Never Shower in a Thunderstorm: Surprising Facts and Misleading Myths About Our Health and the World We Live In

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Macmillan, May 15, 2007 - Health & Fitness - 256 pages

The New York Times's intrepid health reporter investigates the truth about sex, eating, exercise, and other health conundrums

For more than two years, the New York Times's science and health columnist Anahad O'Connor has tracked down the facts, fictions, and occasional fuzziness of old wives' tales, conventional-wisdom cures, and other medical mysteries. Now in this lively and fun book, he opens up his case files to disclose the experts' answers on everything, from which of your bad habits you can indulge (yo-yo dieting does not mess up your metabolism and sitting too close to the television does not hurt your eyes) to what foods actually pack the punch advertised (you can lay off the beet juice!).

A compendium of answers to the curious and nagging questions of how to keep healthy, Never Shower in a Thunderstorm will provide guidance and amusement to anyone who has ever wondered if the mosquitoes really are attacking her more than everyone else. (Yes, they are.)

 

Contents

APHRODISIACS AND OTHER
18
Is THAT GYM MEMBERSHIP
37
IN A Pickle over WHAT
54
Will eating poppy seeds make you fail a drug test?
70
ITS A DANGEROUS WORLD OUT THERE
76
ITS A DANGEROUS WORLD
97
Can toothbrushes spread disease?
103
PATIENT HEAL THYself
112
Can drinking coffee stunt a childs growth?
143
How SAFE IS YOUR CELL?
156
SHARKS AND BEARS AND BLIZZARDS
176
GETTING A GOOD
200
THIS WACKY PLANET EARTH
219
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
225
23
227
61
234

STRESSED OUT OVER THE SMALL
137

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About the author (2007)

Anahad O'Connor is a reporter for The New York Times covering science, health, immigration, and life in the greater New York area and contributes the weekly column "Really?"—named for his favorite word in journalism—to the paper's Science Times section. He lives in New York City.

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