Results tagged “gothamisthealth”

A welcome break from the "what is this growing on my [insert body part here]" type of questions we're used to, Gothamist Health is happy to answer what all of our friends have been asking us for weeks: "Do I need a flu shot?"

Here at Gothamist Health we stand against borough bashing in all its forms, but if you're going to get the flu this year, try not to get it in Staten Island. The Daily News reports that the death rate from the flu and pneumonia is more than twice as high in Staten Island than in the rest of the City. In 2005, the death rate in SI was about 67 deaths per 100,000 patients compared with 33 in the remaining boroughs. With a population of less than half a million, the SI provided about 10% of all of the flu and pneumonia related deaths in 2005.

Because of the pittance of a salary that hospital residents receive, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches are on heavy rotation in the Gothamist Health lunch (and, sadly, dinner) schedule. So we were especially saddened to hear that the latest food contamination scare centers around Peter Pan and Great Values brands' peanut butter. Almost 300 people in 40 states have fallen ill from the salmonella that has somehow found their way into jars of the stuff.

Growing up, there were very few crimes in the Gothamist Health household that were as grave as going outside without a hat in the winter. Our mom was convinced that colds and flu's were spawned from such sartorial oversight as well as other offenses that included venturing outdoors with a wet head of hair. Although over the years (mostly by going to medical school) we've been able to disabuse mom of most of these myths and oldwive's tales (her finally being an old wife - don't tell her we said that). But a recent publication from the Mayo Clinic and an article in Medical News Today may re-establish some of these time tested treatments.

Along with the good cheer and good food that come with the holiday season, comes the annual office holiday party and its obligatory phony smiles and eventual hang-over. This year, Gothamist Health woke up with such a headache after the company shindig that we sat up in bed, cursing modern medicine for having yet to devise a hang-over remedy that actually works. And considering that the morning-after woes may be responsible for almost $4 billion in lost earnings every year, one would think that scientists would be busy trying to come up with one.

As you celebrate Thanksgiving with your friends and family, Gothamist Health wants you to feel reassured that your government is concerned for your well-being. We saw this strange poster at the Manhattan Veterans Hospital earlier this week encouraging our vets to go ahead and get tested for HIV. This is all well and good as we know our vets pick up more than just horrible memories and mistrust of our leaders while overseas. But what we were perplexed by was the cartoon figure urging patients to get the test. As you can see from the vandalism, some vet's already doodled in whom he thinks the character eerily resembles.

Nothing reminds us of how sedentary the blogging life is like watching a marathon. This is especially true when we see folks without legs running on prosthetic limbs or flying by in wheelchairs without even breaking a sweat. But Gothamist Health did get to be part of the action again this year, somewhat, working at the medical tent at the 15 mile mark. Most runners who stopped by just needed a little Vaseline and a band-aid for annoying blisters, a bit of salt if they felt deprived, or some Icy Hot for achy joints. A few were even so in the zone that they were grabbing and eating handfuls of Vaseline, before realizing what it was.

Piggyskin

The pleasant weather continues! We may see a few clouds this afternoon and the National Weather Service is calling for the slightest of slight chances for a few sprinkles. They are claiming an upper-level disturbance will kick up some clouds. Gothamist looked at the maps and we're not seeing it. Clouds, maybe, but not sprinkles as the atmosphere is way too dry.

You like a little nibble in bed don't you? Sure you do. You dirty little bird. So you must just love our fair city nowadays as the bed bugs are back! The Times reports that a rise in used furniture sales, international travel (when in doubt, always blame dark, dark foreigners), and a ban on powerful pesticides have let the pests run wild in New York. Last year, the city's housing department received over 4,600 complaints about the little nasties, almost 5 times as many as in 2004.

New York High Schoolers, here's your Gothamist Health back-to-school checklist!

As you read this, you’re probably sitting in a super air-conditioned office, apartment, or café. Our advice to you is to stay put and allow us to remind you that it’s the hottest day of the year out there. In fact, Central Park is going to be the hottest it’s been since 1933 , the last August 1st when the scales tipped 100 degrees. Now Gothamist Health isn’t going to pretend to understand how the weather works, what with pressures and fronts and various Nino’s. But we do know that weather like this can seriously knock you on your ass. The mercury’s predicted to hit 102 degrees today but will feel well above that, with the heat index hitting 112!!! The Office of Emergency Management stresses the need for New Yorkers “to limit heat exposure and conserve energy.” Oh what would we do without the wiseness of our leadership? In response the OEM's warning, Bloomie’s gone and declared a state of heat emergency and an excessive heat warning will be in place from today at noon until tomorrow at 8 pm.

XL Rays

With Gay Pride Week coming to a close this weekend, Gothamist Health wants everyone to feel good and to get out and enjoy the festivities and big Parade. On that note, the Department of Health released a list of 10 tips this week to promote a healthy LGBT lifestyle. While we understand that we are all at risk for most health problems, there are a few conditions are a bit more common in the gay community. Some are more obvious than others, but it never hurts to review - many of them are applicable to people of all sexual orientations:

There are few birthdays we look towards with dread (ok, maybe our 30th). But as AIDS hits its 25th year since being discovered in the 1980s, detection, treatment, and understanding of the disease has come a long way yet has miles to go. There were 25 million new infections in the past 5 years with 15 million deaths over the same period. Currently 38.6 million people worldwide are infected (which is up from 37.3 million in 2005). Some drops in prevalence of the disease in Africa suggests that the rate of infection is slowing.

As you wolf down your Boca Burgers, Tofu Pups, and PBR on this beautiful Memorial Day, take a moment to think about the soldiers lost over the centuries so you could do so without having to speak British English or German. And as you wearily head back to work this week, think about another fallen group – the 15 million that have died of AIDS since 2001.

Sorry you didn't get a chance to see David Blaine at Lincoln Center? Wish you could have seen the human spectacle and had all of your important questions answered? How did he hold his breath so long? How did his skin not fall off? How did he, er, handle his business without sullying the crystal clear water he bobbed about in? Well, too bad.

(Boys and) Girls Just Want to Have Sun

Gothamist Health learned somewhere along the way that smoking one cigaretteis as likely to give you lung cancer as is 4 days of breathing New York City air. That's almost enough to make one want to hold their breath while walking down Broadway. It also makes David Blaine'slatest stunt sound a bit less insane (but not much). As we know, the modest, T-shirt clad street magician is back and has been gracing the Upper West Side with a new feat, spending an entire week under water...only to attempt to break the world record for holding his breath (which currently stands at 8 minutes 58 seconds) while freeing himself from 150 pounds of chains after the week is up. How will he pull off this Houdini-esque stunt without the proverbial smoke and mirrors? Apparently by using sound medical and physiologic reasoning: In an attempt to lower his body's metabolic demands (and thus his oxygen requirement), he has shed about 50 pounds over the past few months. Blaine also plans on meditating to relax, another way to lower his body's O2 needs.

Smoke Gets in Your Clothes

For a short, scary time last spring, Gothamist Health broke our iPod and found ourselves having to go to work, run errands, and jog without the blaring sounds of whatever-it-is-the-kids-are-listening-to-these-days. But a funny thing also happened, our hearing improved. We know - sounds crazy. But we were asking people to repeat themselves less and even found ourselves watching TV at a lower volume. That is, until we got a new iPod and starting shouting like cranky old men again. Turns out we weren't nuts (at least not about this).

Got 1% milk?

Cramping your style

Looking for something to do this Friday? Well, why not start off the night with some photoblogs! Friday evening at 7 is the 4th installment of the ever popular New York City Photobloggers talk at the Apple Store. The evening's speakers are Jenene Chesbrough, Raul Gutierrez, Nontajit "Go" Lertworachon, Jay Parkinson (aka Gothamist Health), Travis Ruse, Eliot Shepard, and Keith Kin Yan.

The NYCDOH released today information about a Bronx man who injected himself with suspected contaminated heroin. He reportedly did not feel his typical euphoric state afterwards and presented to the hospital complaining of diffuse pain that progressively worsened into severe muscle spasms. He eventually was placed on a ventilator and his status remains unknown. The DOH believes that the heroin was possibly contaminated with strychnine or Clostridium tetani. Gothamist Health believes that street drugs are...well...bad. Who knows what kind of conditions in which these substances are manufactured? Obviously the FDA has no power to regulate potency, purity, and sterility in the process in even the cleanest meth labs out in Missouri. On second thought, neither does the FDA have the power to regulate any of the (air quotes) Dietary Supplements and Herbal Remedies (air quotes) we as Americans love to feed our bodies. Thanks to the Clinton Administration's failure to ensure that herbs sold to unsuspecting Americans receive strict regulation, we now must guess which grassy area of the Sheep Meadow is being sold to us as St. John's Wort (hopefully it's not the grass under the butt of that slimy dude that hit on me and my girl). So once again, please think long and hard about what you put in your body -- be it heroin or ginkgo biloba. And be smug knowing you might have to spend an arm and a leg on your herbs. The study referenced above found that the higher priced supplements also tended to be the most pure. By the way, if you are wondering what the hell that picture is, it's a painting by Sir Charles Bell of a soldier suffering muscle spasms while dying of tetanus.

Gothamist Health wants to wish everybody a happy World Tuberculosis Day 2005! And when you go out tonight to celebrate, you can eat, drink, and be merry knowing that tuberculosis rates have reached an historic low with only 1,039 cases reported in New York City in 2004. This is a 73% decline since the peak of TB in NYC in 1992. Although the decline is something for our friends at the NYCDOH to be proud of, NYC still has about double the national rate of TB. NYC is the very definition of an immigration melting pot and, unfortunately, TB disproportionately affects immigrants. Sixty-eight percent of all cases of TB were found in foreign-born New Yorkers and most were from either China, Ecuador, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Mexico, or India. TB is passed from person-to-person via micro-droplets exhaled from people infected with TB and usually requires prolonged exposure in enclosed spaces.

The best predictor of one’s health is one’s wealth. And no better an illustration of that fact is this week’s NYCDOH’s report about the health of women in New York City. Women in the poorest neighborhoods have a life expectancy 5 years shorter than those who live in the highest income neighborhoods. Hispanic women and women with low incomes are less likely than others to have health care coverage. Low-income women are the most likely to report fair or poor health, regardless of race/ethnicity. Low-income Hispanic women exercise less. Black and Hispanic women are more likely to be obese and low-income black women have the highest rates of obesity. New AIDS diagnoses are highest among black women (likely heavily contributing to the Black community’s widespread belief the HIV virus was concocted in a federal laboratory). AIDS deaths are lowest in high-income neighborhoods in NYC. Black women in NYC have the highest hospitalization rates for mental illness. Alcohol and drug-related hospitalization rates are highest among women living in very low-income neighborhoods. Women with health care coverage are more likely to receive mammograms and Pap tests than those without coverage.

Carnegie Hall and Rockefeller Center. Don't you just love 'em? What would the city be like at Christmastime without the tourist-infested tree in the plaza? Or even worse, what if The Today Show's, Dr. Judith Reichman, had no outlet to provide the nation with her sound expert medical advice? And where else would be better to hear the intricacies of David Sedaris' sexy little voice than Carnegie Hall?

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