We are in the middle of the summer travel season, and many people are travelling to southern and tropical countries. Many of those areas have mosquitoes that can transmit malaria, a nasty parasite that can make people very sick. Malaria still kills about 1 million people a year worldwide — 85% of whom are children under 5.… Read the rest
We are in the thick of mosquito season, and I’m sure we all have our favorite bug-killer products, from zappers to plug-ins. But what really works? I found a nice new resource from the good folks at the doctor-oriented Prescriber’s Letter; they have a free detail-document discussing what really works against skeeters.… Read the rest
This summer’s major heat waves may be running out of steam, but we still have a couple weeks of potential health issues with heat waves.
Heat waves should be considered as a medical emergency; during some recent heat waves in France and other countries, thousands of people have died.… Read the rest
I see a lot of teens for the usual visits — colds, stomach problems — and often notice that they have some acne. After talking to them about their acne, I realize that a lot of them are trying home remedies or simple diet changes that simply aren’t working well.
During our horribly long winter, I posted many articles on vitamin D and its growing evidence of multiple health effects. Here’s another well designed study (Vitamin D3 Supplements in Winter May Help Protect Against Influenza A) which had two groups of schoolkids and gave one group vitamin D3 and the other group nothing extra.
Do you feel chronically tired, or get up in the morning and still feel not rested? Assuming that you’re trying to get your needed 8 hours of sleep, perhaps you have what doctors callobstructive sleep apnea. This is a relatively common issue especially in very overweight people, where a part of your throat gets closed off while sleeping, which can cause you to not breathe for a few seconds, followed by sudden awakening as your body reacts to the lack of oxygen.