News Wellness
Facing the Coronavirus Pandemic Together
Photo by Adam Nieścioruk on Unsplash Published in the Humboldt Independent on March 24, 2020 While Humboldt County’s lone official positive case of Covid-19 has recovered, the highly infectious and deadly disease caused by a novel coronavirus that emerged in…
Part 2 – Wuhan Coronavirus: Don’t Panic, But It’s Pandemic
Photo by Tonik on Unsplash Published in the Humboldt Independent on February 18, 2020 First, a quick update. The Wuhan Coronavirus has a new name and is now called COVID-19. I think the rebranding is a little sterile and sounds…
Wuhan Coronavirus: A Practical Pandemic Panic Primer
Photo by Gani Nurhakim on Unsplash Published in the Humboldt Independent on February 4, 2020 From the same planet that brought you SARS and MERS, it’s the 2019-nCoV novel coronavirus. I’m sure a more pronounceable acronym is forthcoming, but for…
The Pain in Spain Stays Mainly in Your Brain
Photo by Andrew Neel from Pexels Suppose your beloved but clumsy dance partner steps on your foot and you immediately feel pain, identified by your brain as clearly being in the crushed appendage, but what exactly is that sensation and where does it…
May Be Habit Forming
Photo by Pawel Czerwinski on Unsplash Around this time of year, the end of one and beginning of another, many people are inclined to make some changes. Spurred by the sense of renewal that turning over the December page can…
The Deep End of the Gene Pool
Photo by CDC on Unsplash The old scientific debate of nature vs. nurture has taken on some promising new directions since the field of epigenetics has been developing over the past few decades. Every living thing carries a genetically coded…
Grow Up, Not Old
Photo by Ekaterina Shakharova on Unsplash This is the first in a two-part series looking at the effects of aging on our health, and the lives and well-being of seniors in our community. Death and taxes aren’t the only certainties…
Whatever Happens in Vagus, Stays in Vagus
Photo by Kelvin Valerio from Pexels There is a nerve in the human body that regulates heart function, influences digestion, informs you when it’s safe to relax, and promotes efficient swallowing and speaking. This longest cranial nerve (originating in the brain) also receives…
The Mold Testament
Photo by Martin Grube from the FEMA Photo Library Molds are not exactly the most charismatic of fungi. They are not often as tasty or charming as mushrooms, and not useful for fermentation or baking like their cousins the yeasts.…
Don’t Cramp My Style
Photo by Imani Bahati on Unsplash What happens when the nerves within your muscle tissue become abnormally excitable or confused? That muscle will involuntarily contract, tense and shorten, resulting in what is called either a spasm or a cramp, or any number…