Topic: bacteria

Why Energy Drinks and Prescription Drugs Shouldn’t Mix

Why Energy Drinks and Prescription Drugs Shouldn't Mix

A recent federal report said emergency room visits linked to energy drinks increased tenfold between 2005 and 2009, jumping from about 1,000 to 13,000 per year. It’s not shocking that 44% of patients who’d consumed energy drinks had also consumed alcohol or drugs; it’s not even that bizarre that men were twice as likely as women to combine alcohol or illegal drugs with energy drinks. But what surprised me is that the report pointed out that female ER visits were more likely to involve combining energy drinks with pharmaceuticals—why would energy drinks be bad to mix with prescription drugs? And what kind does that even mean—painkillers? Antidepressants? Birth control? More »

Black Friday: 8 Germiest Places At The Mall

Black Friday: 8 Germiest Places At The Mall

You may be able to pick up some great bargains at the mall on Black Friday, but if you’re not careful, you could also pick yourself up some E. coli or staphylococcus by way of someone else’s feces or nostril phlegm–because, you know, no one washes their damn hands anymore. Fox News recently had a panel of experts weigh in on the most germ-infested places at the mall, and here are the ones to avoid–or at least break out the hand sanitizer before and after touching. More »

Kotex Tampon Recall Reminds Me Why I Don’t Wear Tampons

Kotex Tampon Recall Reminds Me Why I Don't Wear Tampons

Today must be the day of tampons. First we told you about a pretty ridiculous–and dangerous–trend among those oh-so-bright college students who use tampons soaked in vodka. And now we find out that your monthly remedies can not only make you drunk, they can also contain bacteria that will make you really sick. I’m adding this to my argument of why I don’t wear tampons.

After a voluntary recall, Kimberly-Clark has many of us running to the bathroom today to dispose of any Kotex tampons that may be lurking in our cabinets or vaginal walls for fear that the plastic applicator could contain a dangerous bacteria. More »

Listeria Is Now In Lettuce: Why You Should Be Alarmed

Listeria Is Now In Lettuce: Why You Should Be Alarmed

Packages of iceberg lettuce from the grocery chain Giant Eagle are the latest produce to be recalled because of listeria contamination (following the giant ongoing outbreak of listeria in cantaloupe, which has killed 23 people by this point, and a smaller outbreak of listeria in romaine lettuce). The lettuce, which was found contaminated with listeria during a routine test by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, is packaged by River Ranch Fresh Foods, a huge food processor that packages salads and veggies under a variety of different names for sale in grocery stores nationwide. More »

Food Safety Update: Listeria-Tainted Colorado Cantaloupes Still At Large

Food Safety Update: Listeria-Tainted Colorado Cantaloupes Still At Large

When we last covered the recent U.S. outbreak of listeriosis, 27 people were sick, four dead, and the FDA wasn’t yet certain what was causing the illnesses. Since then, they’ve pinpointed the culprit—listeria-tainted cantaloupes from Jensen Farms near Holly, Colorado—and recalled 300,000 cases of the fruit. But officials said yesterday that because listeria has an incubation period of a month or more, people who ate contaminated fruit last week may not become ill until next month—so more cases of listeriosis, and possibly more deaths, are expected. So far, the outbreak has sickened 72 people and resulted in 13 deaths, making this the deadliest listeria outbreak in the past decade. Here’s what you need to know to protect yourself: More »

Bogus Food Scare: Bacteria In Sliced Onions

Bogus Food Scare: Bacteria In Sliced Onions

This week, I received an email from my mother, the gist of which was more or less ONIONS WILL KILL YOU. My mom’s not typically a junk email forwarder, unless she thinks its news my sister and I need to know to stay safe, so I guess this fell in that category—my mother was only trying to save us from the evils of toxic onions, bless her heart. You probably have someone like this in your life—a relative, a co-worker, a random conspiracy theorist you vaguely knew in college—and normally the warnings are so absurd as to not be worth commenting upon. But something about this one struck me as particularly interesting and hilarious. More »

Coriander Oil Works Where Antibiotics Don’t

Coriander Oil Works Where Antibiotics Don't

Coriander is like some sort of Super-Herb, kicking food-borne-illness’s ass. A new Portuguese study reports that coriander oil proved “toxic to a broad range of harmful bacteria,” able to fight food poisoning and even antibiotic-resistant infections when used in foods and medicines. Coriander oil is picking up the slack where antibiotics fail us; score one nutritional/plant-based medicine, yes? More »

How Not to Get E.Coli From Sprouts

How Not to Get E.Coli From Sprouts

Sprouts are such a health foodie staple that they’re almost cliche. A popular addition to salads, sandwiches and stir-fries, raw sprouts are high in enzymes, vitamins, proteins and phytochemicals; low in calories, fat and carbohydrates; easy to grow in home kitchens; and vary wildly in taste (anyone who doesn’t believe sprouts can be tasty has probably only eaten the basic, salad-bar alfalfa & bean variety; try some daikon radish sprouts). They’re also rampant bacteria-mongers. More »

All-Natural Hygiene: How Clean is Too Clean?

All-Natural Hygiene: How Clean is Too Clean?

Between studies telling us that soaps and hand sanitizers are bad for us and research that says there’s fecal matter on our grocery carts, personal hygiene has become way too confusing. How you wash your hands, body, and home isn’t just a personal choice anymore, it also has far-reaching environmental and health effects, and there’s no clear “right way” to go about it. So we talked to Dr. Larry Weiss, physician and expert at CleanWell, and asked him: How are we supposed to keep clean? More »

Germ Warfare: 10 Places Household Bacteria Can Ambush You

Germ Warfare: 10 Places Household Bacteria Can Ambush You

Think you don’t live in filth and squalor? Think again. Turns out, when it comes to household germs and bacteria, none of our homes or offices cleans up very nicely. Don’t believe us? Here are ten places where harmful bacteria and toxic germs can hide in your home, and ten serious solutions for killing them (and not with kindness):

1. Kitchen Sink, Drain, and Faucet

The Dirt: The average kitchen sink is dirtier than most bathrooms. Up to 500,000 bacteria per square inch can be found in the drain alone. We may wash our hands after touching raw meat, but sometimes we touch the faucet with those dirty hands and bacteria can linger long after we’ve washed and dried. So don’t ignore the faucet when cleaning your sink. More »

Confessions of a Sneeze-Supressor: Can Holding In Your Ah-Choo Hurt You?

Confessions of a Sneeze-Supressor: Can Holding In Your Ah-Choo Hurt You?

I admit it: I hold in my sneezes. I’ve been doing it since I was little. I believe it stems from the fact that my father has the loudest sneeze I’ve ever heard. When I was a kid, my dad would sneeze in the basement and I’d be roused from slumber all the way up on the second floor. So naturally, over the years I’ve honed my sneeze to be as silent as possible. Sometimes people around me don’t even realize that I’ve sneezed. (I’m that sneaky.) I’d guess that several of my co-workers think I suffer from some kind of twitch. Is this better than an obnoxiously loud sneeze? In my book, yes.

Of course, throughout my life, I’ve been warned by all my non-scientist family and friends about how suppressing my sneezes will kill my brain cells. I continued with my anti-sneezes anyway. But after witnessing my non-sneezes for a few months at work, Blisstree’s Editor-in-Chief convinced me to do some research on the potential side effects of not spreading snot all over the place, like everyone else does. I interviewed a variety of health professionals, and got some mixed responses: More »

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