Health
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It is the time of year when football coaches start to get ready for the start of fall practice in anticipation of the coming football season. It’s also the time of year when heat and humidity can cause dangerous conditions for heat stress and heat stroke. Every year a few people die from practicing too…
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A recent article in North Carolina Health News highlights the problems that older people may face when heat waves occur. Older human bodies (and probably also those of older pets and livestock) do not handle heat as well as younger folk, so they are more likely to suffer ill health when temperatures rise. This is…
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If you have heard the term “seasonal affective disorder” you know it is related to feelings of sadness, tiredness, and lack of joy that come with lack of sunlight in winter, when the sun is low in the sky. But it turns out that for some people, summer weather can also spark feelings of depression…
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I have not had the flu so far this year, and I feel pretty lucky, because many of my friends have suffered through a miserable flu season so far this winter. I was interested to read this article by Bob Henson of Weather Underground discussing the impacts of weather on flu transmission. It turns out…
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The Miami Herald discussed the health implications of the warming climate in a recent story about asthma and heart disease in older and poorer populations in southern Florida. As the heat rises, poor asthma sufferers try to fight it by running their air conditioners more often, but often have trouble paying the bills for the…
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While you might know that PTSD, or Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, is a result of being in stressful situations like combat under fire, you might not know that it can also occur in people who have lived through a traumatic event like a tornado, hurricane or fire. Politico has an interesting story about the psychological toll…
Posted in: Climate and Ag in the news, Health, La Nina and ENSO, Severe, Tropical weather, Uncategorized -
Even though it’s been three weeks since Hurricane Harvey blasted into Texas and dropped an astounding 50 inches of rain, we are still learning about the aftermath of this damaging storm. There are some lessons here to be learned by us here in the Southeast as we deal with the clean-up from Hurricane Irma, too.…