Strokes primarily impact the aged, but they can also strike the young, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). One in seven affect people between the ages of 15 and 49.The agency recounts the case of Brooke Bergfeld of Bismark, North Dakota, a 29-year-old mom who suffered a stroke not long after giving birth to her son, Hudson. Bergefeld reported many common symptoms, including a terrible headache, a pain in her arm, slurred speech and a drooping face.She was later dia ...read more
In Alexandre Dumas’s classic novel The Count of Monte-Cristo, a character named Monsieur Noirtier de Villefort suffers a terrible stroke that leaves him paralyzed. Though he remains awake and aware, he is no longer able to move or speak, relying on his granddaughter Valentine to recite the alphabet and flip through a dictionary to find the letters and words he requires. With this rudimentary form of communication, the determined old man manages to save Valentine from being poisoned by her ste ...read more
Did you spend your youth being yelled at about your posture? Parents and teachers can sometimes seem a bit obsessed with standing up straight. And they might have a point: Bad posture can do some real harm, and good posture can be almost miraculous.Bad PostureBad posture can cause many physical problems, and some might not be what you'd expect. Sore neck? Sure. Aching back? Oh yes! But constipation, incontinence and heartburn? Yep, those problems, along with breathing difficulties and reduced en ...read more
The content of this article may be triggering for some. Reader’s discretion is advised. In the mid-1990s, model and actress Karen Duffy had a contract with Revlon, a spot on People magazine’s list of the most beautiful people in the world and a date with actor George Clooney to the Emmy Awards. She also had a persistent, piercing headache that prompted her to see her physician.Duffy was diagnosed with sarcoidosis of the central nervous system, an inflammatory disease in which the immune ...read more
Citizen science asks everyday volunteers to make observations of the world around them and add data to research projects that scientists use to answer big questions. When you make citizen science observations, you might enter the information into an app, take a photo or answer a few questions in an online form and hit submit. That might be the end of your part of the process, but submitting a data point is just the first step in the long, rigorous journey from observation to scientific conclus ...read more