With warm weather comes bugs, and with bugs come bites, and with bites come itches. From ticks and spiders to mosquitoes and bees, insect bites come in sundry shapes and sizes, but they all commonly pull an itchy, red reaction out of our bodies.
Texas has become only the latest state to face an unfortunate outbreak of mumps, but so far seems to be the hardest hit. On April 12, two days before the CDC's report was released, the Texas Department of State Health Services released a health advisory indicating this is the highest instance of mumps reported in 22 years.
There are countless beauty tools, from expensive brushes that perfect your application of powder to carefully shaped smoothing pads that help you to blend your makeup. Yet hiding in your silverware drawer is a free and highly useful beauty tool that can help you create an even more sophisticated look: a spoon.
Four million Americans misused prescription opioid painkillers in 2014. Those who do are 40 times more likely to inject heroin or other drugs than other people. Now, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) are blaming that misuse for a 12-fold increase in endocarditis, an infection of the heart valves.
A recent case of Powassan virus has been reported in Saratoga County and may have been the cause of the infected patient's death. It's the 24th case in New York State since 2000, and will be reported to the CDC tomorrow, the NY Department of Health told Invisiverse. The tick-borne illness has no vaccine or specific treatments and can damage the nervous system.
Ginger root is one of the most underappreciated and versatile spices around. It's simultaneously hot, sweet, and piquant. It's also a pain in the tush to peel, thanks to its thin, fragile skin and the thick, knotty rhizome that contains all the flavor.
When it comes to squeezing as much battery life as possible out of our smartphones, most people aim for software solutions, or ones that can otherwise be easily managed right from the touchscreen.
A recent study offers information that might help combat a deadly virus that affects an estimated 300,000 people each year in West Africa.
Despite the threat of superbugs, physicians continue to prescribe antibiotics when they might not be needed, and patients are suffering.
Alzheimer's disease — an irreversible, progressive brain disorder — is the sixth leading cause of death in the US and more than afflicts 5 million Americans. As if those numbers aren't scary enough, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention expect that number to nearly triple by 2050.
Listeria monocytogenes bacteria don't play fair. Healthy people can usually handle the food-borne infection, but the bacterial infection hits pregnant women, fetuses and cancer patients very hard. Interestingly, a new study found that other bacteria may help prevent Listeria infections in those people.
Dangerous to humans and dogs, Rocky Mountain Fever, along with several other tickborne infections, is on the rise.
A new study has found that up to half of people who think they have a penicillin "allergy" can still receive the drug, and other antibiotics with similar structures, without any negative reactions to the meds. Why? Because they're not really allergic, doctors say.
Where in the world did it come from? All of a sudden, one day, someone had an infection with flesh-eating bacteria. It captured headlines and worldwide attention because it was such a severe, strange, uncontrollable, and really disgusting condition.
After California college student Luis Ortiz blacked out and was taken to the hospital in 2015, doctors were startled to discover the reason his brain was swelling—a one-centimeter long, wriggling tapeworm living within a ventricle in the middle of his brain.
Uh-oh: you wake up one morning with the telltale signs that you are coming down with something. Your throat is sore, you can barely breathe out of your nose, and you have a nagging cough.
Primarily caused by the bacteria Borrelia burgdorferi, Lyme disease is the most common tickborne disease in the US. By all predictions, 2017 is expected to be a banner tick year in several regions. If you have children, it is important to know what to expect.
Like humans, cats can suffer infections caused by ticks, and too often, the disease is fatal. Learn about tickborne diseases that affect cats and what you can do to protect Fluffy from an untimely demise.
Microbial cells can improve the functionality of clothes in creative and useful ways, including cooling us down during a workout or making clothing glow for better visibility.
In the US, ticks can spread several pathogens in one bite. A new test offers physicians the ability to identify what infections ticks are carrying and can detect if one of the pathogens could be the spreading Powassan virus.
You can get eggs and high-quality compost from backyard chickens—but you can also get Salmonella.
What's in a sneeze? Quite a lot—dirt, mucus, and infectious germs—it seems. And sneezing the right way can reduce the germs you share with neighbors.
You may not have heard of visceral leishmaniasis, onchocerciasis, or lymphatic filariasis, and there is a reason for that. These diseases, part of a group of infections called neglected tropical diseases (NTDs), impact more than a billion people on the planet in countries other than ours. Despite the consolation that these often grotesque illnesses are "out of sight, out of mind," some of these infections are quietly taking their toll in some southern communities of the US.
When you can't reach your iPhone or don't have it on you, how do you get help from emergency services? Unless you have one of those life-alert mobile triggers, someone nearby, or some amazing telepathy skills, hope might be the only answer — unless you wear an Apple Watch, that is.
All fields of study have their own language. For people interested in learning about microbes, the language can sometimes be downright difficult — but it doesn't need to be. From antibiotics to xerophiles, we have you covered in an easy-to-understand glossary.
Stubbing a toe on your foot can be a moment of agonizing pain, but what if it hurts for more than a split second? What if you stubbed you toe so hard that it hurt for days? If you find it difficult to walk or run and have pain, swelling, and tenderness in your toe, the toe may be broken. Here are some symptoms to be on the lookout for.
Do you have puffy eyes? Not getting enough sleep? It might not be your night that needs fixing, it could be your eye cream that needs adjusting. Swelling is always going to happen, but refrigerating your eye cream could be the cure to keeping your eye swells down to a minimum. The chill in the fridge helps reduce the swelling.
Massage therapy is the application of pressure to the muscles and soft tissues of the body for relaxation and health.
Aspirin heals a pimple by reducing the inflammation and swelling when it is crushed up into a paste. Use aspirin to treat a pimple with tips from a professional makeup artist in this free instructional video on skin care. Good trick if a pesky pimple shows up before a big event.
During pregnancy, your belly usually isn't the only part of your body that grows. Learn why feet, ankles, and legs swell during pregnancy, and learn ways to reduce and alleviate this swelling.
In this video, we learn how to pierce your lip at home. Start off by numbing the area with ice cubes, then grab a clean and sharp object and poke it through the area. When it's inside, leave for a couple of minutes, then use a piece of ice to keep the swelling down. After this, grab the jewelry and place it through the lip after you clean it. Make sure you don't give the piercing any time to close in between when you pierce it and when you place the jewelry in. When you're done, remember to k...
Whether you need to create realistic-looking bruises for a Halloween photo or need to look beaten up for a film project you're completing, sometimes you just need to add a few brown and purple spots to your face.
In each day of our life, we see inflammation. We see it during sore throats and abscess formations in our bodies, and even slight tooth pain is a form of inflammation. Sometimes it's good when it fights to protect us from invading organisms, but sometimes it becomes bad when it occurs in inappropriate ways, like acne.
Pregnancy massage may reduce stress, decrease swelling in arms and legs, and relieve aches and pains in muscles and joints. Pregnancy massage is becoming increasingly popular with mothers-to-be. You might have heard of it before, but may not know what it involves or who to go to. So if you're a mother-to-be or know one, certified pregnancy massage therapist Sue Hare is going to show us what pregnancy massage is really like. Remember pregnancy massage and differs from regular massage, watch th...
In this video you will use the DOTS system to exam the patient as a first responder.You will start at the head checking for deformity,open injuries,tenderness, and swelling. Do a physical examination of a patient in an emergency.
What is a burn? It's a form of injury to body tissues which is caused by heat, corrosive substances or friction. There is another form of burn, which is known as scald; it results from exposure to hot water or steam.
Itchy bee stings, sore throats, swelling muscles, minor scraps, splinters... all of these common ailments can easily be fixed with things you've probably got lying around at home in your kitchen and bathroom cabinets. Honey, ginger, castor oil, garlic, baking soda, aloe vera, white vinegar, and chamomile tea are all great natural remedies for your next minor medical need. No drugstore trips required (except for maybe some Elmer's glue).
Rose Levy Beranbaum is an award winning baker, cookbook author (The Cake Bible), and authority on CAKE! I recently stumbled across a collection of "Cake Questions" on Beranbaum's blog that address a variety of issues that may come up:
Scrabble Bingo of the Day: HELLEBORE [n] A hellebore is any of the approximately 20 plants from the genus Helleborus, many of which are poisonous. Hellebores are herbaceous perennial flowering plants from Eurasia related to the buttercup family, having showy flowers with petaloid sepals.
Witch hazel is a type of shrub with fragrant yellow flowers, and its bark and leaves are extracted and used for many medicinal uses.
