Cool things I've learned in my job

If you read my end-of-the-year post then you may remember that I started 2019 with a brand new job at an online pharmacy called UK Meds. I've now been there 2 months and along with the joy at being able to tell people "I'm a drug dealer" when they ask what I do, it's also taught me so much. You don't really get taught that much medical stuff at school (especially you BTEC lot) and it's not something I ever thought I needed to know more about. But while doing a lot of in-depth research and learning about the how and why of every medical condition under the sun (reading about threadworm and scabies were pretty uncomfortable days), I've also learnt some pretty fun little facts that I thought you might like to know too.

1. Being hangry is real

We've all had those times where we literally feel like we want to rip someone's head off and can't understand why, before realising we're hungry. So while the word 'hangry' may seem like it belongs on urban dictionary, the actual concept is real. Serotonin is a chemical that our brains produce and along with a lot of other stuff, it controls our happiness. So when you learn that 80% of it lives in our gut, it makes sense that eating food makes us happy and being deprived of it makes us sad/angry. You're not you when you're hungry remember.

2. There's a reason that women are worse at casual sex than men

Another chemical that our bodies produce is oxytocin and it's responsible for love, parenting, emotion, bonding and social behaviour. Men do produce it, but their testosterone tends to cancel out a lot of the intimacy and replaces it with competitiveness. While women not only produce more, but it's heavily involved in the female reproductive system. So oxytocin is released during childbirth, breastfeeding and, you guessed it, sex. Hence why women tend to catch feelings after sex more often than men - the oxytocin is telling them it's love.


3. 'Clap' is gonorrhoea

How many times at school (and beyond) have you heard people reference 'clap'? I bet you any money you like that you all thought it was short for Chlamydia, just like I did. But nope, apparently it's short for gonorrhoea. It's not actually based on the word (the fact they both start with C is probably why everyone gets it wrong), but it's been around for hundreds of years. There are a few ideas about where the word comes from; first is that it's short for "clappan" which means throbbing (the painful symptoms of the infection), second is that it comes from the word "clapier", which is a brothel and likely where medieval folk picked up the disease in the first place. The third one is my personal favourite; there is another theory that it's named after the medieval treatment, which was to clap your penis really hard between both hands (or two hard surfaces) to get rid of the gonorrhoea. Ouch.

4. Why women get cellulite more than men

It's seems like a lot of biology is pretty unfair on women. We have to go through childbirth, we get periods, we got through the menopause. But then men can suffer from balding and erectile dysfunction, so maybe they get their fair share too. One thing that's very predominantly women though is cellulite. I always thought this was because women are generally curvier but it's actually because the makeup of our skin is different. Cellulite happens when fat comes up through a layer of skin towards the surface, and this happens easily in women because our skin cells are arrange vertically. So we have plenty of gaps for the fat to come through, giving that dimpled appearance. Men? Their skin is arranged in a criss cross, so all their fat is kept nicely hidden away. Maybe that's what the feminist movement should focus on next.

5. Why it's harder to wake up in winter

If you're like me, you will struggle to barely drag yourself out of bed in the winter, but wake up feeling bouncy in the summer. This is because daylight literally tells our bodies when it's time to wake up so dark mornings equals body thinking it's still bedtime. Our brains produce melatonin throughout the day, slowly increasing this when the sun goes down so that we feel tired. The levels then peak while we're asleep (to keep us that way), and then when sunlight is detected on the eyelids, levels are cut out and we wake up naturally. So when that screeching alarm goes off at 7am in winter and it's still an hour before it starts to get light, your body is having none of it.

6. Chickenpox is herpes

Say the word 'herpes' and you'll likely send everyone running, at the thought of the incurable STI. But actually, there are loads of different types of the herpes virus and they're responsible for cold sores, chickenpox and shingles. You probably know that getting genital herpes means you can't get rid of it (or you hopefully do; stay safe guys), but that also explains why you only ever get chickenpox once. You body can't get rid of the herpes virus (in any form) so when you get chickenpox as a kid, the virus lies dormant in your body forever more and most people will never notice it again (although sometimes it wakes back up and causes shingles). You really do learn something new everyday huh?