Since we have just finished with Autism Awareness Month, I thought it would be appropriate to review Autism Spectrum Disorders. Autism or Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a range of developmental conditions that affect a person’s ability to communicate and interact with others. Though estimates vary, it is thought to affect close to 1 in every 54 children in the United States. It appears that the incidence of Autism is increasing due to multiple factors; one is thought to be due to more awareness of the disorder and better screening methods.
Vaping always seems like a new fad just coming to the market, even though it has been around for over a decade. Why people vape has remained the same: trying to quit smoking, peer pressure, a perceived lower cost alternative to smoking, or adopting a more health-conscious way of smoking. Here I will address a few things that you may not know about vaping and e-cigarettes.
How do you turn a newborn with all its promise into a 30 year-old addict living on the street?
The workday has wrapped up and you’ve picked up the kids who seem to be in a mood. Tripping over toys in your home’s entryway you remember dinner still needs to be cooked and now the kids are fighting. Nothing you’ve made for dinner seems to interest them, and after wrestling them to bed you pick up the paper to read this article's headline.
As part of our daily existence, we occasionally feel abdominal discomfort. We all know the feeling: a feeling of general abdominal discomfort, bloating that can make you feel very nauseated, bothersome and embarrassing flatulence, and perhaps a need to have bowel movement at an uncharacteristic time. We pass it off as the food we had last night, perhaps a minor stomach bug, or some interpersonal stress. Usually, the symptoms resolve on their own, and occasionally it may require some over the counter medication. But nonetheless, we only live with the symptoms for a short time. However, sometimes these symptoms can persist for weeks or even months, and you may be told you have irritable bowel syndrome or IBS.
In the year since COVID-19 has upended life as we know it, it has become increasingly evident that certain individuals are more at risk of severe infection than others. While some people become afflicted by the virus and experience no symptoms, others are struck with such severe shortness of breath that hospitalization and in the worst-case scenario, mechanical ventilation is necessary.
There is not a straightforward way to know which individuals will experience more severe disease, but an association has emerged between critical COVID-19 and chronic illness. Certain medical conditions predispose people to experiencing more significant complications from a COVID-19 infection. These include obesity, diabetes, cancer, kidney, and lung diseases, among others. As such, if an individual or a group has one or several of these chronic medical conditions, they are at especially high risk. With this in mind, it becomes important to recognize that there are communities in which these medical conditions are more prevalent; thus, these have the greatest risk of morbidity and mortality from this pandemic.
Do you have a painful swollen joint of your greater toe? If so, you might have gout! The odds of you having gout are up to six times greater if you are male. The percentage of people with gout at any one point in time is 3% to 6% in men and 1% to 3% in women. In 2015 and 2016, there were about four new cases of gout per every one-hundred people per year. This does not seem worrisome, but when we think of the size of the U.S. population being about 328 million, we begin to see just how common gout is.
With spring here sunlight each day will increase, and the days will become longer. It is important, especially in Texas, to remember to take precautions for skin safety. The three main ways to protect your skin during those long hot days in the Texas heat are: seeking shade, applying sunscreen and wearing sun protective clothing.
Bless You! Salud! Gesundheit! These are the common courtesy phrases our friends, family, and even complete strangers extend to us after a whopping sneeze. If you suffer from seasonal allergies, you are probably hearing these polite phrases so many times throughout the day that they have become grating to your ears. I bet you can’t even muster more than a grunt in thanks to these chipper well-wishers who aren’t currently sporting a Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer sized schnozz like you are. But don’t suffer in congested silence! There are straightforward treatments for seasonal allergies that will have you signing a peace treaty with springtime, and maybe even getting to smell the roses for once.
You probably experienced pink eye in your school days. Now your children may come running to you with those oh so familiar bloodshot eyes. This common condition is known as conjunctivitis. The following is a discussion about its causes and best treatment methods.
For most individuals, electronic devices have become ingrained into our daily lives. With this change, parents may be asking themselves how does screen time negatively impact their children, and how much should they limit their children’s interaction with electronic devices.
