Health & Wellness Week in Review

Sunday late afternoon. It's time to go back over my notes about the Health and Wellness content that caught my eye this past week, and to check out any of the most recent submissions that I may have missed in order to pull together this week's Health and Wellness Content Spotlight.

As I find is generally the case as I peruse the Health and Wellness section, gathering thoughts for this spotlight, I was impressed with the amount of quality content published this past week. The material I found to consider for this week's spotlight was remarkable both by the usefulness of the subject matters that were chosen to be reported on, and by the quality of the writing. Narrowing down the content to a few selections was, as usual, a challenging task, but it was energizing to see how many great Health and Wellness writers there are out there contributing to the pool of available information.

Racheline Maltese published an article this week that I think a large number of us will find ourselves grateful for when it comes time to contemplate our next air travel trip. In her article "How to Minimize Sinus Discomfort on Airplanes," Maltese passes on some very inventive ideas, some commercial products, some OTC options, and some home remedies, which you may find very helpful if you are one of the many who suffer from ear, face, and dental pain during the pressure changes that occur with take off and landing.

In her article "Self Abuse in High Achieving College Students," Associated Content writer Fujioka Kim presents findings published in a paper in the current issue of Pediatrics claims that nearly 20% of college students in the surveyed Ivy League schools report engaging in self-injurious behaviors like cutting and burning. In the original paper by authors Whitlock et al., published in the June 1 edition of Pediatrics, nearly 3,000 undergraduate and graduate students attending Cornell and Princeton were surveyed about self-injurious behaviors, and a startlingly concerning 17% acknowledged to engaging in the behaviors, while 75% of those acknowledging to hurt themselves admitted to doing so repeatedly. Kim's reporting on these findings for Associated Content is concise and well written, and effectively covers the bullet points of the original paper.

As summer approaches (or attempts to approach, if you're here in the North East), taking a look at Sabah Karimi's article about summertime food safety, entitled "Better Safe Than Sorry! Summer Food Safety Tips" may help you and your family to avoid preventable illness and injury (yes, injury!) from spoiled and improperly stored food. She provides readers with fifteen simple tips for keeping your summer fun free from "going bad," including avoidance of leftovers that have been left unrefrigerated for more than 45 minutes, the importance of choosing foods that are sealed in plastic containers rather than cans to reduce the risk of exploding three bean salad, and the wisdom of eschewing mayonnaise and dairy products when picnicking without access to proper cooling or refrigeration measures. Karimi's article is well written and of very timely use to readers getting ready to pull the beach chairs and Igloo coolers out of the basement.

I found a lot of thoughtful writing in the Health and Wellness section this week, and I look forward to seeing what next week's submissions will teach me.