Health Tips

Recently, several reports of infections caused by “flesh eating bacteria” have appeared in the news.  Such infections have been responsible for amputations as well as death.  In one instance, the infection appears to have developed after a serious cut was exposed to contaminated water.  Just how common is this disease…

A single blistering sunburn in childhood or adolescence doubles a person’s chances of developing melanoma skin cancer later in life.  Other types of skin cancer, basal cell carcinoma and squamous cell carcinoma, are directly related to long-term sun exposure.  Children often spend a good part of their day playing outdoors…

Perform a google search on “the most important medical breakthroughs” and you are likely to find items such as “Man Walks Again after Being Chopped in Half” or “Teen lived 118 days without Heart”.  But in terms of having an effect on decreasing the burden of disease and increasing longevity,…

Since 1993, food labels have included information on saturated fat and cholesterol.  In 2006, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration also began requiring information on trans fat.  What are trans fats and why is an understanding of it important to our health? What is trans fat?  Trans fat is produced…

Statistics from the CDC indicate that there has been a progressive rise in the number of cases of Lyme disease diagnosed. It is unclear whether this increased incidence is because of greater awareness and recognition of the disease among physicians, or whether more people are becoming infected. In 2010, 94%…

Chest pain and numbness or pain in the left arm has long been associated as the hallmark symptoms of a heart attack.  Other symptoms, such as nausea, shortness of breath, and pain in the jaw or back, known as “atypical” symptoms, are also important indicators that an artery supplying the…

The left-hand column below lists the 10 most commonly prescribed medications in the U.S. in the order of the frequency that they are prescribed. In the right column are the most common side effects of these medications in no particular order.  See if you can match the medication with its…

Last week, we looked at how bacteria and viruses differed. Some of these differences, such as viruses being unable to cause harm unless they invade a living host, have a bearing on the nature of the infections that they cause, as well as the way that the infections that they…

Microbes are microscopic living organisms, such as bacteria and fungi. Although often categorized as microbes, viruses are very different. In fact, since viruses are unable to grow or reproduce unless they enter a living cell, viruses are sometimes not considered to be living creatures at all. In order to compare…

Today’s Health Tip would have to fall under the “more research is needed” category. Nevertheless, recently published studies regarding salt intake and health are helping to define the optimal amount of salt that we should be eating and are worth considering at this time. What is salt? Common table salt…