Learn about how to tell when your body is running low on key vitamins; how Neanderthals mourned their dead; and why you should NOT pre-rinse your dishes before putting them in the dishwasher.
Learn about how to tell when your body is running low on key vitamins; how Neanderthals mourned their dead; and why you should NOT pre-rinse your dishes before putting them in the dishwasher.
Ways Your Body Tells You You're Running Low on Key Vitamins by Stephanie Bucklin
Neanderthals buried their dead by Grant Currin
You Shouldn't Rinse Your Dishes Before Putting Them in the Dishwasher by Ashley Hamer first aired June 3, 2018 https://omny.fm/shows/curiosity-daily/how-to-wash-your-dishes-british-vs-american-englis
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Find episode transcript here: https://curiosity-daily-4e53644e.simplecast.com/episodes/how-to-know-youre-running-low-on-vitamins
CODY: Hi! You’re about to get smarter in just a few minutes with Curiosity Daily from curiosity-dot-com. I’m Cody Gough.
ASHLEY: And I’m Ashley Hamer. Today, you’ll learn about how to tell when your body is running low on key vitamins; how Neanderthals mourned their dead; and why you should NOT pre-rinse your dishes before putting them in the dishwasher.
CODY: Let’s satisfy some curiosity.
With all the stuff you hear about what to eat to stay healthy, it can be hard to know if you’re getting it right. Wouldn’t it be great if there was a way to know whether you were running low on certain vitamins? Well, there kinda is. You just have to listen to your body for clues.
When you're low on certain vitamins and minerals, it’ll show: in your skin, in your hair, in your overall mood. And running low is more common than you think: According to the CDC, more than 10 percent of people in the U.S. over the age of one have a vitamin B6 deficiency, 8 percent have a vitamin D deficiency, and about 6 percent are lacking vitamin C. I actually take vitamin D supplements myself — a prescription, based on blood tests. Hey, nobody’s perfect, right?
Now obviously, if you've got a symptom you’re really concerned about, see your doctor. And we are not medical professionals, so please don’t treat our podcast like one. Still, here are a few ways you can look for signs you may be running low on key vitamins:
First, let’s talk hair. If you’re going gray early — like in your 20s, with no family history — it could be due to a copper deficiency. In that case, try shellfish and mushrooms, which are rich in copper. Brittle hair could be a sign of anemia caused by a lack of iron (so eat more beef or beans) or from low levels of folic acid (which you can get from leafy greens). And if your scalp is flaky or itchy, you could be low on vitamins A and C, or fatty acids, which you can get from fish and walnuts.
Let’s move onto your mouth. If you have mouth sores, low levels of B12 could be the reason. That’s an easy fix for omnivores: just eat more meat, poultry, and eggs. Vegans and vegetarians may have to supplement.
Fatigue is another symptom of B12 deficiency, but that can also be caused by a bunch of things: stuff like low levels of potassium (which bananas are full of) or vitamin D (which you can find in fortified dairy and some fish). If your fatigue comes with feelings of nausea and weakness, you could be low on magnesium, which you can get from nuts and beans.
Little red bumps on the back of your arms maybe be caused by low levels of vitamin A, which you can get in orange foods like sweet potatoes, or from a zinc deficiency. Fix that with poultry, hummus, and pumpkin seeds.
And again, if you're suffering from serious symptoms, call a doctor right away. But if it's just a nagging feeling, make sure you're getting the right vitamins. Vitamin D… may be particularly hard for some of us to get here in the Midwest… unable to spend a lot of time in the sun, in, you know… negative four degree weather… not that I’m complaining. Yyyyyeah.
Researchers in Europe are looking to old bones to answer a burning question: Are humans the only species to bury their dead, or did Neanderthals do it too? Based on new analysis of a skeleton that was first excavated in the early 1970s, it’s looking more and more like they did.
The remains in question belong to a two-year-old Neanderthal child who died around 41,000 years ago. They were discovered at the La Ferrassie [La FAIR-rah-SEE] rock shelter, an important Neanderthal site located in Dordogne [door-DOAN-yuh], France. It’s pretty close to Lascaux [loss-KOH] Cave, home to the famous prehistoric paintings. But the artists behind those pieces lived closer in time to us, probably about 17,000 years ago.
The child definitely ended up buried. No one has ever disputed that. The question is whether Neanderthals deliberately buried the body in a funerary practice or whether natural processes engulfed the remains. That might sound unlikely, but it happens to wild animals all the time.
The researchers drew on methods from a bunch of disciplines to crack the case.
One of the first things they did was consult the original researchers’ notebooks. That archival evidence clued them into 47 new bones that earlier researchers hadn’t identified as belonging to the skeleton. But these researchers are pretty sure they do. They collected evidence by analyzing the bones’ state of preservation, proteins, genetics, and age to get a precise idea of what those bones have been through.
The researchers also went back to the original site in hopes of finding bones that might have been overlooked a half-century ago. The researchers didn’t turn up anything new, but they did manage to figure out exactly how the body had been oriented. The skeleton was buried with the head pointed east and sloped a little higher than the pelvis. That was even though the sedimentary layer it was buried in was sloped the opposite way. The bones still looked like a skeleton when they were found, which means the body was probably buried shortly after death. Compare that to the remains of wild animals found in the same sedimentary layer, which were scattered around, probably by scavengers and the elements.
Taken together, this new research makes for convincing evidence that Neanderthals did, in fact, bury their dead. That raises a lot of questions about Neanderthal funerary practices. We’ll just have to wait for new discoveries — or new takes on old ones — to get those answers.
CODY: A lot of people have been spending more time at home cooking and cleaning since the pandemic hit. And that’s why we remastered this classic Curiosity Daily clip to help you get the most out of a pretty handy household appliance (if you have one): your dishwasher.
Let’s recap today’s takeaways
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CODY: Today’s stories were written by Stephanie Bucklin and Grant Currin, and edited by Ashley Hamer, who’s the managing editor for Curiosity Daily.
ASHLEY: Scriptwriting was by Cody Gough and Sonja Hodgen. Today’s episode was produced and edited by Cody Gough.
CODY: Train, say your prayers, eat your vitamins, be true to yourself, true to your country, and join us again tomorrow, brother… to learn something new in just a few minutes.
Hulk Hogan.
ASHLEY: And until then, stay curious!