As if you needed more motivation to exercise: A recent study conducted by US researchers found that people who exercise regularly are about half as likely to catch the common cold. More »
It’s easy to dismiss your relatives’ advice to gargle with salt water as an old-time cure left behind by science. But the Mayo Clinic, among others, found a bit of salt in warm water can be a helpful and cheap home remedy. More »
If you don’t like the additives in store-bought cough drops or just want to save a little money while soothing an aching throat, it’s easy to make your own drops right in the kitchen with ingredients you probably already have. More »
If it always seems like you manage to get sick around the holidays, semester breaks, and other pauses in your hectic schedule you’re not imagining it. Use exercise to protect yourself from the “Let-Down Effect”. More »
Everyone’s done it: you’ve got a raging stomachache and you’re feeling kind of fatigued, so you search online for the cause of your malady and conclude that you’ve got cancer. A new study from Microsoft shows that “cyberchondria” is common because when you search for symptoms, the worst case scenario can be the first result—or not representative of the frequency of a serious illness. (For example, searching for a headache will return just as many brain tumor results as caffeine withdrawal, when the chances of a tumor are “infinitesimally small.”) Have you decided you’re dying after searching for illness symptoms online? Tell us about it in the comments.
Exercise can protect against everything from heart attacks and cancer to depression and erectile dysfunction, but the New York Times focuses on how working out also helps with ailments you’re already suffering from—even those that make exercise difficult. Perhaps the most immediate benefits are reaped by people with joint and neuromuscular disorders. Without exercise, those at risk of osteoarthritis become crippled by stiff, deteriorated joints. But exercise that increases strength and aerobic capacity can reduce pain, depression and anxiety and improve function, balance and quality of life.
The key, of course, is knowing what kind of workouts counter your ailment. If you’ve used exercise to address health issues in the past, let’s hear what worked best for you in the comments. You Name It, and Exercise Helps It [NYT]
There are those who fear impending death at the slightest change in nasal congestion, and then there are those who constantly push abnormal aches and pains aside, hoping they’ll just go away. If you identify with the latter group, health web site WebMD rounds up seven pains you should not ignore, no matter how busy your schedule. For example: Pain or Discomfort in the Chest, Throat, Jaw, Shoulder, Arm, or Abdomen: Chest pain could be pneumonia or a heart attack. But be aware that heart conditions typically appear as discomfort, not pain. “Don’t wait for pain,” says cardiologist Jerome Cohen, MD. “Heart patients talk about pressure. They’ll clench their fist and put it over their chest or say it’s like an elephant sitting on their chest.”
Tap into the wisdom of the crowd for your health with community web site PatientsLikeMe. Using the site, you can read all about the experiences of other real people who are afflicted with certain illnesses as well as share your own experiences. The purpose, then, is to allow users to interact with one another, track how treatments are working for other members, and explore the side effects patients are seeing with certain treatments. The site’s motto is “Patients helping patients live better every day,” and it provides a tonne of tools to help you do just that. If you’ve given it a try, let’s hear your thoughts in the comments.
The New York Times Shifting Careers blog discusses employees coming to work when they shouldn’t, primarily when they’re sick—a practice known as presenteeism (the opposite of absenteeism). The problem with presenteeism: It’s making your coworkers sick and it may be costing your employer a lot of money. So why do people do it? Generally it’s either due to job insecurity or the feeling that work won’t go on without you. With that in mind, we’re curious: What are your criteria for staying home sick? Do you take yourself out of commission when you start to sniffle, or does it take a full-blown case of the flu to slow you down? Let’s hear your thoughts, including how presenteeism is handled in your workplace, in the comments. Photo by Mussels. Feeling Sick? Stay Home [NYT]
Web site WebMD gives advice on when you should stay home from work and when you’re probably healthy enough to make the trip to the office. Good reason to call in sick: You’re contagious “A lot of diseases are contagious before you realise you’re sick,” [physician Michael]Bagner tells WebMD. “Once you know you’re sick, you may not be contagious any more, and may as well go to work.”
But it pays to err on the side of staying home “if you work in close quarters with your coworkers—or you work with elderly or small children or people with cancer or chronic conditions—those are the most vulnerable people in our society,” says Bagner.
The article offers more several suggestions for determining whether or not it’s a good day to hit the grind, but if you’ve got your own litmus test for determining whether or not you’re work-ready, let’s hear it in them comments.
Too Sick to Work? [WebMD]
