Looking to give your kitchen a good cleaning this spring? Don't go out and spend a ton of money on sanitizing sprays and cleaning equipment. Cleaning and sanitizing your kitchen is easy, effective, and inexpensive, because everything you need is likely in your kitchen!
Losing weight can be a battle, but why not be realistic about your goals rather than kill yourself striving for a size 0? A happier alternative to the cycle of weight loss and gain is to achieve a weight you and your doctor can both live with. In this tutorial, learn how to calculate your BMI and ways to figure what your "happy weight" is.
Separate restroom hygiene fact from fiction – here's how. You Will Need
Have you ever had someone make you feel better with a simple act of kindness? Now it’s time to bank some good karma and make someone else’s day.
If your personal food pyramid replaces “Grains” with “Pizza” and “Fruits and Vegetables” with “Taco Sauce,” it’s time to make some changes.
Repotting a plant is a simple task when you know all the right steps. Whenever a plant outgrows its container, it should be replanted in a new pot.
Mononucleosis, an infection caused by the Epstein-Barr virus, can strike anyone, but those who experience the worst symptoms are teenagers. Follow these simple steps to avoid getting this virus.
A daily, brisk 30-minute walk boosts brain power, helps control weight, and improves your overall health. And if you commit to doing it with friends, you're more likely to stick with it.
Shed extra weight safely and effectively with these tips. You Will Need
Having less-than-brilliant teeth doesn't have to mean a trip to the dentist or a whitening kit. Try this all-natural remedy instead. Watch this video to learn how to whiten teeth naturally.
Growing hanging basket plants requires checking for insects and diseases. Learn how to grow hanging basket plants in this free gardening video series.
High blood pressure is a leading cause of heart disease and strokes. Learn how to take blood pressure with tips from a doctor in this free health video series.
Check out this video to see how to collect blood with the BD Vacutainer Eclipse Blood Collection Needle.
The COVID-19 pandemic has created a frenzy for news and information that is nearly unprecedented in the smartphone era, with a major side effect of misinformation. Now, major tech companies are making it easier to ask for advice about novel coronavirus from their respective digital assistants. Results may vary, but Apple and Google are the most useful at the moment.
A vaccine against HIV might prevent the disease that we can't seem to cure. Some HIV patients make antibodies that can take down the virus, much the way a vaccine might. But, scientists haven't been able to provoke that type of response in other people. However, in a process that might work in humans, a group of researchers has successfully generated antibodies in cows that neutralize multiple strains of HIV.
Infections with group A streptococcus, like Streptococcus pyogenes, claim over a half million lives a year globally, with about 163,000 due to invasive strep infections, like flesh-eating necrotizing fasciitis and streptococcal toxic shock syndrome.
Not all bacteria in the eyes cause infection. A group of researchers from the National Eye Institue has shown that not only is there a population of bacteria on the eyes that reside there but they perform an important function. They help activate the immune system to get rid of bad, potentially infection-causing — pathogenic — bacteria there.
We might think of Zika as a mosquito-borne virus that effects developing fetuses, but, it also can be passed through sex by either a man or a woman, just like herpes and other STD viruses. New research has shown that vaginal bacteria can inhibit sexually transmitted Zika virus and Herpes Simplex Virus-2 in women.
Despite longer live spans, almost half a million people die of healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) each year, many of them preventable.
Killing more than 29,000 people each year, infection with Clostridium difficile (C. diff or CDI) is the most common healthcare-associated infection in the US. In a disturbing development, new research reveals recurring cases of the infection are soaring.
Everything from disposed of drugs to hormones and disease-causing bacteria — anything that is rinsed or flushed down the drain — can contaminate wastewater.
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.
With summer just ahead, you, or your children, may be looking forward to some pool time or the water park. When planning water-based fun this year, keep a heads-up for microbes.
Mitochondria are known as the powerhouses of our cells because they generate energy to power them. But they also play a key role in the death of cells when they're damaged, infected, stressed, no longer needed, or at the end of their life.
Activating the body's own immune system to fight cancer is the goal of immunotherapy. It's less toxic than chemotherapy and works with our body's natural defenses. The trouble is, it doesn't work for most patients — only about 40% of cancer patients get a good response from immunotherapy. But coupling it with another type of cancer therapy just might deliver the punch that's needed to knock out cancer.
Breastfeeding is the ultimate in farm-to-table dining. It is sustenance prepared just for the baby and delivered with a very personal touch. Along with bonding, breastfeeding provides powerful protection to infants and young children in the form of beneficial bacteria, hormones, vitamins, protein, sugar, and antibodies manufactured on site to support infant health.
The body's usual response to a bacterial infection in the blood — called sepsis — takes time. It requires a carefully orchestrated sequence of events that gets the body's immune system ramped up to deal with the invading bacteria.
When just floating peacefully in the water with their brood mates, the Culex mosquito larvae in the image above does not look very frightening. But in their adult form, they are the prime vector for spreading West Nile virus — a sometimes mild, sometimes fatal disease.
HIV-infected people who are treated long-term with antiviral drugs may have no detectable virus in their body, but scientists know there are pools of the virus hiding there, awaiting the chance to emerge and wreak havoc again. Since scientists discovered these latent pools, they have been trying to figure out if the remaining HIV is the cause of or caused by increased activation of the immune system.
It's about time people acknowledged that judging drug users would do nothing productive to help them. In the US this week, two new programs are launching that should help addicts be a little safer: Walgreens Healthcare Clinic will begin offering to test for HIV and hepatitis C next week, and Las Vegas is set to introduce clean syringe vending machines to stop infections from dirty needles.
If you have encountered bed bugs lately, you are not alone. While the pesticides used to fight these pests are losing effectiveness, a fungus shows promise in knocking the bugs out of beds everywhere.
Acanthamoeba keratitis (AK), a rare eye infection caused by the Acanthamoeba ameba found in tap water, affects a few dozen people in the US every year. In some cases, it can have devastating effects, like what Irenie Ekkeshis has experienced; She was blinded by AK in her right eye due to a contaminated contact lens.
Usually, we think of vaccines as preventative, a shot we get to prevent the flu or some childhood disease like measles or mumps. But there are vaccines for other purposes, such as the ones studied by researchers from the Netherlands.
Obstetric tetanus in an unvaccinated Amish woman after a home birth has emphasized the need for preventative healthcare.
Arsenic occurs naturally in the environment, but it is also one of the most commonly found heavy metals in wastewater, deposited there by inappropriate disposal and arsenical pesticides, for example.
Even as health authorities describe the symptoms of Zika infection in the general population as mild, a new surveillance study finds serious side effects are more common, and serious, than previously thought.
As drug-resistant bacteria become more commonplace, researchers are looking for new antibacterial strategies to disrupt disease-causing microbes. Some scientists are working to create new drugs, while others are trying out drug combinations. Another group, however, are ditching pharmaceuticals altogether and experimenting with non-drug alternatives.
Most people know atopic dermatitis by its common name, eczema—that dry, flaky skin that itches incessantly. Along with the scratching comes frequent skin infections, often with Staphylococcus aureus.
The rate of preterm birth has been increasing in the United States for unknown reasons, causing increased health risks for infants born too soon. But researchers may have found a signal that could help doctors plan ahead for, or even prevent, early birth with a simple swab of the vagina and cervix during pregnancy.
You know the signs—sneezing, fever, nagging cough, no energy, no appetite. It's the flu, but this time, it's your dog who's down and out. Yes, dogs get the flu, too. However, a team from the University of Rochester Medical Center and their collaborators have developed a new vaccine that may make the doggy flu a thing of the past.
