Longer Looks: Interesting Reads You Might Have Missed

The Washington Post: 11 Tips To Plan Your Health Care After Job Loss 
Many people in the United States have health benefits through their employers, and that’s why it is important to have a plan for insurance coverage if you lose your job, insurance experts say. The Post asked researchers, health insurance brokers and patient advocates for advice. Here are their recommendations. (Bever, 1/30)

The Wall Street Journal: At Theme Parks, You Must Be This Tall—and This Thin—to Ride
The newest ride at Universal Studios Hollywood, Mario Kart: Bowser’s Challenge, takes visitors into the classic Nintendo game using augmented reality and animatronics. It also warns that they might not be allowed to ride if their waistline measures 40 inches or more. The ride, one of several at the California park with that admonition, illustrates how navigating theme parks has grown tougher for plus-size visitors as parks balance accessibility with heightened safety requirements. (Passy, 1/28)

The New York Times: The Sneaky Allure Of A Detox 
Every year, the wellness world hawks “cleanses,” often liquid diets that mainly consist of vegetable and fruit juices. A day or three (or eight) of drinking all your meals, and you’ll purge any toxins from your body, cleanse manufacturers say. Your skin will clear; your stomach will shrink. You will feel, more or less, pure. But there is scant evidence to back any of these claims. “There’s no major research done on most of the cleanses that are out there,” Dr. Melinda Ring, an integrative medicine specialist at Northwestern Medicine, said. However, some people do say that they feel better while on a cleanse — that they sleep better, have more energy or think more clearly. Nutrition experts say that people who try cleanses may report positive benefits in the short term — but not because of the specific slush they’re drinking. And cleanses come with plenty of risks. Here’s what to know. (Blum, 1/30)

The Washington Post: The Link Between Our Food, Gut Microbiome And Depression
The largest analysis of depression and the gut microbiome to date, published in December, found several types of bacteria notably increased or decreased in people with symptoms of depression. “This study provides some real-life evidence that you are what you eat,” says study author Andre Uitterlinden, who researches genetics at Erasmus Medical Centre in Rotterdam, Netherlands. (Wapner, 1/31)

The Washington Post: A Pregnant Runner's Open Letter To The Boston Marathon Helped Spur Change
It took thousands of miles for Fiona English to reach her goal of qualifying for the Boston Marathon, but when she obtained one of the coveted berths for this year’s race, there was a looming hurdle she could not clear. Instead of picking up her race bib April 15, two days before the event, English is due to give birth that day to her first child. So, in December, the 34-year-old running coach who lives in London submitted a claim to defer her approved entry until 2024 and requested a refund of an international runner’s $235 entry fee for which she had purchased insurance. (Boren, 2/2)

The Atlantic: Scientists Tried to Break Cuddling. Instead, They Broke 30 Years of Research.
Oxytocin, often lauded as the “hug hormone,” might not be necessary to induce affection. (Wu, 1/27)

Scientific American: What Causes Déjà Vu? 
Scientists think that déjà vu actually provides a peek into how the memory system works when it goes a little off-kilter. The feeling may arise when parts of your brain that recognize familiar situations get activated inappropriately, says Akira Robert O’Connor, a cognitive psychologist at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, who researches déjà vu. When this happens, another region of the brain then checks this feeling of familiarity against your recall of past experiences. When no actual matches are found, the result is a discomfiting sense of having seen it all before, accompanied by the knowledge that you haven’t. (Pappas, 2/1)

NPR: The Nipah Virus Has A Kill Rate Of 70%. Bats Carry It. But How Does It Jump To Humans?
It's dusk in central Bangladesh, in a community within the district of Faridpur. A 50-year-old man sits outside his home beside a rice paddy. His name is Khokon. A fiery beard, dyed a bright orange, rings his chin. He says the procession of disease and death all started in the spring of 2004. "So the first one was the mother-in-law of my elder brother. She was really sick," Khokon says. "She had been sick for some time. Then she died. We took her to the grave. Then my father got sick." (Daniel and Davis, 1/31)