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Health

Jameela Jamil shows off her 'elastic' skin to shine a light on Ehlers-Danlos syndrome

'The Good Place' actress's viral video shows how serious the rare condition is and how important it is to get a proper diagnosis.

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Jamil was diagnosed at 9 years old with the rare tissue disorder.

Jameela Jamil might be best known for acting roles on shows like “The Good Place” and “She-Hulk,” but she has made a secondary name for herself as an outspoken advocate on social media. Though she touches on a wide range of civil rights issues, health is often a major theme.

Recently, Jamil used her platform to discuss her Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (EDS)—a group of inherited disorders that affects connective tissue, primarily the skin, joints and blood vessel walls. While very rare, EDS causes significant problems, especially for those without a proper diagnosis.

In a video posted to TikTok, Jamil is seen stretching out her cheeks while quipping, "Jesus Christ, that is not an app, that is not a filter, that is just my face. Look how elastic that is." This stretchiness, she explains, is a symptom of EDS.


Technically, Jamil has hEDS, which makes her hypermobile. Bending her elbow backwards, she noted that “nothing bends the right way.”

Though she joked that "yes, that is very sexy, thanks for asking," her post was a genuine attempt to raise awareness on EDS’s more severe effects. “It’s a really serious condition and it impacts every single part of your body, and even your mind.”

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♬ original sound - Jameela Jamil

No kidding. Jamil listed that it causes major bleeding, bruising, clumsiness, joint swelling and dislocation, gut issues, fainting and migraines, and that it severely complicates wound healing, childbirth and dental work, and that those with EDS are predisposed to neurodivergence and mast cell activation syndrome (MCAS), which she said leads to “random allergies that just come and go for no reason.”

Having received a diagnosis at the age of 9, Jamil was able to avoid things that could put her at a further risk. For example, she never pursued contact sports, doesn’t smoke, drink or do drugs, and carries an EpiPen with her everywhere she goes.

But for others, going through life with undiagnosed EDS is, as she put it, “dangerous,” especially as those with it might appear very healthy or to have symptoms related to other conditions.

In her caption, Jamil added that she hadn’t talked much about her condition due to being made fun of for her other health issues, which made her “suicidal for a while.” However, she wrote, “I’m done not talking to the people who MATTER about this hugely important subject because a bunch of people lucky to have good health, have no souls. Let's raise awareness on this subject together, and save some motherfucking lives!"

Clearly her candidness is doing just that. One person on Instagram shared, “I have hEDS too! And I got diagnosed because of something you posted a couple of years ago and it joined the dots on all of my various ailments. Thank you !! Without you mentioning it, I would have never fully understood myself.”

Because it can affect the entire body, EDS is very hard to diagnose. But Jamil recommends going to a rheumatologist or geneticist. Though there is no cure, there are treatments available to manage symptoms and avoid further issues.

A pitbull stares at the window, looking for the mailman.


Dogs are naturally driven by a sense of purpose and a need for belonging, which are all part of their instinctual pack behavior. When a dog has a job to do, it taps into its needs for structure, purpose, and the feeling of contributing to its pack, which in a domestic setting translates to its human family.

But let’s be honest: In a traditional domestic setting, dogs have fewer chores they can do as they would on a farm or as part of a rescue unit. A doggy mom in Vancouver Island, Canada had fun with her dog’s purposeful uselessness by sharing the 5 “chores” her pitbull-Lab mix does around the house.

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Joy

Kudos to the heroes who had 90 seconds to save lives in the Key Bridge collapse

The loss of 6 lives is tragic, but the dispatch recording shows it could have been so much worse.

Representative image by Gustavo Fring/Pexels

The workers who responded to the Dali's mayday call saved lives with their quick response.

As more details of the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse in Baltimore emerge, it's becoming more apparent how much worse this catastrophe could have been.

Just minutes before 1:30am on March 26, shortly after leaving port in Baltimore Harbor, a cargo ship named Dali lost power and control of its steering, sending it careening into a structural pillar on Key Bridge. The crew of the Dali issued a mayday call at 1:26am to alert authorities of the power failure, giving responders crucial moments to prepare for a potential collision. Just 90 seconds later, the ship hit a pylon, triggering a total collapse of the 1.6-mile bridge into the Patapsco River.

Dispatch audio of those moments shows the calm professionalism and quick actions that limited the loss of life in an unexpected situation where every second counted.

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A woman looking at her phone while sitting on the toilet.


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Joy

Yale's pep band had to miss the NCAA tournament. University of Idaho said, 'We got you.'

In an act of true sportsmanship, the Vandal band learned Yale's fight song, wore their gear and cheered them on.

Courtesy of University of Idaho

The Idaho Vandals answered the call when Yale needed a pep band.

Yale University and the University of Idaho could not be more different. Ivy League vs. state school. East Coast vs. Pacific Northwest. City vs. farm town. But in the first two rounds of the NCAA basketball tournament, extenuating circumstances brought them together as one, with the Bulldogs and the Vandals becoming the "Vandogs" for a weekend.

When Yale made it to the March Madness tournament, members of the school's pep band had already committed to other travel plans during spring break. They couldn't gather enough members to make the trek across the country to Spokane, Washington, so the Yale Bulldogs were left without their fight song unless other arrangements could be made.

When University of Idaho athletic band director Spencer Martin got wind of the need less than a week before Yale's game against Auburn, he sent out a message to his band members asking if anyone would be interested in stepping in. The response was a wave of immediate yeses, so Martin got to work arranging instruments and the students dedicated themselves to learning Yale's fight song and other traditional Yale pep songs.

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Unfortunately, because of the misinformation from the anti-vaccination movement, some of these diseases have trended up in a really bad way over the past several years.

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Innovation

A student accidentally created a rechargeable battery that could last 400 years

"This thing has been cycling 10,000 cycles and it’s still going." ⚡️⚡️

There's an old saying that luck happens when preparation meets opportunity.

There's no better example of that than a 2016 discovery at the University of California, Irvine, by doctoral student Mya Le Thai. After playing around in the lab, she made a discovery that could lead to a rechargeable battery that could last up to 400 years. That means longer-lasting laptops and smartphones and fewer lithium ion batteries piling up in landfills.

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