General Wellness

The beauty of summer includes sunshine, time outside, open water and grilling. It also comes with UV rays, skateboards and scooters, open water and open flames. While summer can be nothing but fun in the sun, it can also be dangerous. The following tips are designed to keep you and your family safe and sound all summer.

If you were preparing to run an Ironman race – 2.4 miles swimming, 112 miles biking and 26.2 miles running – how would you eat? Drink? Take care of yourself and your body?

A longtime runner and regular in road races, Clinic Sofia Physician Assistant Allie Nowak is training for the Madison Ironman in September and uses nutrition to fuel her workouts and days at work as she prepares for the upcoming race. She consumes a whole foods-based diet with vegetables and fruit, grass-fed meat, fish and healthy fats such as nuts, seeds, avocado and coconut, and focuses on three healthy meals a day for energy and wellness.

Everyone is at risk for sexual assault. Every 107 seconds, someone in America is assaulted, according to the Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network.

It can happen to anyone – women and men, young and old – but it is important to remember that it is never the victim’s fault. While it is important to be cautious in unfamiliar surroundings, in eight out of 10 cases, the victim knew the person who sexually assaulted them, according to the National Sexual Violence Resource Center.

What are your top priorities? Your kids? Relationships? Work? Maybe a little social media and sleep?

Where does your health happen to fall on that list? If you’re like many women, it regularly drops to the bottom when life gets busy – and we all know how busy we are these days.

At Clinic Sofia, we see many women who suffer from varicose veins and ask us how best to treat them. We recently spoke to Dr. Megan Spartz of Spartz Vein Clinic who specializes in varicose and spider vein treatment. In addition to extensive training for treating venous disease, she puts her skills to use each year as part of a mission trip to Honduras to treat people with varicose veins. She shares some background on why varicose veins happen and when you need to seek treatment.

Zika made headlines last year with news out of Brazil, where some women who’d contracted the virus while pregnant gave birth to babies with smaller brains due to a condition called microcephaly. In addition to brain damage, microcephaly has been linked with feeding issues, developmental delays, seizures, hearing and vision loss, and more.

Recently, federal health officials have fanned the flames around Zika even higher – noting that Zika exposure can lead to miscarriages and stillbirths as well as other complications throughout the entire pregnancy – rather than just the first trimester. And while Zika’s effects in non-pregnant adults were previously considered mild, several cases have shown more severe effects from infected mosquito bites, including brain inflammation and temporary paralysis.