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DO IT YOURSELF, TV PROGRAMS ON
You know how fixing a roof or dealing with that leaky plumbing looks so easy on TV right up until you try it yourself? You're not alone. TV programs explaining how to do household repairs make them seem simpler than they are. In the U.K., one study has shown a 27 percent rise in DIY accidents as people bite off more than they can fix. |
DOCTOR, BEING A
Doctors have unusually high rates of suicide. They also suffer from work-related conditions such as contact allergic dermatitis, contracted by exposure to latex gloves or substances such as antimicrobials, formalin, and benzocaine. |
DOCTORS
If you're not feeling well, the safest thing might be to take two pills and not call him in the morning. Medical errors kill nearly one hundred thousand Americans a year. It has been estimated that at any given moment, 3 to 5 percent of doctors are unfit to see patients, and the Public Citizen's Health Research Group has established a data bank of 20,125 doctors who have been disciplined for their mistakes. |
DOCTORS, MALE
Male doctors are more likely than their female counterparts to recommend mastectomy over lumpectomy for older women diagnosed with early-stage breast cancer, even where clinical indications for mastectomy are absent. Female doctors: don't think about this next time you have a patient with testicular cancer. |
DOCTORS' OFFICES, AFTERNOON VISITS TO
Next time you're going to the doctor, make sure you get up early. If you have undiagnosed diabetes, you're only half as likely to have it diagnosed if you visit your doctor in the afternoon instead of in the morning. |
DOCTORS' OFFICES, VISITS TO
Bring back house calls. Visiting a doctor's office may make it impossible to get an accurate blood pressure reading. Up to half of all readings may be either too high (because of the stress of being there) or too low (a condition termed "white coat nor-motension" that can disguise actual high blood pressure). |
DOGS
A dog is man's best friend, some of the time. In one recent year, 830,000 people required medical care in the U.S. as a result of dog bites. Over a two-year period, twenty-seven people, nineteen of them children were killed by dogs. Sixteen of the twenty-seven were killed by rottweilers and pit bulls, breeds that accounted for two-thirds of people killed by dogs over the past twenty years. Barking dogs are a major problem: one study in the U.K. found dogs came second only to loud music among "emphatic noise complaints," and these problems account for serious friction between neighbors practically everywhere. Dogs also carry diseases such as leptospirosis and visceral canine leishmaniasis, which can be fatal to humans. Get a cat instead. |
DOG CHEWS
Dog chews can transmit salmonella infections, small children who come in close contact with dogs and their chews are especially vulnerable. |
DOLLAR BILLS
Bill Gates probably wouldn't agree, but money is bad for you. A study found that one dollar bill in fourteen was contaminated by microbes that could cause serious illness, while 90 percent carried germs, including the notorious "flesh-eating bug." |
DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
And now, the next stop on our worrying world tour: the beautiful Dominican Republic! Most of us can't find it on a map, and maybe you shouldn't try: in that study of more than 31,000 tourists, 39 percent of those traveling to the Dominican Republic got sick. |
