Dr. Josh Bloom was interviewed by Dr. Joe Schwarcz, an award-winning chemistry professor, lecturer and author, during which the Council's pharmaceutical expert discussed his recent experience with opioid denial. You're familiar with Dr. Bloom's writings. But for all of you wondering what he actually sounds like, listen to the conversation.
Disease
New research shows that the instructions on those little bottles – indicating that dime-sized drop is sufficient – are wrong. To properly coat your hands, you need to apply about 3 mL of sanitizer, or more than half a teaspoon. Here's why.
One method widely used to control malaria is providing families with insecticide-treated bed nets. Overall, this strategy is very successful, having halting hundreds of millions of cases over the past 15 years. In some parts of the world, however, mosquitoes "learn" to avoid bed nets by biting people earlier in the day.
If you have been procrastinating getting your flu shot - it's time to get to a healthcare provider or local pharmacy and get it off of your 'to-do' list. Flu statistics are watched closely at this time of year, and the last few weeks of data have shown a notable increase in the number of flu cases with experts predicting that flu activity will be increasing in the near future - specifically over the next several weeks.
Now that winter has hit the northern hemisphere, our thoughts often focus on ways to keep warm. Well, not only can a nice, sweaty sauna do the trick, but according to a recent study repeated saunas may just help fend off dementia — at least for middle-aged men.
By now, anyone even slightly versed in health issues understands that cigarette smoking can irretrievably damage the lungs — whether via lung cancer or other disease processes. Even those who've never smoked may develop these conditions. A recent study indicates that never-smoking women are more likely to develop COPD than never-smoking men.
We tend to associate vaccines with prevention of acute illness — which they're quite good at. But future benefits can also accrue to the vaccinated, such as prevention of shingles in those who have avoided chicken pox, and escaping measles-engendered encephalitis.
Ah yes, holiday time is here — so is egg nog, Christmas cookies and Hanukkah latkes — all designed to pack on the pounds. So how to best prevent or treat the resulting overweight or obesity? Science tells us there's no best way. But as we've thought for a while, there are many ways to take the weight off. And if one doesn't work another just might.
In the mid-1600s, the remains of a small child from a family of nobility, were placed in a crypt in Lithuania. Now we are learning, according to a recent report in the journal Current Biology, that this small body is revealing secrets about the origins and spread of smallpox, one of the deadliest scourges to ever plague mankind.
You'd be excused for thinking that by now everyone understands the health risks of cigarette smoking. But some recent research points to a significant lack of knowledge among many Americans — a lack that can certainly put their health at risk.
Dr. Wafaa El-Sadr gives us a new way to think about stopping the HIV epidemic: "treatment as prevention." If implemented across the globe, it may be the key in stopping new cases of HIV -- and stopping the epidemic once and for all.
Those who frequently groom or remove their pubic hair are more likely to contract sexually transmitted infections, according to new research. Among the infections, higher rates were found for herpes, syphilis, gonorrhoea and HIV.