Health And Fitness
Are You Getting Enough Sleep?
NOTICE: Starting in April 2014, the clinics of Virginia Gay Hospital which are Urbana, Atkins, Van Horne and Vinton Family Medical Clinics will be transitioning to electronic health records. You may experience a possible delay in your routine visits.
You may be questioning why the conversion to electronic health records is happening? With the help of electronic health records, your providers will have access to:
1.
Understanding how pollen can cause allergies
What Is Pollen?
Plants produce round pollen grains. Individual grains are too tiny to see with the naked eye, but some can form large, visible clusters. For fertilization to take place and seeds to form in some plants, pollen must be moved from the flower of one plant to that of another of the same species—for example, from one oak tree to another oak tree—by a process called cross-pollination.
Alcohol Awareness Month: IDPH warns of binge drinking dangers
Binge drinking is a problem in Iowa, affecting people of all ages, genders, races, and socioeconomic backgrounds. For men, binge drinking is defined as having five or more drinks of alcohol on the same occasion. For women, it equates to having four or more drinks. People who binge drink often are at higher risk for injuries, sexually-transmitted diseases, neurological damage, and poor control of health issues like diabetes, liver disease, high blood pressure, and stroke and other cardiovascular diseases.
Worried Sick: Living with Anxiety Disorders
Anxiety is an uneasy feeling that something may harm you or a loved one. This feeling can be normal and sometimes even helpful. If you’re starting a new job or taking a test, it might make you more alert and ready for action. But sometimes anxiety can linger or become overwhelming. When it gets in the way of good health and peace of mind, it’s called an anxiety disorder.
Obesity primes the colon for cancer, according to NIH study
Obesity, rather than diet, causes changes in the colon that may lead to colorectal cancer, according to a study in mice by the National Institutes of Health. The finding bolsters the recommendation that calorie control and frequent exercise are not only key to a healthy lifestyle, but a strategy to lower the risk for colon cancer, the second leading cause of cancer-related death in the United States.
Seniors in Assisted Living See Skype as Solution for Staying in Touch
By Tom Bedwell
Distance can make the heart grow fonder, as the saying goes, but when one’s life is in the care of hospice distance can be a painful reality, which prevents relationships from being realized at an important period of life.
Such is the case for Windsor Manor in Vinton, Iowa resident, Gertie, who is 90 years (young) and recently overcame a great distance to re-connect with her sister in North Dakota.
Humans Can Identify More Than 1 Trillion Smells
Humans can distinguish more than 1 trillion scents, according to new research. The findings show that our sense of smell is far more discriminating than previously thought.
When you stroll through a garden, you may notice several shades of golden daffodils and recognize the chirping of several types of birds. But how many different smells do you notice?
Humans can distinguish several million different colors and almost half a million different tones.
Human papillomavirus (HPV)
Human papillomavirus (HPV) is the most common sexually transmitted infection in the United States. Some health effects caused by HPV can be prevented with vaccines.
What is HPV?
HPV is the most common sexually transmitted infection (STI). HPV is a different virus than HIV and HSV (herpes). HPV is so common that nearly all sexually active men and women get it at some point in their lives.
Organ Donation: Pass it On
A gift with a major impact—one that will long be remembered with gratitude—takes just a bit of preparation. When you become an organ donor, you can save the lives of up to 8 people. And if you donate tissues like blood cells, bone or corneas, you can help even more.
Organ transplantation was once considered an experimental procedure with a low success rate.
How Loud Is Too Loud?
Noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL) occurs when tiny sensory hair cells in our inner ears are damaged by noises that are too loud and that last for too long. But how loud is too loud, and how much time is too long? The answers are related: the louder the sound, the shorter the time before damage can occur. Read on to learn more about the mathematics of NIHL.