It’s National Kidney Month, so what better time to talk about urinary tract infections (UTIs)? Women get UTIs much more frequently than men, but there are some simple things you can do to help prevent them.
The National Kidney Foundation suggests preventing UTIs by:
• Drinking lots of fluids, including cranberry juice cocktail
• Urinating when the urge strikes (don’t delay)
• Wiping from front to back to keep bacteria from entering the urinary tract
• Cleaning genital area each day and before sex
Symptoms of UTIs include burning feeling during urination, cloudy or blood-tinged urine, strong odor in urine or an urgent need to urinate …read more

Cystic fibrosis (CF) is a fatal genetic disease affecting the lungs and digestive system. Today, the predicted age of survival for someone with CF is more than 37 years.
According to the Canadian Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, about one in every 3,600 children born in Canada has CF. In the US, the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation believes there are about 1,000 new cases of CF each year, with 30,000 children and adults in the US affected. Worldwide, that number rises to 70,000.
Sixtyfive Roses: A Sister’s Memoir by Heather Summerhayes Cariou tells the story of a family dealing with CF. At six years old, …read more

The VELscope is normally used to harden the material that fills cavities. It emits a bright blue light. Come on, admit you know what I’m talking about. You’ve had at least one cavity, right?
John C. Comisi, DDS, FAGD, author of a study in the September/October 2008 issue of General Dentistry, discovered that the blue light emitted from a VELscope detects cancerous oral tissue through oral fluorescence!
When the VELscope shines on healthy cells, they will appear green in color, but damaged cells will look black (that is, they aren’t producing natural fluorescence).
All this oral fluorescence stuff sounds fun, but oral cancer …read more

Since we’re talking about finding doctors, it’s also time to talk about Patty and David Skolnik. Actually, we’ll talk about what happened to their son, Michael.
The Today Show video clip below explains it much better than I can. What happened to Michael Skolnik is a sad, but important story. After their son’s death, the Skolniks decided to do something about lack of patient info on doctors.
Their efforts helped to create House Bill 1331 – Michael Skolnik Transparency Act.
The bill protects you by giving you access to information on your doctors. You can find out if an insurance …read more

If you use an asthma inhaler in the US, things are about to change starting January 1.
The new inhalers are green because they will no longer use chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs). By the end of the year, all albuterol inhalers sold will contain hydrofluoroalkane. The ozone will like us better.
But, you know what usually happens when a drug changes…
No more generic. Boo.
To read about the transition and to get more info on a free medication trial offer, visit the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America.
Have you tried a new inhaler?
Image via stock.xchng.

Hmm, sweet French pine trees… Is that really the answer to the yuck feel of traveling across time zones?
Indeed, pine bark extract was shown to reduce jetlag in passengers by almost 50%.
The study, conducted in Italy at the G. D’Annunzio University and published in the journal of Minerva Cardioangiologica, included 133 passengers taking flights between seven and nine hours long. It used brain CT scans and a scoring system that showed Pycnogenol (pic-noj-en-all) lowered symptoms like fatigue, headaches, insomnia and brain swelling.
Pycnogenol is a natural plant extract that comes exclusively from the bark of the maritime pine growing along the …read more

Google is going to use your search terms to help estimate flu activity by US state.
How?
They know what state you’re in already, and they think flu-related searches are good predictors that the flu’s going down. Well, some people like me search health topics just for fun, but maybe they’re mostly right on this one.
Google believes that their new Google Flu Trends will estimate flu activity up to two weeks faster than traditional flu surveillance systems.
In the past, Google has compared its flu predictions with those from systems used by the CDC, and Google was close on the money and faster. …read more

a guest post by Suzan Jackson
(www.livelywomen.com) — March 1, 2002, was a day like any other in my happy, active life as a 37-year-old writer and mother of two boys. The next morning I woke up with a severe sore throat, aching all over, and exhausted. I figured I had the flu. I had no idea that my life had just changed dramatically and that I now had a chronic illness.
It took me a full year – filled with doctor’s visits, lab tests, pain, and exhaustion – to finally learn that I had Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS), an immune system …read more

(www.livelywomen.com) — If you’ve ever dislocated your knee or otherwise had a major knee injury, you know how excruciating it can be. But did you also know that women are at much higher risk for anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) and dislocated knee injuries than men?
That’s just one of the facts I learned from an excellent publication and companion video called “Leveling the Playing Field: Knee Injury Prevention Strategies for Female Athletes.” The awesome thing is that these strategies aren’t just for athletes; they’re for regular women just like you and me.
Get informed and protect your knees from tears, dislocations, and …read more

(www.livelywomen.com) — Today is the first day of fall, and with the changing seasons come changing fashions! I don’t know about you, but autumn is my favorite for both the weather and the clothes. But did you know that fall footwear can bring with it some serious injuries and discomfort?
“One of the leading causes of foot problems, from painful conditions to visible deformities, are high heels and other uncomfortable footwear,” says board-certified New York City podiatrist Dr. Oliver Zong. “Since most women are unwilling to sacrifice their stylish footwear, I often help them figure out how to make the necessary …read more