By Barbara Ficarra, RN, BSN, MPA Thanks to Laura Landro for shining light on unsafe injections in her WSJ blog, “Unsafe Injection Practices Persist Despite Education Efforts.” Landro writes: “A new push is underway to eliminate unsafe injection practices, which remain a persistent safety problem despite years of efforts to educate clinicians about the risks of re-using needles, syringes and drug vials. In the U.S., failure to follow safe practices in delivering intravenous medications and…
Read More...Speaking Diabetes: A Guide from an Insider
Guest post by Miriam E. Tucker Just as physicians use abbreviations and terminology that sound like a foreign language to outsiders, patients who talk to each other on the Internet (and elsewhere) have developed their own quirky code words and phrases. Here’s some of the lingo used by those with diabetes: D-anything – Placing a “d” in front of any word makes it uniquely diabetically ours. One prominent example is DLife, the weekly CNBC television…
Read More...What Everybody Ought to Know About Plastics
By Barbara Ficarra, RN, BSN, MPA Information circulating about the dangers of plastic containers has created fear and confusion. Are plastic containers toxic? Do harmful chemicals leach out into its contents? Do we need to discard all plastic containers? Recently, I interacted in a live health chat on MedHelp about the safety of plastics. Scientist, Joe Schwarcz, PhD, Director of McGill University’s Office for Science and Society talked about “The Real Truth About Plastics: What…
Read More...Egg Recall Tied to Salmonella, List of Recalled Eggs, How to Read Carton and What to do to Stay Safe
By Barbara Ficarra, RN, BSN, MPA Latest egg recall update Health officials urge consumers to throw away contaminated eggs or return them to the retailer. Salmonella, the name of a group of bacteria, is the most common cause of food poisoning in the United States. Usually, symptoms last 4-7 days and most people get better without treatment. But, salmonella can be more serious in older adults, infants, and persons with chronic illnesses. [Source] Wright County…
Read More...Heart Health and the Couch Potato: Sit at Your Own Risk
Guest Post Submitted by Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center We’ve all made the excuses…you can’t face the drive to the gym, you’re too tired at night, getting up in the morning is a chore or it’s too hot or cold outside. So you cozy up on the couch in front of the television. If you’re a couch potato, you’re a gambler — with your life. Unfortunately you’ll need a big sofa because you’re not the…
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