After a day of mainlining coffee and staring at the computer, "relaxing" at happy hour and then staying up late glued to the television, getting in bed only to consume the infinite scroll of news on your mobile, an eye twitch begins.You go to sleep thinking it will be gone when you wake up. It's not. It stays for days, maybe even weeks.Twitch .... twitch twitch ............. TWITCH.Americans spend more and more time looking at screens, and it's not always fun or entertaining. It prevents us from hitting our bedtime goals. It fatigues our eye muscles. Reading hateful late-night tweets can be stressful, and one symptom — however benign it might seem — could be a twitch.The cause? "It's kind of like all the things your mom lectured you about growing up: lack of sleep, staring at screens, dry eyes, caffeine, dehydration, stress," said Shameema Sikder, an ophthalmologist at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.The exact biological reasons remain a mystery. … [Read more...] about What to do about annoying, though usually harmless, eye twitches
What helps growing pains go away
Doling Out Pain Pills Post-Surgery: An Ingrown Toenail Not The Same As A Bypass
What’s the right painkiller prescription to send home with a patient after gallbladder surgery or a cesarean section? That question is front and center as conventional approaches to pain control in the United States have led to what some see as a culture of overprescribing, helping spur the nation’s epidemic of opioid overuse and abuse. The answer isn’t clear-cut. Surgeon Marty Makary wondered why and what could be done. So, Makary, a researcher and a professor of surgery and health policy at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in Baltimore, took an innovative approach toward developing guidelines: matching the right number of opioid painkillers to specific procedures. After all, most doctors usually make this decision based on one-size-fits-all recommendations, or what they learned long ago in med school. Even Makary admitted that for most of his career he “gave [painkillers] out like candy.” In December, he gathered a group of surgeons, nurses, patients and … [Read more...] about Doling Out Pain Pills Post-Surgery: An Ingrown Toenail Not The Same As A Bypass
A Father’s Day reminder: Your kids aren’t really growing up quickly
I am one of those men for whom it is impossible to find Father’s Day gifts. I don’t wear ties. My socks are all the same, in the interest of efficiency. I enjoy cooking, which would seem to open up some possibilities. But I have an annoying habit of buying useful gadgets as I need them, leaving my relatives to purchase paper bags specially designed for storing cheese, say, or devices that carve vegetables into the shape of noodles.With sympathy for my family, the truth is that my favorite Father’s Day gift this year has been the gift of time. Or more precisely, a new understanding of how my perception of time is warped by the brain. I am a social psychologist who studies how people’s minds shape their subjective experiences. And there are few experiences more subjective than the experience of time. A CHILDHOOD WHOOSHING BY Surely every parent has suffered the same pains I am feeling as my daughter turns 8. In her first year, the sleepless nights were … [Read more...] about A Father’s Day reminder: Your kids aren’t really growing up quickly
How to say goodbye to the Bay Area: What I’ll miss the most and my biggest regrets
By Jessica Mullins Updated 4:00 am, Wednesday, June 6, 2018 window._taboola = window._taboola || []; _taboola.push({ mode: 'thumbnails-c', container: 'taboola-interstitial-gallery-thumbnails-5', placement: 'Interstitial Gallery Thumbnails 5', target_type: 'mix' }); _taboola.push({flush: true}); window._taboola = window._taboola || []; _taboola.push({ mode: 'thumbnails-c', container: 'taboola-interstitial-gallery-thumbnails-10', placement: 'Interstitial Gallery Thumbnails 10', target_type: 'mix' }); _taboola.push({flush: true}); window._taboola = window._taboola || []; _taboola.push({ mode: 'thumbnails-c', container: 'taboola-interstitial-gallery-thumbnails-15', placement: 'Interstitial Gallery Thumbnails 15', target_type: 'mix' }); _taboola.push({flush: true}); window._taboola = window._taboola || []; _taboola.push({ mode: 'thumbnails-c', container: 'taboola-interstitial-gallery-thumbnails-20', placement: 'Interstitial Gallery Thumbnails 20', … [Read more...] about How to say goodbye to the Bay Area: What I’ll miss the most and my biggest regrets
Sheltered workshops are fading away, along with a job Chris Cook had for 25 years
VIRGINIA BEACHChris Cook has worked dutifully for 25 years, but come Friday he will be out of a job.Cook has an intellectual disability, and his employment has unfolded in what’s often referred to as a “sheltered workshop” setting. That’s a place where people with disabilities, under careful supervision, do jobs like applying labels to envelopes, packing boxes and putting screws in bags.The term may once have had a comforting tone, but it’s fallen out of favor in recent years. Companies are phasing the jobs out all across the country, in part because of federal regulations that make it tougher to sustain them.The reasons are rooted in concerns of people with disabilities and advocacy groups:The workers make less than minimum wage, raising questions about fairness and exploitation. They work in settings where most employees are disabled, rather than more integrated settings that are now required by law. There’s also criticism that the employees … [Read more...] about Sheltered workshops are fading away, along with a job Chris Cook had for 25 years