March is National Nutrition Month. Coincidentally, March also marks the best time of the year to plant a variety of different fruits and vegetables. Eating locally grown foods is beneficial for the health for a number of reasons – mainly because it cuts down on the amount of preservatives and additives inside different foods. Many health organizations assert that these additives are linked to several different detrimental conditions, one of which being pancreatic cancer. The severity ...

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According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, incidences of the mumps have decreased 99 percent since the era before widespread vaccinations. But tell that to the 10 states that have seen outbreaks of the mumps in the past month. So far, there have been 69 reported cases of the mumps this year. It seems to have started in Iowa, but it quickly spread to places like Colorado, Indiana and Massachusetts. The mumps virus ...

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We at AFC/Doctors Express are hoping that one of your New Year’s resolutions was to maintain a healthy lifestyle, and to help you stay on track, we have compiled a list of things to look out for when you’re evaluating your health. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, heart disease is the leading cause of death among adults in the United States. You get exhausted easily. If you notice ...

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" Swimmer’s ear develops after excess water has lodged itself inside a person’s ear canal. This usually happens to people after swimming in any body of water – whether it be an ocean, freshwater, or even a chlorinated pool. This water build-up inside the ear makes it easy for bacteria to grow, which induces a number painful and aggravating symptoms. These symptoms include: Difficulty hearing Lingering pain in ear canal Itchiness inside of ear Bright ...

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" Along with a host of other illnesses, strep throat is most prevalent during winter. Strep throat is a bacterial infection caused by the Streptococcus bacteria. While most strep cases are found in children, adults can develop strep throat as well. The infection is highly contagious as it spreads person-to-person via saliva. If a person with strep throat coughs near a doorknob, anyone who touches that doorknob could be susceptible to contracting strep throat. Strep throat ...

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By this point, you’ve probably heard of the Zika Virus. For the last year, it has spread rapidly throughout South America and has recently reached as far North as the Caribbean. The virus is transmitted primarily through daytime mosquitoes, which are initially infected from biting infected humans. The first concrete evidence of Zika Virus being found in humans was in 1952 after a serological survery was conducted in Uganda and Nigeria. For the next ...

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The United States is one of the most diverse nations in the world. As different as we may seem, our health issues can be very similar. Health care trends tend to be pretty consistent across large swaths of the population, so it’s important to pay attention when one becomes widespread. Your local AFC/Doctors Express can advise you on which conditions should concern you and how to take action to prevent them. The No ...

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" The hot, humid summer weather effectively notifies the body when it gets dehydrated. Between the sweating, headaches and light-headedness, the summer heat puts an obvious toll on the body. Because these effects of dehydration are so obvious, we easily recognize when we need to hydrate on warm summer days. But during the winter, the intense cold masks many of dehydration’s symptoms, making anyone outdoors susceptible to developing dehydration. This makes it incredibly important to ...

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Here is the second part of our series on flu season! We hope you took our advice from last week and got your flu shot! We’re going to get a bit more into the nitty-gritty about how the flu spreads and what makes the flu vaccine work. So hang on, we’re diving right in!   The influenza virus is a respiratory virus, and it spreads primarily through contact with respiratory droplets. However, these droplets ...

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By the time Winter Storm Jonas finally quit terrorizing the mid-Atlantic states, 48 people had died. As soon as Jonas arrived on January 22nd, it had grown clear that the storm was going to be historical, and by the 23rd, it had succeeded in virtually shutting down Washington D.C., New York City and Philadelphia. While those of us in Massachusetts should consider ourselves lucky for getting just a mere dusting, we should interpret the ...

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