Misuse of antibiotics is the leading cause of emerging antimicrobial resistance — a public health crisis in the making. Inappropriate prescribing practices by health care providers contributes greatly to this problem, but now there is evidence that everyday cleaning and hand-washing may also contribute to the growing trend of antimicrobial resistance.

Bacteria become resistant to antibiotics or antimicrobial products when they develop a way to keep the antibiotic from working. Bacteria are constantly evolving and, in the presence of inadequate or inappropriate antibiotics, they develop mechanisms to overcome the killing power of the antibiotic. Read more →

Ok, so what is the consensus? Is talking over the cell phone harmful or not really? There have been a lot of suggestions that heavy cell phone use has a strong correlation with brain cancer. However, there is no conclusive evidence to prove this link for sure. But on the other hand do we really need conclusive evidence about this issue? I would think even if there were a small chance that cell phone usage and brain cancer are linked, we need to take the matter seriously. Read more →

I have always been a fan of the written word. Even before I started my professional writing career I wrote. In school yes, but I wrote beyond what was required for classes. I wrote fiction stories and a little poetry but I mainly spent my time filling up diaries and journals. Even though I sometimes recalled day-to-day interactions most of my entries were about my feelings, trying to sort out the racing thoughts in my mind. Read more →

It’s common knowledge that an example is more powerful than words. After all, aren’t parents routinely admonished for telling their children to do one thing while clearly breaking that same rule themselves? For parents and non-parents alike, saying one thing while doing something else greatly diminishes the influence of the words. Maybe that explains why most people don’t get enough zzzzzzz’s. Let me explain.

The number of people who suffer from sleep-deprivation are substantial. Data from the National Sleep Foundation’s 2007 Sleep Study shows that 67% of women experience sleep problems more than once a week. Read more →

A few years ago, my friend encouraged her father to drink large amounts of water through hot and sultry summer afternoons in India in a bid to sustain hydration in him — with solely good intentions. The next year, he was diagnosed with cardiomyopathy — which meant that his heart muscles were not pumping efficiently; leading to water retention and dilation of the heart. While the water drinking of the previous year did not cause the heart failure, co-existence of both events could have had a devastating effect on his health. Unfortunately, a woman from Sacramento, CA was not as lucky, and died as a result of consuming too much water. She voluntarily consumed about 8 ounces every 15 minutes for a whole day while controlling her bladder. Read more →

I have many memories of being sick as a child. I remember lying on the couch watching movies with our rented VCR and putting sympathy stickers given to me by my older sisters in my sticker book. I remember stopping by the meat market to buy a BBQ burger and bag of Cheetos before heading home to my sickbed, a spot on the living room couch. I have some vivid memories of being cooped up for days at a time. Once my teacher even called to invite me to the movies since I missed the last few weeks of school because of one of my latest spells. Read more →