Safe Passage: Navigating Your Prescription Drugs, From Pickup to Takeback

If you are not taking your prescription medications as directed (or at all), you’re far from alone: Compliance is estimated at just 50% among U.S. patients. Unfortunately, adherence is a direct impact on quality and length of life, and overall healthcare costs, accounting for up to 50% of treatment failures and up to 25% of hospitalizations each year. The reasons …

The Female Factor: Alcohol is Not Gender-Neutral

Given the growing popularity of the cocktail culture and wine time, it’s important to know that alcohol affects women very differently than men – physiologically, psychologically and socially. It’s worth asking: For women, is the wine glass half full or half empty when considering the risk-versus-benefit ratio? First, there is the difference in women’s body composition. Women have more total …

Happiness Continuum: When Are the Best Years of Our Lives?

Is there a predetermined peak age for happiness, before which our normal outlook is gloomy and melancholy and after which we slump back into these non-euphoric ways? Like trying to define why some people are born to be joyful and others to play the role of curmudgeon, this issue has long intrigued psychological and social science researchers. While no singular …

An Update on the Measles Outbreak in the US

What are the newest guidelines for measles vaccinations? Adults with no evidence of immunity should get 1 dose of MMR. Immunity is defined as documented receipt of 1 dose, or 2 doses, 4 weeks apart if high risk, of live measles virus-containing vaccine, laboratory evidence of immunity or laboratory confirmation of disease, or birthdate before 1957. High-risk people, including healthcare …