Do you really know?

We've long known that masturbation can help relieve stress and even alleviate menstrual pain in women, thanks to the release of hormones like endorphins acting as a natural painkiller. It’s also well established that sexual activity is beneficial for the cardiovascular system, as it increases our heart rate and may even contribute to lower blood pressure. But as it turns out, using sex toys can al...

At some point in life, most people experience grief, whether after losing a loved one or at the end of an important relationship. We tend to associate mourning with death. But sometimes grief begins before a person has died. This experience is often referred to as anticipatory or ambiguous loss, a form of grief felt when someone is still physically present but psychologically or cognitively change...

Hypersexuality, overactive libido and sex addiction are just a few of many terms used to describe those who simply can’t seem to get enough when it comes to sex. According to UK-Rehab.com, it’s estimated that somewhere between 3% and 6% of adults in the country are addicted to sex.  It might be a hot topic these days, but the concept only really surfaced in the late 1970s. The rise of the internet...

Here at Do You Really Know, we’ve talked over and over again about the importance of getting good quality sleep. So of course, you don’t want your evening meal to disrupt it, and that’s a cause of uncertainty for many people. Bear in mind that to drift off to sleep, your body temperature needs to gradually drop. Given that digestion tends to raise our body temperature, that poses quite the conundr...

A lot has changed in the workplace since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020. Companies have had to figure out how to best manage remote work for their employees, all the while supporting their career development and helping them feel more satisfied at work. Well, the concept we’re going to talk about today may be just what’s needed to address those challenges. It’s a modern HR strategy kno...

A 2022 YouGov study suggested that 26% of British people have at least one tattoo, a statistic which reflects just how the perception of tattoos has changed over the years. They used to be reserved for subcultures, but are now very much in the mainstream, and seen as a positive way of expressing one’s identity. Nevertheless, getting a tattoo can be dangerous if not done correctly. If you’re thinki...

Today, “left” and “right” are the main labels we use to categorise political views, but their origins go back over two centuries. To understand, we have to go back to the French Revolution in 1789. That spring, France’s King Louis XVI convened a meeting known as the Estates General, bringing together representatives from three groups, or “Estates”: the clergy, the nobility, and the Third Estate, w...

The pursuit of restful sleep is a common goal, especially considering that around one-third of people in the UK experience sleep disorders such as insomnia or even orthosomnia, an obsession with achieving perfect sleep (to find out more about this listen to our episode all about it.) To combat this people try all sorts of methods from meditation to  counting sheep, one new approach is the 10-3-2-1...

Getting intimate while you or your partner are menstruating isn’t always straightforward. Still, the idea of period sex has gradually become less and less of a taboo over time. OK, it is potentially messy, but there’s nothing inherently wrong or unsafe with it. And if you’re in the mood for sex, it’s kind of a shame to miss out for that reason alone.  Most importantly, both partners need to be ful...

Ever since Covid-19 lockdowns, many people have developed a taste for interior design and regularly take to Pinterest for inspiration. But as you may well know from experience, buying a few furniture items can quickly add up in cost. As a result, clever internet users have been coming up with solutions to repurpose items bought from Ikea, whose items are available in many different parts of the wo...

The number of moles we have on our bodies largely depends on sun exposure. According to the Mayo Clinic, “Most people have 10 to 45 moles that appear during childhood and the teenage years.” Moles can vary in thickness, shape, colour, and they sometimes even have hair. They can pop up between your toes, on your scalp, on your earlobes or under your nails-anywhere really. Rest assured, most of the...

The London Marathon takes place this Sunday, with more than 50,000 runners set to take part. Simply getting hold of a bib is hard enough, with a world record of over 1 million people having entered the public ballot to get a place into the race.  It’s undeniable that there’s a real running boom at the moment. The chances are that some of your friends, family or work colleagues have already run at...

Do you have an ex who seems to always get back in touch whenever they’re feeling lonely and have no one else in their sights?  Or how about this: Perhaps you had a crush on someone, and that person played along, taking you out from time to time only to eventuall you they’ve finally hooked up with another person they’d been in love with for ages, but never told you about? Well if either of those sc...

Moles can be flat, raised, discreet, or visible. They appear all over our skin and tend to increase in number over time. While these harmless little spots are generally not a cause for concern, they can sometimes be the source of skin cancer, so it’s important to keep an eye on them. A mole is a small, dark spot on the skin formed by a cluster of melanocytes. These are the cells responsible for pr...

Have you ever been deeply moved when experiencing or witnessing a moment of powerful human connection? It might be the unexpected urge to hug a stranger at a music concert, for example, or a touching moment at an important life event like a birth, wedding or funeral. Well without realising it you’ve been experiencing an inspirational feeling known as “kama muta”. It’s been described by the Guardia...

In some cultures, being well at home is all about making sure that others feel well when visiting, by welcoming them in the right way. In Japan, for example, hospitality is like an art form, and even has a name: omotenashi. You can’t really translate the concept into English; the meaning of the term goes a lot deeper than “hospitality”. It also has connotations of mindfulness. In Japanese culture,...

Bread has been a staple of the human diet for over 10,000 years, when our ancestors made flatbread by baking a mixture of flour and water in the sun. To this day, the vast majority of us eat bread on a regular basis, and many of us eat it every day. But it’s been demonised to some extent in recent years, with many dieters saying it’s made up of “empty calories” and ditching it.  What is the nutrit...

Getting babies to sleep is big business, and a major source of stress for parents. There are many theories and methods: rock them, sing, let them cry it out. But now science has come to the rescue and we can finally put this question to bed. Hopefully.  According to a study published in September 2022 in Current Biology, “approximately 20%–30% of infants cry excessively and exhibit sleep difficult...

You're peacefully drifting off to sleep when suddenly you feel as if you're falling into a void and you startle awake. This rather unpleasant sensation is known as a ‘hypnic jerk’ and is a common occurrence. It is an involuntary muscle spasm, a bit like a hiccup, also known as ‘myoclonus’. Sometimes, this sensation is accompanied by the feeling or the dream that you are falling.  These twitches ar...

Flip phones or ‘dumb’ phones as they are sometimes called are making a comeback but you might be surprised to know that it's gen Z, in other words people born between 1997 and 2010 and not your grandparents who are buying them. Well unlike smartphones, the dumb phone can only make phone calls or send text messages and with only twelve buttons and no predictive text dumbphone users get straight to...

Cooking not only destroys bacteria and germs but also makes food more digestible, especially meat.  It changes the taste, appearance, color, and most importantly, the nutritional quality of the food. While food can be roasted, blanched, grilled, browned, or boiled, some methods are healthier than others. What happens when we grill food? Is steaming really the healthiest way to cook? What about les...

Artificial intelligence has become a cornerstone of modern life, and since ChatGPT's launch in November 2022, its popularity has skyrocketed. A 2024 YouGov survey revealed that 68% of 18-24-year-olds in the UK regularly use generative AI for tasks like research, saving time, and enhancing productivity and creativity. Many workplaces embrace AI, with nearly half of users saying their managers encou...

A white coating on the tongue can occur when your health is compromised, like during a cold or fever. Lifestyle factors such as smoking, excessive alcohol, and too much sugar, coffee, tea, or dairy can also contribute to this by disrupting the balance of your oral microbiota or affecting saliva production. In most cases, it’s an accumulation of bacteria and dead cells, a condition known as saburra...

According to the most recent figures from the Association of British Travel Agents, the number of people going on holidays alone has soared over the last decade. In 2011, the proportion was just 6%, but in 2023 it had risen to 16%. The organisation’s media release said it showed people have a “strong appetite to go it alone”. And you could say the solo travel trend is part of the wider "self-love"...

Have you ever avoided a type of food for a long time, assuming you hated it, only to try it out and then end up having something of a revelation? Think back to when you were a kid and there was a type of vegetable you simply wouldn’t go near, let alone eat. The chances are there’s at least one. It might have been broccoli, Brussels sprouts or spinach for example. Why does that happen then? What ac...