Do you really know?

We've all been there. You wake up in the middle of the night and simply can’t get back to sleep, no matter how hard you try to relax. Suddenly, a problem that seemed insignificant earlier feels enormous. You overthink it and imagine the worst. Then morning arrives, and you realise you’d blown it out of all proportion. It’s a very common experience: anxious, irrational thoughts can feel much more i...

Over the course of our lifetime, we around 34,000 litres of urine, according to Business Insider. Urine evacuates the nitrogen-containing waste produced by the organs and expelled into the blood, like urea and uric acid for example. It's also made up of water and mineral salts. It tends to be a clear shade of yellow, ranging from pale to dark at different times of the day. Nevertheless,...

Although it is quite usual to find insects in markets in both Africa and Asia it is rather more unusual for people in the West to eat them. However, with increased awareness of animal welfare and environmental concerns around eating meat people are beginning to think more seriously about insects as food rather than something to be swatted. The problem is that a lot of people find eating bugs prett...

Have you ever noticed how revisiting films from your childhood, listening to old tunes, or flipping through cherished books can bring on a certain sense of solace. Your past is intricately woven into your present; it shapes who you are and influences the person you go on to become. With its comforting embrace of fond memories, nostalgia seems to breathe new life into past moments, giving us a boos...

Young people have much less of an appetite for sex these days, it seems. The phenomenon has been labelled a “sex recession” in the media and terms like “puriteens” have emerged to describe sex-shy youngsters.  Studies have backed up the idea of a sex recession too. One published in the Archives of Sexual Behavior journal in November 2021 found that the proportion of adolescents reporting no s...

Whether it’s out of necessity or for enjoyment, lubricant helps a lot of people in their sex lives. According to The Cleveland Clinic: “Around 17% of people assigned female at birth (AFAB) age 18 to 50 report problems with vaginal dryness during sex, even before menopause takes place.” And that figure increases to 50% after menopause. There are a number of factors that can contribute to insufficie...

Perfume is a luxury product worn by people all around the world, but fragrances are not without health risks. Perfumes use a mix of chemicals, some are natural, such as essential oils from plants, but many of them are synthetic, meaning they are created in a laboratory. The problem is that the perfume industry is not very transparent about what goes into their products. They can hide hundreds of i...

We’ve already talked about narcissistic abusers in a previous episode of Do You Really Know? Let’s refresh your memory: narcissistic abusers, or NAs for short, are people with manipulative tendencies, who inflict a range of toxic behaviours on their target and position themselves as victims. Now NA-victim relationships don’t always exist solely between two individuals. There can be one or more add...

You may have heard of the Werther effect, named after Goethe's 1774 novel The Sorrows of Young Werther. After the story's hero takes his own life, the book was linked to a wave of copycat suicides. Even today, research suggests that when a celebrity's suicide receives extensive media coverage, suicide rates can rise by an average of 13%. The effect has been observed following the deaths of Marilyn...

Let's be honest: being productive at work on Fridays can be a real challenge. A 2019 study by Accountemps found that Friday was the least common choice for American workers when naming their most productive day of the week. The slump is likely down to having worked hard over the first four days of the week, as well as thinking ahead to the weekend. What’s more, your colleagues are in the same fram...

Have you ever heard ot the stairs test? Experts say it’s an excellent gauge of a person’s overall health. The idea is to run up as many flights of stairs as your body allows you to. If you can’t manage two flights at a brisk pace, you may need to consider lifestyle changes to improve your health. Meanwhile if you can climb eight or more, the chances are you’re in excellent health already. But beyo...

A time optimist is someone who is overly optimistic about how much time they have to do something, and therefore often ends up being late or missing deadlines. They tend to underestimate how long tasks will take, overestimate how much they can accomplish in a given period, and ignore potential delays or interruptions. They may also have a distorted perception of time, losing track of how fast it p...

A funeral is one of those rare occasions where you don’t really need to think too much about your choice of outfit. After all, everyone wears black to funerals as a sign of grief, don’t they? Well, that might be true in the Western world, but it’s not necessarily the case everywhere, which is what we’re going to talk about today.  In the Western world, funeral customs have long been intertwin...

You know the feeling: you’re running, cycling, or doing some other physical activity, and suddenly you feel a sharp pain in your side, just below your chest. It’s like someone is stabbing you with a needle, and it makes you want to stop and catch your breath. Although there is no precise definition of exactly what a stitch is, everyone knows how to recognise it. This pain, which often prevents you...

According to American neuroscientist Daniel Amen, a specialist in brain imaging, we produce 60,000 thoughts per day, and a staggering 80% of these thoughts are negative. That means we have 48,000 negative thoughts on a daily basis. Sometimes we just can’t seem to fight them off, but thankfully there are ways to cope with them. How can we counteract the tendency? How can we distance ourselves from...

When you die, your physical body may be gone, but your digital legacy lives on. Your digital legacy is everything you leave behind online, such as your social media accounts, emails, photos, videos, documents, and more. These may hold financial or sentimental value for you and your loved ones, but they can also pose some challenges and risks.  While most of us make a will stipulating what we...

Turmeric is a plant that belongs to the ginger family. It has a bright yellow-orange color, and a bitter and peppery taste. The main active ingredient in turmeric is curcumin, a compound that has anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties. One of the conditions that turmeric may help with is indigestion which can be caused by various factors, such as stress, overeating, alcohol, medications, or...

In 2016, researchers in Vancouver, Canada observed an unprecedented phenomenon: an 87-year-old patient died while undergoing an MRI scan. It was the first ever recording of the brain activity of a human being at the moment of death. After all, death is a topic that remains shrouded in mystery. What are the physical stages of death then? Does the body really shut down all at once then? In under 3 m...

The nipples are an erogenous zone for many people. But as it turns out, having them touched can bring on a whole other kind of feeling for others. The so-called sad nipple syndrome has been discussed more openly on Reddit and Tiktok in the last few years, raising awareness. But it still remains somewhat of a mystery. It refers to a wave of negative emotions on a person when their nipples are touch...

Snacking is a bad habit that can have a significant impact on your weight and health in the long term. It can be tricky to beat, so here are our top tips to stop snacking during the day. When the body is in need of energy, it asks for fuel to function, which is totally natural. But you may then want to ask yourself why it didn’t get enough energy from your last meal.  Why do we sometimes feel...

If you’ve got heavy legs, nighttime cramps, varicose veins or swelling in the legs, you may have blood flow issues. When you consider that our bodies contain an incredible 60,000 miles worth of blood vessels, it’s really not uncommon. Something like a varicose vein is usually relatively harmless. Other conditions include hemorrhoids, and phlebitis, which is a blood clot in a deep vein. Worse still...

Have you ever met someone while on a summer holiday, started talking to them and before you know it you’ve fallen head over heels in love. Summer romances can feel incredibly intense, even though they’re often destined to end as soon as the holiday does. A relationship lasting just a few days can end up remaining vivid for years. Why do our feelings seem so much more intense in summer? Could you s...

According to Dr Yasemin Didem Aktas, deputy academic director of the UK Centre for Moisture in Buildings (UKCMB), “Mould is everywhere, all the time,” this is because the UK is a pretty wet country and so some level of mould, particularly in damp places like bathrooms or windows is to be expected. However it is how we manage the mould and prevent it building up into dangerous levels that is import...

According to data from Writer Buddy, Character. Ai ranks as the second most used AI tool behind ChatGPT. It received 3.8 billion visits in the twelve months following its launch in September 2022.  Now, if you’re not familiar with the service, users can create their own chatbots based on famous figures like Albert Einstein or Elon Musk, fictional characters, or custom-created avatars. Some pe...

If you've ever strolled down the dairy aisle of your local grocery store, chances are you've come across these little tubs of Icelandic goodness. Skyr yoghurt has really grown in popularity in the last five to ten years. But is it really as healthy as it’s touted to be, or is its reputation down to marketing hype?  It's a traditional Icelandic yogurt, which is said to have been brought to Ice...