Last week, a Facebook post went viral offering a really unusual sunburn remedy. The woman from Texas posted before-and-after photos of her sunburnt back and suggested that menthol shaving foam did all the miraculous work. Although it sounds strange, several doctors could confirm the hack might work.

The woman suggested shaving foam as a sunburn remedy

Cindie Allen-Stewart, a 34-year-old mother from Texas, wanted to share with everyone her strange but incredibly effective sunburn remedy. The woman posted on Facebook three photos showing the progress of her sunburn treatment. At first, she displayed her sunburnt back with bra straps traces. In the second one, her back was covered in shaving foam, while the third showed how the sunburn was gone.

It turns out the miraculous sunburn remedy was nothing more than a menthol shaving foam. Apparently, her husband suggested she should try it, after his mother had informed him a doctor recommended the remedy to her a long time ago. People were surprised at the effects, so they shared the post over 223,480 times.

Doctors confirmed the sunburn remedy might work for mild cases

Apparently, the Texas mother has been using this method for ten years now. She explained you should apply the shaving foam on the sunburnt area and let it sit for 30 minutes. Meanwhile, it starts dissolving, so you should start experiencing a cooling effect. You should notice the foam is working after at least one day, but you can repeat the process if needed.

Several thousands of people were impressed by this life hack, but many were skeptical. Therefore, doctors stepped in to confirm or infirm the fact. It turns out menthol-based shaving cream can really be effective. These products are both cooling and have anti-inflammatory properties, so they might be good with sunburns.

However, doctors say you should still be careful. Shaving cream is good for mild cases of sunburn. If your skin is way too inflamed or has blisters, the cooling effect of menthol won’t do too much good.

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Flight attendants expose themselves to plenty of health risks when they sign up for this job. However, the scientific evidence was scarce when it came to certain risks, such as cancer. Now, researchers have finally managed to develop a conclusive study that proves airline workers have a higher risk of developing cancer than other people.

The flight attendant job implies some risks

There are plenty of physical risks that affect flight attendants, including circadian rhythm changes and radiation exposure from the upper atmosphere. However, researchers weren’t able to delve too well into the issue. Their results were even fewer when it came to cancer, so a team of researchers from Harvard University decided to perform a new analysis.

They started the project in 2007, when they had 5,366 flight attendants self-report their health state. Every year, they repeated the observations so, for this study, they used the results from 2014. Afterwards, they used a control group of 2,729 people with a similar social economic situation to the flight attendants.

Flight attendants exhibit a bigger cancer risk regardless of gender

This way, they noticed flight attendants had a much bigger chance of getting cancer than the control group. In female attendants, the risks of breast, uterine, cervical, gastrointestinal, and thyroid cancer were all bigger. There wasn’t too much of a difference between them and regular people, but statistics show such discrepancies cannot occur randomly.

In male attendants, the risk of skin cancer was bigger when it came to both melanoma and non-melanoma tumors. Also, for every five years they spend as flight attendants, these people increase their risk of skin cancer regardless of gender.

This is the best study ever developed that assesses the cancer risk among flight attendants. The results are quite surprising, since these people are usually not exposed to other risks like smoking or obesity. However, there’s something you should keep in mind. The study was observational, so it couldn’t account for any possible causes for this elevated risk. Also, researchers think some factors might have influenced the results, such as the younger age of the control group.

The study was published in the journal Environmental Health.

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Video games can have a really big influence on children, as some people argue they can make them violent. Now, parents are worried about a horror video game that looks harmless at first, but has multiple references to violence, suicide, or traumatizing elements. The concerns became even more serious when a British parent blamed this game for his son’s suicide.

The title was easily classified as a psychological horror video game

Doki Doki Literature Club, developed by Team Salvato, appeared last year in September. The game looks completely innocent, as it exhibits characters drawn in a cartoon style. However, it is actually a horror video game with serious psychological implications and themes that include suicide and violence.

Soon after its release, the game became popular because it was massively streamed by YouTubers. Since its ending contained a lot of plot twists, these people recorded their shocked reactions and then posted them on YouTube. One user said the game was traumatizing and that he was left scarred by the ending. In fact, the developers posted a warning on Steam, saying the horror video game was not suitable for children.

The man thinks the game caused his son to commit suicide

If these concerns weren’t enough, a devastated parent blamed the horror video game for his 15-year-old son’s suicide. Darren Walmsley wanted everyone to know about the dangers of Doki Doki Literature Club. He couldn’t confirm the link officially, but he knew for sure his son was playing it. Although he didn’t talk about it, he could see how the gameplay was dragging him in and messing with his mind.

A coroner came to support the concerned man’s claims. His statement classified the title as a psychological horror video game with elements that might cause young people to experience suicidal thoughts. Things get even more serious if these people already have a feeble state of mind. Therefore, he encouraged all parents to check what games their kids are playing and get help if they notice something strange with them.

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The FDA has just marked one of the most remarkable medical milestones in the US history. For the first time ever, the administration has approved a drug produced from cannabis. The drug in question is called Epidiolex and should treat even the most serious forms of childhood epilepsy. However, the drug won’t get on the market too soon, as it first needs approval from the Drug Enforcement Administration.

DEA’s classification keeps cannabis-based drugs from getting on the market

The Drug Enforcement Administration has been dealing with drug classification for many decades. Almost 50 years ago, they included cannabis on the list of Schedule I drugs, next to LSD or heroin. This category should contain drugs that can easily become addictive and which have no medical use.

However, researchers have managed to show cannabis can be useful from a medical point of view. DEA’s classification still keeps them from continuing their research, but there’s another problem. The FDA has just approved the drug produced from cannabis, but it won’t go on the market before DEA changes the classification.

The drug produced from cannabis is the only effective treatment against childhood epilepsy

Epidiolex is a drug produced from cannabis but doesn’t share any symptoms with the drug. It contains cannabidiol (CBD), one of the two components of marijuana. It has no psychoactive effects, as opposed to THC (tetrahydrocannabinol).

This drug produced from cannabis is effective against two types of epilepsy, the Lennox-Gastaut and the Dravet syndrome. So far, researchers have found no treatment to work on these diseases, so Epidiolex is a real medical breakthrough. The clinical trials on this drug showed how children who took the drug experienced 40 percent fewer seizures.

This is a strong enough reason for DEA to consider a reclassification. According to its spokesperson, the organization has given serious thought to this decision, but it’s not clear how quickly the drug produced from cannabis will get on the market. However, there’s one more alternative. DEA could reclassify only CBD and leave cannabis where it is.

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Tattoos are quite fashionable, but it might be better not to get one if your immune system is weak. Doctors released this warning while presenting the case of a Scottish woman who had undergone a lung transplant and was suffering from cystic fibrosis. After getting a leg tattoo, the woman started experiencing pain in her knees and thighs.

Tattoos might be dangerous for weak immune symptoms

Tattoos usually come without risks, but they might interact with certain drugs. Although most artists don’t warn people beforehand, doctors are cautioning those who take immunosuppressants. Usually, these drugs are prescribed after transplants or for those with autoimmune diseases. Therefore, they might have quite a big impact on the immune system.

However, it’s quite understandable why these people should think twice about getting tattoos. Since their immune system is weak, they are more prone to infections. Therefore, all these people should get medical advice before any such interventions.

The leg tattoo didn’t interact well with the medication

Unfortunately, the 31-year-old Scottish woman didn’t do it before her leg tattoo. Ten months after the procedure, she ended up in the hospital with terrible pains. The knee of the tattooed leg had swollen and she couldn’t sleep because of the discomfort. This was strange, since she had other tattoos on her other leg and had no trouble with them.

Researchers were quite baffled, since they found no clear origin of the problem. They discovered no bacterial infection, but the MRI scans showed the muscles near the leg tattoo were inflamed. After finding out about the treatment the woman was undergoing, they started putting the pieces together.

However, it’s still not clear the leg tattoo was the direct cause of the inflammation. However, given the moment when the symptoms appeared and the location of the pain, they found no other explanation. The case of the woman was described in the journal BMJ Case Reports.

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Every two years, the CDC performs a survey on all the risky behaviors teenagers engage in. While some activities are no longer as popular as they used to be, young people now enjoy trends that seem harmless. However, they are a lot more dangerous than they seem. Sex and drugs are no longer so popular among teens but, apparently, they are damaging their health by not drinking enough milk.

Teenagers drink less milk than they used to

To keep risky behaviors among teenagers under control, the CDC performs the Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System every two years. For this survey, the CDC interviews teenagers from 9^th to 12^th grade, asking them about their choice of risky behaviors. These include having sex, taking drugs, consuming alcohol, but also trends that might damage their health.

One such trend that might suit the last category is not drinking milk. To stay healthy, teens have to drink three dairy cups per day. In 1999, 18 percent of these youngsters drank the recommended amount of milk. Now, their rate dropped to 7.9 percent. Also, 27 percent of them admitted to drinking no milk during the week.

Milk has plenty of vitamins and minerals necessary for our health. If dairy consumption is decreasing, teens risk getting sick and feeble more often. However, the results might be better from other points of view, as teens have started laying off some other risky behaviors.

Youngsters now engage in fewer risky behaviors

Only 39.5 percent of them declared having sex in the past year, which is quite a big decrease since 1991, when this survey started. From those who had sex, the percentage of sexually active teens in the past three months was still small.

In the end, the survey came with the best news of all. The most dangerous risky behaviors of all, namely alcohol and drug consumption, has been decreasing for the past years. The rate of alcohol-drinking teenagers dropped from 81.6 to 60.4 percent, while the rate of cannabis consumption went from 26.7 percent to 19.8 percent.

It turns out teenagers are saving the risky behaviors for later, or they have just decided to engage in different activities. However, they should not neglect drinking milk and consuming nutritious foods.

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Sugar is bad for anyone if consumed excessively, but it has even more damaging effects for children. The CDC decided to take a look at the diet of toddlers and obtained some worrying results. It turns out kids between 6 and 23 months old eat way too much added sugar. In fact, the quantity of sugar they consume exceeds the limits set for adults.

What is added sugar?

Researchers were concerned about the health of American toddlers, so they developed a survey where they interviewed parents with children aged between 6 and 23 months. They asked them questions about the foods they feed their children with. Then, they assessed the quantity of added sugar these foods contain.

These types of sugars come from syrups or other sweeteners added to foods after processing. Most of this sugar is found in soda, cookies, cakes, or ice cream. Therefore, it doesn’t include natural sugar from fruits. Added sugar is one of the biggest risk factors for our health, as it might lead to heart disease, obesity, or diabetes.

For the survey, parents had to write a list of all the things they usually feed their children in a day. Then, researchers put down any product with added sugar, excluding natural sugar coming from fruits or vegetables. This way, they discovered toddlers don’t follow too healthy diets.

Toddlers eat too much added sugar

The results were really worrying, as kids actually consumed way more added sugar than the limit established for adults. Also, the situation became even more dangerous. As kids advanced in age, the quantity of sugar they consumed was even bigger. On any random day, they consumed an average of seven teaspoons of added sugar.

When you compare this to the limits for adults, you’ll see the situation isn’t too bright. Women are advised to eat only 6 teaspoons of sugar per day while, for men, the limit is of 9 teaspoons. Toddlers should actually not eat added sugar at all, so parents should revise these guidelines before choosing a diet for their kids.

The findings will be presented during this’s year meeting of the American Society for Nutrition.

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When you are feeling incredibly hungry, there’s just a small step until you become angry or, as many people call it, hangry. If you thought low blood sugar was to blame, researchers came here to enlighten you. The cause of the event is actually a combination between emotional and psychological factors, as well as the external context of the situation.

Being hangry isn’t only related to hunger?

Being hangry is quite a complex process, since it doesn’t only come from hunger. Kristen Lindquist, one of the researchers from North Carolina that developed the study, put the whole event in simpler words. Whenever you are hungry, you experience an unpleasant feeling. Sometimes, you might think the feeling doesn’t come from hunger. In these cases, you end up directing it towards other people or external situations.

To reach these conclusions, researchers developed two different experiments. For the first one, 400 American participants had to watch images that were either pleasant, unpleasant, or neutral. Afterwards, they had to rate both a Chinese pictograph and their hunger.

Strategically, researchers picked a pictograph that should appear as neutral as possible. However, an interesting phenomenon happened. Hungrier people rated the image as more negative, but this happened only if they saw negative images before.

Negative contexts make it easier for people to be hangry

Here’s how the researchers explained being hangry. The previous negative context they had been given made them see the image as negative as well. In fact, they converted their feelings of hunger into hostility against the image. However, the interpretations were more peaceful in case of positive and neutral images.

For the second experiment, 200 students had to either eat or stay hungry before performing a test. Some of them could express their emotions in writing before the task. To check their reactions, researchers made some computers malfunction, and then blamed the students for it. Those who hadn’t got to express their feelings appeared more hangry and frustrated.

These experiments are the best proof that a negative context can really make people hangry. That unpleasantness caused by hunger can immediately turn into something else if external factors allow it. More details on the study have been published in the journal Emotion.

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Researchers at St. Louis University want to make you ill, but for a noble purpose. The university has turned the old Water Tower Inn in the city into a research unit where people receive influenza virus on purpose. Nicknamed Hotel Influenza, this center will pay people $3,500 to get exposed to the flu virus and see how they react.

At Hotel Influenza, people are willingly being infected with the flu virus

Hotel Influenza gathers mainly researchers from the university’s Center for Vaccine Development. There, people can receive either the real flu virus or a placebo and, then, researchers will look at what happens in their bodies. They have to stay there for ten days, as the virus is highly contagious. When the period is over, they can go back home after receiving $3,500 for agreeing with the experiment.

This type of study actually has a long and complicated history. About 100 years ago, researchers came up with the idea for the human challenge study. This consisted of exposing people directly to the disease virus. Of course, this hasn’t always been safe, but the recent development of technology has made the method better for using.

People are still skeptical about such human challenge studies

The first time when researchers attempted a Hotel Influenza experiment was in 1936. Two doctors from Russia selected 72 healthy volunteers and exposed them to the flu virus. This way, they discovered the entrance point of the virus in the organism was through the lower part of the respiratory tract.

However, there was a problem with such scientific trials, and it seems to persist. People started debating if it’s ethical to expose healthy people to different viruses. The Hotel Influenza experiment should be safe, since people have to consent to the infection and they also receive a monetary reward. Such human challenge studies are still frowned upon, and they come with plenty of guidelines and restrictions from WHO.

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A man from Long Island issued a lawsuit against CVS, the pharmacy chain, accusing one of the workers at the facility of destroying his marriage. The man had a Viagra prescription he wanted to keep secret from his wife, so he told the workers not to mention it in front of her. One of the employees did, and the man is now suing the pharmacy chain for negligence and mental health damage.

The man wanted his Viagra prescription to stay secret

Michael Feinberg received a Viagra prescription from his doctor, but was afraid this would affect his relationship with his wife. Therefore, when he went to CVS to buy his medicine, he told the employees at the pharmacy he was ashamed. He wanted to keep the entire affair private and didn’t want the Viagra prescription to appear on the statement of his health insurance.

The man actually wanted to keep the Viagra prescription secret from his wife. However, one of the workers at the pharmacy seems to have disregarded Feinberg’s request. Some time after the incident, the wife in question called CVS to talk about a different prescription.

Now, he is suing CVS for the end of his marriage

The man claims one of these workers told the woman about his problem, which led to many other problems. Feinberg’s marriage was over shortly afterwards, and he blames the pharmacy employee for it. He says that, if his wife hadn’t known of his disfunction, their marriage would have survived.

As a result, he sued CVS for violating his privacy. He brought into discussion the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, claiming that employees need permission from the patient before revealing private information. He called his wife a third party who had no right to find out of his secret Viagra prescription.

Therefore, in the lawsuit, he accused CVS of negligence that caused him serious mental and emotional injury. The pharmacy chain commented on the incident and said it had always put first the privacy of their patients. However, they made no specific comment on this situation.

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