Black flies can put a damper on summer fun, but a tick bite can change your life forever. Deer ticks are known to transmit Lyme disease, which is caused by any of three species of spirochete bacteria in the genus Borrelia. When a deer tick latches onto us for longer than 24 hours, it barfs a load of these fast-moving, corkscrew-shaped microbes into our bloodstream. The spirochetes, which have a particular craving for hearts, brains, and joints, begin to drill through our tissues in search of a nice place to settle down and reproduce. [Read more…] about Tick Season is Here
Public Health
Movie-Mad Girls: Early 20th Century Female Suicidality
Diana W. Anselmo’s recent publication “Movie-Mad Girls: Female Suicidality in Early Twentieth-Century United States” explores the cultural and political reach of “bad feelings” beyond the strictly psychoanalytic. [Read more…] about Movie-Mad Girls: Early 20th Century Female Suicidality
New York Pork: A Porcine History of the Big Apple
In 1895 New York City’s newly appointed reformist Mayor William Lafayette Strong nominated engineer and Civil War veteran Colonel George Waring to take on the demanding post of Sanitation Commissioner.
A native of Pound Ridge in Westchester County, Waring had fine-tuned his skills as a landscape and drainage (sewage) engineer having been involved with the construction of Manhattan’s Central Park. [Read more…] about New York Pork: A Porcine History of the Big Apple
Contagion of Liberty: Politics of Smallpox in the American Revolution
Inoculation, a shocking procedure introduced to America by an enslaved African, became the most sought-after medical procedure of the eighteenth century. The difficulty lay in providing it to all Americans and not just the fortunate few. Across the colonies, poor Americans rioted for equal access to medicine, while cities and towns shut down for quarantines. In Marblehead, Massachusetts, sailors burned down an expensive private hospital just weeks after the Boston Tea Party.
The Revolutionary War broke out during a smallpox epidemic, and in response, General George Washington ordered the inoculation of the Continental Army. But Washington did not have to convince fearful colonists to protect themselves against smallpox ― they were the ones demanding it. [Read more…] about Contagion of Liberty: Politics of Smallpox in the American Revolution
Air Pollution Spotlight: PFAS, Forever Chemicals
What do non-stick pans, firefighting foam, microwave popcorn bags, cleaning products, fast food containers and wrappers, cosmetics, and stain-resistant carpets have in common? They all may contain forever chemicals called PFAS. [Read more…] about Air Pollution Spotlight: PFAS, Forever Chemicals
Saratoga Spa in 1935: A State Health Resort Opens
“The Spa is new in every sense of the word. In addition to new equipment, new buildings and new treatments, it presents a new conception of the treatment of disease—the conception of health and recreation and enjoyment while finding that health. It is a place where the patient, by the very life that teems around him, will be made to forget he is ill.” – Pierrepont B. Noyes, President, Saratoga Springs Authority. Address of Welcome. The Saratogian, July 26th, 1935. [Read more…] about Saratoga Spa in 1935: A State Health Resort Opens
Microbial Ecology: Mind Control, Fecal Transplants & Zombie Laternflies
If you believe we’re the master of our actions, think again. Better yet, have a fungus, bacterium, or protozoan tell you what to think. Jedi mind tricks are nothing compared to what microbes can do to animals, human and otherwise. [Read more…] about Microbial Ecology: Mind Control, Fecal Transplants & Zombie Laternflies
Islands of Punishment and Exclusion
The exclusion of “undesirables” to remote lands has a long history. The shameful attempts by contemporary governments to “solve” the refugee problem in that manner has had precedents.
During the mid-1930s Mussolini dumped socialists and anti-fascists in the inaccessible and malaria-ridden southern areas of the country.
The use of islands as off-shore detention centers has a parallel history. The government of Charles I locked up its opponents at Jersey, Guernsey, or the Isles of Scilly. Having lost the English Civil War, Charles I himself was incarcerated in Carisbrooke Castle on the Isle of Wight. Faced with continuing sedition and agitation, Charles II sent several former leaders of the Interregnum into island isolation. [Read more…] about Islands of Punishment and Exclusion
Skin Mites Play A Beneficial Role
Apparently, if you suck face for too long, you can become part of that visage, fused forever. And by “you” I mean all the Demodex folliculorum skin mites that read this essay. [Read more…] about Skin Mites Play A Beneficial Role
Forests & Their Benefits for Children’s Health
Although the Grimm Brothers’ tale of Hansel and Gretel surviving alone in the woods after being abandoned by their parents is based on a grim reality – the famine of 1315-1317 – there are compelling reasons to take kids into a forest today.
As long as they are kept out of the clutches of evil witches, and are brought to their respective homes right afterward. [Read more…] about Forests & Their Benefits for Children’s Health