This Week in Health: Women underestimate the risks of vacation sex

Location of study: U.S.

Study subjects: Over 850 women aged 18 to 50

Results: After participants filled out a survey measuring how risky they perceived certain tourist situations to be, researchers found that being on vacation makes women more open to sexual risk-taking and experimentation. Being away also ups sexual confidence and makes ladies more likely to push their sexual boundaries.

Significance: Many of the women surveyed said that anonymity played a major role. The ability to anonymously participate in sexual fantasies was a big draw for some. Others went as far as to say that sexual experimentation and erotic thrills were vacation musts. Researchers say that it’s the departure from tight schedules, social judgment and everyday responsibilities that ultimately opens the door. In other words, being away loosens inhibitions.

Study subjects: Over 400 teenage boys enrolled in the Pittsburgh public school system during the 1980s

Location of study: U.S.

Results: While smoking marijuana certainly isn’t thought to be good for teens, a new study suggests that it also might not be as bad as we think. In a long-term study, researchers found no link whatsoever between teenage marijuana use and future health issues. This is despite the fact that previous research has suggested that smoking weed as an adolescent could lead to psychotic symptoms later down the road.

Significance: “I think the takeaway message is that, in general, young men in our study who used relatively high amounts of marijuana in adolescence and young adulthood were not overwhelmingly more likely to self-report physical and mental health problems around age 36,” says lead researcher Jordan Bechtold, Ph.D., a psychology research fellow at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.

Location of study: U.S.

Study subjects: Rodents

Results: You’d think that sleeping on your side versus your back or stomach would have little impact on brain function, but a new study from Stony Brook University suggests otherwise. It turns out that sleeping on your side (also known as the lateral position) may optimize the brain’s ability to clear out harmful waste. If this waste is left to accumulate, it’s thought to contribute to neurological conditions like Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s.

Significance: Before you start worrying about your sleep position, researchers clarified that the theory has yet to be proven in humans. For the study, investigators zeroed in on rodents, which they anesthetized. Why? Previous research has shown that the glymphatic pathway, which clears away waste produced by the brain, works most efficiently during periods of “unconsciousness (think sleep and anesthesia).