A group of public health graduate students from the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) with the dubious title of ‘Team Diarrhea’ played an instrumental role in finding the sources the U.S.’s two most recent major salmonella outbreaks – in peanuts earlier this year and in jalapeño peppers (previously blamed on tomatoes) in 2008.
It’s not a glamorous role. Looking the part of everyday telemarketers, the Team Diarrhea or Team D players work in a giant cubicle, asking people questions about their food poisoning symptoms.
But it’s a role that is highly important. By rapidly discovering the source of a food poisoning outbreak, …read more

Mention hair transplants and most people will assume you’re talking about transplanting hair onto the scalp. And while that is still the most common location for hair transplants, according to this article from MSNBC, hair transplant procedures are  now taking place all over the body.
These days doctors can harvest and replant hair follicles pretty much anywhere. Scalp transplants remain the most common, accounting for 93,000 of the nearly 99,000 surgical hair restoration procedures that took place in the United States in 2008.
Second most common was eyebrow transplants, followed by moustache and beard procedures, and eyelashes.
As for the most ‘unique’ hair …read more

For most of us, travelling requires simple things – some money, a passport, a full tank of gas. But for those with celiac disease or gluten intolerance, travel becomes a little more complicated.
To make life on the road easier for those dealing with celiac disease and gluten intolerance, Lisa A. Lundy, author of The Super Allergy Girl: Allergy & Celiac Cookbook -From A Mother Who Knows, has put together a short video full of useful tips and ideas.

The makers of an over-the-counter gender prediction test say their product, the IntelliGender, will let expecting moms know the sex of their baby as  early as 10 weeks after conception.
It’s a simple urine test that’s based on the science that certain hormones found in the pregnant woman’s urine, when combined with a “proprietary mix of chemicals”, will react  differently depending on whether the woman is carrying a boy or a girl.
Apparenly, within 10 minutes of taking the urine test, the specimen will turn green if it’s a boy, and orange if it’s a girl.
But IntelliGender co-founder Rebecca Griffin is quick to say that they do …read more

Did you know that you have ten times more bacteria cells than human cells on you at any one time? Makes it sound like everyone is a human time bomb, just waiting to get sick. But in actual fact, these bacteria are our protectors, covering us like a suit of armour.
That’s just one of the interesting pieces of information you can pick up by listening to this fascinating TED Talk by bacteriologist Bonnie Bassler.