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Sweetbreads are neither sweet, nor are they breads. "Buyer beware — sweetbreads are NOT a sweet-bread like a cinnamon roll," said Rebecca Shenkman, director at the Villanova College of Nursing's MacDonald Center for Obesity Prevention and Education (COPE). "In fact, they are the total opposite of what one might expect from an English language interpretation of the word. Sweetbreads are culinary names for the thymus or pancreas glands of (typically) a calf or lamb." Benefits & nutritional information Sweetbreads have been consumed since ancient times and have been found to be particularly healthy. Sweetbreads are "the most nutrient-dense part of the animal," said Dr. Jennifer Jackson, an internist at Ascension Via Christi Health. "Indigenous cultures would serve organ meats to women of childbearing age to boost mom's nutrition." "Organ meats have been a staple part of ancestral diets," said Dr. Vincent Pedre, author of t

As far as pop culture is concerned, a vomitorium is a room where ancient Romans went to throw up lavish meals so they could return to the table and feast some more. It's a striking illustration of gluttony and waste, and one that makes its way into modern texts. Suzanne Collins' "The Hunger Games" series, for example, alludes to vomitoriums when the lavish inhabitants of the Capitol — all with Latin names like Flavia and Octavia —imbibe a drink to make them vomit at parties so they can gorge themselves on more calories than citizens in the surrounding districts would see in months. But the real story behind vomitoriums is much less disgusting. Actual ancient Romans did love food and drink. But even the wealthiest did not have special rooms for purging. To Romans, vomitoriums were the entrances/exits in stadiums or theaters, so dubbed by a fifth-century writer because of the way they'd spew crowds out into the streets. "It's just kind of a trope,"

Powerful earthquakes like the 6.2-magnitude temblor that rocked central Italy early this morning (Aug. 24) are surprisingly common in the region, geologists say. The shaking was caused by movement in the Tyrrhenian Basin, a seismically active area beneath the Mediterranean Sea. Here, the ground is actually spreading apart, said Julie Dutton, a geophysicist with the U.S. Geological Survey. The same underlying geology was responsible for the devastating 2009 earthquake in the city of L'Aquila, just 34 miles (55 kilometers) away from today’s quake. That earthquake killed more than 300 people. "It's a pretty complicated or complex area for earthquakes," Dutton told Live Science. "In this area, they have sizable earthquakes that cause destruction every so many years." [Photos of This Millennium's Most Destructive Earthquakes] COMPLEX DAMAGING GEOLOGY The epicenter of today's quake, which hit around 3:30 a.m. local time, was about 6.2 miles (10 km) sou

Older adults may not be as physically healthy or mentally sharp as younger and middle-age adults, but they have higher psychological well-being than these other age groups, according to a new survey of people living in San Diego County, California. In the study, the researchers evaluated three key factors in adults across their life spans: their physical health, cognitive health and mental health. They found that older people had better mental health than younger people. The researchers also found that young adults in their 20s and 30s had the lowest scores on measures of psychological well-being of all of the age groups in the study, which included people ages 21 to 99, according to the findings, published in the August issue of The Journal of Clinical Psychiatry. [9 DIY Ways to Improve Your Mental Health] Although the study showed that people experience declines in both their physical health and their thinking skills as they age, aging was also linked with better mental health, gr

We used to think of “addiction”, or what we now call dependence, as a moral failing. This had the result of blaming the person who was addicted – it was a matter of willpower and they just weren’t trying hard enough. So the obvious solution was shaming and scolding until they did. In the mid-20th century, a new movement started: the recovery movement, led by peer organisations such as Alcoholics Anonymous. This signalled a shift towards a focus on disease. This shift was important in understanding drug use as a health issue and focusing responses towards support rather than blaming. The downside to this way of thinking is that it conceptualises drug use and dependence as a problem you have no control over – it needs someone or something to “fix” it (typically a medicine). The first step in the 12-step movement demonstrates this well: “I admit that I am powerless over alcohol/drugs.” The pendulum had swung in the opposite direction. But what is a disease? Traditional definitions refe

When it comes to creatures with keen hearing ability, sea anemones are not at the top of the list. Nonetheless, new research suggests that certain proteins that help these animals repair their feathery tentacles could also eventually be used to help repair damage to cells within a mammal's inner ear. The finding comes from a study done in mice and could be an early step toward finding a treatment for people with hearing loss, the researchers said. In mammals, including humans, sound is translated from vibrations in the air into nerve signals that can be sent to the brain by highly specialized cells called hair cells. These are found within the cochlea, a fluid-filled structure of the inner ear. Damage to these hair cells, which can be caused by exposure to loud noise, can result in hearing loss, and mammals are not able to repair hair cells once they are harmed. [Marine Marvels: Spectacular Photos of Sea Creatures] It turns out that sea anemones have similar hair cells on their

The weight-loss supplement garcinia cambogia may have the unwanted side effect of inducing mania, which is a feeling of an abnormally high level of energy, agitation and euphoria, according to a recent report of three separate cases. In each case, the patient became manic while taking the over-the-counter supplement, and the doctors who treated the patients came to suspect that the supplement played a role, according to the  report, published in April in the journal The Primary Care Companion for CNS Disorders. Mania can be harmful if it leads someone to take part in risky behaviors. Despite an increase in popularity in recent years, garcinia cambogia has not really been on psychiatrists' radar as a possible trigger of mania, said Dr. Brian Hendrickson, a psychiatry resident at New York Presbyterian Hospital and the lead author of the report. [Wishful Thinking: 6 'Magic Bullet' Cures That Don't Exist] Indeed, it wasn't until the doctors saw all three patients, ov