Martin's Must-Reads

Martin's Must-Reads

By Betty Martin, Mark MartinArtsBooks
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Martin's Must-Reads episodes

  • The Dangers of Wearing Contact Lenses
    Contact lenses are known to provide people with more freedom to participate in everyday activities without feeling held back by glasses. But what happens when people misuse or over wear their contacts? Could that freedom cost them their sight? Contact lens wearers need to be mindful of the thousands of ways they can contract a virus or infection in their eyes. It is important to practice good contact lens hygiene to prevent hazardous injuries or possible blindness. While most people know not to
    2 min
  • The Effect of Tobacco Use During Pregnancy
    At week 9, only two months into pregnancy, a baby’s hands and fingers are developed. At this point the baby is only around 1.2 inches in size, and has its own faint heartbeat. Now, picture that developing baby with a cigarette between its tiny fingers. When mothers choose to smoke during their pregnancies, they might as well put cigarettes right into the hands of their unborn infants. According to The Western Journal of Medicine, “throughout the past decade, smoking has remained the single most
    2 min
  • Diabetes Burnout
    People with diabetes do not get to pick and choose when they want to deal with it. Diabetes is an ongoing disease that requires 24/7 work. But does having diabetes stop people from living their life to the fullest? There are probably many different answers to that question. According to Ginger Vieira, the author of, “Dealing with Diabetes Burnout,” on a daily basis, she tries to balance three things: diabetes, life, and happiness. Diabetes occurs when the pancreas is unable to produce enough
    2 min
  • Summer Blood Shortages
    The American Red Cross reports that although an estimated 38 percent of the U.S. population is eligible to donate blood, less than 10 percent of that eligible population actually donate each year. Donations at high school and college blood drives account for as much as 20 percent of the supply during the school year, but during the summer months, these donors are not as accessible. When vacations disrupt other regular donors’ schedules, we are faced with a summer blood shortage. Despite many
    2 min
  • I’m Not a Doctor, but I Play One on TV
    When I ask my health communication students to describe what childbirth is like, based on what they have seen on TV, they mention dramatic deliveries, perfectly clean newborns and instantly skinny mothers. The unrealistic images my students are describing are a result of cultivation theory. The more we see something depicted, the more we believe that is the reality, especially if we don’t have any real experience to compare it to. Watching medical shows can be problematic when fans develop a
    2 min
  • Mental Health First Aid
    If someone near you collapsed right now, would you be able to perform CPR? How about open heart surgery? This example is used by Heather Williams, a Substance Abuse Specialist at Cape Girardeau’s Community Counseling Center as she begins training a new group of Mental Health First Aid students. I’m Brooke Hildebrand Clubbs, Director of Health Communication at Southeast Missouri State University and I recently became one of the one million people who have completed a Mental Health First Aid
    2 min
  • Mumps!
    According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, since the pre-vaccine era, there has been more than a 99% decrease in mumps cases in the United States. However, outbreaks can occur when people are in a crowded environment. Here on our campus, we recently had a mumps outbreak, with 54 confirmed cases. What are the mumps and how did they make a comeback in Cape Girardeau? Newsweek reported in February of this year that the mumps virus targets the central nervous system, which is why
    2 min
  • Fibromyalgia - An Invisible Illness
    "My pain is invisible, so is the pain you inflict when you don’t believe me." This quote, shared by Fibromyalgia News Today was well received by its readers, who claimed it very accurately reflected their daily struggles. May 12 is Fibromyalgia Awareness Day. The National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases defines fibromyalgia as “a disorder that causes muscle pain and fatigue. People with fibromyalgia have pain and tenderness throughout the body. “ Symptoms include
    2 min
  • National Physical Fitness and Sports Month
    You sometimes hear students talking about how they will never use algebra in real life. Well, I don’t frequently diagram sentences or play badminton, but that doesn’t mean the time I spent in school on these activities wasn’t worthwhile. It’s National Physical Fitness and Sports Month. If you stopped thinking about participating in physical fitness and sports when you last closed your high school gym locker, it might be time to reconsider. American leaders realized fitness was vital for our
    2 min
  • Job's Effect on Health
    "Oh, you hate your job? Why didn't you say so? There's a support group for that. It's called everybody, and they meet at the bar." Comedian Drew Carey’s gallows’ humor aside, we spend half our waking hours at work and our jobs can affect our health. Whether we are unhappy because of the workplace environment or we experience actual physical dangers at work, we might bring home mental and physical effects in addition to our paycheck. The American Psychological Association states that constant
    2 min

About Martin's Must-Reads

From the publisher's feed

There are one million new books published each year. With so many books and so little time, where do you begin to find your next must-read? There’s the New York Times Bestseller list, the Goodreads…