0 Have your say A bride who was diagnosed with cancer just four days before her wedding decided “the show must go on” so that she could marry the man of her dreams. Ashley Heil, 27, defied her diagnosis and walked proudly down the aisle with an IV drip concealed inside her gown. Less than a week before Ashley’s wedding to Ben Scheirer, 29, a steelworker, doctors found a 6.5cm tumor on her kidney.Friends and family advised Ashley to postpone the wedding, but she was determined to tie the knot in front of her 150 guests.“I am so glad I just did it and married the man of my dreams,” she said.“When you get sick, you have two options. “You can be upbeat and make the best of it, or you can be unhappy and make it hard for you and everyone around you.”The day after the wedding Ashley was admitted to hospital for two months, and her new husband Ben spent every single night by her side.“He held my hand through it … [Read more...] about Young bride diagnosed with cancer four days before wedding makes it down the aisle
Antibiotics making me sick
Using one germ to fight another when today’s antibiotics fail
/https://www.thestar.com/content/dam/thestar/life/health_wellness/2019/03/05/using-one-germ-to-fight-another-when-todays-antibiotics-fail/_5916930e12b1460bb883618f2fd3bbc4_5916930e12b1460bb883618f2fd3bbc.jpg)
By Lauran Neergaard The Associated Press Tues., March 5, 2019 NEW HAVEN, CONN.—Bacteria lodged deep in Ella Balasa’s lungs were impervious to most antibiotics. At 26, gasping for breath, she sought out a dramatic experiment — deliberately inhaling a virus culled from sewage to attack her superbug. “I’m really running out of options,” said Balasa, who travelled from her Richmond, Va., home to Yale University for the last-resort treatment. “I know it might not have an effect. But I am very hopeful.” Pitting one germ against another may sound radical, but it’s a sign of a growing global crisis. Increasingly people are dying of infections that once were easy to treat because many common bugs have evolved to withstand multiple antibiotics. Some, dubbed “nightmare bacteria,” are untreatable. Now scientists are racing to find novel alternatives to traditional antibiotics, a hunt that is uncovering unusual … [Read more...] about Using one germ to fight another when today’s antibiotics fail
Does Medicine Actually Make People Live Longer?
HEALTH 01/10/2019 07:00 am ET The truth is our early ancestors didn’t all die at 30 — and medical science has given us less of a boost than you think. By Ilana Strauss When I was a kid, adults told me that medicine would be so advanced by the time I grew up, I’d live to be 150. It seems possible. Alas, not for me, personally, but as a concept. After all, modern medicine has surely been extending the human lifespan for hundreds of years … hasn’t it? The 17th-century English philosopher Thomas Hobbes famously called life before the modern era “nasty, brutish and short.” People still echo that idea today, albeit without the same pithy elegance. “Hunter-gatherers all died when they were, like, 30,” a friend told me recently. “When the average old age death was people in their 40’s, did they look as old as people in their 90’s or 100’s look now?” asked someone on Quora. Many … [Read more...] about Does Medicine Actually Make People Live Longer?
Antibiotic resistance: myths and misunderstandings
A pig flying at the Minnesota state fair. Picture by TCS. I've been involved in a few discussions of late on science-based sites around yon web on antibiotic resistance and agriculture--specifically, the campaign to get fast food giant Subway to stop using meat raised on antibiotics, and a graphic by CommonGround using Animal Health Institute data, suggesting that agricultural animals aren't an important source of resistant bacteria. Discussing these topics has shown me there's a lot of misunderstanding of issues in antibiotic resistance, even among those who consider themselves pretty science-savvy. I think this is partly an issue of, perhaps, hating to agree with one's "enemy." Vani Hari, the "Food Babe," recently also plugged the Subway campaign, perhaps making skeptics now skeptical of the issue of antibiotics and agriculture? Believe me, I am the farthest thing from a "Food Babe" fan and have criticized her many times on my Facebook page, but unlike her ill-advised and … [Read more...] about Antibiotic resistance: myths and misunderstandings
A Celebration of the Sick Day
Sections SEARCH Skip to content Skip to site index Live Subscribe Log In Log In Today’s Paper Supported by Ducking under the weather gives me permission to excuse myself from life and curl up in a sunspot. BySophia Ortega Nov. 8, 2018 From a young age, I learned that sick is comfort; sick is to be cared for. When I stayed home with an earache in second grade, my dad didn’t double-check my homework or make me practice piano exercises twice on each hand. He brought me a bell so I could ring him and gave me three M&Ms for every dose of antibiotics that went down without a fuss. Undoubtedly, my penchant for minor ailments comes from a place of privilege. My physical body is healthy, which is why its occasional maladies have become phenomena that I get to relish. I recognize that chronic illness is another story, of course. But when I feel a cold coming on, I don’t stir Emergen-C and up my citrus intake, I lean in. … [Read more...] about A Celebration of the Sick Day