Topic: infectious diseases

Morning Links: 10 Ways Lemon Juice Is a Superfood

Morning Links: 10 Ways Lemon Juice Is a Superfood

Eat Your Beans and (Brown) Rice – New study shows that a high-fiber diet (especially whole grains) can decrease the risk of dying from infectious and respiratory diseases. (Treehugger)

If You Worry, Don’t Fret – Depressed and anxious people live longer than patients who are just depressed. (Psychology Today)

Sour Taste, Sweet Benefits – 10 ways that lemon juice acts a superfood. (FitSugar) More »

Health Care Issues: Hospital-Associated Infection Control

Health Care Issues: Hospital-Associated Infection Control

Thanks to the recent midterm elections and this week’s State of the Union address, health care and health care reform has made its way into the headlines more often over the past few months. But one topic we haven’t seen covered very often is the frequency of health care-associated infections (or HAIs), which are any infection that patients develop at a hospital or other patient care facility that they didn’t have prior to treatment, like ventilator-related pneumonia and surgery site infections. We were shocked to learn that HAIs are one of the top ten causes of death in the U.S., with an estimated two million patients being affected by an HAI every year.

But one company, Kimberly-Clark Health Care, which manufactures tubes and other sterile products used in hospitals, is working to raise awareness of HAIs and increase prevention through its Not On My Watch Campaign, which offers continuing education to health care facilities’ staff and management.

Will it help reduce the number of HAIs in the U.S.? More »

Those who are paranoid can take Dr. Hirsch’s advice: “The best bet is to crouch like your mom told you to,” she says. Or there’s always the Shewee, a portable funnel favored by campers that enables you to go standing up. (A woman invented it.) Last resort? Hold it til you get home.

Those who are paranoid can take Dr. Hirschâs advice: âThe best bet is to crouch like your mom told you to,â she says. Or thereâs always the Shewee, a portable funnel favored by campers that enables you to go standing up. (A woman invented it.) Last resort? Hold it til you get home.

– Blisstree contributor Maria Ricapito on the contentious relationship between women and less-than-tidy public toilets, from her post: Taking the Piss Out of Pee