A reader recently told me of his upcoming plans to fly to the other side of the planet for a visit. His sister moved to Japan for work and generously offered to buy his ticket, but he was worried about catching the flu. He asked me how to protect himself. This is a timely question. […]
Walk into the average home or office. See if you can spot the biggest health hazard in the room. Is it the fluorescent lights? Emissions from display monitors?? The mites, the dust, the bacteria lurking in the air ducts and pipes? No. The most dangerous ticking time bomb in the place is your chair. I […]
Poets, artists and musicians have known it for hundreds of years, but now medical research confirms it: Loneliness and isolation are hazardous to your health. Dr. Harlan Krumholz, director of the Center of Outcomes Research and Evaluation at Yale-New Haven Hospital, notes, “We shouldn’t just be concerning ourselves with pills and procedures. We have to […]
Watching the American health system operate is like watching a game of Whack-A-Mole: a symptom pops up, a doctor smacks it down. Another one pops up and whack! It goes down. Up again, down again, over and over. Unfortunately, it is a game in which the patient seldom wins. The US spends more on healthcare than any […]
Recent studies have shown STD rates rising at astronomical rates across the entire country. In our own state, between 2013 and 2014, new cases of syphilis rose 79%, gonorrhea increased 30%, and the rate of HIV grew by 33%. And these are the reported cases, statistically shown to be only half of all infections. Many […]
Every time I research a health topic, I uncover something that surprises the crap out of me. I assumed that sunscreen protects us from the damaging effects of the sun. Turns out the opposite may be true — cases of skin cancer have actually increased since its introduction to the general market. The ancient Egyptians used plant extracts […]
Allergy season is here. You can tell by the blotchy green dust on your car, the sniggley, snitchy sneezing, and your weeping eyes. Doctors recommend that you begin taking an allergy medication right away and stay on it for the duration. Before you step blindly onto this unending treadmill, we’d like to give you some information that your […]
The legalization of cannabis is nearly upon us and it is a move that I both applaud and dread. If we lived in a perfect world, with people who respected the properties and consequences of inebriates and used them to enhance life rather than replace it, there would be no contest. However, we don’t — so let’s look […]
When I began reading about the health effects of yeast, i.e., candida albicans, it was with an impersonal eye. I was intending to track down the latest research and wrap up the facts in an entertaining manner, if such a thing is possible with yeast. But as I continued, I found myself becoming emotionally involved. The problems […]
As a little girl, I noticed that every time my mother got pissed off at my dad, she would head out the back door, snarling to herself like a wet cat. An hour or so later she would return, purring quietly under her breath as if nothing had happened. For a while I suspected she […]