| By Barbara Wexler, MPH | As the school year gets underway, kids are back in classrooms, participating in extracurricular activities, making new friends, and all too often witnessing or enduring bullying. There are steps parents, educators, and students can take to prevent and combat bullying. Successfully preventing bullying requires the concerted efforts of parents, … Read more
| Barbara Wexler, MPH | Children who are well above a healthy weight for their age, sex, and height are overweight or obese. When body mass index (BMI), which compares a child’s weight to their height, is at or above the 95th percentile for children and teens of the same age and sex, they are … Read more
| By Barbara Wexler, MPH | Immunization is a cornerstone of public health and preventive medicine. It’s the process by which people are protected from infectious disease through the administration of vaccines. Vaccines stimulate the body’s immune system to recognize and fight pathogens (disease-causing agents) such as viruses and bacteria without causing the disease itself. … Read more
| By Barbara Wexler, MPH | In our daily lives, ultraviolet (UV) radiation surrounds us from the sun and various artificial sources. Although UV rays are essential for processes like vitamin D synthesis in the body, overexposure can pose significant health risks. Practicing UV safety is crucial for safeguarding our health and well-being. First, it’s … Read more
| By Brenda Wilmoth Lerner, RN | In what may be one of the most passionate (or imprudent) examples of dedication to science in recent years, a researcher in Brazil stepped on one species of the country’s most venomous snakes more than 4,000 times to determine what makes it most likely to bite. His findings, … Read more
| By Barbara Wexler, MPH | Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is a mental health condition triggered by experiencing, witnessing, or sometimes even simply hearing about a traumatic event. Although PTSD is often associated with military combat, the condition is not limited to combat veterans. It can affect anyone who has lived through extreme trauma, usually … Read more
| Barbara Wexler, M.P.H. | May is Mental Health Awareness Month, so let’s discuss mental health in the young. In recent years, there has been a surge of mental health problems among young people, with anxiety and depression predominating. Initially, this surge was attributed to COVID-19–related lockdowns and isolation, but even as the pandemic subsided, … Read more
| By Brenda Wilmoth Lerner, RN | For some time, just prior to the COVID-19 pandemic taking center stage, which dominated both the research and clinical scenes for more than three years, scientists were beginning to make progress on another widespread health threat that can affect people of all ages—sepsis. Now, as we enter the … Read more
| By Brenda W. Lerner, RN, ALB | Significant findings about vitamin supplements have been released within the past few months, and their publication has created some confusion about whether Americans who take a daily multivitamin should continue to do so. Soon after a new evidence report prepared for the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force … Read more
| By Brenda W. Lerner, RN, ALB | An epidemic of Monkeypox is currently gathering steam throughout the world, leading some people to wonder if this is a situation of “here we go again,” but scientists say the likelihood of another pandemic with monkeypox as the cause is very low. Monkeypox is endemic (occurring naturally … Read more