The Frightening World of Sports, Concussions, and Traumatic Brain Injury, Part I
Why I Quit Playing Football Thirty years ago, I abruptly quit playing high school football while my team was preparing for a playoff game in which the winner would advance to the 1985 New Hampshire Division I-High School Football Championship. My teammates and coaches were upset at me and confused as to why I just stopped...CONTINUE READING→
Greater Access to Long-Term-Care: A Call from the Panini Generation
As I was recently arranging care for my ailing father-in-law, a friend texted me that I was in the “sandwich generation.” I texted back “No, that doesn’t quite capture it. A sandwich can be light and fluffy – it is more like a panini – hot pressure squeezing on both sides.” She replied: “Ha! You...CONTINUE READING→
The Future of Do-It-Yourself Medicine
Why see a doctor if you can Google your symptoms anyway? Shucks, you can tile your bathroom, build a deck or even add a floor to your house using Home Depot. Resources for everything you can think, or do, are available on the world-wide-web. Don’t believe me? Just check out the innumerable “For Dummies” books online. Needed...CONTINUE READING→
Ferment Your Way to Optimal Health
There has been a rise in the flourishing and enthusiastic trend of experimenting with fermentation to enhance flavors and create healthier and more sustainable foods. Of course, fermentation is by no means a recent technique. It is ancient and there is evidence from the Neolithic period that suggests that there was intentional fermentation of fruit,...CONTINUE READING→
Here Comes the Sun: Are You Ready for Solar?
If it weren’t for electricity, life as we know it in the United States would grind to a halt. But how much do you know about where all the electricity you’re using comes from? In rough numbers, 67 percent of our electricity comes from fossil fuels: coal (33 percent), natural gas (33 percent), and oil...CONTINUE READING→
Alcoholism: It’s More Complex than you Think
Alcoholism. It’s considered a family disease; meaning, it’s inherited from family members who exhibited similar characteristics. It may be inherited from a parent or across many generations. Although there are biological factors that result in alcohol dependence, the actual addiction can almost always be linked to a family history of alcoholism. Despite its prevalence in...CONTINUE READING→
The Good Side of Bad News
Not sure about you, but I like to see the good in the bad. By focusing on the flipside of adversity, I get stronger instead of weaker. Hey, I’m the first one to fess up to the unpleasant, abominable and awful, but there’s gotta be a way to make silk…or something…out of a sow’s ear....CONTINUE READING→
First Aid Skills Everyone Should Know
It’s critical to learn and maintain basic first aid skills so that you can assist someone who is injured or in distress during an emergency, until professionals can step in to resolve the crisis. Below are some crucial first aid skills that will help you in any environment: at home, work, school, or in public....CONTINUE READING→
Stop Complaining — Your Nagging Wife May Be Saving Your Life
For more than 100 years, scientists have told us that marriage is good for our health (especially if you’re a man). It reduces stress levels, lowers the risk of heart attack and stroke, and generally leads to longer lives. More recently, researchers have been looking at marital quality as a predictor of health, and the...CONTINUE READING→
Obesity is Bad, Right? Well, Except When It’s Good.
We all know that obese people have worse outcomes than thinner people in nearly every possible health condition: stroke, diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure, and even breast and colon cancers. But there is one specific type of cancer where obese people actually have a lower death rate than folks carrying a normal body weight....CONTINUE READING→