Performance-Enhancing Substances (PES) are used by children, teens, and adults to improve their athletic performance and for appearance changes. These can be dietary supplements, legal and illegal drugs, such as anabolic steroids, human growth hormone, creatinine, and stimulants. Which are common PES? What do they do and how do they…
Drug use, including alcohol and tobacco, is very common in teenagers. Parents have a major role in prevention, they are the strongest influence children have. Talking to our children at an early age, such as grade school, can help prevent such use and abuse of drugs. To be able to…
Today we will finish up the discussion about the COVID-19 vaccines. Britain has now approved the AstraZeneca vaccine, which was a collaborative effort between the University of Oxford and the AstraZeneca pharmaceutical company. This vaccine is cheaper and easy to store, and is the vaccine that much of the world…
Since I wrote last week’s Health Tip, the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine has been approved and is already being given to people across the country. This is great news. This vaccine does not require the ultra-cold storage that is required for the Pfizer vaccine, so this will make it easier to…
As I am sure most of you are aware, the first vaccine for COVID-19 has been authorized and recommended for use by the FDA, and healthcare workers have already started receiving the vaccine. A second vaccine is expected to be authorized and recommended for use in the coming days, and…
It may be the most wonderful time of the year, but it sure can be hard to focus on staying healthy! Here are some tips to enjoy the holidays without bringing unwanted pounds into the New Year. Make sure you include plenty of veggies and fruits daily. Do a little…
“We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope.” Martin Luther King, Jr. (1963) So much has happened this year to change how we celebrate birthdays, weddings, holidays, and other important life events. We must face the fact that decades of traditions have been and will be broken in…
I thought it was a good time for us to talk about the latest news about COVID-19. Although there is good news on the horizon, the current news is not good at all. We will be talking in the weeks to come about the good news, including vaccines, but we…
Last week we talked about the proposed new guidelines for colorectal cancer screening from the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF), which recommend that screening start at age 45 rather than 50. We talked about some of the reasons why the recommendation is changing, including the fact that about 12%…
The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) recently recommended new guidelines regarding screening for colon cancer. The new draft guidelines, which were released in late October, recommend that colorectal cancer screening should start at 45. Let’s talk about why the USPSTF wants to change the guidelines. What is the USPSTF?…