I wrote an article last year about MRSA, methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, because my foster child brought a note home from her school about it. It was not one of those, “This is what contagious disease your child is being exposed to this week,” notes that you get almost every week from public school. The purpose of this informational sheet about MRSA was to calm worried parents because MRSA was getting quite a bit of publicity then. The note suggested washing hands frequently to prevent spreading germs, covering open sores with bandages,... more

Is this exciting news for children and adults suffering from type 2 diabetes? A new hot cocoa contains special flavanols that actually improve blood flow in type 2 diabetics. Hey mom, chocolate really is good for you. It seems that Mars Incorporated is doing more than making chocolate bars lately. They have created their own scientific division called Symbioscience. Symbioscience joined forces with some researchers in Germany to study the effects of flavanols on vascular function.

This... more

Malaria can be deadly. Biting mosquitoes spread it and more than 1 million people, mostly children, die from Malaria each year. Malaria is preventable and it is treatable. Unfortunately, many areas that are affected by Malaria are impoverished. Therefore, the people do not have access to the medicines or tools to keep themselves and their families safe. Malaria is endemic in more than 100 countries and territories. World Malaria Day, April 25, hopes to build awareness to help put a stop to malaria... more

Which infants have the highest risk of developing diabetes as they mature? Asians, Native Hawaiians, blacks, Hispanics, and other Pacific Islanders, have significantly higher risks of developing diabetes than whites do. Non-Hispanic whites have nearly an 8.7 percent chance of developing diabetes, while non-Hispanic blacks have a 13.3 percent chance. When you group all of the Hispanic/Latino population together they have... more

Von Willebrand disease is a bleeding disorder that slows the process of blood clotting. This condition often causes bruising, nosebleeds, prolonged bleeding, oozing after an injury, surgery, or losing a tooth. Women with this condition experience excessive bleeding during menstruation (menorrhagia). Spontaneous bleeding without an injury may occur in severe cases of von Willebrand disease. The condition, if mild, may not become apparent until abnormal bleeding occurs following surgery or a serious injury. Symptoms of von Willebrand... more

Kawasaki disease affects coronary, small, and medium sized arteries throughout the body causing inflammation in the artery walls. Because Kawasaki disease also affects lymph nodes, skin, and mucous membranes inside the mouth, nose, and throat, it is also called mucocutaneous lymph node syndrome. Children from two to five years, of Japanese or Korean descent, are usually affected although any child can get this disease. A Japanese doctor, Tomisaku Kawasaki, identified the disease in 1967. Some of the complications... more

Hepatitis B is apparently spreading in Asia with no hope for a turnaround due to a lack of understanding about the disease and its transmission. Between 60 and 70 percent of those interviewed in China, Singapore, and the Philippines, believed that hepatitis B is contracted through eating infected food. Even nearly half of those who had the virus believed that they caught it from eating infected food or from generally poor health. Chronic hepatitis B affects 360 million people worldwide;... more

Over 2 million people have the gene that makes it possible to pass sickle cell on to their birth children. Over 70,000 people in the U.S.A. have sickle cell disease and they are not just African Americans. In the United States, hospitals screen all newborn babies for sickle cell disease. Sickle cell disease is most common among people whose ancestors come from sub-Saharan Africa, South America, Cuba, Central America, Saudi Arabia, India, Turkey, Greece, and Italy.

In these parts of the world, malaria is... more

Henoch-Schonlein purpura, is a disease known also as Anaphylactoid purpura and Vascular purpura. It usually affects male children, but it may affect people of any gender and any age. Most people affected recently had an upper respiratory illness. One of my friends is a female, and in her early 40’s, and was just hospitalized for an entire week with this illness.

For an unknown reason, the immune system has an abnormal response to infection or stressors. The interior of the blood vessel responds with inflammation, it is a type of hypersensitivity... more

It is not routine for pregnant women to be tested for hepatitis C Virus, as they are not at a greater risk to contract the virus than anyone else is. However, if a pregnant woman has HCV infection, then her child has about a four percent chance (i.e. 4 out of every 100 infants) of becoming infected; that percentage can be as high as 19% however, if the mother is co-infected with HIV. The actual infection to the child occurs at the time of birth, and unfortunately, no treatment is... more