Healthline Blogs
Dr. Paul Auerbach is the world's leading outdoor health expert. His blog offers tips on outdoor safety and advice on how to handle wilderness emergencies.
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Feb 11 2013
Topical Ivermectin Lotion for Treating Head Lice
In a situation of poor hygiene and shared living quarters, particularly overseas, you may acquire head and/or body lice, which make their homes predominantly in hair-covered areas of the body. The overwhelming symptom is itching. To search for...
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Feb 04 2013
Public Health Interventions and Snowmobile Fatality Rates
Snowmobile fatalities are tragic events. Advocating speed limits, particularly at night (when riding in darkness) and not drinking alcohol are policies that have been attempted. Snowmobile accidents continue to occur. The American College of Em...
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Jan 28 2013
Physician Warnings for Persons with Impairments
As a physician, I sometimes identify persons with conditions that make them vulnerable to accidents and injuries. Physical or emotional disabilities, a pattern of substance abuse, forgetfulness, dementia, poor physical condition, and many other pr...
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Jan 21 2013
Computer Modeling and the Risk of All-Terrain Vehicle Rollover
All-terrain vehicles (ATVs) have been associated with accidents. For the uninitiated, they may appear safe and easy to operate, but the fact is that they are heavy and powerful machines that must be carefully operated to avoid mishaps. The Amer...
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Jan 14 2013
Death From a Brown Recluse Spider Bite
“Emergency Department Death From Systemic Loxoscelism” (Annals of Emergency Medicine 2012;60:439-441) describes the unfortunate death of a 3-year-old child resulting from a brown recluse spider bite. In this case report, the child died from sev...
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Jan 02 2013
Impulse Buying for Safety
One of the best perspective pieces to come appear in a long time was published recently in the New England Journal of Medicine (367;15:1381-83, 2012). Authored by Deborah A. Cohen, MD, MPH and Susan H. Babey, PhD and titled “Candy at the Cash R...
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Dec 10 2012
Risk Factors for Death within 30 Days of "Passing Out"
“Syncope” is medical jargon for “passing out” – becoming unconscious for a period of time, then waking up. This certainly happens to people from time to time when they are outdoors, and is always disconcerting. Sometimes the cause is easily det...
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Dec 03 2012
Wilderness Medical Society Practice Guidelines for the Prevention and Treatment of Lightning Injuries
The Wilderness Medical Society (www.wms.org) is publishing a series of guidelines on the diagnosis and treatment of a number of outdoor medicine-related issues, such as high-altitude illnesses and frostbite. The most recent is an article about ...
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Nov 06 2012
Atrial Fibrillation, Abnormal Heart Rhythms, and Stroke
When the atria (“upper,” smaller chambers of the heart) are fibrillating (quivering) instead of fully contracting in a rhythmic fashion, then these chambers of the heart are not emptying with each heartbeat, and residual swirling blood has a c...
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Nov 01 2012
Honey for Nocturnal Cough
Honey is a useful substance in a pinch for putting into an open wound to prevent or limit bacterial growth, and is touted by some to have anti-seasonal allergy properties. Now there is a study that appears to confirm its usefulness as a remedy...
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