It’s very rare for me to be actually awakened by an alarm clock. Generally I wake up on my own just a few minutes before the alarm is set to go off–which is actually kind of annoying, since mornings when I have to set an alarm to get up are invariably mornings when I want …
Tag: physiology
Sports injuries
Ah, warmer weather at last! Time to get out there and throw that–ouch!–ball, and swing that–ooh!–golf club, and jog around the–oof!–lake…and then, more than likely, turn on that–aah!–heating pad, fill that–mmm–ice pack, and slip into–whew!–bed. Yes, ’tis the season for athletic injuries, as those who haven’t done anything except shovel snow for half a …
Hormones
“The Devil made me do it,” said comedian Flip Wilson in the ’70s. These days, though, it’s hormones that get the blame. Teenagers becoming uncontrollable as spring kicks into high gear? Hormones. Blowing up at your boss/spouse/children for no reason? Hormones. Overweight? Hormones. Underweight? Hormones. Feeling depressed? Euphoric? Romantic? Hormones, hormones, hormones. All of which …
Weight control
Here’s a topic I have far too much experience with: trying to control one’s personal mass. Let me lay out my own history… December, 1979. After two years of university, eating far too many pizzas and far too much vending-machine food, I return to Canada weighing 265 pounds. Nobody calls me “Slim.” July, 1981. After …
Garlic
There are few foods that can’t be improved with a little garlic. (Ice cream and pecan pie, maybe, but that’s about it.) Its distinctive taste has made it a favorite flavoring for thousands of years…although no doubt the ancient Egyptians and Romans, both of whom used it, also made the first jokes about “garlic breath.” …
Hair loss
My two older brothers probably won’t read this, so I can say this with impunity: they’re losing their hair, and so far, I’m not. I’m not saying this to brag, merely to illustrate…oh, who am I fooling. Of course I’m saying it to brag! Holding on to one’s hair, however, isn’t really anything much to …
Digestion
Like most of you, I ate too much on Thanksgiving, and felt guilty about it afterward. But then I came up with the idea of writing this column on digestion, and presto! No more guilt. You see, I didn’t overeat, I conducted research. You’ll have to find your own excuse. When you sit down to …
Nausea
There’s a lot of traveling going on this time of a year via car, plane, train or boat, and somewhere this very second, a 10-year-old is looking up from the book she’s been reading in the back seat of her parents’ station wagon and speaking the words that, for many people, define the whole summer …
Seasonal affective disorder
Nobody (nobody human, anyway) likes getting up on a cold winter’s day when it’s still dark and the wind is howling, but for some people it’s more than just unpleasant: it’s almost impossible. They suffer from a form of depression called Seasonal Affective Disorder (also known, appropriately, as SAD). Seasonal depression has probably been around …
Blood
Vampires are popular right now. There have been more vampire books, movies and TV series than you could shake a cross at in the past few years. Vampires, of course, have a number of unfortunate personality quirks–invisible in mirrors, can’t abide crosses, don’t like the sun–but we’d be willing to overlook all that if not …
Stage fright
I love to perform. Getting up in front of an audience and singing, acting, reading or just speaking is about the most fun thing I can think of. But many people find that hard to imagine. Research shows that what North Americans fear more than anything else–more than snakes, heights, disease, going broke, even …
The voice
With the season about to tilt from summer to autumn, Canada geese are once more filling the air with their melodious sounds as they prepare to fly south for the winter. To us, of course, the sound of a flock of geese “talking” to each other is more or less the same as the sound …