Since the tap water scares of the early 1990s, intense marketing campaigns have convinced consumers that bottled water is the only safe alternative to the tap. But do-it-yourself options like home water filtration systems are generally more convenient and less expensive than bottled water, which costs consumers 22 billion per year. A closer look into the water that glints so refreshingly within its plastic bottle reveals some startling facts: According to the National Resources Defense Council, 40 percent of all bottled water is nothing more than local tap water, transferred from the pipe to the plastic with little or no treatment. Despite this, the average cost of bottled water is 1,000 times that of tap water. These high prices should suggest higher filtration standards for bottled water. However, the Food and Drug Administration sets the same or lower standards for bottled water that the Environmental Protection Agency sets for tap water. According to the National Resources Defense Council, this leads to about 22 percent of all bottled water having...

For some peculiar reason, whenever I address a health issue and my male friends are present, the discussion is quickly redirected to another subject as they try to avoid the discussion. I recently encountered the same phenomenon and one of my friends responded that men are feeling guilty of making mistakes when it comes to their health. From forgetting to eat their daily fruit and veggies indulging in a hamburger of French fries, to scheduling an appointment with the doctor only when the symptoms they have been experiencing for weeks intensify, men feel guilty for not taking care of their health and try to avoid any type of discussion that reminds them of that fact. If you are familiar with the old story that men do not need to ask for street advice, as they can always find their way, they also generally tend not to seek out help when it comes to their health as they are always capable of surpassing the problem they have been facing and heal themselves. In fact, statistics reveal that women worry more about their health status than men do, and they...

More than 1,000 children are born with limb loss every year in the United States. Most of those cases are due to a simple prenatal accident known as amniotic banding. This occurs very early in a pregnancy when the mother s womb begins to build a support structure for the growing fetus. In about one out of every 5,000 pregnancies, one of the tiny fibers in that support structure breaks or pulls loose from the uterine wall and wraps around a tiny limb much like a tourniquet. In many cases, the limb ceases to develop beyond the constriction. Until the advent of myoelectric upper extremity prostheses for children as a result of the thalidomide disaster of the 1950s, infants and children were confined to wearing a mechanical prosthesis invented in 1812 and in general use during the Civil War era. Today, technology exists to let children with a limb loss enjoy a normal life. The crucial factor is achieving a comfortable, secure fit. With prosthetic legs of stronger, lighter and more responsive materials, and hands that grasp and open on command, children can...