Category: Health
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Olympic great Ian Thorpe reveals he can no longer swim after shoulder replacement surgery
Olympic great Ian Thorpe has revealed he can no longer swim, having lost his famous freestyle stroke after shoulder replacement surgery. The five-time Olympic gold medallist, 34, said he had come to terms with what his body was now able to do following the surgery two years ago. “When I first retired all those years…
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Scientists confirm worst fears about pee in pools
About one in five Americans say they’ve peed in the pool. Even the world’s most famous pool-user, Michael Phelps, says “everybody” does it. Now scientists have finally figured out a way to quantify just how much urine is in our pools, and the results in Environmental Science & Technology Letters probably won’t please swimmers. A research team…
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‘We’re being forced out of the river – by swimmer’s itch’
Swimmers are being forced out of the River Cam after being “attacked†by parasitic mites that have spread rapidly in the water due to the warm weather. The parasitic duck mite appears in the River Cam at this time of year and can cause a condition known as ‘swimmer’s itch’ (or cercarial dermatitis). Newnham resident…
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Parasites in Pools Are on the Rise
Sometimes the evening news reveals something that causes you to worry about that which you never worried before. Such may have been the case when news emerged recently of a huge uptick in the number of diarrhea outbreaks after people went swimming in a public pool and inadvertently swallowed the water. But that was just…
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Man dies from flesh-eating bacteria after swimming with new tattoo
A 31-year-old man died after he reportedly ignored warnings about swimming after getting a new tattoo and contracted a flesh-eating bacteria infection in the Gulf of Mexico. The unidentified man, whose case was detailed in the British Medical Journal, had gotten a tattoo on his right calf five days prior to swimming, Metro reported. The…
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How does asthma work? – Christopher E. Gaw
More than 300 million people around the world suffer from asthma, and around 250,000 people die from it each year. But why do people get asthma, and how can this disease be deadly? Christopher E. Gaw describes the main symptoms and treatments of asthma.
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Michael Phelps, Allison Schmitt talk about battling depression
Allison Schmitt hates public speaking. But the Olympic swimmer shared her story of battling depression in a packed auditorium Thursday night as part of National Children’s Mental Health Awareness Day. “I get sweaty hands; I feel like I’m going to throw up. I never want to speak in front of people,†said Schmitt, the eight-time…
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A not-so-sweet new way to test for pee in pools
Water quality is a health concern in all public pools, and although it won’t turn the water green, urine can pose hazards to swimmers’ health. Unfortunately, it’s difficult to detect in the chlorinated water of a huge pool. So how do you measure pee? Test for sweetness, University of Alberta chemists propose in research published…
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Coffee With: Debbie Phelps
Linh has Coffee With the executive director of The Education Foundation of Baltimore County Public Schools (and mother of Michael Phelps), Debbie Phelps.