Health Questions & Answers

Cosmophobia is an irrational fear that the world is about to end, and is sparked off by a belief among people that a cosmic end is near. The fear is ancient, and people have been readying for doom on and off – expecting floods, earthquakes, epidemics, drought, or even a collision with another planet. The latest bout was set off …

Technically, there’s no formal definition for a “Code”, but doctors often use the term as slang for a cardiopulmonary arrest happening to a patient in a hospital or clinic, requiring a team of providers (sometimes called a “code team”) to rush to the specific location and begin immediate resuscitative efforts. Each hospital or clinic can decide how it wishes to …

Brain roughage is information fed to the brain to chew on and digest, in digestible chunks. It is a term lifted from gastronomic language to liken the brain to the stomach, and is of very recent origin. Roughage is ingested to help in food digestion, and is considered good for the system, similarly brain roughage. Other such terms are information …

Biomagnification, also known as bioamplification or biological magnification, is the increase in concentration of a substance, such as the pesticide DDT, that occurs in a food chain as a consequence of: • Persistence ( Can’t be broken down by environmental processes) • Food chain energetics • Low (or nonexistent) rate of internal degradation/excretion of the substance (often due to water-insolubility) …

Eating without actually feeling hungry is auto-eating. Most often, it is women who do it. They may not even be aware they are consuming so many calories. A study found that boredom can lead women to overeat, even slip into an auto-eating mode. Men also auto-eat but women are more at risk, especially if they are upset. As much as …

You must have come across who was afraid of high places, or someone who was afraid of closed places? there are persons who are afraid of crowds or of being touched by others. Such a behavior is called “Phobic reaction” and the person is said to have a “Phobia”. Such persons are not sick in any way but they suffer …

A nap pod is a sleep chair designed like a cocoon to allow office-goers a power nap. Companies are opting for nap pods as part of their furniture, as a cat nap is being increasingly believed to refresh a person and increase productivity. The chairs are designed ergonomically to improve blood supply to the back and head; the cocoon-like structure …

A kissing ulcer is a pair of ulcers caused by an infectious agent that developed when a primary ulcer caused a secondary ulcer by spreading the infectious agent by contacting the contralateral side of the same anatomical structure. For example a chancroid ulcer on the left labium may infest the contralateral right labium through contact and cause a corresponding ulcer. …

A jungle gym, also known as monkey bars or climbing frame, is a piece of playground equipment made of many pieces of thin material, such as metal pipes or, in more current playgrounds, rope, on which children can climb, hang, and sit. It was traditionally constructed as a frame of metal bars and was introduced in 1920 by lawyer Sebastian …

A briet is a diet that a bride relies on to lose weight before her wedding day. While the term is said to have been inspired by Kate Middleton’s thin look for her wedding, an earlier citation has been found on a blog called Anne’s Bridal Blog.