University News

Take it seriously Sprains occur when you stretch or tear your ligaments, the fibrous bands of tissue that connect two bones in your joints. When it comes to sprains, there are two common mistakes patients make. For starters, many people use the terms sprain and strain interchangeably. But sprains affect ligaments while strains affect muscles. This misconception leads to the next common mistake that surrounds sprains. Many patients think they can “walk it off” when they get an injury. The truth is that sprains should be taken seriously. Without treatment, sprains can lead to chronic discomfort, disability, re-injury, and early [...]

Is it the Flu? The flu is a contagious illness that ranges from mild to severe, with fatal cases reported each year. In most cases, symptoms come on suddenly. Because influenza and the common cold have similar symptoms, it can be challenging to self-diagnose the flu. But detecting signs early on can help prevent the spreading of the virus and lower the duration of your illness. Additionally, antiviral medications that can lessen the severity of the flu. They can also shorten recovery periods by one to two days if taken within 48 hours of the onset of your symptoms. Let’s [...]

Staying Healthy Will Lead to College Success Don’t let school, sports, work, and your social life wear down your body. Here’s how to stay healthy this semester. 1. Eat a Healthy, Balanced Diet Eating a healthy diet can improve your overall health, help you maintain a healthy weight, and boost your immune system. While it may seem challenging to find healthy food options in the campus cafeteria, simple adjustments to your eating habits can make a big difference. Diet and nutrition don’t just improve your overall physical wellbeing, but they also aid cognitive performance. So, while pizza or late-night fast [...]

Evaluating Rash Symptoms Rashes come in all shapes, sizes, and colors and can affect people at all stages of life. From cradle cap and diaper rash in infants to vasculitis and poison ivy in adults, most people deal with a variety of rashes throughout their life. They are painful, itchy, and look terrible, but most rashes are more uncomfortable than they are dangerous. In some cases, however, a rash can be a sign that something more serious is going on with your body. To the average person, all rashes might look the same, but they actually have unique characteristics that [...]

Vaping Isn't As Safe As You Thought Vaping first hit the market in the late 2000s in the form of e-cigarettes. Marketed as a safer alternative to tobacco, hundreds of thousands of tobacco users made the switch to vaping before any significant research was done. As flavored e-liquids began to emerge, vaping started to become a popular trend amongst teens and young adults. Young people were drawn to popular e-liquid flavors like bubble gum, mango, pumpkin pie, and mimosa. Marketing professionals jumped on the opportunity to draw in hundreds of thousands of young adults, leaving them addicted to vaping, before [...]

Your Family Tells Us A lot About You! When they say the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, it doesn’t just mean you inherited your father’s eyes and your mother’s sparkling personality. Genes are the basic physical and functional units of heredity that link us to our biological family members. But there’s more to our genetics than the physical and personality traits we take from our parents at birth. Our genes also determine familial patterns for health disorders, as well as our risk for specific medical conditions. So, when people say it runs in the family, they might be [...]

Great health starts with you! Sleep, wake, study, socialize, repeat. The fast-paced environment and daily grind of college life can quickly burn out college students. As you try to adjust to your new journey in adulthood, the demands of college life make it challenging to take care of yourself. That’s why many college students give up necessities like sleeping and eating right to try to compensate for their new busy schedule. If this is you, you’re not alone! The problem with today’s society is that life has become so hectic that self-care gets put on the back burner. Even the most [...]

Signs of Food Poisoning If you haven’t experienced food poisoning yourself, chances are you know someone who did. That’s because this common health condition affects 1 in 6 Americans every year, according to the CDC. While most people know some basic information about food poisoning, many are surprised to learn that the condition can lead to severe illness and even death. 128,000 Americans are hospitalized each year due to foodborne illness. Unfortunately, 3,000 of those patients will die as a result. On a positive note, food poisoning is pretty straightforward, and it’s easy to tell if your food made you [...]

Is my Smartphone impacting your health? Smartphones are so common now that it is unusual for someone to be walking around without a cell phone in their pocket. There’s no question that tech is a great tool to keep us connected with family, friends, and business contacts. Most people treat a smartphone like a constant companion – carrying it throughout the day and even sleeping with it on the nightstand. The first iPhone came out in 2007, and now it is estimated that more than 3.2 billion people worldwide use smartphones. The numbers continue to grow each year as technology [...]

Chronic Cough - Time to see a doctor? Coughing is an important function in the body to keep unwanted particles out of the lungs. Sometimes, a coughing fit can be as simple as a minute or two of intense coughing because something “went down the wrong pipe.” This response is the body’s protective reaction to avoid food or liquids in the lungs. It is common for a cough to develop with an upper respiratory illness. For example, coughing is a symptom that often occurs when someone has a head cold. Usually, these symptoms go away in a short time after [...]