12
votes
Is eating spicy hot (pungent) food (hot chilli & peppers etc.) healthy or harmful?
Red chilies contain large amounts of vitamin C and small amounts of carotene (provitamin A). Yellow and especially green chilies (which are essentially unripe fruit) contain a considerably lower ...
- 121
12
votes
CT scans and cancer risk
Every procedure has to be weighed for potential costs and benefits. Cancer is a risk already present and might shorten a life, CT scans on the other hand are done to prolong a life.
The exact risks (...
- 6,867
11
votes
Accepted
Is it beneficial to keep using fluorised toothpaste after prolonged use?
Fluoride can be absorbed into the teeth and form fluoroapatite only in children up to 6-8 years of age (WebMD).
Later, fluoride from toothpaste may still be helpful, because it stimulates the ...
- 15.8k
8
votes
Accepted
If sphygmomanometer literally cuts off the blood flow, is it gonna kill the patient if pressure is not released?
Heart attacks are caused by reduced or blocked blood flow to the heart, but a sphygmonanometer cuts off the blood flow to the arm (or leg) only. It's not possible it could cause a heart attack ...
- 9,694
8
votes
Accepted
Is it safe to cease masturbation for good?
Lifelong abstainance from masterbation is completely safe. As @Noah said in his comment, there are plenty of celibate people out there with no adverse health from their life choice.
Even though ...
- 6,154
7
votes
What is the risk of HIV infection via insertive fellatio?
One problem with this approach of seeking knowledge is the theoretical nature of the question itself:
Unprotected fellatio, which has been practiced by all civilizations since mists of time, is now ...
- 6,867
6
votes
Risks for VBAC vs repeat Cesarean
This question is difficult to answer because risk discussions are individualized. Instead of answering, I will point you to reliable resources to guide your discussion with your OB.
One great ...
- 5,754
6
votes
Accepted
Are there known outdoor super spreader events for COVID-19? Are there *any* known outdoor infections at all?
There are known instances of outdoor transmission, and even some fairly large spread, but every study I've been able to find that attempted to differentiate between indoor and outdoor transmission ...
- 611
5
votes
What exactly are the health risks of using public swimming pools?
"Surely there are more risks" well, you could drown. You could be assaulted or filmed in the change room. You could get dry skin from exposure to the water or the compounds in it - when I swam daily ...
- 3,829
5
votes
Should I continue fasting if I have diarrhea?
Fasting, at least in Islam, means no water intake during the fast. The Islamic purpose of not allowing even water is to remind one that one should not take for granted the gifts of life. So, the ...
- 13.2k
5
votes
can sleeping near a wifi router harm your health?
There has been an ongoing debate regarding health risks from the electromagnetic fields being emitted from WiFi routers. The constant radiation exposure is arguably dangerous at close distances and ...
- 958
5
votes
Is it beneficial to keep using fluorised toothpaste after prolonged use?
The main protective effect of fluoride is outside the tooth, not inside.
Small amounts of fluoride in solution around the tooth inhibit
demineralization more effectively than incorporated ...
- 814
5
votes
Is there any truth to the claim that pregnancy is somehow a health risk to women?
In the U.S., 14 in every 100 000 pregnancies are fatal for the mother. While this may not seem much, consider the following graphic:
In picture B and D the blue bars indicate deaths due to ...
- 6,742
5
votes
Does a cancer survivor have a higher than average risk of future cancer?
The first part of your question is very difficult to answer for the reasons mentioned in Narusan's comment: Specifically, comparing cancer incidence rates between many different groups of cancer ...
5
votes
Accepted
Are there quantified risk factors for suicide in the U.S.?
Well, after I commented that this might be hard to find, I took 10 seconds and found what looks like a reasonable recent meta analysis, though it's not limited to the US:
Franklin, J. C., Ribeiro, J. ...
- 13.3k
4
votes
Negative Effects of Drinking Large Quantities of Diet Pepsi
Diet Pepsi is sweetened with sucralose (diet coke is sweetened with aspartame). Sucralose ha been found in studies to not affect blood sugar levels:
This study demonstrated that, similar to ...
- 6,982
4
votes
Accepted
Can I save road accident victims with my bare hands?
In short, the answer (regarding diseases) is yes.
Anytime you deal with blood or other bodily fluid, you risk catching a variety of diseases. The risk is compounded if you are not wearing proper ...
- 874
4
votes
Accepted
Can someone get addicted to codeine by taking a few tablets in a month?
Addiction occurs due to chronic or frequent use, which means a lot more often than you're taking it. Since you're going weeks between doses, and you're taking very small doses, there's no danger of ...
- 9,694
4
votes
Tattoo on person with hepatitis b
A tattoo will be irrelevant to the person with Hep-B receiving it. The risks will be the same as anyone else receiving a tattoo, except of course that Hep-B won't be among those risks as it normally ...
- 9,694
4
votes
Accepted
Are cremated ashes medically harmful to the living?
Ash weight and composition
Cremated remains are mostly dry calcium phosphates with some minor minerals, such as salts of sodium and potassium. Sulfur and most carbon are driven off as oxidized gases ...
- 13.2k
4
votes
Accepted
Dangers of having MRI, CT-scan, & X-ray within a seven day period?
The amounts of radiation in today's machines is low enough that there is no negative impact to be expected.
For comparison:
X-Rays: A chest X-ray gives you about 10 mrem
MRIs measure the reaction ...
- 155
4
votes
Health risk associated with living close to a power line: Cancer risk & exposure to electromagnetic field
This has been on peoples' minds for decades and the answer is still not clear.
TL;DR at the bottom.
Research done in the past has not always been of the best quality and so conclusions that might ...
- 41
3
votes
What happens when you take a whole monthly dose of zinc just once per month?
That approach works with some supplements and not others. Iron, for example, will be held in the small intestine until the blood level lowers enough for safe absorption by which time it might just be ...
- 304
3
votes
Are there any risks about switching to a non-fluoride toothpaste?
If all the rest is the same, your risk of caries would increase by 25% Source: Cochrane Syst Review.
- 814
3
votes
Mistakenly took Atarax
Hydroxyzine Hydrochloride (Atarax, Ucerax) is a first-generation (sedative) antihistamine. Drugs of this type tend to have a pretty tame clinical profile, and it's unlikely you will experience any ...
- 31
3
votes
Accepted
Too much sitting as bad as smoking?
If we compare the average increase in all-cause mortality due to sitting (approximately 50% according to meta-study published on NHS) and the average all-cause mortality due to smoking (aproximately ...
- 46
3
votes
Is eating spicy hot (pungent) food (hot chilli & peppers etc.) healthy or harmful?
There is one exception that has not been mentioned. There is a condition called Cholinergic Urticaria, which is hives due to excess heat and sweat. It is in the category of physical allergies, and ...
- 208
3
votes
What is the risk of HIV infection via insertive fellatio?
I would just like to add to @LangLangC's answer that the rarity of transmission of HIV from insertive fellatio can be due to the presence of inhibitory substances in saliva and also due it's ...
- 516
3
votes
Does the 2011 Tsunami in Japan poses any health risks to Americans?
The WHO put out a statement in February 2013 addressing the health risks. Certain groups of people got fairly high doses of radiation:
Apart from emergency workers, the most affected people were ...
- 1,271
2
votes
Anodized aluminum, skin contact, and health risks
What is anodized aluminum?
Anodizing is an electrolytic passivation process used to increase the
thickness of the natural oxide layer on the surface of metal parts.
- Wikipedia
So, it's a ...
- 828
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible