Do you really know?

Most of us are familiar with the idea that you need to take 10 thousand steps per day to stay healthy but getting to this magic number is not that easy. The 10,000-step target first became popular in Japan in the 1960s. A clockmaker capitalising on people's new interest in fitness following the 1964 Tokyo Olympic Games made a pedometer with a name that, when written in Japanese characters, resembled a walking man and coincidentally translated as “10,000-steps metre.” A study of over 78,000 people in the UK between 2013 and 2015 using wearable trackers was published in the journals JAMA Internal Medic...

According to a study published in the Journal of Thoracic Disease in 2015, 10% of all people are affected by obstructive sleep apnea. That figure rises for some population groups, like men, over-50s and overweight people.  It’s actually a mechanical disorder, rather than an illness. When we go to sleep, our muscles relax; that's totally normal. But when it comes to people affected by apnea, the soft tissue at the back of the throat collapses, blocking the airway. How long do these breathing pauses last? And how serious is the condition? How is sleep apnea usu...

Reaching carbon net zero by 2050 is one of the main objectives in the struggle against global warming. It’s also part of the Green New Deal the EU agreed upon in 2019. Since the start of 2022, many figures in agriculture have been pushing for a carbon farming policy which would see farmers rewarded for their efforts in sequestering carbon. It’s about using agricultural fields to store CO2 in the ground. Plants first absorb it from the air through a process called photosynthesis. Then their roots and other parts decompose, being converted into soil carbon by microbes. Soil is i...

To understand where white spots come from, we must first explain how nail growth works. If you’ve ever had white spots on your nails before, you may have been dismissively told that it's down to a lack of calcium or zinc. Basically, some mineral-deficiency. But this popular belief doesn’t really have any basis in fact. According to Healthline, nails grow an average of 3 millimeters per month. Their composition is made up of keratin, a protein, and just 0.03% calcium. So white spots are certainly not just a calcium problem!  What is the color of a hea...

If you drink alcohol, the chances are at some point you’ve had to deal with a nasty hangover, due to drinking too much. The associated headache, nausea, fatigue and other symptoms can make it a real challenge to get through the day after a night out.  There’s actually a scientific term for the unpleasant symptoms that come with a hangover; it’s veisalgia. According to Ted.com, between 3 and 23% of people actually don’t get hangovers at all. You can count yourself extremely lucky if you’re one of those people, although being prone to hangovers ma...

Just like with body shaming or slut shaming, mom shaming is another example of how women are often subjected to disproportionate criticism, and made to feel guilty about their choices, in this case specifically about parenting methods. The term refers to how mothers are criticised or even humiliated, for the way they bring up their children and fulfil their role as a mother. Such comments often come from within the family, but it can also be friends, colleagues or total strangers. It might be because of parental choices that don’t match their own, or that don’t ma...

It’s been two years since we last discussed the Amazon on Do You Really Know, and even in that time, the outlook for the world’s largest tropical rainforest has worsened significantly. A report called “Amazonia against the Clock” was released in September, warning that the rainforest could reach a point of no return as soon as 2025. A study published in Nature Climate Change journal in March 2022 explained that three quarters of the Amazon has lost some of its resilience since the turn of the century. That means it’s recovering more slowly from events like droughts a...

In past episodes of Do You Really Know, we’ve talked about a number of Scandinavian lifestyle trends, like death cleaning and hygge for example. Both of those are inspired by similar sentiments; to do with feeling good in surroundings that aren’t overflowing with useless items. And yet, in recent months, we’ve been hearing more and more about a home decor trend that’s the complete opposite. Maximalism is making a comeback! The signs have been there at furniture shows, such as the 2022 Milan Furniture Fair where Dimore Studio displayed a maximalist interior that got a lot of...

Cellulite is a regular source of insecurity among women. That’s been especially true since women’s magazines came along, pretty much labelling it public enemy number one. In our collective minds, it’s become inextricably linked to being overweight or having gone through pregnancy. In reality, cellulite is the result of a number of factors, and hormonal changes in particular. The first thing to know is that there are actually three types of cellulite: aqueous cellulite which is flexible and slightly visible; adipose cellulite, which is soft and limited to a certain part of the body, and fi...

American psychiatrist Stephen B. Karpman coined this social model of human interaction in 1968. It describes the roles that we take on in unbalanced social relations. Relations which lead us to take one of three roles within Karpman’s triangle. These are three roles in Karpman's triangle. These are the victim, the persecutor and the saviour. And the role we take on unconsciously leads someone else to take on one of the others. Let’s take the role of the victim. If I consider myself as a victim, I’m going to tend to blame my hardships on a pers...

When it comes to expressions about skin, the English language is not lacking. For example, we can be thick or thin skinned, or have someone under our skin. To show indifference, we say “it’s no skin off” our noses, and when we get excited we “jump out of” our skin.  The sheer number of different idioms reflects the deep links the skin has with our brains. Sometimes these links are visible and give away our feelings, when we blush, go pale or get goosebumps. The same can be said for stress too, in the case of some skin c...

The cost of living crisis has seen food prices increase by as much as 65% according to the Office for National Statistics meaning that the average British household spends an extra £600 pounds a year on food. But considering that there is also about 4.5 million tonnes of food waste annually the possibility of reducing wasted food as well as bills has never been more needed. Reducing your bill at the checkout comes down largely to planning. Getting organised about how, when and where you buy your food as well as how you store and cook it is essential. For sta...

On 29th October 2022, 20,000 people were celebrating Halloween in the Itaewon neighbourhood of Seoul in South Korea. One particularly narrow street became very overcrowded, and a huge crush ensued, leading to the deaths of 153 people, with many more injured. A month later, we still don’t know exactly what caused the crush.  One of the theories out there is that a rumour spread in the crowd, leading them to believe that a celebrity was in a nearby bar. But a lot of blame has been apportioned to the authorities for poor planning and a slow response to events. A l...

Christmas festivities are coming and often go hand in hand with overindulgence, in the form of large servings of roast dinner, yummy pudding and alcohol consumption. That can result in heartburn, a condition which despite the terrifying sounding name, is usually relatively harmless.  It’s a burning sensation felt in the chest, behind the breastbone, which explains where the name comes from. But it’s actually down to stomach acid travelling back up the oesophagus, which is the tube that carries food down from your throat. Let’s discuss a few tips for preventing heartburn, or relieving the sym...

Surprising as it may seem, balance is more important than you might think. In September of 2022 the British Journal of Sports Medicine published the results of a ten year study which involved more than 1,700 middle-aged participants. They concluded that not being able to balance was associated with an almost twofold increase in risk of death.  Volunteers were asked to stand on one leg with their arms by their sides and keep their eyes looking straight ahead. They discovered that an inability to hold the position for 10 seconds was associated with an 84% heightened risk of death from any c...

National Grid has warned of potential blackouts in the UK this winter, due to gas shortages. If it does happen, it would be the first time the country has seen controlled blackouts since the 1970s. The government has its Electricity Supply Emergency Code in place in case we end up in such a situation. The government plan sees rolling blackouts, with areas split into 18 different load blocks, each assigned a letter from A to U. At level one, each load block has three three-hour blackout periods per week, at level two, six and at level three, nine...

No doubt you’ve realised that some types of food have a boosting effect, like eggs, oats and avocado for example. That’s because they contain tyrosine, an amino acid which is a precursor to dopamine, making them an ideal breakfast option. At the other end of the scale, some foods are better suited for preparing our bodies to go to sleep, by bringing on certain chemical reactions. In terms of what not to do, it’s most important not to eat anything too rich, not to eat meals that are too large, and not to eat too cl...

In our increasingly urbanised world, it’s important to make time for reconnecting with nature. The latest study to grab our attention in this area was conducted by the Barcelona Institute for Global Health and published in December 2022. It looked into the so-called 3-30-300 rule, which was theorised by Spanish forest researcher Cecil Konijnendijk in 2021.  It's made up of three criteria, which each give our mental health a boost: we should have three trees in view from our home, live in a neighbourhood with 30% tree canopy cover and live within 300 metres of a park. Researchers interviewed ove...

Have you noticed more of your friends talking about their star signs of late? Maybe they try to guess the sign of people they meet, or come out with unexpected references to “Mercury in retrograde” or “Saturn return” over dinner. Maybe you’re into it yourself; and you have an app which sends you horoscope notifications all day long. It wasn’t so long ago that most people would just read horoscopes in the paper for a laugh, but these days astrology seems to be all the rage. Dedicated webpages are getting more and more traffic, and there are ev...

All week long, we’re looking into 10 new terms and concepts that are certain to be on everyone’s lips in 2023! Despite the fact that we’re in 2023, there’s still a certain squeamishness when it comes to discussions about menstruation, including in the workplace. But that might be about to change in Europe, due to a measure that was recently approved by the lower house of Spain’s parliament... In mid-December 2022, Spanish MPs voted to adopt a new bill creating menstrual leave for women suffering from period pain. That’s right, 3-5 days off work per month paid b...