Random pains can be distressing, but if your body displays these subtle signs of health, chances are good that you’re actually doing just fine.

1. Relatively Clear, Copious Urine
If you’re peeing a few times a day and it’s pale yellow—not cloudy, dark, or super-concentrated—that means that you’re adequately hydrated and your kidneys are healthy. Completely colorless urine, however, indicates that you may be over-hydrated, and while that’s not as problematic as being dehydrated, it could mean that you’re losing valuable salts and electrolytes.

2. Regular, Well-Formed Bowel Movements
Yes, it all comes down to poop. Normal feces comes in many different shapes, sizes, and colors, but as long as yours isn’t bloody, loose, or painfully hard, you’re probably okay. Being regular is another good indicator of relative health; when your body is processing solid waste quickly and efficiently, it shows that there’s adequate fiber in your diet and your digestive system is working properly.

3. Stable Weight
Assuming you’re not grossly underweight or morbidly obese, a relatively stable weight is a sign of good health. Significant unexplained gains and losses or yo-yoing back and forth on diets are causes for concern.

4. Quick Wound Healing
If you find that small cuts, scrapes, or burns take a very long time to heal or if you experience unexplained bruising from light pressure, see a doctor. If you don’t, congratulations! Your blood is clotting normally, your white cells are carrying away bacteria, and your blood vessels are healthy. You’re doing alright.

5. Healthy Hair and Nails
The integumentary system (which includes hair and nails) is often the first place that a serious vitamin deficiency shows up. This shortage can cause weak, deformed fingernails and toenails and hair that falls out in clumps. If your hair’s biggest problems are frizziness or split ends, then it’s more or less healthy.

6. Regular Menstrual Periods
Regular periods with normal premenstrual symptoms are one of the best indicators that your reproductive system is healthy. Irregular, painful periods and excessive or prolonged bleeding are symptoms that should be checked out by a doctor.

7. Decent Sleep
True, most of us don’t get quite as much sleep as we should, and occasional insomnia is considered normal. But as long as you’re sleeping through the night on a regular basis and not experiencing night sweats or being awakened repeatedly by the urge to urinate, you’re probably hitting all the necessary sleep rhythms. And if you’re generally waking up feeling at least moderately refreshed, things are looking good.

It should go without saying that the absence of these signs can mean hundreds of different things and can signify dozens of different problems—or sometimes nothing at all—and a doctor is the only one who can say for sure. And that means a real doctor.

Being able to gorge on whatever you please without piling on the pounds might sound like a dream come true.

But for Carole French, who can tuck into takeaways, feast on fry -ups and still tip the scales at a tiny six stone, it's a living nightmare.


The mother-of-two is one of only two people in the world that have been diagnosed with muscular fibrositis disproportion - a disorder that means her body can't store fat.

And while initially the condition might seem attractive, Mrs French says the reality is miserable.

The slight 50-year-old is so thin she is forced to wear children's clothes as a size zero hangs from her tiny frame.

Carole, from Oldham, Manchester, says she is bombarded with taunts and stares every time she leaves the house from strangers.

She says some even try to take her picture and shout cruel jibes about her petite body, which many believe is down to anorexia.

Mrs French said: 'So many people tell me I'm lucky to be so thin, but I just wish I could put on weight.

'Since I was a teenager, people have always assumed that I was anorexic - but nothing could be further from the truth.

'I eat like a horse - I never skip meals and I treat myself to a Chinese take-away once a week.

'People can be really cruel - I know I look different, but I don't choose to look the way I do.

'People stop and stare at me and take pictures of me like I'm in some kind of freak show. It's really upsetting.'

At 5ft 4in, Mrs French struggles to find clothes to fit her, and is forced to buy aged 10 children's clothes.

This is despite her determined efforts to consume at least the recommended number of 2,000 calories for a woman every day.

Her regular diet involves cooked breakfasts, cheese salads for lunch, and chinese take-aways for dinner - washed down with a pint of calorific stout.

Born a normal-sized baby, Mrs French's parents soon noticed their was something different about their daughter when she took much longer to sit, crawl, and walk than other children her age.



By the time she started school, it was glaringly obvious to her class mates that she was not the same as them - she was tiny, and her arms and legs were stick thin.

Aged 13 she weighed just a tiny four stone - and her terrified parents were convinced the teenager was suffering from an eating disorder.

Mrs French said she longed to be like her peers and develop a curvier figure.

'When I was a teenager, I was always picked on by the other kids - they used to call me 'stick insect' and say I was anorexic.' she said.

'Even my parents thought I was doing something to myself to avoid putting on weight.

'But I was desperate to look like my friends, who were all developing curves and beautiful figures. I stuffed myself with carbs and mum's huge roast dinners, but nothing seemed to work.

'Even when my mum took me to the doctors, they referred me to hospital to make sure I wasn't bulimic or anorexic.

'It took doctors a year to diagnose me with muscular fibrositis disproportion - there was only one other person with it in the world.

'It means I don't have as many muscles as a normal person, and virtually no body fat.'

The condition is likely to lead to other health problems.

She said: 'My condition leaves me constantly exhausted, and I'm likely to develop osteoporosis and arthritis.

'There's no cure for it - I've just had to learn to live with it.

'My husband, Steve, and two sons, Neil and Mark, say I'm perfect just the way I am.

'Loads of my friends say they'd love to swap their body problems for mine - but I remind them of all the stares and comments I have to put up with.

'Anorexia is a terrible thing - but there's nothing I can do to change my body.'

Thirteen-year-old Scottish teen Megan Stewart can't brush her hair while sitting up.

It's not that she wouldn't want to -- rather, if she does, she runs the risk of her brain shutting down because of the static electricity.

Stewart has a rare condition called "hair brushing syndrome," which is triggered from static electricity, the Scottish Daily Record reported. The condition is so rare that Stewart's doctors had only ever heard of one other case of the condition.

As a result, Stewart can't touch balloons, nor can she wear shiny clothing, because of the danger of static shock, the Mirror reported.

And now, Stewart brushes her hair upside down, with her hair hanging over the side of her bed, to avoid the risk of static electricity, the Daily Mail reported. She also has to keep it damp while brushing it.

It all started three years ago, when Stewart's mom was brushing her hair on her first day of the sixth grade. As her hair was being brushed, Stewart "flopped over and her lips turned blue," her mother, Sharon, told the Daily Record.

Stewart's condition might be a result of birth complications, according to the Daily Mail. Stewart was born weighing 2 pounds and 5 ounces, and also was born with a hole in her diaphragm, causing her stomach to fall through and only one lung to grow because of the lack of room in her body.

It's possible that Stewart's condition might be a form of a reflex anoxic seizure, where people faint or show symptoms of epilepsy, in response to triggers like fear, loud noises or pain, the Daily Record reported.

Full story here

Beer-mongers around the world, your prayers have finally been answered – English supermarket Asda has launched aspecial underwear that promises to sculpt your beer belly, tone your behind and hide love handles.

Called Manx, after the female underwear brand Spanx, this miracle undergarment will save you the effort of having to suck in your belly every time you go out. They may not be the sexiest underpants you’ve ever seen but if you’re not big on diets and exercising they may be the only way to get that streamlined silhouette you’ve always dreamed of. Asda claims its specialists have been working on Manx underwear for an entire year, getting fabric percentages just right and adding control areas in problem areas.



Manx is 85% polyamide and 15% elastane, which helps compress flabby areas. A double knitted panel flattens and firms your beer belly, while the side panel going from the waist down to the thighs compresses love-handles and tones your buttocks. Their unusual shape helps support lower back, but I’m pretty sure many guys won’t be to eager to put on something that covers their rib cage and will probably prove a turn-off in the boudoir.

Women have been wearing deceiving accessories like padded bras and body-sculpting undergarments for years, and it’s time boys started playing dirty as well. With a price tag of just £10 ($16), we’re bound to see a lot less beer bellies walking down the street. Now if only they’d come up with something to hide them at the beach…

Dating websites are revolutionizing the way we think about relationships. The sites exist in almost every stripe, from online matchmaking based on religion to (the admittedly odious) Beautifulpeople, which recently ejected 30,000 members for being “ugly.” But what about people for whom a relationship can never include sex? Intercourse can be painful or impossible for a variety of reasons, from disease to disability to simple disinterest, but it can be a challenging topic to bring up.

Enter 2date4love, a dating website created by cancer survivor Laura Brashier. The site, which launched earlier this month, “enables people who cannot engage in sexual intercourse to meet and experience love, companionship and intimacy at its deepest level.” In other words, it helps people — like Brashier, who had trouble dating because they could not have sex — to find an intimate, loving relationship. More than 2,000 people have already signed up.

Over ten years ago, Brashier finished treatment for cervical cancer, which saved her life but made sex unbearably painful. She explains,

“I still have all the same sexual desires I had before cancer. As the cancer treatment took a toll on my body, I’m no longer able to function sexually the way I used to. This has proven to be an enormous challenge when it comes to dating — when the topic of intimacy is raised, I fear that once my partner knows my limitations, he may lose interest.”

There are a myriad reasons why people might seek a non-sexual romantic relationship, but very few venues in which to find a partner who feels the same way. Cancer treatments like Brashier’s very often interfere with sexual functioning, and even the process of aging can lower women’s sex drive and inhibit men’s sexual performance. But this large group of people generally experiences significant stigma around the issue, leaving them fearful of what their partner will say. Brashier’s new site could change all of that.

“It’s just the freedom of not having it on my mind when I am talking to a man,” she said. “It’s really hard for someone else to understand how it weighs on my mind.”

Of course, there’s no reason why any romantic relationship needs to involve sex. And if sex is difficult, painful or undesirable, these factors should not consign anyone to lifelong loneliness. Brashier’s brave new site will do much, both to normalize the idea of a functioning, nonsexual romantic relationship, and to provide ways for people who are seeking this kind of intimacy to find each other.

Also see: Website For Beautiful (No-fatties) People Only

The Heart Attack Grill is an outrageously unhealthy, hospital-themed, American fast food hamburger restaurant in Dallas, Texas, that serves high-calorie items with deliberately provocative names. This over-the-top eating establishment, whose tag line is “Taste worth Dying For,” has become internationally recognized for embracing and promoting an unhealthy diet of incredibly large hamburgers and greasy fries.

The menu includes "Single", "Double", "Triple", and "Quadruple Bypass" hamburgers, ranging from 230 to 910 g of beef, "Flatliner Fries" cooked in pure unadulterated lard, and “ButterFat Shake” with the world’s highest butter fat content, so their website says. The "Quadruple Bypass Burger", the biggest item on the menu, is made of four meat patties totaling 2 pounds, practically a whole tomato and about half an onion, 8 slices of cheese and 16 slices of bacon for a total of 8,000 calories.

Customers are referred to as “patients,” their orders are called “prescriptions,” and the scantily clad, cleavage-baring waitresses act as “nurses”. A tag is wrapped on the patient's wrist showing which foods they order and a "doctor" examines the "patients" with a stethoscope. Customers who weigh over 350 lb (160 kg) are served free food. Anyone who finish a Triple or Quadruple Bypass Burger are rewarded by wheeling them out of the restaurant in a wheelchair by their "personal nurse”. This is a restaurant that clearly intends to kill you, and they are very forthcoming about it.


Heart Attack Grill was founded in 2005 by Jon Basso with the declared intent of serving "nutritional pornography", food "so bad for you it's shocking". Basso, a former personal fitness trainer and nutritionist, came up with the idea while writing a marketing thesis about fitness training studios. He was intrigued by stories about his clients who were cheating on their diets and decided to open up a restaurant where patrons could come to have fun and leave their clean, healthy lifestyles behind.


Heart Attack Grill has achieved acclaim and attention by deliberately courting controversy as a marketing strategy. The popularity of the restaurant comes through word-of-mouth and widely circulated news stories that continue to keep his trademarked food and controversial practices in the media spotlight.

More images at amusingplanet

Except Stanley Thornton is 30-years-old - and his 'mother' is really his room-mate.

Mr Thornton seeks comfort in being treated like a baby, a condition known as paraphilic infantilism.

The 'adult baby' lives out his fantasies at his California apartment, where he has built himself a giant crib, play pen and even a man-sized high chair.

He spends his days playing with Lego as he sucks on his pacifier, and being spoon or bottle-fed by his room-mate Sandra Diaz, who willingly acts as his mother.

Tonight viewers will see inside his bizarre alternate world as he features in a National Geographic programme, 'Taboo: Fantasy Lives'.

He said: 'For some people being an adult baby is a sexual fetish for them, but for most of us it's just, you know, you're doing it to relax, you come home from work, you change into baby mode, you put away your adult stuff and everything goes on hold.'

He first began his return to childhood when he was 14, as a way of coping when he started wetting the bed after being abused as a boy.

He started wearing diapers when he was 13, and then gradually realised he still wanted the comforts of babyhood - toys,a crib and even a pacifier. At 20, he began 'day wetting' and now wears a diaper every day.

He said: 'The first thought is you start thinking you're crazy, because this isn't normal, or at least that's what you think, you think you're the only one doing it.

'Then you go down the road and go on the computer and you find all these other people that are doing it, and you find the name for it.'

In 2000, he started website for other 'adult babies', where members can find 'mothers or 'babies', and tips on where to buy diapers.

According to his website, he used to work as a security guard, but had an accident and now claims disability benefit for a heart condition.

Each morning Miss Diaz, a former nurse, wakes him up in his 'nursery', where he sleeps in a crib dressed in a playsuit, underneath colourful mobiles hanging from the ceiling.

He said: 'I like it, it's very comfortable, it's easy to get into the baby feel while you're in it. There's nothing else like it, waking up in a crib as opposed to a bed.

'Sleeping in a crib, you wake up as a child and you go on from there, and it's easy to stay in the same mindset.'

Then Miss Diaz feeds him, either with a bottle or from a spoon.

He has just finished building a giant high-chair, and he reinforced a children's play area to take his weight so he can play with Lego and stuffed animals.

Miss Diaz said: 'I love him like he is my favourite nephew, he is like my family member who lost his mother, and I'm like the aunt stepping in and saying I'm still here for you.'

Mr Thornton changes into adult clothes when he goes outside, but as soon as he gets home he goes back into 'baby mode.'

Some infantilists, known as 'diaper lovers', see the condition as a sexual fetish.

But Mr Thornton is keen to stress he and other 'adult babies' find comfort, not sexual satisfaction, by being treated as a child. Infantilists have no sexual desire towards children.


He said: 'Being an adult baby I've had a couple of different reactions, some good, some not so good.

'I've had some people that are perfectly fine with it and others that are just angry, maybe think you're automatically a paedophile because you're too into it.

'I like to be treated as a baby, just to get the love and affection, safeness, just to go back to a time when you're caring for a one or two year old.'

More images & video at Dailymail

1,000 meters, or 3,280 feet. That’s two-thirds of a mile.

When the Kingdom Tower is built on the outskirts of Jeddah, Saudi Arabia it will not only become the tallest building in the world, it will shatter the old record. The current record-holder, Dubai’s Burj Khalifa, stands at 828 meters. At least 173 meters (568 feet) taller, sight-seers on the tower’s observation deck could see how long it takes for their spit to hit the top of Burj Khalifa (this is, if they weren’t hundreds of miles apart). The tallest building in the US, Chicago’s Willis Tower, is 442 meters tall, or 527 meters if you count the antenna. The One World Trade Center tower currently being built in New York will climb, including antenna, to 541 meters.

Not merely a mine-is-bigger-than-yours jibe to their neighbors, the tower is a part of an economic initiative to strengthen Saudi Arabia’s economy by diversifying away from crude oil. For those with the means, the Kingdom Tower will be the poshest of the posh. It features a Four Seasons hotel, Four Seasons serviced apartments, luxury condominiums, top class office space and the world’s highest observatory. Total construction area is 530,000 square meters (5.7 million square feet). Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture, a Chicago-based architecture firm, won the contract for the Kingdom Tower earlier this week. Smith already has experience with designing tallest buildings in the world. He designed Burj Khalifa while at another architecture firm. The final details of Kingdom Tower’s design are yet to be worked out, but construction is to begin immediately. The total cost for the tower is approximately $1.2 billion.

The Kingdom Tower’s unprecedented height requires an unprecedented elevator technology to get people safely and timely up and down the three-quarters of a mile distance. Carrying the burden will be a total of 59 elevators – 54 single-deck and five double-deck elevators. The elevators that service the observation deck will travel 10 meters per second.

The Kingdom Tower will take 63 months to complete.

Read full story at singularityhub

The heat has been unrelenting in many parts of the U.S. these past few weeks, but a small Japanese company may have the answer to help you keep cool: shirts equipped with their own air conditioning units.

With Japan facing power shortages and energy restrictions in the aftermath of an earthquake and tsunami this past March, the demand for the air-conditioned jackets with built-in fans designed by Kuchofuku Co. Ltd. has soared reports AFP.

The cost of beating the heat isn't so cool: the least expensive garment costs around 11,000 yen or $130 US dollars. But for the price, those wearing the lithium-ion battery-powered jacket can bask in cool air for up to 11 hours on a single charge, consuming far less power than that used by a normal air conditioner, explains The Standard.

Kuchofuku's air-conditioned garments are not new, but Japan's recent energy saving efforts have triggered a surge in popularity for the jackets and other products like air-conditioned beds and seat cushions, according to The Telegraph.

Several other Japanese companies have come up with additional, interesting wearable ways to keep cool. For example, you migh try out the USB Cooling Necktie, which comes with a small fan in the knot of the tie. Alternately, check out the USB Heating and Cooling Keyboard, that lets you pick adjust the temperature in your workspace. As Travelizmo points out, you could also don the fan-equipped hat, which includes a fan powered by a small solar panel.

Learn more about Japan's air-conditioned outfits in the video below, then check out The Telegraph for more photos of the gear.

‘Let’s Pizza” is not your typical vending machine. It does not sell pre-packaged, ready-to-eat foods. It is a real-time, on-the-spot, pizza-making vending machine.

From the insertion of the coin to the extraction of a freshly baked, family-sized, flaming hot pizza, it takes just under three minutes to make. Incredible as it seems, the machine mixes the flour, eggs and water on the spot,then adds the sauce and toppings.

To enhance the experience even more, the entire pizza creation process can be watched through little windows in the machine adding a feeling of anticipation much like the one you get from seeing the cook in pizzerias making their dishes.

There are four types of pizza flavors you can choose from so far.

Implications - In a world that is increasingly about real-time, brands should upgrade their current offerings and cater to consumers' need for instant gratification by providing them with a new experience.

10 The average fast food patron eats 12 pubic hairs in a given year

We’ve all got the occasional hair in our food at one point or another. Ingesting unwanted hair is more likely to occur at fast food restaurants… and it’s not just the hair that grows on the top of heads that you need to worry about.

9 The strawberry flavor in a McDonald’s milk shake contains 50 artificial flavors

Apparently, real strawberries are expensive. So fast food companies like McDonald’s choose to use a ridiculous concoction of 50 chemicals to effectively imitate the flavor of one real-world food. These chemicals include ethyl acetate, phenythyl alcohol and solvent.

8 This is where chicken nuggets come from

Before reshaping, foods like chicken nuggets, hot dogs, bologna and pepperoni look like a disgusting sludge of pink paste. This is done through a process called mechanical separation, which is a cost-effective way to “smooth out” bone remnants left after the de-boning process. The process results in excessive bacteria, which is fixed by washing the meat in ammonia. To cover up that delicious ammonia flavor, the meat is then re-flavored artificially and dyed to resemble to type of meat it once was.

Read: After Knowing This, You Must Really Don’t Want To Eat That Chicken Nugget

7 There are bugs and rodent hair in your peanut butter

FDA laws allow for an average of 30 insect fragments per 100 grams of peanut butter. In that same half cup of peanut butter, you’ll also find at least one rodent hair (on average). Yum! Now that’s good eating!

6 Shellac is an important ingredient in jelly beans

Shellac is a type of finishing product that is typically used to improve the shine of wood and furniture. However, it can also be used to improve the shine of certain foods, such as jelly beans. Where does shellac come from? Why, it’s secreted by an insect in Thailand called the Kerria Iacca of course!

5 Various viruses can be found on processed lunch meat

Food production companies have long sought ways to combat unhealthy microbes found on processed foods such as lunch meat and hot dogs. A few years ago, the FDA approved the use of bacteriophages (a.k.a. viruses) that help kill these dangerous microbes. So, basically, viruses are purposely being added to your food to improve shelf life.

4 If not for one ingredient, drinking a can of Coke would make you vomit

While cocaine was long taken out of Coca-Cola long ago, the current formula is still formulated to get you high. Each can of Coke contains 10 teaspoons of sugar. This is 100 percent of your recommended daily intake. In normal circumstances, the extreme sweetness of this much sugar would immediately cause you to vomit uncontrollably. However, since all that sugar is addictive and keeps you coming back for more, Coca-Cola adds phosphoric acid -– an ingredient that cuts the sweetness to manageable levels.

3 Processed cheese is less than 51 percent cheese

A more accurate name for Kraft Singles and other packaged cheeses is “cheese-like substance.” Any cheese product labeled as processed or pasteurized includes additives, chemicals and flavorings that account for up 49 percent of the total product. As a result, that cheap cheese in your grocery store has just enough real cheese in it to allow companies to call it cheese.

2 Fast food salads contain chemicals used in antifreeze

Choosing to “eat healthy” at a fast food restaurant isn’t necessarily a good idea. To prolong crispness, packaged salads are dusted with Propylene Glycerol, a chemical commonly found in antifreeze. In its concentrated form, the chemical has been known to cause eye and skin irritation.

1 Chicken McNuggets contain beef

Many fast food chicken items contain beef additives used to enhance flavor and juke health stats. Chicken McNuggets, the Wendy’s Grilled Chicken Sandwich, and KFC Grilled Chicken Sandwich are a few examples. Check the ingredients, and you’ll see no sign of such atrocities. That’s because such beef additives are listed as “extract” or “essence.”

Fancy living life in a bubble? How about being one with nature? What if you could do both? Enter the "bubble room". If you are in northern France, be sure not to miss the unique experience at a park in Roubaix. Imagine cuddling up with your partner in the midst of nature.

This timeless experience can be had easily - you just need to rent the room.



You get a choice of two settings - a sitting/living area and a bedroom. So you can finally have that dream candlelit dinner in the midst of trees or lie on the bed and count the stars in the sky.

Unforgettable, wouldn't it be? The "hotel" might be in a park, but that doesn't mean it doesn't have any modern amenities. A fully-loaded living area and a bedroom with a massive LED television are some of the luxuries on offer. It's the best of both worlds, the hotel promises.


What's more, its green as well. The bubble is made from recycled plastic and kept under pressure by a silent blower.