News and Articles

When people with apparent food allergies are tested, only about one out of four turns out to have symptoms from the food they suspected.  Food allergies are not as common as many people think, but they do exist.

Food allergies are most common in infants and young children.  This is especially true in the first year of life before the gut and immune system have become fully developed.  Fortunately, many of these early allergies are outgrown as the child gets older.  ...

Ear infections are one of the most common problems for children in the preschool years.  Some children will get repeated infections that never seem to clear up completely.

However, keeping the ears free of infection and fluid is very important at this age when so much of a child’s learning and social development depends on good hearing.

Fortunately, there are many things a parent can do to help protect a young child’s ears from infections.

First and foremost is a clean environment.  Pollution ...

Each winter, one of the most troublesome respiratory viruses of childhood makes the rounds.  Most older children tolerate the respiratory syncitial virus (RSV) well and just suffer the symptoms of a cough, sore throat, runny nose and fever.

For some children, however, the virus can be very serious.  These are usually children who are between the ages of two and five months.  They are old enough that they have lost the immunity they received from their mothers and too young to ...

It may be hard to get some infants to go to sleep when you want them to.  They cry and squirm and eventually get the mother or father to come back and rock them to sleep.

This can occur every one to two hours during the night for some infants.  So how do you train a baby to go to sleep?

One of the major lessons a small infant has to learn is how to comfort himself and fall asleep.  Yes, it ...

There are many problems for menopausal women.  They get hot flashes, emotional changes such as depression, irregular bleeding, thin bones, and troublesome vaginal changes.  Treating these symptoms is very important, but difficult because of the risks of using estrogen.

Estrogens help with the hot flashes and other symptoms, but the WHI (Women’s Health Initiative) study showed that there is an increased risk of blood clots traveling to the lungs, heart attacks, and possibly breast cancer.

Estrogens can still be used, but the ...

There are many things that a woman should avoid during pregnancy. Some of these, such as x-rays, rubella infections, and medicines, are well known.  But there are some substances that people accept as being so common that they feel there is no concern.

Alcohol is one of the most common chemicals we use and, tragically, recent reports cite it as the most common cause of preventable birth defects, especially mental retardation.

Women who use alcohol regularly during their pregnancy greatly increase their ...

If you are pregnant, your chances are nearly one in ten of having labor begin more than three weeks before your due date.

With this high incidence of premature labor, it is very important for every expectant mother to watch closely for any warning signs of premature labor and to call her doctor if they occur.  Even though the medical care for premature babies has improved immensely, there are still many hazards for the baby who is born too early.

The warning ...

Very few vitamin supplements are known to be helpful to an average healthy woman, even when she is pregnant.  Most vitamins are easily obtained by an appropriate diet.

There is one vitamin, however, that has been proven to be important during pregnancy.  It is called folic acid, and it is needed to ensure the normal development of the baby.

Studies have confirmed that a diet low in folic acid was associated with a seroius abnormality in the baby called a “neural tube ...

Accidental burns are very common–nearly everyone has had one at some time.  Most are just minor burns that do not require any special care.  Larger burns, however, can be very serious.

Most burns are caused by direct heat (flames or hot objects) although some are caused by electricity or chemicals.  Even sunburns can be a cause of first and second degree burns.

The first step in caring for a burn is to cool it off.  Quickly apply cool wash cloths or place ...

Cataracts are opacities in the lenses of the eyes that prevent light from passing through.  This results in a loss of the brilliancy of colors, a generalized darkening of one’s vision, and eventually loss of vision.

Cataracts are so common they can almost be considered a normal sign of aging.  Virtually anyone who lives long enough will develop them.  But just what causes cataracts or brings them on at an earlier age, is not known for sure.  Presently, ophthalmologists believe that ...