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  • Article

Blood money: Taking periods out of poverty

Periods are not a wound that needs to heal, nor is the blood a sign of injury. So why are we still so repelled by them?

  • Article

Bloody capitalism and the cash flow of the menstrual cycle

Once they thrived on taboos and shame. Now period-product manufacturers are finding new ways to flourish in this era of period activism – but products aren’t the end of the story.

  • Article

We need less ‘sickle cell warriors’ and more allies

Rejecting the epithet “warrior”, Cheryl Telfer describes the pervasive effect sickle cell disease has on her life, and calls for more people to donate blood to help sicklers.

  • Article

The healing power of breathing

The healing powers of different breathing methods are said to help with a range of health challenges, from asthma to PTSD. Effie Webb traces their spiritual origins and explores the modern proliferation of breathwork therapies.

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Images

  • Reperfusion, blood flow through brain
  • Ischaemia, blood flow through brain
  • Diagram of the blood flow through the arm. Drawing, ca. 1900 (?).
  • A surgeon amputating a patient's leg with a saw while he is seated and conscious, blood flows to the floor. Woodcut, 1531.
  • A surgeon amputating a patient's leg with a saw while he is seated and conscious, blood flows to the floor. Woodcut, 1531.
  • Scadoxus multiflorus Raf. Amaryllidaceae. Blood Flower, Poison root, Fireball Lily. Distribution: Sub-Saharan Africa. The genus name is a concatenation of the Greek words, Sciadion meaning a parasol or umbel, and doxa meaning 'glorious'
  • A finger with blood flowing from a small wound: liquid from a white bottle with a red cross is about to be poured on it; representing quick treatment of small wounds in order to prevent blood poisoning. Colour lithograph, 195-.
  • Geranium sanguineum L. Geraniaceae Dusky cranesbill. Herbaceous perennial. Distribution: Europe and temperate Asia. County flower of Northumberland. This seems to be the 'Sanguin geranium or Blood Roote', Geranium haematodes/haematites, of Lyte (1578). He writes that it is 'not used in Medicyne.' Parkinson (1640) classifies cranesbills somewhat differently, but says that 'all are found to be effectual both in inward and outward wounds, to stay bleedings, vomitings and fluxes, eyther the decoction of the herbe or the powder of the leaves and roots used as the cause demands. Photographed in the Medicinal Garden of the Royal College of Physicians, London.
  • Showing the last lunar mansion of Scorpio followed by the first degrees into which the sign was divided (from the top down, right to left). 1. A man with a spear in one hand and an eagle perched on the other; 2. A man with a stomach ache; 3. Depiction of flowing blood; 4. A horse; 5. A man tilling the earth to give water to the land; 6. A man beats his chest with his hand; 7. A man beats his head with his hand;, 8. A man digging in a mountain; 9. A scorpion and a snake from Persian Manuscript 373
  • Adonis vernalis L. Ranunculaceae. Pheasant's eye, the golden flowered spring (or vernal) Adonis, is named in memory of Adonis, the Greek god of plants, who disappeared into the earth in the winter and reappeared in the spring. The flowers were said to have sprung from his blood when he was gored to death by a wild boar, but this plant must have been the blood red Adonis aestivalis, the summer Adonis. Distribution: Eurasia to Spain and Sweden. Gerard (1633) recommends it for renal stone and intestinal colic. Lewis & Elvin Lewis (2003) note it is poisonous, containing cardiac glycosides (adonitoxin, cymarin, K-strophanthin) and flavonoids. The UK Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA)) bans its use for ingestion 'no dose permitted' but allow it to be prescribed by a herbal practitioner on a one-to-one consultation. Photographed in the Medicinal Garden of the Royal College of Physicians, London.
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