Cynical Activities - O
OFFICES
Air in offices may be polluted by tobacco smoke, asbestos, formaldehyde, materials from copying machines, biological contaminants, pesticides, paints, adhesives, and vehicle exhausts from outside, leading to illnesses such as Legionnaires' disease, asthma, hypersensitivity pneumonitis, and humidifier fever, along with symptoms such as dry mucous membranes, sneezing, stuffy or runny nose, fatigue or lethargy, headache, dizziness, nausea, irritability, and forgetfulness. No wonder Gilbert and his colleagues are such a mess. |
OFF-ROAD VEHICLES
Deer mice in areas of Utah where people drive off-road vehicles are prone to infection with hantavirus, which might be transmitted to humans. If this is high on your list of things to worry about, you haven't been paying attention. |
OLD AGE
Maurice Chevalier claimed that old age isn't so bad, considering the alternative. Think again. Elderly men are more likely to get carbuncles. Elderly women are at heightened risk of conditions such as osteoporosis, incontinence, and dry eye syndrome. Elderly men and women are more susceptible to a host of conditions, including cheilosis, macular degeneration, cataracts (surgery for which has significantly less positive results with advancing age), Paget's disease, thrush, and shingles. When they become depressed, patients over sixty-five are less likely to receive effective treatment than younger patients. A study in the U.K. found that old people wait more than one-and-a-half hours longer than younger people for treatment in emergency rooms. |
OPENNESS
Newsflash: being a Rush Limbaugh fan is good for you! Having a personality that's open to learning from experience and to suggestion from others makes you more accident-prone. |
OPTIMISM
Next time someone tells you, "Don't worry, be happy!" give them a swift kick. What one psychologist calls the "tyranny of the positive attitude" in America can make people feel worse and less able to cope with difficult situations. |
ORGAN TRANSPLANTS
People who receive organ transplants have an increased risk of getting non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, anal cancer, and ganciclovir-resistant cytomegalovirus disease. On the other hand, not having that transplant could bring its own problems. |
ORGASMS
Believe it or not, when women's magazines run those articles telling you 101 ways to have multiple orgasms, they're not doing you any favors: research shows that orgasms can cause asthma attacks. Ninety-nine percent of women asked about this said they'd take their chances. |
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