With a huge market of dry skin potions made of oils and natural herbal extracts and super duty all-day extra dry hand creams aimed at keeping skin moist throughout the harshest of conditions, dry hair seems to be the first part of the body that is neglected. Even though winter is almost over, dry skin doesn’t end with the first day of spring and your hair needs to be taken care of just as much as cracked hands, feet, or elbows.

Having an itchy, dry scalp can not only be annoying but sometimes unsightly and embarrassing by showing up on your clothes. When the scalp is very dry the follicles flake off in little white sheets that can fall from your head when you least expect them, unlike dandruff, having a dry scalp can be caused by too much sun, too much shampooing, blow drying, chlorine, or coloring among other harsh ways of stripping the natural oils from your hair. When dry scalp flakes occur normally they are slight and only occur once every month as the skin sheds.

Hair masks can also be temporarily beneficial for overly dry hair. Oils such as almond, avocado, olive, rosemary, shea, and burdock among others can be mixed with honey and used on the hair to restore the moisture. Another natural remedy is mixing egg yolks and massaging them onto the hair and scalp and some people like to use mayonnaise to revive dry hair.

With Hollywood putting increasing pressure on society and reality shows obsessing over body image, high percentages of the masses have been inspired to go under the knife seeking nips here and tucks there to spruce up the reflection they see in the mirror. Some plastic surgeries are corrective and some are for medical reasons beyond the superficiality of its stigma. The American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery (ASAPS) recently released their 2008 statistics with some surprising results perhaps due to the dwindling economy.

Cosmetic surgery procedures mostly declined during 2008 at least 10 percent and in some cases more, there is an interesting fairly new procedure that rose a bit during the last year. Alan Gold, MD, President of ASAPS says that the reason for the smaller numbers from 2008 is obviously the recession we have all been facing, “It’s clearly the economy, and people’s concerns about their future income, their time off from work to have a procedure, and recovery from that,” Gold hopes that once the economy bounces back the cosmetic procedures both surgical and nonsurgical will most likely as well, “Maybe not this year—it might be next year.”

Besides the popular cup-size boost, another positive in the report was the surprise upshoot of laser skin resurfacing which uses a quick and easy procedure different from earlier versions with the same results. Over 500,000 laser resurfacings were done in 2008—number five of the top five nonsurgical procedures following Botox, laser hair removal, hyaluronic acid (including Restylane), and chemical peels—most likely because of their less expensive price tag and small amount of recovery time.

Across the U.S. there are more than 16,000 nursing homes that house 1.7 million beds for those who need long-term care. However, with today’s elderly being healthier than the generation before them and more likely to stay in their homes, and with additional options such as assisted living facilities for seniors who need help, the nursing home population has dwindled in recent years, leaving a large number of beds vacant. With many state-run mental institutions closing their doors, leaving fewer public hospital beds for mental patients, many of their patients are being channeled into nursing homes. This has left traditional elderly nursing home patients housed beside younger, stronger mentally ill patients with schizophrenia, depression or bipolar disorder —often a recipe for disaster.

“Sadly, we’re seeing the tragic results of the failure of federal and state governments to provide appropriate treatment and housing for those with mental illnesses and to provide a safe environment for the frail elderly,” said Janet Wells, director of public policy for the National Citizens’ Coalition for Nursing Home Reform.

Utah’s state mental health officials dispute the study. “That’s just unbelievable,” said Robert Snarr, manager of state adult programs with Utah Division of Substance Abuse and Mental Health. “That’s not happening in Utah.” He says statistics kept by the state do not match the AP study, reflecting only a 10 percent increase in nursing-home admissions for the mentally ill in all age groups for that time frame. He isn’t sure why there is a discrepancy between the AP study data and state data, but that it could be because state numbers “don’t look at private-pay or Medicare,” only at Medicaid. Snarr also noted that psychiatric patients are eligible for nursing-home admittance only if they require skilled nursing services for additional medical problems. And even then, he said, the patient must be psychiatrically stable. Otherwise, inpatient mental health care is handled at mental health-specific hospitals. “Our screenings show exactly what the patients need,” he said. “I don’t know how other states do it.”

In 1993, WHO declared a global health emergency because the occurrence of TB was rising by one infection per second, a rate that continues today, although it should be known that only about one in ten people who become infected with the TB bacteria actually develop the full-blown disease. The Stop TB Partnership later formed what they call a, “Global Plan to Stop Tuberculosis” hoping to save 14 million lives between 2006 and 2015, a goal they are still trying to reach by searching for a better vaccine.

The worldwide epidemic of tuberculosis is mainly found in third world countries and is being monitored by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). About 1.5 million people die of TB every year. South Africa recently has been hit the hardest (infections of TB have almost tripled) because of the also high rate of HIV in people living there because treatment is expensive and ongoing and the patient’s immune systems are weakened.

TB has been around since ancient Greece as was even written about by Hippocrates—“the father of medicine,” known for the Hippocratic Oath—as the most widespread disease of his time and even Egyptian mummies have been found with a strain of TB. Tuberculosis was thought to be closely linked to a practice of vampirism in the early to mid-18th century as one member of a family died from the disease the rest of the family would follow slowly after, each developing symptoms to look as if they had been up all night sucking blood. Pale skin, swollen and red eyes and coughing up blood makes it an all-too-easy assumption for commoners not familiar with the science behind the contagious condition. After that theory was thrown out, having TB became a popular trend throughout the 19th century because many artists and creative-types were found to have incredible bursts of frenzied energy in which they were able to produce great work when their symptoms were worst and often just before death, causing a state of heightened euphoria.