The New York Times’s intrepid health reporter investigates the truth about sex, eating, exercise, and other health conundrums

 

For more than two years, the New York Times’s science and health columnist Anahad O’Connor has tracked down the facts, fictions, and occasional fuzziness of old wives’ tales, conventional-wisdom cures, and other medical mysteries. Now in this lively and fun book, he opens up his case files to disclose the experts’ answers on everything, from which of your bad habits you can indulge (yo-yo dieting does not mess up your metabolism and sitting too close to the television does not hurt your eyes) to what foods actually pack the punch advertised (you can lay off the beet juice!).

A compendium of answers to the curious and nagging questions of how to keep healthy, Never Shower in a Thunderstorm will provide guidance and amusement to anyone who has ever wondered if the mosquitoes really are attacking her more than everyone else. (Yes, they are.)

About the Author(s)

Anahad O'Connor

Anahad O’Connor is a reporter for The New York Times covering science, health, immigration, and life in the greater New York area and contributes the weekly column “Really?”—named for his favorite word in journalism—to the paper’s Science Times section. He lives in New York City.

Excerpt

Chapter One
 
Human Nature?
The Great DNA Crap Game
 
Does your DNA determine your destiny? It used to be that scientists believed our genes were responsible for a select number of our physical features, and that was about it. We began almost as blank slates and our behavior was determined largely by our environment, molded over the years through stimulus and response.

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