Believe it or not, there are significant effects to hugging another person. In a study from Carnegie Mellon University in 2015, people who had great social support in the form of a hug, had fewer colds than a control group. Four hundred and four adults were studied. Dr. Sheldon Cohen who was the lead author of the study concluded that “hugging protects people who are under stress”.

As we age, we sometimes see small threads cruise across our eyes. They are most visible when looking at something that is bright. They can be distracting and annoying, but they usually do not interfere with sight. They are actually strands that come from the vitreous, a gel like substance that keeps the eyeball round. Most people get used to them and short of finding them to be an occasional annoyance, pay no attention to them. They cause no medical conditions.

Graying hair is a big concern for both men and women. After age 30 hair begins to gray 10-20% every decade. The process by which hair grays revolves around the presence or absence of a cell type in the hair shaft. The pigment is derived from melanin in cells called melanocytes. These cells are the same cells that produce skin pigment and make us brown or give us olive complexions. When the pigment in the hair shaft dies the hair becomes gray or loses pigment.

This is summer time and the biggest concern we have here in Saddle River is about the huge numbers of deer. They seem to be everywhere, causing accidents, offering themselves up as food for the new crop of coyotes, and causing disease. All deer are carriers of ticks and ticks cause several diseases, the most important one being Lyme disease. I informally took questions from our residents and those of some neighboring towns that also have deer problems.

Spring is finally here and with it come the sneezes, coughs, runny noses, and symptoms that affect the entire body; symptoms like fever and muscle aches. We all suffer from allergies, which are immune reactions to normally innocuous environmental antigens. These foreign substances are called antigens or allergens and some examples might be pollen, mold, cat dander, dog fur, peanuts, etc. When we have a lot of rain, our gardens and lawns flourish, and our bodies are exposed to huge amounts of normally non-harmful agents. In the spring go out and run your finger along a surface and note the green stuff that you can easily lift off the surface of a lawn chair or a car hood. That’s what goes into your lungs and up your nasal passages.

One of the most vexing aspects of our busy lives is our inability to get a good night’s sleep. It amazes me that many patients live on Ambien or Lunesta as sleep aids.

It’s terrible to be fat. Most people are trying to lose weight, at least the patients that I see. There are a few individuals that aresvelte, but they are in the minority. Forty percent of adults and 19 % of children are now obese and with these numbers more than 50% of today’s children will be obese by the time they are 35 years of age. This is very striking data and the major reason that diabetes type 2 is on the rise. It is of course genetic in many families, but also the result of obesity and our bad diets.