163 articles
Raw foodism
Raw foodism (rawism) is eating only or mostly uncooked, unprocessed food, typically nothing heated above 118°F (48°C); mostly raw vegan, with documented risks of B12 deficiency, weight loss, and foodborne illness.
Recreational drug use
Recreational drug use, also called non-medical or illicit drug use, is consuming psychoactive substances for pleasure rather than medicine. About 331 million people used drugs in 2024; cannabis leads with 256 million users.
Recreational use of nitrous oxide
Recreational nitrous oxide (laughing gas, whippets, N2O) inhalation from 8 g chargers or large canisters: euphoric, dissociative effects lasting 1–5 minutes, B12-inactivation neurological harm, young-adult prevalence, UK Class C ban from November 2023, and European restrictions.
Reducing Diet
Reducing diet, also called weight loss or weight reduction diet (MeSH D004038), is any diet designed to cause weight loss, typically via a 500-750 kcal daily deficit, distinguished from maintenance and disease-specific diets.
Reflexology
Reflexology, also called zone therapy, is a complementary therapy applying pressure to foot or hand points believed to map to body organs; clinical evidence for claimed healing effects is weak and unproven.
Reiki
Reiki, also known as Reiki healing, is a complementary health practice from Japan where practitioners place hands on or above the body to channel energy for healing, founded by Mikao Usui in 1922.
Rolfing
Rolfing, or Structural Integration, is a system of bodywork and movement education developed by American biochemist Ida Rolf that works with fascia to reorganize the body in gravity.
Sattvic diet
Sattvic diet (sattvik, yogic diet): a high fiber, low fat vegetarian eating pattern from Ayurveda and yoga, classifying foods as sattvic, rajasic, or tamasic; excludes meat, eggs, onion, garlic, caffeine; evidence limited.
Saturated fat
Saturated fat, fatty acids with no double bonds in butter, tallow, palm and coconut oils; chain length determines LDL effects, and replacement with polyunsaturated fat, not carbohydrate, drives cardiovascular outcomes.
Self Care
Self care is how individuals, families, and communities maintain health, prevent disease, and cope with illness with or without a health worker; the WHO has issued guidelines since 2019.
Self Medication
Self medication: use of medicines without physician prescription or direction, including OTC drugs, reused prescriptions, and herbs; MeSH D012651. Prevalence 13–92% by study; risks include misdiagnosis, interactions, polypharmacy.
Self-love
Self-love: healthy self-regard studied in psychology mainly as self-compassion (Neff's six-element model), distinguished from self-esteem, with roots in Aristotle, Fromm, and Metta practice.
Sesame oil
Sesame oil, pressed from Sesamum indicum seeds, one of the oldest oilseed oils; 45-60% seed oil content, stabilized by lignans sesamin and sesamolin, used in cooking, cosmetics, and traditional medicine.
Shaving
Shaving: cutting body hair at the skin surface with a razor. Covers technique, the regrowth myth, pseudofolliculitis barbae, and razor history from Egyptian and Bronze Age razors to Gillette's safety razor and electric shavers.
Simple living
Simple living (voluntary simplicity): a voluntarily chosen, less consumption-focused lifestyle coined as a term by Richard Gregg in 1936 and popularized by Duane Elgin; linked to modestly higher well-being (g = .28) and a 23% smaller ecological footprint.
Skin care
Skin care: cleansing, moisturizing, and sun protection practices for skin health. Core routine is gentle cleanser, moisturizer, SPF 30+ sunscreen; moisturizer choice follows skin type; many marketing claims are unregulated.
Skin whitening
Skin whitening (skin lightening, skin bleaching) is the cosmetic practice of reducing melanin to lighten skin tone, a $8.8 billion global market driven by colorism and beauty ideals, with hazardous ingredients such as mercury and hydroquinone regulated or banned in the US, EU, and under the Minamata Convention.
Sleep health
Sleep health: a multidimensional positive-health construct of sleep (regularity, satisfaction, alertness, timing, efficiency, duration; RU-SATED), also the National Sleep Foundation's Elsevier journal Sleep Health (2015, ISSN 2352-7218).
Smoking
Smoking: inhalation of burning tobacco, mainly via cigarettes; over 7 million deaths yearly, 1.2 billion users, global prevalence down from 33.1% (2000) to 19.5% (2024); distinct from vaping and smokeless tobacco.
Sobriety
Sobriety: abstinence from alcohol or drugs, clinically tied to recovery from alcohol use disorder (NIAAA definitions) and culturally to the sober curious movement, Dry January, temperance history, and mutual-help groups like AA and SMART Recovery.
Spaghett
Spaghett, slang for spaghetti, is long thin durum wheat pasta. Cooked: 221 kcal per cup, low GI (33–41), whole-wheat has 4.2 g fiber per 100 g; diet quality depends on the dish.
Special K
Special K is a Kellogg breakfast cereal brand behind the Special K Challenge, a two-week diet replacing two daily meals with cereal and milk, claiming six pounds lost; studies show short-term loss averaging about 3.5 pounds, but experts call it unsustainable.
Sunscreen
Sunscreen is a topical US nonprescription drug product that protects skin from UVB and UVA rays; bemotrizinol was FDA-approved in June 2026 as the first new US filter in over 25 years.
Superfood
Superfood: a marketing term for nutrient-rich foods like blueberries, salmon, and quinoa, with no legal or scientific definition; originated as United Fruit Company banana marketing, banned in the EU since 2007 without an approved health claim.
Swaddling
Swaddling is the practice of wrapping an infant snugly in a light blanket to calm the baby and promote sleep, a once-universal child-care practice still common in parts of the Middle East.
The China Study
The China Study is a 2005 book by T. Colin and Thomas Campbell advocating whole-food plant-based diets, based on the China–Cornell–Oxford Project survey of 65 rural Chinese counties and rat casein experiments; its causal claims drew major statistical criticism.
Thigh gap
Thigh gap: visible space between the inner thighs when standing feet together; social media beauty ideal from December 2012 (Victoria's Secret show), anatomically determined by pelvis and femur, linked to eating disorder risk, succeeded by mermaid thighs and legging legs.
Toner (skin care)
Toner (skin care): water-based liquid applied after cleansing, before serum or moisturizer. Modern types are hydrating, exfoliating (AHA/BHA), or soothing; dermatologists consider it optional, unlike the old alcohol-based astringents.
Toothpaste
Toothpaste, or dentifrice, is a paste or gel used with a toothbrush for oral health; fluoride toothpaste (sodium fluoride, stannous fluoride, monofluorophosphate) prevents cavities, with abrasives, detergents, and humectants in modern 20-plus-ingredient formulas.
Touch starvation
Touch starvation (skin hunger, touch hunger) is the unmet desire for non-sexual physical contact, measured as longing for touch. Affects 72-86% of samples; touch interventions reduce cortisol, pain, depression, anxiety.