Health

Rural Iowa Lacks Psychiatrists

editor — Sun, 11 May 2008 06:49:58 -0700

Half of the students graduating from the University of Iowa psychiatric training program leave the state after graduating.

Ultrasound with a Cell Phone

editor — Thu, 8 May 2008 11:29:14 -0700

How far are you from the nearest heart monitor or ultrasound machine or high-tech imaging equipment?

Letter from Langdon: Product Placement on an Udder

editor — Mon, 5 May 2008 18:10:11 -0700

Can you find the dermatology lab in this picture?
Photo: Alison

Humanity seems plagued by mundane problems like neuritis, neuralgia, pyrosis, and the dreaded pruritis.

Over the years advertisers have attempted to capitalize on those problems by trying to connect the dots to products that people will find appealing. For example pruritis, otherwise known as itching, is a big problem. I know of a product that always claimed to be good for itching anywhere, but in the eyes. (I’ve always wondered, “Yes, but what’s good for itching IN the eyes?”)

With advertising it’s always the unanswered questions that come back to haunt us. Sometimes though, a little careful searching can yield valuable answers.

It wasn’t advertising but a trip to the local hardware store that solved my unanswered questions about the human scourge eczema, known in layman’s terms as chapping. At the time we had a milk cow named Cynthia. Just as frequent washing causes chapped hands in humans, it can also cause chapping of other exposed flesh (anywhere but in the eyes). Cynthia had a chapping problem that cried out for answers. There among the cow halters and milk buckets of Stite’s Hardware Store laid the possible cure: Dr. Naylor Udder Balm.

Danville Awakens from 'Long Slumber'

editor — Thu, 1 May 2008 19:16:56 -0700

"Danville (above) is one of a handful of American communities where men and women are living shorter lives," begins a forthright editoria

Speak Your Piece: Throwaway Lives?

editor — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 07:13:27 -0700

Cheap smokes in Letcher County, Kentucky, 2008.

Photo: Andrew Stern

Several national publications, including Time Magazine, The Washington Post and the New York Times Magazine, have highlighted the abysmal health of the people of Central Appalachia, and of the Virginia coalfields in particular. Federal and state authorities have spent significant funds verifying the same statistics over and over, but little has been accomplished to ameliorate the problems so thoroughly documented.

(Look here for the rural counties that have had a significant decrease in longevity over the last 20 years.)

Some small portion of the heart and respiratory problems ravaging the mountain population might be due to congenital factors or, in specific locations, to air and water quality. But the overwhelming majority of the chronic health problems are self-inflicted, the consequence of tobacco, drug abuse, fatty and sugar-laden foods, lack of exercise and a fatalistic outlook on life that relieves individuals of responsibility for their own health.