One of the most confounding aspects of COVID-19 is that it’s hard to know if you have it.
The symptoms are similar to other respiratory illnesses. So when you get a stuffy nose or a fever you might have a cold or the flu…or you might have COVID. You really can’t tell unless you get tested.
The coronavirus does cause one particular symptom that is clear evidence you have it: loss of smell and taste.… Read More
When bodies are donated for medical research, scientists closely examine the cadavers. Lately, what they’ve been finding is disturbing.
Professor Rolf Halden is an Arizona State University researcher. He and his colleagues are finding tiny bits of plastic throughout the bodies they look at. It is concentrated in the liver, kidneys, lungs, and spleen, but it’s in other organs as well.… Read More
At first glance, it makes sense to take a daily low-dose aspirin to prevent heart disease.
Aspirin thins the blood. This should reduce your risk of a blood clot that could lead to a stroke or heart attack.
But this benefit comes at a high price.
A study in the British Journal of Pharmacology found that daily aspirin reduces risk of a heart attack or stroke by 17%.… Read More
These days, risk assessment is a calculation all of us make every time we go out the front door.
Wherever we are headed, we think about the chances that we may be exposed to the coronavirus.
But not even experts can tell us with any certainty which public places are safe and which are not. A new study reveals one place you should absolutely avoid if you possibly can.… Read More
Chances are, you’ve been using pyrethroids for years, even if you have no idea what they are.
They are a group of chemicals that are used in the most popular consumer bug killers.
Pyrethroids are used to kill everything from bed bugs, roaches, and ticks to a wide variety of garden pests. They are the second most widely used pesticides in the world.… Read More
If you tell your doctor that you’re suffering from anxiety, there’s a good chance you’ll walk out with a prescription for a benzodiazepine.
These are drugs such as Xanax (alprazolam), Valium (diazepam), and Ativan (lorazepam). They are highly addictive.
Unlike prescription opioids, addiction issues with benzos, as they are commonly called, get little attention.
Doctors are prescribing fewer opioids. Their use has fallen since 2012.… Read More