Won the Lottery — Twice
A story about the world’s luckiest man doesn’t seem like it would start with a fatal heart attack. For Bill Morgan, that’s exactly what started an extraordinary streak of good fortune.
The True Tale of the Meowing Nuns With Biting Issues
The Sisters of Plenitude are familiar to fans of BBC’s Doctor Who. The nuns lived on New Earth in New New York (technically, “New New New New New New New New New […]
Was Alexander the Great Buried Alive?
When Alexander the Great died at the tender age of 32, he had conquered the known world. Many wondered at the time and since what he could have accomplished if he had […]
Commonplace Fun Facts 