The Atkins, Dukan, and Paleo Diets: Little Evidence, Real Risks

There are many popular diets that promise rapid weight loss and health benefits. Some of these diets, however, such as the Atkins and Dukan diets, while they may offer rapid weight loss, do not really offer any substantial health benefits. In fact, rapid weight loss can be regarded as an unhealthy change in itself. A…

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Understanding and Reducing the Effects of a Hangover

What is a hangover? Well, part of what makes a hangover feel so horrible comes down to dehydration (although it probably isn’t responsible for the majority of the hangover). Dehydration is what gives you the headaches, dizziness, dry mouth, confusion and fatigue. Excess alcohol consumption causes dehydration due to excessive urination. Alcohol is a diuretic,…

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Warning Labels for Cigarettes, Alcohol, and Junk Food: Is There Any Point?

John Stuart Mill in On Liberty argued that individuals should have the personal liberty to harm themselves, so long as their actions did not harm others. He was all for the free availability of harmful substances, such as alcohol and other drugs, but urged for the “labelling the drug with some word of expressive of…

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Nick Bostrom on ‘Existential Risks’

Nick Bostrom is a Swedish philosopher who teaches at the University of Oxford. His areas of interest include the Simulation Hypothesis (that reality is a computer simulation run by a hyper-advanced ‘post-human’ civilisation) and the ethics of human enhancement (the ethical issues surrounding improving human capacities through science and technology). He is a proponent of…

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Organ and Body Donation Should Be Encouraged, Not Made Compulsory

Donating your organs for transplantation, or donating your body to medical science, is a very charitable act. I myself do not believe that I will need my body or any of my body parts after I am dead (since I will not exist). I’m a registered organ donor for this reason and plan to donate…

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