Photo by Kindel Media.  You’ve probably heard it recommended many times after an injury resulting in acute pain in a joint or muscle: RICE is the acronym for the plan of self-treatment and stands for rest, ice, compression, and elevation.…

Photo by Mikhail Nilov. Imagine for a moment a scary situation in which a health crisis of some kind lands you in an emergency room unconscious. Whatever the accident or crisis may have been, until you regain consciousness, your loved…

Photo by SHVETS production. The Restorative Movement classes offered by SoHum Health are going to be exploring some new territory in the new year. As we approach our sixth anniversary of offering these classes to the public, we are looking…

Photo by Towfiqu barbhuiya. In medieval Britain you might have been advised to take a freshly baked and piping hot loaf of bread from the oven, tear it in half and hold an end up to each ear as long…

Photo by Vanessa Garcia. “I only went out for a walk, and finally concluded to stay out until sundown, for going out I found, was really going in.”  –John Muir There is a growing collection of research showing the health…

Photo by i yunmai on Unsplash Looking back at all of the health problems we have discussed in this column over time, several things keep consistently showing up as helpful interventions, regardless of the nature of the illness or condition…

Photo by FLY:D on Unsplash. Plastic! Of all the anthropocene’s worldly delights, none have become so ubiquitous as that nigh-immortal petroleum product, and no form of plastic has infiltrated as much of the biosphere as microplastics. To say they are…

Photo by Matthias Zomer. Neuropathy is a catch-all term used to describe a collection of symptoms affecting the nerves ranging from mild numbness and tingling to sharp pains to weakness and even paralysis depending on what nerves are affected and…

Photo by Milad Fakurian on Unsplash. Because I know you have been glued to watching all the matches in the Women’s World Cup soccer tournament, I suspect you have noticed how quickly the whistle blows, and the action is stopped…

Photo by Andrea Piacquadio. Have you been struggling to catch your quota of z’s during the recent heat waves? It may be that warm temperatures are messing with your circadian rhythm, the natural, environmentally determined pattern of various bodily functions…

Photo by Shashank Shekhar on Unsplash. After a relatively gentle and temperate spring, summer has well and truly arrived in force. And as temperatures rise, humans start sweating to help keep cool. Perspiration is but one finely tuned part of…

Photo by Junseong Lee A new digest of studies published by Harvard earlier this year indicates that yoga has a positive influence on two standard predictors of frailty: walking speed and ability to get up from a chair. Frailty is a…

Photo by Tracy Le Blanc. You bump into an old buddy you haven’t seen for a while and your catch-up conversation sounds like this: Person 1: “I just got back from visiting family in L.A.” Person 2: “Like. I just…

Photo caption: Ratcliff Architects and SoHum Health leadership begin the Planning Development Phase for a new hospital and clinic in Garberville. Left to right: Board Member, Jay Sooter; CEO, Matt Rees; Board Member, Barbara Truitt; Chief Financial Officer, Paul Eves;…

Check out the 9-minute news segment on KMUD where we dive into exciting developments at our community hospital. Plus, we share some details on the optometry services that will be available by early next year. Tune in and stay informed!…

Photo by Andrea Piacquadio. You’re relaxing at the end of the day in your favorite easy chair when suddenly you are overcome by the urge to move your legs, or maybe also your arms, or even your whole body. You…

Photo by Frank Meriño.  A common aphorism posits that it requires an order of magnitude more energy to refute misinformation than it does to propagate it. I’ll do my best though: Vaccines do not cause autism. I can say this…

Photo by Mark Paton on Unsplash Approximately 15% of Americans over the age of 18 experience some degree of hearing loss during their lifetime. According to a 2020 study published by the Journal of the American Medical Association, looking at…

Photo by Oles kanebckuu.  If you get your primary care locally and you are healthy, you may not have noticed that much of the healthcare system is experiencing a severe workforce shortage. Thanks to good management and careful planning Southern…

Photo by Count Chris on Unsplash. Are you ready for some positive news? After a long hard winter made even harder by the sadness of so much loss in our tight-knit community, it can be a struggle to remember there…

This is part 2 of 3 looking back at the 50-year career of Lorraine Carolan, longtime community healthcare activist, Licensed Midwife and Physician’s Assistant.  Redwoods Rural Health Center opened in 1976.  The center was founded by a group of new settlers…

Photo Left to Right: Adela Yanez, SoHum Health Chief Nursing Officer / Josiah Phillips, Meals on Wheels Coordinator / Wendi Leader, Healy Board Vice President / Rich Thompson, Healy Board Member / Matt Rees, SoHum Health CEO / James Dement,…

Photo by cottonbro studio. Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a rapidly growing computer application that simulates the problem-solving abilities of the human brain. Computers can be trained to think the way we do, by taking in and analyzing data and using…

Photo by Kate Stone Matheson on Unsplash If we were going strictly by the numbers, sleep is by far the favored pastime of our species. We spend nearly a third of our life in a sort of maintenance mode, where…