About this column:
Hannah Lawrence is a registered nurse in Massachusetts. She holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Boston University and a Bachelor of Science degree in nursing from the MGH Institute of Health Professions.While there has been plenty of hype about the flu in the last year, another one of winter's unwelcome guests is strep throat. Strep is a common infection that travels readily between people, especially in crowded settings like schools. Like the flu, strep throat can lead to some very serious complications. Luckily, it is easy to test for and usually easy to treat.Strep throat usually causes a severe sore throat, but may cause other symptoms like headaches, a fever, and stomach pain. The throat of someone with strep may look red and inflamed, and sometimes white patches are visible on the …
Even though the weather is cooling down, ticks and Lyme disease are still a concern for families that spend time outdoors. Deer ticks are common in Sudbury because of the large white-tailed deer population, and deer ticks may be waiting on low plants to latch on to passing animals and people any time the temperature is above freezing, according to the Department of Public Health. Deer ticks are a particular concern because they may carry a bacteria called Borrelia burgdorferi, which causes Lyme disease. Lyme disease was first diagnosed in 1975 near Lyme, Conn. Since then it has become a …
Working this fall in a pediatrics office, I learned that youngsters routinely come in for head injuries sustained during sports or while horsing around with friends. Although concussions have been in the news related to NFL players and wrestlers, it's becoming more apparent that they can have serious effects even in high school athletes. Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School has been leading the effort to educate students, coaches, parents, and teachers about how to recognize and manage concussions. Signs of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a degenerative brain disease thought to be …
At the beginning of October, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) released a study about depression, which showed that an estimated 9 percent of adults in the United States feel depressed at any given time. The study found that people who participate in certain behaviors, including inactivity, alcohol abuse and smoking, are more likely to experience depression. I spoke with a local expert to find out how people can minimize their risk for depression, and how to help someone who is already depressed. John Stevens, PhD., a psychologist who has an office in Sudbury, explained that there are …
Flu season is just around the corner, along with all the discomforts of sore throats, runny noses, and achy, tired muscles. The best way to avoid the flu this year is not to fight it off, but to avoid it altogether by getting vaccinated and becoming immune to the most common strains of flu. Sudbury will have flu clinics when a supply of vaccine has come in, said Linda Sullivan, the Sudbury Board of Health nurse. Although last year Sudbury public schools had flu clinics for students because of the H1N1 virus, Jan Love, the administrative secretary at Josiah Haynes Elementary School, said she …
Although I have lived close to Sudbury for most of my life, I had not heard of the Nyanza Superfund site or the high mercury levels in fish from the Sudbury River until recently. This week, I spoke with some experts about why mercury levels continue to be a health issue, what you should know to avoid it, and how the public can stay informed. Even though the Nyanza Chemical Site in Ashland was one of the first Superfund sites and was cleaned up during the late 80s and 90s, the level of mercury contamination in fish from the Sudbury River is still a health risk, according to Jim Murphy, …
Last week in this column I wrote about high blood pressure and its associated risk of heart disease. This week I talked to Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn, a heart disease specialist from the Cleveland Clinic Wellness Institute, about treatment options and his interesting, effective, and unconventional solution. I learned about Dr. Esselstyn's work through a documentary film called Chow Down, which emphasizes that heart disease and some types of cancer can be prevented through a plant-based diet. Dr. Esselstyn conducted a study on a small number of people with severe heart disease. The study showed …
One of the most surprising lessons I learned in nursing school was that the leading cause of death in America is not car accidents, or cancer, or the flu, which I had come to expect from health news headlines. What kills people more than anything else in the United States is heart disease, a disease that has become so commonplace that it rarely receives the notoriety in the news that it deserves. Risk for heart disease can be controlled by a number of lifestyle factors, and it can be assessed by a very simple, non-invasive test: blood pressure. This week I spoke with Linda Sullivan, the Board…
Last week, kids returned to school for the fall. With an average of about 23 children per room, enclosed classrooms and shared school supplies create the perfect environment for germs to spread. What can you do to help your children avoid pesky colds and the more serious infections that can travel through schools? I spoke with Carol Bradford, the school nurse at Peter Noyes Elementary School, about the measures parents, teachers, and students can take to prevent colds. Bradford said it's normal to see an increase in the number of students with colds when the weather cools down and children …
