When you go to your doctor’s office, do you sometimes see a provider with N.P. or P.A. after their name?
In 2010, the Affordable Care Act recognized both nurse practitioners (N.P.) and physician assistants (P.A.) as primary care providers. As demand for health care grows in the U.S., these advanced care practitioners (ACPs) will become more and more important.
One of the most common issues we all can face in a heatwave is a heat-related illness.
Your body has a natural cooling system that is always working to maintain a safe temperature. Sweating helps your body cool down, but when you are exposed to high temperatures and the sun for a long time—working or exercising outdoors, for example—your cooling system has to work harder.
In that situation, your body sends more blood to your skin—and away from your muscles, brain and other organs. That can lead to a heat illness.
The verdict is in: don’t stick a cotton swab in your ear! Or anything else, for that matter.
As satisfying as it may be to try to clean your ears with a cotton swab, the reality is, you’re not really cleaning them at all. You’re pushing the wax in deeper, which can eventually cause damage and hearing loss.
Cotton swabs push more than 90 percent of earwax deeper than it belongs, to where it can’t get out.
