Take Care of Those Toes!

As the weather gets warmer outside, it’s time to check in with our feet. After all, warm weather means swimming pools and flip-flops and feeling the grass between our toes as we walk around barefoot, right? So in honor of International Foot Health Awareness Month, as well as the upcoming summer, we’d better go into the warm weather prepared!

For some general information about foot health, check out this page from the National Library of Medicine, and this one from the American Podiatric Medical Association. The American College of Foot and Ankle Surgeons has a lot of great information too, on everything from tips on going barefoot to treating your feet right on your summer vacation. The ACFAS even has info separated into categories for men, women, and diabetics, all of whom have separate issues related to their feet. The American Orthopaedic Foot and Ankle Society also has a great page to help you with an initial evaluation of your feet, to determine how healthy they are or aren't.

For women in particular, warm weather may mean a trip to the salon for a pedicure. The American Academy of Dermatology offers up this page of tips for the perfect (and perfectly safe) pedicure; another good pedicure resource is this printable tip sheet from the American Podiatric Medical Association. And if your nails just look funky, don't just throw some polish on there! You could inadvertently be compounding a fungus or infection. Check out this page from the National Library of Medicine to find out what might be going on.

Curious About Alternative Therapies? We've Got Plenty of Info!

While many of the health resources owned by the St. Louis Public Library or referenced on this blog refer to diseases and traditional health treatments, we also have a wide collection of materials and sources on alternative therapies and homeopathic remedies, from acupuncture and reflexology to medicinal herbs.

Below is a just a sample of some of the titles we have on alternative medicines:

• Grow Your Own Drugs: Easy Recipes for Natural Remedies and Beauty Fixes by James Wong
• Homeopathy for Today's World by Rajan Sankaran
• How Come They're Happy and I'm Not? The Complete Natural Medicine Program for Healing Depression for Good by Peter Bongiorno
• National Geographic Guide to Medicinal Herbs
• The Complete Guide to Growing Healing and Medicinal Herbs: Everything You Need to Know Explained Simply by Wendy M. Vincent
• The History of American Homeopathy: From Rational Medicine to Holistic Health Care by John S. Haller
• The Natural Medicine Guide to Autism by Stephanie Marohn
• The Natural Pregnancy Book: How to Have a Happy, Healthy Pregnancy and Birth by Anne Charlish and Kim Davies
• The New Healing Herbs: The Essential Guide to More Than 125 of Nature's Most Potent Herbal Remedies by Michael Castleman

Additionally, there are plenty of good sources on alternative medicines available online, if you know where to look. The Natural Medicines Comprehensive Database and the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine both provide good, unbiased information about alternative medicines and therapies. Meanwhile, nearly any official health-related institute should have a section addressing natural remedies; a few examples include: the National Cancer Institute, the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America, the National Psoriasis Foundation, and the National Multiple Sclerosis Society.

Keep checking back at the library as we get more books in on alternative therapies. There are several on order!

Welcome to Allergy Season!

It’s finally springtime in St. Louis! That means baseball season (Go Cards!) and an influx of runny noses

and red, itchy eyes. Yes, it’s allergy season once again! Everywhere you turn, there are lovely (and sneeze-worthy) flowers, storms causing sinus pressure, and a sudden outbreak of mold spores. In short, it’s a haven for seasonal allergies.

So what can you do to alleviate some of that seasonal discomfort? The National Library of Medicine can get the ball rolling, with a couple of general articles on allergies, allergic reactions, and hay fever, as well as how to handle allergies and asthma in relation to pollen, mold, and general care. For information on ALL kinds of allergies, check out the website for the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease, which has plenty of info on research, treatments, and types of allergens.

For additional info on treatment, check out this article from the Mayo Clinic and this one from the Food and Drug Administration, both of which discuss allergy medications. And if you determine that you need an allergist to see you through the season, check out this doctor finder from the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology. The AAAAI also has a “virtual allergist” to help address some general questions, though keep in mind that you should talk to your doctor about anything you want to treated or tested for. Here’s an article discussing how when you may or may not need allergy testing.

If you’d like to brave the nice spring weather, check the AAAAI's page for local pollen counts and then stop by the St. Louis Public Library and pick up one of our books on allergies, a few of which are listed here:

• The Epidemic of Absence: A New Way of Understanding Allergies and Autoimmune Disease by Moises Velasquez-Manoff
• 100 Questions and Answers About Allergies by Jonathan Corren
• Allergies and Asthma: What Every Parent Needs to Know edited by Michael J. Welch
• The Vitamin Cure for Allergies by Damien Downing
• No More Allergies, Asthma or Sinus Infections: The Revolutionary Diet Approach to Eliminating Upper Respiratory Problems--Including Children's Middle Ear Infections by Lon Jones
• The Unhealthy Truth: How Our Food Is Making Us Sick--And What We Can Do About It by Robyn O'Brien with Rachel Kranz

One final thought before we go: no matter how much we may hate seasonal allergies, we’re not alone. According to this study from the National Institute of Health, the prevalence of allergies is the same, no matter where in the U.S. you live.