Skin cancer prevention in summer months
ODESSA, Texas (KMID/KPEJ) – While spending time outside can be great for physical and reducing stress, too much exposure to harmful ultraviolet light can increase the risk of skin cancer.
At least 20% of American will develop skin cancer by the age of 70 showed data from Texas Oncology.
Ritchie Rosso with Pinnace Dermatology in Odessa, Texas, shared that anyone, no matter their race or ethnic background can be at risk for skin damage and skin cancer.
'Everyone should basically know what their skin is looking like month to month,' Rosso said. 'Know where your moles are know if they're darker or lighter that way you can have so they can sense whether anything is new anything is changing.'
According to the Mayo Clinic, types of skin cancer include:
Basal cell carcinoma
Melanoma
Nonmelanoma skin cancer
Squamous cell carcinoma of the skin
Signs of skin cancer include:
A new growth on the skin that might look like a mole, a bump or a scab.
A rough patch on the skin.
A sore on the skin that won't heal.
Changes to a mole or freckle, such as getting bigger or changing color.
Itchy skin around a skin growth.
Pain around a skin growth.
Common areas the body develops skin cancer are the lips, scalp, face and lips.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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4 Words That Changed My Life After Diagnosis
One particularly stressful day a few years ago, while driving to an important work event, I was seized with a severe bout of tics. This was not unusual for me. I'd been ticcing nearly all my life, and stress always exacerbated my tics. On this day, my snorts and jerks were so out of control that I rear-ended a car. That's when I finally visited a neurologist. I needed to know, literally, what made me tic. What he told me — 'You have Tourette syndrome' — came as a shock. It was also a relief. For as long as I can remember, I've had the characteristic vocal and motor tics associated with the condition. Secreting them away in my mental lockbox, burying them well out of sight of others, was how I dealt with them. A diagnosis brought clarity, and it meant that I could deal with my tics in a healthier way — or so I thought. I grew up in a small western New York town in the 1980s, those heady days of ozone-depleting hairspray, goofy mullets, and syrupy synth pop. In my rural community, very few people knew what Tourette was. I certainly didn't. When I was a teenager, a television program, possibly 60 Minutes, aired an episode on the subject that I watched with my mom. It featured a young man who shouted obscenities in some large American city. By that time I'd been ticcing for years — in fact, I'd already been hiding my tics for years. But I didn't recognize myself in this program, because never, not once, did I swear or shout in public. When I was in elementary school, a teacher once stopped class to tell me to quit making noises and 'doing that thing you're doing with your head.' She actually demonstrated 'that thing' in front of my classmates because I was apparently annoying her and disrupting her lesson. Every head turned my way, and I put mine down, humiliated. I could not tell her that I couldn't help myself. 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'Urge' may not be the right word for these head jerks, blinks, snorts, grunts, throat clearings, tongue clicks, etc., but it's the best I've got. From the moment I wake up to the moment I fall asleep, my body seems to have a will of its own. In any given hour, I probably tic at least 100 times. During periods of great stress, like when I rear-ended that car, my tics are like a parasitic fungus that assumes total control over my body. Nobody wants to twitch or make weird noises in public — to be the person people crane their necks to see. What's wrong with this guy? you imagine them thinking. After getting called out by my teacher, I only wanted to blend in — to become invisible — because when you're in elementary school, you don't want to be seen as a freak. You want to be like everyone else. I couldn't stop ticcing, but I discovered that I could make it less obvious. To shield myself from shame and embarrassment, I developed an arsenal of tic-hiding strategies. Instead of jerking my head, I would put my hand underneath the table and waggle my fingers or ball my fists repeatedly. Instead of snorting or chuffing — obvious and strange sounds — I'd click my tongue softly, like an irregular metronome. These tricks satisfied my near-constant urge to tic and kept me mostly hidden from view. I wasn't bullied or teased in school, as kids and adults with tics often are, but I probably would have been if I hadn't learned how to control my tics. I've been using these tricks ever since. When I'm out in public today, I'm keenly aware of my internal pressure to tic, but I've become adept at suppressing it, bottling it up and capping it tight. At home, where I'm free to be myself, it's a very different story. My tics come and go. Six months ago, I began squirting air from my mouth the way someone might blow hair off their face; a few weeks later, I started hocking as though to spit a loogie. Like uninvited guests overstaying their welcome, both tics remain with me as I write these words. Sometimes a particular tic will go away only to return a year later, like an exasperating big brother who'd gone off to college and come home with a sly grin and a shaggy beard. There is no cure for Tourette — all you can do is try to manage your tics. There are treatments available, ranging from antihypertensives like guanfacine and clonidine to alternative options like the antipsychotic drugs risperidone and Abilify. But I'd honestly rather have tics than the potential side effects these drugs can cause. When I was first diagnosed, I tried guanfacine and I'd wake up in the middle of the night so parched that it was like I'd swallowed sand; my sleeplessness felt more like a punishment, especially since the drug didn't even control my tics, so I quit taking the pill. 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‘I'm Not Quite Sure How to Respond to This Presentation'
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He approached the proceedings with a swaggering incredulity, challenging the staffers' efforts and pointing out the risks of systematic errors in their thinking. (In a pinned post on his X profile, Levi writes that 'the evidence is mounting and indisputable that mRNA vaccines cause serious harm including death'—a position entirely at odds with copious data presented at the meeting.) Shortly before the committee's vote to recommend a new, FDA-approved monoclonal antibody for preventing RSV in infants, Levi noted that he'd spent some time reviewing the relevant clinical-trial data for the drug and another like it, and found some worrying patterns in the statistics surrounding infant deaths. 'Should we not be concerned that maybe there are some potential safety signals?' he asked. 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'Secretary Kennedy has given this committee a clear mandate to use evidence-based medicine,' he said on Wednesday morning; 'The purpose of this committee is to follow evidence-based medicine,' he said on Wednesday afternoon; 'What is important is using evidence-based medicine,' he said again when the meeting reached its end. All told, I heard him say evidence-based at least 10 times during the meeting. (To be fair, critics of Kuldorff and his colleagues also love this phrase.) But the committee was erratic in its posture toward the evidence from the very start; it cast doubt on CDC analyses and substituted lay advice and intuition for ACIP's normal methods of assessing and producing expert consensus. 'Decisons were made based on feelings and preferences rather than evidence,' Morris told me after the meeting. 'That's a dangerous way to make public-health policy.'
Yahoo
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This Underrated Snack Might Be the Secret to Better Health, According to a New Study
This Underrated Snack Might Be the Secret to Better Health, According to a New Study originally appeared on Parade. Roughly 21 million American adults report having had a major depressive episode in a year, as reported by the National Institute of Mental Health. That's 8.3% of the population, and a pretty staggering number which doesn't account for the many people who may experience what they consider "minor" depressive episodes, which are also challenging and life-affecting. Treatment for any kind of depression, or anxiety for that matter, varies from person to person, and should always be directed by a trusted medical professional. But what if incorporating certain foods into your diet more often could help alleviate minor depression or anxiety symptoms, even just a little? Well, that's what one study set out to find out, and it honed in specifically on pistachios. Healthy Now💪 SIGN UP for tips to stay healthy & fit with the top moves, clean eats, health trends & more delivered right to your inbox twice a week 💪 In complete transparency, the study in question was supported by the American Pistachio Growers, however it was published in the Journal of Food Science and Nutrition Research, and led to some pretty interesting findings on how the nut can affect emotional health. Researchers looked at data from over 64,000 adults in the U.S. and found that people who ate pistachios had lower rates of anxiety and fewer problems with depression than those who didn't eat them. Honing in on a specific demographic, study participants ages 60 and above who ate pistachios had 16% less anxiety, and younger adults (ages 20 - 59) had fewer depression-related issues. Overall, pistachio eaters were about half as likely to have minor depression. "Pistachios are a rich source of bioactive nutrients, and our research suggests that modest consumption may play a meaningful role in supporting mental well-being," said Kristin Fulgoni, lead author and researcher at Nutrition Impact, LLC. "What we noticed is that even small amounts of pistachios—about an ounce a day—were linked to these benefits."More findings to ponder: Study participants who ate roughly two-ounches of pistachios at night for 12 weeks had more of what's considered "good" gut bacteria (including Roseburiaand Lachnospiraceae) that are known to produce a compound called butyrate. Though more research is needed, early studies suggest that butyrate may support gut and brain health. Pistachio eaters also had lower levels of other not-so-great bacteria, that have been connected to cognitive decline, poor mood state and other brain health challenges in observational studies. So is it worth adding pistachios to your diet? Well, that's up to you and your healthcare professional. But if you're already snacking on 'em, now you can certainly feel better about Underrated Snack Might Be the Secret to Better Health, According to a New Study first appeared on Parade on Jun 27, 2025 This story was originally reported by Parade on Jun 27, 2025, where it first appeared.
