Written by Molly Cerreta Smith - Senior Writer

Getting enough rest has long been touted by medical experts as a way to maintain your health, but is it possible that you can die from insomnia? The short answer is yes, although it is highly unlikely.

A special on Fatal Familial Insomnia (FFI) recently ran on the National Geographic Channel detailing an extremely rare condition that causes people to literally die from lack of sleep.

It is a genetically inherited disease, only known in 40 families and affecting only 100 people worldwide.

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You know the drill, you’re forwarded an email from an unknown source telling you that chicken makes your breasts grow bigger. You forward to all in your address book. They then forward to everyone in theirs. Next thing the rumour is everywhere, like Chinese whispers on steroids. It’s hard to know what’s true these days so let’s take a look at the truth behind a few urban myths and old wives tails.

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Taste is a complicated behaviour. It used to be thought that there were separate receptor cells (taste buds) on different parts of your tongue for each of the five basic tastes: salt, sweet, sour, bitter and umami (the taste of glutamic acid). However there are taste buds throughout the oral cavity, even on the upper palate and each taste bud is capable of detecting all the basic tastes. It's just that some are more sensitive to a particular taste than to the others.

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