Podcasts · Health & Fitness

Strange Health

The Conversation

12 episodes

Strange Health from The Conversation dives into the science behind the most bizarre, viral, and sometimes questionable health trends dominating social media from period scooping and menstrual masking to stroboscopic light therapy, demodex mites, vagus nerve hacks and liver detox myths. Expect honest, engaging, and sometimes stomach-turning discussions. Hosted by Katie Edwards from The Conversation and Dan Baumgardt, a GP and lecturer at the University of Bristol.

Episodes

  1. Migraine hacks: do eyebrow clips, cold spoons or fries actually work?

    · 45 min · S2 E2

    Social media offers plenty of tips how to relieve a migraine. Some people swear by a large Coke and McDonald’s fries, which has gained the nickname of a "McMigraine". Others recommend hairclips on your eyebrows, or…

  2. Cottage cheese: protein superfood or fitness myth?

    · 32 min · S2 E1

    Cottage cheese is a TikTok sensation. Social media creators are blending the curdy, clumpy white stuff into everything from cookie dough and chocolate brownies to flatbreads and even slapping it onto hot dogs. All in…

  3. Trailer: Strange Health is back for a new season

    · 2:03 · Trailer

    We're back with a new season of Strange Health, the podcast from The Conversation, that investigates the odd, awkward and occasionally disgusting questions raised by our bodies and the health trends surrounding them.…

  4. What is period scooping? And other menstrual hacks you should think twice about

    · 37 min · Episode 8

    Period scooping sounds like something you would only hear in a biology lab, not while doom-scrolling TikTok. Yet earlier this year, videos claiming you can “scoop out” your period to avoid the mess and shorten the…

  5. Does light therapy work? The science of stroboscopic stimulation

    · 38 min · Episode 7

    Light therapy sounds wholesome. Sit in front of a lamp. Feel better. But nowadays, it can also mean strapping on a flashing mask and watching your own brain generate kaleidoscopic hallucinations behind closed eyelids.…

  6. What your body odour says about you

    · 40 min · Episode 6

    Body odour has a reputation problem. It is often treated as a hygiene failure or a social offence. In reality, it is biology at work, plus a big helping of culture. And yet people online are trying chlorophyll shots…

  7. Meet the mites that live on you: from demodex to dust mites and scabies

    · 34 min · Episode 5

    You are not alone in your own skin. Millions of microscopic creatures live there too. Our skin is home to entire ecosystems of microscopic life. Bacteria and fungi get most of the attention, but mites are there too.…

  8. What is the vagus nerve and can you really reset it?

    · 36 min · Episode 4

    The vagus nerve has become the internet’s favourite body part. On social media, it is everywhere. People hum into their phones, gargle with theatrical enthusiasm, dunk their faces into bowls of ice water and poke at…

  9. Is cracking my neck and knuckles bad?

    · 35 min · Episode 3

    Joint cracking is one of those habits most of us acquire without thinking about it. In our third episode, we turn our attention to one of the body’s most common and least understood noises. Knuckles, backs, knees and…

  10. Tonsils, kidneys and gall: why your body makes stones

    · 27 min · Episode 2

    The human body, it turns out, is surprisingly good at making stone. Give it enough time and the right conditions and it will go about crystallising minerals, hardening secretions and, in rare cases, turning tragedy…

  11. Is detoxing your liver worth the hype?

    · 34 min · Episode 1

    Social media is full of green juices, charcoal supplements, foot patches and seven-day “liver resets”, all promising to purge the body of mysterious toxins and return it to a purer state. But do you really need to…

  12. Introducing Strange Health from The Conversation

    · 1:54 · Trailer

    Introducing Strange Health, a new podcast from The Conversation. Time and again, the health stories that go viral are the ones that make people recoil slightly before clicking anyway. Worms. Smells. Leaks. Stones.…

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