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Dan Baumgardt

Dan Baumgardt

The Conversation

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How to avoid some of the most common holiday health hazards this Christmas – from a practising GP

Christmas isn’t always the most wonderful time of the year – here’s a brief guide to some of the most common festive ailments

17.12.2024 3

The Conversation

Dan Baumgardt

What Davina McCall’s colloid cyst removal can tell us about brain tumours

British TV presenter Davina McCall has undergone neurosurgery to remove a colloid cyst – a type of benign brain tumour. McCall was diagnosed with...

18.11.2024 8

The Conversation

Dan Baumgardt

High heels, flat arches, clubfoot and corns – our feet are amazing but they can be treated terribly

Feet can be polarising. There are those for whom a long soak in a foot spa or a pedicure is the ultimate cure for stress. Then there are those who...

17.09.2024 8

The Conversation

Dan Baumgardt

What is synthol and why are bodybuilders injecting it into their muscles?

Getting ripped takes effort. Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson didn’t get to look the way he does by sitting on the sofa with a packet of Doritos...

06.09.2024 5

The Conversation

Dan Baumgardt

Ulcers, cracks and sores – what your mouth can tell you about your health

The Greek philosopher Zeno of Citium once said that we have two ears and one mouth so that we can listen twice as much as we speak. It’s a sentiment...

28.08.2024 5

The Conversation

Dan Baumgardt

What your nose can tell you about your health

Thanks to a quirk known as unconscious selective attention, your brain has learned to ignore your nose. A prominent feature that’s positioned...

19.08.2024 10

The Conversation

Dan Baumgardt

Black hairy, strawberry and geographic – what the state of your tongue can say about your health

One of my grandmother’s favourite things to cook was cold pressed ox tongue, though it’s a tradition that I don’t really feel the need to...

13.08.2024 6

The Conversation

Dan Baumgardt

Can the NHS soup and shake diet really reverse diabetes? Here’s what you need to know

In my youth, I remember several people I knew tried a popular diet based around liquid meal replacements. One delicious, nutritious milkshake for...

08.08.2024 9

The Conversation

Dan Baumgardt

What your nails can tell you about your health

As a medical student, nails were one part of my anatomy course that I really struggled with. I found it difficult, at first, to stomach the sight of...

06.08.2024 6

The Conversation

Dan Baumgardt

How stress might be the root of problems like pain, ulcers and a broken heart

The English actor Kate Beckinsale recently lost her stepfather. She experienced such intense grief at the loss that it “burned a hole” in her...

24.07.2024 4

The Conversation

Dan Baumgardt

Undigested fruit, chewing gum and hair – the stony masses that might be growing in your stomach

In the first Harry Potter novel, Professor Severus Snape hopes to embarrass Harry by quizzing him on the topic of bezoars. According to Snape, they...

22.07.2024 5

The Conversation

Dan Baumgardt

You are what you poo: how to read your stools

One of my hometown’s claims-to-fame, aside from the magnificence of the Clifton Suspension Bridge, is being the birthplace of the mighty Bristol...

16.07.2024 4

The Conversation

Dan Baumgardt

‘Fart walk’: the health benefits of going for a walk after a meal

Mairlyn Smith, a Canadian actress and cook, recently revealed on TikTok that she and her husband go for a walk after dinner to release their pent up...

10.07.2024 7

The Conversation

Dan Baumgardt

Headed to Glasto? How to stay healthy in the festival heat

It’s finally summer festival season – and the heat is on! Hopefully, the warm weather’s what you wanted – we all know it’s miserable...

27.06.2024 5

The Conversation

Dan Baumgardt

Birds, barley, cheese and wine – it’s not just smoke and dust that can cause lung disease

Our lungs are the interface between blood and air. Their role in oxygenating our bloodstream is their primary function, and they bear the brunt of a...

25.06.2024 10

The Conversation

Dan Baumgardt

Take my (bad) breath away – causes of halitosis and how to check whether you have it

In Greek mythology, the many-headed beast Hydra had such severe halitosis that the stench of its breath was deadly to anyone who smelled it....

17.06.2024 4

The Conversation

Dan Baumgardt

From urine tasting to self-infecting with stomach bugs – a brief guide to the most daring medical self-experiments

Science presenter and journalist Dr Michael Mosley was well known not only for his expertise, energy and passion as a broadcaster but also for...

11.06.2024 5

The Conversation

Dan Baumgardt

Why muscle tears happen – and what you can do to prevent them

Muscles are biological powerhouses, capable of truly incredible feats. You only need to look at the world’s strongest man, capable of dead lifting...

11.06.2024 9

The Conversation

Dan Baumgardt

Coca-Cola , rosé wine, red wine and fifty shades of yellow – what the colour of your pee means

Red and yellow and pink and green – your urine can sing a rainbow too. You may be surprised to find out it can be purple and orange and blue. And a...

07.06.2024 6

The Conversation

Dan Baumgardt

What your nipples can tell you about your health

As an anatomist, I’m often asked questions about nipples. What is the point of male nipples? Why are nipples considered an erogenous zone? Why,...

05.06.2024 9

The Conversation

Dan Baumgardt

From health to sports – ears can say a lot about you

An ear is like an iceberg – much of it is out of sight. The only visible part is the auricle – the seashell shaped structure made of bendy...

28.05.2024 30

The Conversation

Dan Baumgardt

Our bodies don’t just make gall and kidney stones – from saliva to tonsils, these are other ones to look out for

Of all the body’s amazing abilities, perhaps one of the strangest is its capacity to make stones. Many will have heard of kidney or gallstones, and...

20.05.2024 60

The Conversation

Dan Baumgardt

Why so many animals have a third eyelid, including our pets – yet humans don’t

It’s a question of evolution and adaptation.

16.05.2024 40

The Conversation

Dan Baumgardt

Navel gazing: checking your belly button can tell you a lot about your health

Navels, belly buttons, innies or outies … whatever term you use, your umbilicus may have plenty to tell you about the state of your health. For...

14.05.2024 30

The Conversation

Dan Baumgardt

Can this thumb test tell if you are at increased risk of a hidden aortic aneurysm?

All the parts of our bodies share an inherent connectivity. This goes much further than “the foot bone’s connected to the … leg bone”. For...

02.05.2024 60

The Conversation

Dan Baumgardt

What your feet can tell you about your health

From skin to hair, scabs and even tears, the external appearance of the body can offer clues about the state of your health. But there’s another...

29.04.2024 50

The Conversation

Dan Baumgardt

Gym hygiene guide: the dangerous bacteria that lurk in dirty fitness equipment and clothes

A friend of mine, on a recent trip to the gym, declined to use the machine for drying his trunks – that gym equivalent of a salad spinner which...

17.04.2024 7

The Conversation

Dan Baumgardt

Pubic hair: beyond brazilians, more than manscaping

From Hollywood waxes and vajazzles, to bleaching and piercing, there are seemingly endless ways to style the nether regions and attempt to create an...

10.04.2024 20

The Conversation

Dan Baumgardt

If brain transplants like the one in Poor Things were possible – this is how they might work

The neurosurgeon Sergio Canavero announced in 2015 that he could soon be capable of performing the world’s first human head transplant procedure....

28.03.2024 10

The Conversation

Dan Baumgardt

Eating some chocolate really might be good for you – here’s what the research says

Although it always makes me scoff slightly to see Easter eggs making their first appearance in supermarkets at the end of December, there are few...

28.03.2024 20

The Conversation

Dan Baumgardt

Hot tubs are as full of nasty germs as you fear

A friend of mine recently lost her security deposit at the holiday home she and her fellow hens were renting for a weekend. Why? Well, she dropped a...

20.03.2024 30

The Conversation

Dan Baumgardt

What your hair can tell you about your health

Hair speaks volumes. The way we cut, style and colour often acts as a representation of who we are. But hair is more than just aesthetic. It also has...

18.03.2024 10

The Conversation

Dan Baumgardt

Skin picking is often trivialised as a bad habit – but dermatillomania can be dangerous

Our skin is often covered with tiny imperfections – blemishes, moles, cuts and spots that we’re all guilty of picking at from time to time....

29.02.2024 10

The Conversation

Dan Baumgardt

A blow to the heart can kill you – or bring you back to life

I first became aware of the notion of the “touch of death” as a teenager – after watching Uma Thurman as the Bride finally kill Bill using the...

26.02.2024 4

The Conversation

Dan Baumgardt

What bodily secretions like blood, wax and tears can tell us about our health

Dry scalp? Blocked ears? Crusted eyes? Our bodies produce many different unusual, sometimes repellent secretions, and their function doesn’t always...

19.02.2024 4

The Conversation

Dan Baumgardt

Romance isn’t always rosy, sometimes it’s sickening – lovesickness, erotomania and death by heartbreak explained

Absence makes the heart grow fonder. All you need is love. It’s better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all. If cliches and pop...

13.02.2024 10

The Conversation

Dan Baumgardt

Your skin is a mirror of your health – here’s what yours might be saying

Skin accounts for around 15% of our body mass. It is the largest and most visible organ in the human body. Yet many of the skin’s functions are...

29.01.2024 10

The Conversation

Dan Baumgardt

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