163 articles
Toupée
Toupée (French, from top/tuft): a small hairpiece or partial wig covering a bald spot, once an 18th-century top-knot on a periwig; today a daily-wear alternative to bonded hair systems for hair loss.
Trip sitter
Trip sitter: a sober person present or remotely available during a psychedelic experience to reduce harm and provide reassurance; also called peer support; related to clinical session facilitators, whose effects reached 13.6% of outcome variance in patient trials.
Urine therapy
Urine therapy, also called urotherapy, urinotherapy, or shivambu, is the practice of drinking or applying urine as a remedy. Ancient practice from India onward, but no clinical evidence of benefit and documented risks.
Vaginal steaming
Vaginal steaming, also called V-steaming or yoni steaming, is sitting over herb-infused steam to cleanse the vagina or uterus. No scientific evidence supports it; risks include burns, pH disruption, and infections, and medical bodies advise against it.
Veganism
Veganism: philosophy and diet excluding all animal products, coined by Donald Watson in 1944 (The Vegan Society, Leicester). Requires B12 supplementation; lower emissions and cancer risk, higher fracture risk than omnivorous diets.
Vegetarianism
Vegetarianism, the practice of abstaining from animal flesh (lacto-ovo, vegan, and related diets), rooted in Pythagoras and Indian ahimsa, organized from 1847, linked to lower heart disease risk but requiring B12, iron, and omega-3 attention.
Vegetarianism by country
Vegetarianism by country is the share of each country's population following a vegetarian diet, from a few percent in most of Europe to about 39% in India.
Veggie burger
Veggie burger: a meatless burger patty of vegetable proteins, grains, and vegetables. First commercialized as Gregory Sams's VegeBurger (1982) and Paul Wenner's Gardenburger (1981); higher fiber, lower saturated fat than beef.
Waxing
Waxing (epilation by waxing) is temporary hair removal in which hot or cold wax pulls hairs out from the root; results last 2-8 weeks, with risks of pain, burns, folliculitis, and retinoid-related skin tearing.
Weight loss
Weight loss: deliberate reduction of body mass via negative energy balance. CDC advises 1–2 lb/week; 5% loss improves health markers; diets differ little long-term; adaptive thermogenesis resists loss; GLP-1 drugs now covered by Medicare trial.
Whole30
Whole30 is a 30-day elimination and reintroduction diet program founded in 2009 by Melissa Urban and Dallas Hartwig, cutting sugar, alcohol, grains, legumes, and dairy, with a vegan Plant-Based variant since 2022.
WTE trial
WTE trial (NCT01436097), Randomized Trial of Healthy Eating Interventions, a University of Pennsylvania pilot led by Scott Halpern testing flat and tiered grocery-store financial incentives for produce purchases; 42 participants, completed 2011-2013, no results posted.
Zelé2021 trial
Zelé2021 (NCT06275347) was a 12-week Mexican randomized double-blind trial comparing the Zélé method very-low-calorie low-fat ketogenic diet with a standard low-calorie diet in class I obesity, showing greater fat-predominant weight loss.