You know those times when you're just about to say something and — poof! — it's gone. Researchers think the phenomenon is linked to your brain's stop-start mechanism, which triggers actions like telling your legs to stop moving just before you blithely step into that unnoticed pothole.

Scientists looked at a cluster of neurons in the brain called the subthalamic nucleus (STN) in 20 healthy patients and seven with Parkinson's disease. All took a memory test that, from time to time, was interrupted by assorted sounds. When people heard the sounds, monitoring devices indicated heightened activity in the STN and greater difficulty among participants in remembering what they had been saying.

The Parkinson's patients were involved because they often suffer from slowed muscle movement and tremors. Researchers wondered if it might be possible to manipulate the STN to better control the stop-and-go functions of muscles.

How Green Grows My Life

A novel study reports that women who live in homes surrounded by greenery live longer (12 percent lower mortality rate) and have better mental health than those who do not. The novelty is in how the Harvard University scientists came to their conclusions: They examined medical data from 100,000 women who had participated the Nurse's Health Study, then compared that information to satellite images of vegetation around their homes.

The biggest health boosts were in respiratory and cancer mortality.

Though intriguing, the findings come with a lot of caveats. For example, living in more parklike areas likely means living near parks, walking more, less exposure to air pollution and noise — all boons to better health.

Body of Knowledge

Human fingers can feel objects as small as 13 nanometers. Put another way, if your finger was the size of the Earth, you would feel the difference between houses and cars.

Number Cruncher

A cup of sunflower seeds, edible hulls included, contains 269 calories, 213 from fat. It has 23.7 grams of total fat or 36 percent of the recommended total fat intake for a 2,000-calorie daily diet.

It also contains zero cholesterol; 4 mg of sodium (less than 1 percent); 9.2 grams of total carbohydrates (3 percent); 4 grams of dietary fiber and 9.6 grams of protein.

Doc Talk

Capillary refill: When a fingernail is pressed, the nail bed turns white. Capillary refill refers to the return of blood to the nail bed, giving it a pinkish color. A good "cap refill time" is 2 seconds or less.

Phobia of the Week

Dikigorosophobia: Fear of lawyers (otherwise known as common sense)

Never Say Diet

The world's speed-eating record for haggis (rhymes with gag us, a Scottish pudding containing sheeps' heart, liver and lungs with oatmeal and various spices) is three pounds in 8 minutes, held by Eric Livingston. The record has stood for more than eight years, probably because most people know what haggis is.

Best Medicine

Thanks to tremendous strides in medicine, people are living longer, which gives them more time to pay their medical bills.

Observation

"With any child entering adolescence, one hunts for signs of health, is desperate for the smallest indication that the child's problems will never be important enough for a television movie."

— American author and filmmaker Nora Ephron (1941-2012)

Sum Body

The average wait time in a doctor's office last year was 19 minutes and 16 seconds. That's down a full minute from 2014, but still a measurable chunk of time to waste on perusing outdated copies of National Geographic or Sports Illustrated.

Here are five useful things you can do instead:

—Write down questions you want to ask the doctor. (So you won't forget)

—Make a list of all of your medications. (In case you're asked)

—Confirm your insurance information with office staff.

—Make sure all of your test results have arrived.

—Read those brochures and pamphlets lying around. (You might learn something)

Medical Myths

Every kid dreads these words: "You just ate. You can't go swimming for 30 minutes."

The notion, of course, is that a kid loaded up on food is going to suffer a fatal case of cramping and sink to the bottom of the pool. Cramping might happen, but it's likely to be very mild and not debilitating. The body does divert some blood flow from muscles to aid the digestive system after a meal, but the change is minimal and doesn't diminish muscle function. Olympic swimmers often eat before races. They just don't eat so much that they become uncomfortable.

Med School

Q: How many teaspoons of sugar does the average American consume daily?

a) 6

b) 10

c) 15

d) 22

A: 22. The average American consumes more than 20 teaspoons of sugar — almost half a cup — of added sugar each day. That's a lot more than the recommended limit: 6 teaspoons for women, 9 for men. In a year, it amounts to roughly 152 pounds of extra sugar or 211,584 calories or 375 Big Macs.

Last Words

"Only you have ever understood me. And you got it wrong."

— German philosopher Georg Friedrich Wilhelm Hegel (1770-1831) to his favorite student

To find out more about Scott LaFee and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.