Dying: A Book of Comfort
 

• Maintaining mobility and preventing disability are key to living independently as we age

   (National Instititution on Aging, NIH)

   Mobility — the ability to move or walk freely and easily — is critical for functioning well and living independently. As we age, we may experience changes to our mobility.

    There are many reasons for these changes, including changes in gait (how we walk), balance, and physical strength. All of these can increase the number and severity of falls and make it harder for older adults to go out and visit with friends and family and continue doing their activities independently.

     Older adults who lose their mobility are less likely to remain living at home; have higher rates of disease, disability, hospitalization, and death; and have poorer quality of life. In today’s health care environment, improving health largely falls outside of health care facilities.

     People with functional limitations and chronic conditions are four times more likely than the general population to be among the five percent costliest users of health services. And yet, function is rarely addressed in medical visits.

• The MyMobility Plan for Older Adult Drivers (CDC)

    The MyMobility Plan can help you stay safe, mobile, and independent as you age. CDC developed this planning tool to help older adults plan for future mobility changes that might increase their risk for motor vehicle crashes and falls.

 

• MyMobility Tool (CDC) Download this informational tool to help older adults maintain their mobility and independence as they age.

• Falls-free checkup (National Council on Aging)
    Answer 13 simple questions to get your falls risk score and resources to prevent falls.

    Falls and motor vehicle crashes are the leading causes of injury and injury death in older adults. There are many negative outcomes for older adults if they stop driving or fall, including potential decreases in their health, social interaction, and the ability to get around. CDC developed this planning tool, using available scientific evidence, to help older adults plan for future mobility changes that might increase their risk for motor vehicle crashes and falls.

• Mobility Resources for Older Adult Drivers (CDC)

• Medicine Risk Task Sheet

   https://www.cdc.gov/older-adult-drivers/media/pdfs/Medicine-Fact-Sheet.pdf

   Scroll to bottom of that page for medications that may be problematic for falling and for auto crashes.

   Medications can be linked to injuries as we age. Three out of every four older adults take at least one medication commonly linked to falls or crashes.

• CAPABLE National Center (888-352-9062)
---Frequently asked questions (CAPABLE website)

Examples (for in case tips disappear from online)

    How the CAPABLE team leverages home modifications to increase function and independence.

    Examples include:

 The handy worker lowered the cabinets so Mrs. R can reach items and organize her spices using less energy.

    The handy worker installed an above stove mirror so Mrs. R can see food in pots and pans while seated.

    A reacher gives Mrs. R better control to pick up items.

The handy worker added an extended chain to her light and switched the bulb to an LED.

    Mrs. R can now operate the light safely without her husband’s help and she can read the sheet music better.

    Wearing arthritis compression gloves and a back brace decreases her pain.

    The handy worker constructed a higher bench to prevent back pain when playing the piano.

---Beyond Grab Bars case study (Capable)

• Older People Will Need Much Better Transit (Laura Bliss, City Lab, 8-4-17)

    Transit agencies, take note: For the growing number of Americans over 65, mobility can’t wait.

    A TransitCenter report makes the case that healthy aging hinges on better mass transportation. Good transit can ease isolation, can connect to medical care, is safer than driving, means a safer way to walk, and current options just aren't cutting it.

    "Most transit systems, especially those built prior to the Americans with Disabilities Act, don’t respond adequately to these limitations. Buses that lack accessible seating, stations without shade or benches, and connections that require crossing dangerous roads discourage elderly users. So do, for example, the 362 out of 472 subway stations in New York City that aren’t accessible to wheelchair users."

    The basics of transit haven't changed much. Microtransit could be a game-changer for seniors savvy with smartphones.

    Cities are also experimenting with subsidized ride-hailing services to get elderly residents around.

    And retiree-filled Altamonte Springs, Florida, has been straight-up subsidizing Uber rides for everyone.

    Riders of all ages value frequency and speed in their transit options most, and older riders also "emphasize accessibility and comfort, with shelter and seating ranking high among their priorities."

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See also
Evola vaccine
Evola virus (under Medical Mysteries)

  
Ebola disease: Key facts

    (World Health Organization)
• Ebola disease is a severe, often fatal illness in humans.
• Three different viruses are known to cause large Ebola disease outbreaks: Ebola virus, Sudan virus and Bundibugyo virus.
• The average Ebola disease case fatality rate is around 50%. Case fatality rates have varied from 25–90% in past outbreaks.
• Early intensive supportive care with rehydration and the treatment of symptoms improves survival.
• Approved vaccines and treatments are only available for one of the viruses (Ebola virus) and are under development for the others.
• Outbreak control relies on a package of interventions including intensive supportive care of patients, infection prevention and control, disease surveillance and contact tracing, laboratory services, safe and dignified burials, vaccination if relevant, and social mobilization.

• How Bad Could the Ebola Outbreak Get? Here Are 5 Key Factors.

(Stephanie Nolen, Samuel Granados, Amy Schoenfeld Walker, Carl Zimmer and Apoorva Mandavilli, NY Times interacctive, 6-23-26)

How widespread is testing? Limited testing meant missed cases early on, though things are improving.

   An early failure to identify the Bundibugyo virus, the species responsible for the outbreak, followed by a lack of testing equipment, led to major delays in identifying infected people. That has made current case counts almost certainly lower than reality.

Can infected people be traced and isolated? More Ebola exposures are being tracked, but blind spots remain. Experts think most contacts have not even been identified.

When will vaccines and treatment become available? Testing and approving vaccines and treatments could take several months or more. For now, the only treatment that the W.H.O. recommends is supportive care. That can include IV fluids, antibiotics for bacterial infections and management of organ failure and other complications.

How far might the infection travel? Global spread appears very unlikely. Spread within the highly mobile affected region is much more likely.

How deadly is the virus? It’s not clear yet, but this Ebola species may be less deadly than others.

• HHS confirms Americans with high-risk Ebola exposures will have access to experimental therapy

(Helen Branswell, STAT News, 6-4-26)

Antibody treatment has been developed by Mapp Biopharmaceuticals

• Crisis in the Hot Zone

   (Richard Preston, New Yorker, 10-19-91)

Lessons from an outbreak of Ebola. Note the year: 1991.

Like all viruses, Ebola and its cousin Marburg are parasites. They can copy themselves only inside a cell. Viruses need to use a cell’s equipment to reproduce.

• The Ebola Wars

   (Richard Preston, New Yorker, 10-20-2014)

As an epidemic widens, the virus is mutating. Geneticists are racing to keep up.

• Is Ebola Evolving Into a Deadlier Virus?

    (Richard Preston, New Yorker, 8-7-19)

The virus that has infected thousands in the Democratic Republic of the Congo has been replicating itself every eighteen hours for more than a year.

    Right now, there may be around six hundred people in eastern Congo who have Kivu Ebola particles replicating in their bodies. As Ebola re-creates itself, many of the resulting particles are deformed duds and can’t replicate further. The ones that can copy themselves are infective. The Kivu swarm, with its three new lineages of Ebola, may amount to about one or two quadrillion infective particles of the virus. If these particles were collected in one place, they would fill three teaspoons and would weigh about fifteen grams.

    That small space contains numberless genetic possibilities. The longer the outbreak is allowed to continue, the greater the chances that Ebola will mutate, get better at spreading in humans, and vastly enlarge its circle of victims.

• Ebola outbreak may be spreading faster than first thought, WHO doctor warns

    (BBC News, video, 3.37 minutes, 5-20-26)

• WHO chief concerned over ‘scale and speed’ of Ebola outbreak as Congo reports 134 dead

   (AP News, via MedPage Today, 5-19-26)

The director-general of the World Health Organization voiced concerns about the "scale and speed" of an outbreak of a rare Ebola variant in the Congo, where authorities reported a sharp rise to at least 131 suspected deaths and more than 500 suspected cases.

• Ebola Fast Facts (CNN)

• With no approved vaccine for Ebola outbreak, experts weigh testing a long shot

(Helen Branswell, STAT News, 5-18-26)

   While there is no vaccine for this type of Ebola, animal study suggests Merck’s Ervebo, designed for another strain of the virus, might offer some protection.

• Flawed tests and funerals allowed Ebola to spread undetected, sources say

   (Reuters, 5-18-26)

Local funeral practices helped the virus spread before any alarm was raised, diagnostic tests in a local laboratory were calibrated for the wrong strain of Ebola, and samples sent to Kinshasa were not stored or shipped properly, the officials said.
     Experts say the resulting delays risk hobbling efforts to contain the outbreak, which the World Health Organization at the weekend declared a public health emergency of international concern.
     "It's just a scattered mess right now. I don't think we have anything close to a real idea of how many cases there are," said Craig Spencer, an emergency physician and public health professor at Brown University.

• Ebola virus

   Background on ebola virus, in section on medical mysteries.
• Ebola vaccine

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• Lung Diseases (National Lung, Heart, and Blood Disorders Institute, NIH)

The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) conducts and supports research that expands our understanding of lung biology and how lung diseases start and progress, as well as studies and clinical trials that lead to new and improved ways to diagnose, treat, and prevent lung diseases.

---All health topics covered by NHLBI  (a huge list, in alphabetical order)

• Lung Infections, Illustrated (Lung Cancer Center)

• Lung Infections (Lung Cancer Center) A lung infection (pulmonary infection) occurs when microbes like bacteria, viruses, or fungi enter the lungs, causing inflammation and fluid accumulation, such as in pneumonia or bronchitis.

    The most common causes are viral (including COVID-19 and influenza) or bacterial, though fungi can also be responsible.

    Common symptoms include a persistent cough (producing yellow, green, or rusty mucus), chest pain, fever, shortness of breath, and fatigue.

Common types of lung infection:

    Pneumonia (infection of the air sacs, or alveoli)

    Acute Bronchitis (inflammation of the airways, or bronchial tubes)

    Walking Pneumonia (a mild form of pneumonia).

 

SERIOUS LUNG DISEASE:

• Lung disease (Cleveland Clinic)
 Lung disease is a general term for health conditions that affect your airways or lung tissue.

 Common lung diseases include asthma and COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease), pulmonary fibrosis, pneumonia, and lung cancer. 

 Cardiovascular diseases that affect your lungs — like pulmonary hypertension and pulmonary embolism — are also sometimes considered lung diseases.    

 

Lung disease can cause symptoms like shortness of breath and chronic cough.

Treatment depends on the type of lung disease you have. 
Most lung diseases are long-term (chronic).

You may be born with one (like cystic fibrosis) or you might develop one later in life (like COPD).

A few lung diseases, such as infections, are short-term and can be cured.

 

Types of lung disease (examples) include:

---Asthma, a condition that causes inflammation and narrows your airways

---Bronchiectasis, a condition where your airways widen and form pouches

---Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD, including emphysema), airway damage that makes it hard to breathe

---Cystic fibrosis, a pancreatic disease that affects your lungs

---Emphysema

---Infections like pneumonia and tuberculosis

---Pulmonary fibrosis and other types of interstitial lung disease, conditions that damage your lung tissue and can get worse over time

---Lung cancers, like non-small cell lung cancer, small cell lung cancer, and mesothelioma

---Lymphangioleiomyomatosis (LAM), a disease that causes cysts in your lungs.

• Rare Lung Diseases (Cleveland Clinic)

   Click on this link: Cleveland Clinic (not discussed on this blog post)

    Often called orphan lung diseases.

 

• Management and Treatments for Lung Diseases (Cleveland Clinic) 

Brief descriptions of: 

  Corticosteroids

  Inhaled medications (bronchodilators)

  Oxygen therapy

  Smoking cessation programs

  Anti-fibrotic and cytotoxic drugs (medications that can slow down lung scarring caused by certain types of lung disease)

  Biologic drugs (medications like rituximab that are sometimes used to treat autoimmune diseases and other causes of lung disease)

  Clinical trials (tests of new treatments to see if they are effective)

  Positive airway pressure (a BiPAP machine to help you breathe)

  Pulmonary rehabilitation (an exercise and education program to strengthen your lungs and help you manage certain lung diseases).

 

Smoking is the leading cause of preventable death worldwide, responsible for over 480,000 deaths annually in the U.S. alone.

It causes roughly 90% of lung cancer deaths and 80% of COPD deaths.

Cigarette smoke contains over 7,000 chemicals, with at least 69 known to cause cancer, affecting nearly every organ in the body.

Nicotine is highly addictive, reaching the brain within 10 seconds of the first puff.

Smoking damages airways, decreases immune system efficiency, and harms fertility in both men and women.

It causes accelerated aging of the skin, stained teeth, and severe gum disease

Cigarettes are the most littered item on Earth.

Tobacco kills up to half of its users who don't quit

Second hand smoke causes accelerated aging of the skin, stained teeth, and severe gum disease

 

• The Dirty Dozen: 12 Myths That Undermine Tobacco Control

1. People have free choice whether or not to smoke

2. Everyone knows how bad smoking is.

3. Just a few cigarettes a day can't hurt.

4. "Light" cigarettes are less harmful.

5. It's easy to stop smoking. If people want to quit, they will.

6. Cessation medications don't work.

7. Once a smoker, always a smoker.

8. Smokers may die earlier, but all they lose are a couple of bad years at the end of life.

9. Environmental smoke may be a nuisance, but it isn't deadly.

10. Tobacco is good for the economy.

11. We've already solved the tobacco problem.

12. The tobacco industry no longer markets to kids or undermines public health efforts.

 

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"This remarkable collection, coming from personal experience and wide reading, will help many find the potential of growth through loss."  ~Dame Cicely Saunders, OM, DBE, FRCP,  founder of the hospice movement  

 

"This is a special gem of a resource for those contending with dying,death, and bereavement. Through its expertly chosen material, Dying, A Book of Comfort informs, guides, and gently enables healthy grief and mourning. I recommend it heartily. 

    ~ Therese A. Rando, author of How to Go On Living When Someone You Love Dies

“Seldom have I read a book that exudes such comfort, such an embrace of genuine insight, care and support....The book’s gift, and it is a rich treasure for the reader, is that it embraces who we are.... The book can be read cover to cover, or just pick out a page. Something will leap off the page, a story, a quote, a reading, narrative couplings of diverse themes colorfully worded by the author/scribe, to give you the needed word or embrace....This book needs wide circulation. The bereaved deserve this, and the book will help all of us.”  ~ Rev. Richard B. Gilbert, director, World Pastoral Care Center, in Resources Hotline

 

"It is by far the best book of its kind that I have come across (and, over the years, I have come across many). It has passages from so many of the writers that I know and have taught and Pat McNees has such good judgment."

                    ~ Carol Brown

“The subject of death is so rife with terror that it takes a calm and sure hand like Pat McNees’s to soothe, help us understand, and finally, rejoice in life. This is an important and very dear book.”  ~ Sherry Suib Cohen, author of  Secrets of a Very Happy Marriage

“A remarkable collection (331 pages) of quotations of comfort.” ~ Ernest Morgan, Dealing Creatively with Death

"For those who face the lonely reality of death, this book provides understanding and much-needed solace.

      ~ Claire Berman, author of Caring for Yourself While Caring for Your Aging Parents

“McNees has provided a remarkable anthology of insights, comforting words, stories, reassurance, and guidance for the journey of dying and grieving. Fourteen chapters delve artfully and compassionately into a full range of dying, death, and bereavement topics. An index by author ‘Names’ and another by ‘Titles and Selected First Lines’ make it possible to return and savor the many rich offerings she has gathered.”

"Dying, A Book of Comfort is THE book to press into the hands of those you love, read out loud in the company of others, and reflect on after they have all gone home. Pat McNees gently guides us as we reluctantly explore the far side of forever."

                       ~ Lynne Lamberg, author of The Body Clock Guide to Better Health

In process of revising the order page so that it works!
Buy Now - Dying: A Book of Comfort

Please read this at least once before this situation arises!

• Call 911 for heart attack or stroke symptoms, or just drive to the ER? What doctors say you should do (American Heart Association News, 4-15-25)

 

Meanwhile, assuming you've read that article and are back to leisure reading, one of my most reliable friends/editors asked me to share this advice (yes, I know, I wondered what 1 and 2 were also, but they were clearly in the nature of throat-clearing): 

 

Suppose you might be having a heart attack:

 

3. Suddenly you start experiencing severe pain in your chest that starts to drag out into your arm and up in to your jaw. You are only about five km from the hospital nearest your home.

4. Unfortunately you don't know if you'll be able to make it that far.

5. You have been trained in CPR, but the guy who taught the course did not tell you how to perform it on yourself.

6. HOW TO SURVIVE A HEART ATTACK WHEN ALONE? Since many people are alone when they suffer a heart attack without help, the person whose heart is beating improperly and who begins to feel faint, has only about 10 seconds left before losing consciousness.

7. However, these victims can help themselves by coughing repeatedly and very vigorously. A deep breath should be taken before each cough, and the cough must be deep and prolonged, as when producing sputum from deep inside the chest. A breath and a cough must be repeated about every two seconds without let-up until help arrives, or until the heart is felt to be beating normally again.

8. Deep breaths get oxygen into the lungs and coughing movements squeeze the heart and keep the blood circulating. The squeezing pressure on the heart also helps it regain normal rhythm. In this way, heart attack victims can get to a hospital.

• How to tell the difference between a heart attack and panic attack (Catherine S. Williams, American Heart Association News, 7-13-22)

• 7 things to know about how stroke is different for women (American Heart Association News, 5-22-24)

 

Happy birthday, Dad, wherever you are!

 

• Kennedy Flips Food Pyramid to Emphasize Red Meat and Whole Milk (Alice Callahan and Dani Blum, NY Times, 1-7-26)
   "After years of being advised to avoid eating too much red meat and foods high in fats, Americans are now being told to embrace them. The Trump administration released new dietary guidelines on Wednesday, pushing Americans to prioritize protein and cut back on added sugars and processed foods.
   "For months, Mr. Kennedy and Dr. Marty Makary, the Food and Drug Administration commissioner, had said that the new guidelines would end the so-called “war” on saturated fats, prompting consumer health groups and nutrition experts to worry that the new guidelines would recommend that people consume more saturated fats. That move would put people’s health at risk, experts said, since saturated fats have been shown to raise cholesterol levels and the risk of cardiovascular disease.
   "The administration kept the saturated fat recommendation unchanged, suggesting that no more than 10 percent of daily calories should come from the fats.
   "But the guidelines also include the contradictory advice to prioritize foods that are high in saturated fats, such as red meat, full-fat dairy products and butter and beef tallow. Consuming one eight-ounce rib-eye steak, for example, would put many people over their daily saturated fat limit."

     

While research suggests that getting more of your protein from plant rather than animal sources can reduce risks of cardiovascular disease and earlier death, the new guidelines don't steer people toward plant proteins.

 

Would you take nutritional advice from Donald Trump?

What not to do with plastic products.  (revised 10-25-25)

 • Microplastics are everywhere. You can do one simple thing to avoid them. (Shannon Osaka, Washington Post, 10-13-25)

Microplastics, studies increasingly show, are released from exposure to heat.

“Heat makes it easier for microplastics to leach out from packaging materials.”

    Stop putting anything plastic in the microwave.

    Don't pour hot water or hot tea into plastic containers.

    Avoid exposing plastic to heat.
    The effect was even stronger in plastics that are older and degraded. Hot coffee prepared in an eight-year-old home coffee machine with plastic components had twice as many microplastics as coffee prepared in a machine that was only six months old.
    The same effect has been shown in studies looking at how laundry produces microplastics: Higher washing temperatures, scientists have found, lead to more tiny plastics released from synthetic clothing.

    Keeping your plastic away from heat is a low-hanging fruit that can substantially lower your exposure.

 

• The plastic problem isn't your fault, but you can be part of the solution (Rebecca Davis, Audrey Nguyen, Life Kit, NPR,7-12-21)

    "I'm talking about the stuff that comes with food and bottled drinks, cosmetics, carryout containers, bags and wrappers — more than 40% of all plastic made is packaging, which is used only once or twice before being thrown away. Don't we feel at least a little guilty when we toss one plastic snack wrapper or coffee cup after another into the trash?"
    "It's estimated that only about 9% of plastic waste generated in the U.S. is recycled and that the rest ends up in landfills, incinerators and, unfortunately, marine environments such as rivers and oceans. And there, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, it will remain for hundreds of years."

   

• Recycling plastic is practically impossible — and the problem is getting worse (Laura Sullivan, All Things Considered, NPR, 10-24-22)

    "The vast majority of plastic that people use, and in many cases put into blue recycling bins, is headed to landfills, or worse, according to a report from Greenpeace on the state of plastic recycling in the U.S.
    "Greenpeace found that no plastic — not even soda bottles, one of the most prolific items thrown into recycling bins — meets the threshold to be called "recyclable" according to standards set by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation New Plastic Economy Initiative. Plastic must have a recycling rate of 30% to reach that standard; no plastic has ever been recycled and reused close to that rate.'

• Ocean plastics: How much do rich countries contribute by shipping their waste overseas? (Hannah Ritchie, Our World in Data, 10-5-23)
Nearly one-quarter of the world’s plastic waste is mismanaged or littered. Around 82 million tonnes. This means it’s not stored in secure landfills, recycled or incinerated.
    One-quarter of that – 19 million tonnes – is leaked to the environment. 13 million tonnes to terrestrial environments, and 6 million tonnes to rivers or coastlines.
     1.7 million tonnes of this is then transported to the ocean: 1.4 million tonnes from rivers, and 0.3 million tonnes from coastlines. The rest of the plastic waste that was leaked into aquatic environments accumulated in rivers and lakes.

 

  The Myth of Plastic Recycling (Laura Sullivan, Emily Kwong, Rebecca Ramirez, NPR, 12-08-22)

   "Only a small fraction of plastic is ultimately recycled.     

   A recent Greenpeace report found that people may be putting plastic into recycling bins — but the amount of plastic transformed into new items in the U.S. is at a new roughly 5-6% low.
    "The plastic industry has spent tens of millions of dollars promoting the benefits of plastic, a product that, for the most part, was buried, was burned or, in some cases, wound up in the ocean. The problem has existed for decades. In all that time, less than 10 percent of plastic has ever been recycled."

• Plastic-Free July Every piece of plastic that’s ever been created still exists in our world. Single-use plastic is the worst culprit. It’s manufactured to last forever, yet it’s often used for only a few minutes before being thrown away. So what can we do to turn the tide on one of the most urgent issues of our time?

• How to live without plastics for a month, according to the founder of a global movement (Claire Murashima, NPR, 7-2-24)

• Advancing Sustainable Materials Management: 2018 Fact Sheet (EPA, 2018)

• Where does the plastic in our oceans come from?(Hannah Ritchie, Our World in Data, 5-1-21)

   Which countries and rivers emit the most plastic to the ocean? Around 0.5% of plastic waste ends up in the ocean. Most of it stays close to the shoreline. What does this mean for solutions to tackle plastic pollution?  

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Pruritus (proo-RIE-tus) is the medical term for itchiness. The condition causes you to feel the need to scratch your skin to get relief. There are several possible causes for pruritus that include an underlying medical condition, contact with an irritant or a reaction to a medication.

 

Look for entries about the following diseases and conditions on Cleveland Clinic, Mayo Clinic,  Medline Plus, National Institutes of Health (NIH), WebMD, etc.

• How to relieve itching (Medical News Today, Charlotte Lillis, 12-21-23) Common causes of itchy skin include insect bites, allergies, stress, and skin conditions such as eczema and psoriasis.

   Itchy skin, also known as pruritus, can be uncomfortable and frustrating. Some home remedies may help remedy itchy skin, including applying essential oils, wet wraps, and colloidal oatmeal 

   Applying menthol (an essential oil found in plants of the mint family).

   Cooling the itch. Wet wrap therapy (applying water-soaked fabric wraps made of gauze or surgical netting to areas of itchy skin).

   Colloidal oatmeal ("finely ground oatmeal that a person can dissolve in water. The resulting solution forms a protective barrier on the surface of the skin, which helps to seal in moisture. See Yareli Colloidal Oatmeal Powder for psoriasis

    Apple cider vinegar.

    Moisturizing. (Moisturizers, such as creams and lotions, can help hydrate the outermost layer of the skin. They are essential for managing skin conditions that cause itching and dryness.)

    Baking soda. (The NEA recommends adding one-quarter of a cup of baking soda to a warm bath. An alternative option is to mix the baking soda with a little water to form a paste, which a person can apply directly to itchy areas.)

    Avoiding irritants. Possible irritants include: Hot water. Temperature and humidity changes. Fragranced skin care products. Wool and synthetic fabrics. Stress (try yoga and mindfulness meditation).

    Can apple cider vinegar help with eczema? (Medical News Today) Some people use apple cider vinegar to improve the symptoms of eczema. However, it can irritate the skin and may not be suitable for everyone.

 

•  Itching (MedLine Plus) Itching is an irritating sensation that makes you want to scratch your skin. Sometimes it can feel like pain, but it is different. Often, you feel itchy in one area in your body, but sometimes you may feel itching all over. Along with the itching, you may also have a rash or hives. A succinct guide to resources for various subtopics and possible remedies.

     A mini-encyclopedia on itching and itching-related terms. Among possible remedies listed: Try over-the-counter oral antihistamines such as diphenhydramine (Benadryl), but be aware of possible side effects such as drowsiness.

•  The primary NIH organization for research on Itching is the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIAMS)

• A Visual Guide to Viral Rashes (Paul Frerythema infectiosum, Skin Problems and Treatments, WebMD, 11-22-22) 

Excellent photos of skin conditions for chicken pox, shingles, Molluscum contagiosum, fifth disease (erythema infectiosum), cold sores, genital herpes, hand-foot-and-mouth disease, rubella, measles, roseola (sixth disease), Colorado tick fever, HIV rash, Acrodermatitis (Gianotti-Crosti Syndrome), Mononucleosis, and Zika
---Skin Problems & Treatments Resource Center (WebMD)
---Plantar warts and palmar warts (Web MD)
---Psoriasis
---Cold sores (fever blisters)
---Rosacea
---Vitiligo and loss of skin color Vitiligo is a long-lasting condition that causes a loss of color in patches on the skin. It happens when the body's immune system mistakenly attacks and destroys the skin cells that make color or pigment (melanocytes), turning the affected skin milky white.

 

• Parvovirus B19 and Fifth Disease (CDC) Fifth disease is caused by the human parvovirus. It is most prevalent in the winter and spring and is usually seen in school-aged children.

 

• What Makes Us Itch? (American Academy of Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology)

   "Itching can be caused by many different things including allergies, insect bites, dry skin or illness.
    "While most itches are merely bothersome or uncomfortable, excessive scratching can damage your skin’s protective barrier and expose your body to germs and infection.
    "Itch and pain are closely linked in the brain. The reflex to pain is to withdraw. The reflex to itch is to scratch. This reflex is a protective response developed to help animals remove parasites from their skin. That’s why even a slight movement of hairs is enough to make you want to scratch.
    "Itching is often triggered by histamine, a chemical in the body associated with immune responses. It causes the itch and redness you see with insect bites, rashes and skin dryness or damage.
    "Histamine is released by the body during allergic reactions, such as those to pollen, food, latex and medications." [And more. Worth a read.]

 

• Atopic Dermatitis (NIAMS)

    "Atopic dermatitis, often referred to as eczema, is a chronic (long-lasting) disease that causes inflammation, redness, and irritation of the skin. It is a common condition that usually begins in childhood; however, anyone can get the disease at any age. Atopic dermatitis is not contagious, so it cannot be spread from person to person.
     "Atopic dermatitis causes the skin to become extremely itchy. Scratching leads to further redness, swelling, cracking, “weeping” clear fluid, crusting, and scaling. In most cases, there are periods of time when the disease is worse, called flares, followed by periods when the skin improves or clears up entirely, called remissions.
     "Researchers do not know what causes atopic dermatitis, but they do know that genes, the immune system, and the environment play a role in the disease. Depending on the severity and location of the symptoms, living with atopic dermatitis can be hard. Treatment can help control symptoms. For many people, atopic dermatitis improves by adulthood, but for some, it can be a lifelong illness."

• Bathing and Eczema (National Aleczema Organization)
    "Establishing a bathing routine that works for your skin is important for daily eczema management and care....

    "People with eczema, especially atopic dermatitis, tend to have very dry skin in general. A skin barrier that is inflamed or dry is vulnerable to bacteria and allergens, which can make eczema symptoms worse.

    Taking a bath or shower is helpful for eczema. Whether you have mild or severe eczema, a regular bathing and skincare routine can strengthen your skin barrier and help you retain moisture."

• How I Came To Terms With My Eczema Links to several WebMD blog posts about atopic dermatitis.

• Scratching and allergic skin inflammation (NIH Research Matters, 2-25-25) Researchers found how scratching can worsen allergic skin symptoms but also protect from infection. The findings could explain why the instinct to scratch an itch might have evolved in the first place. Targeting mast cells or the neurons that promote their activation could prove to be a promising approach for treating itchy inflammatory diseases like dermatitis and eczema.

 

• Itchy Skin (pruritis) (Mayo Clinic)

• Neuropathic Itch (NIH) Itching is a tingling or irritation of the skin that makes you want to scratch the area. Itching may occur all over the body or only in one location. (Prose academic.)
• Common neuropathic itch syndromes (Anne Louise Oaklander, PubMed) "Patients with chronic itch are diagnosed and treated by dermatologists. However, itch is a neural sensation and some forms of chronic itch are the presenting symptoms of neurological diseases. Dermatologists need some familiarity with the most common neuropathic itch syndromes to initiate diagnostic testing and to know when to refer to a neurologist. This review summarizes current knowledge, admittedly incomplete, on neuropathic itch caused by diseases of the brain, spinal cord, cranial or spinal nerve-roots, and peripheral nerves."

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• 10 Things to Know About Medicaid (Alice Burns, Elizabeth Hinton, Robin Rudowitz, and Maiss Mohamed, KFF, 2-18-25) Whether subsidies expire at the end of this year or in two or three years, their expiration would result in the steepest increase in out-of-pocket premium payments most enrollees in this market have seen. Because the Inflation Reduction Act extends the enhanced subsidies for three years and not permanently, future Marketplace enrollees may see steep premium increases when the subsidies eventually expire.
    Among potential changes to Medicaid through executive actions (under Trump!), this brief highlights ten key things to know about Medicaid (go to the source for full copy).

1. Nationally, one in five people have Medicaid, but this varies across the states (see map).

2. Medicaid is a key source of coverage for certain populations (see chart).

3. Medicaid is jointly financed by the federal government and states (see map).

4. Medicaid accounts for one fifth of all health care spending, and over half of spending on long-term care (see chart).

5. People who qualify for Medicaid based on age or disability account for more than half of spending I (see chart).

6. Flexibility to administer Medicaid results in variation in per enrollee costs across states (see map).

7. Three-quarters of all Medicaid enrollees receive care through comprehensive, risk-based MCOs. 8. Medicaid coverage facilitates access to care, improves health outcomes, and provides financial protection from medical debt.

9. Section 1115 demonstration waivers reflect changing priorities across presidential administrations.

10. The majority of the public holds favorable views of Medicaid.

    In the most recent KFF tracking poll, more than three-fourths (77%) of Americans held favorable views of Medicaid, including six in ten Republicans (63%), and at least eight in ten independents (81%) and Democrats (87%) (Figure 10). Medicaid is also viewed favorably by a majority of voters who say they voted for President Trump in the 2024 election (62%). Nearly half of the public (46%) say the federal government doesn’t spend enough on the Medicaid program, with another third (33%) saying it spends “about the right amount,” and around one in five (19%) saying it spends “too much.”

    With possible changes to government health programs, seven in ten (72%) say they are worried about the level of benefits that will be available to people covered by Medicaid in the future

Topics Medicaid Uninsured Tags Medicaid's Future Access to Care Maternal and Child Health Children Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) Disability Also of Interest Medicaid: What to Watch in 2025 Medicaid Financing: The Basics 10 Things to Know About Medicaid Managed Care
• Medicaid: What to Watch in 2025

• ACA Marketplace Enrollees Will See Steep Increases in Premium Payments in 2026 if Enhanced Subsidies Expire (KFF, 7-6-24) Enrollees in 12 HealthCare.gov states would see their annual payments at least double on average without enhanced subsidies 

• Where ACA Marketplace Enrollment Is Growing the Fastest, and Why (Cynthia Cox and Jared Ortaliza, KFF, 5-16-24) The five states with the fastest growth in Marketplace enrollment since 2020 – Texas (212%), Mississippi (190%), Georgia (181%), Tennessee (177%), and South Carolina (167%) – have certain characteristics in common: They all started off with high uninsured rates before the enhanced subsidies rolled out, they have not expanded Medicaid under the ACA, and they all use the Healthcare.gov enrollment platform.
• What Does the Federal Government Spend on Health Care? (Juliette Cubanski, Alice Burns, and Cynthia Cox, Medicaid, KFF, 2-24-25)
The federal government spent $1.9 trillion on health care programs and services in fiscal year (FY) 2024, 27% of all federal outlays in that year, and collectively the largest category of federal spending.
     Forgone tax revenues to the federal government resulting from tax subsidies for employer sponsored insurance coverage (ESI) and a portion of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) premium tax credits together totaled $398 billion in FY 2024.
     Over 80% of all federal support for health programs and services, including spending and tax subsidies, goes to programs that provide or subsidize health insurance coverage, with

---36% going to Medicare,

---25% going to Medicaid and CHIP,

---17% going to employment-based health coverage, and

---5% going to subsidies for Affordable Care Act (ACA) coverage.
     Discretionary spending is a relatively small component of overall federal support for health programs and services. Over half (52% or $128 billion) of discretionary health spending paid for hospital and medical care for veterans. Discretionary health spending also provides funding for agencies such as the National Institutes of Health (NIH, 19% of discretionary health spending) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC, 4%), as well as global health (4%).

Stories from the Holocaust

of the Nazis, of Jewish Deaths, and of Survival

• Behind a Locked Door: The Villa Where a Doctor Experimented on Children (Margaret Talbot, New Yorker, 10-2-23) As a girl in Austria, Evy Mages was confined to a mysterious institution in Innsbruck. Decades later, she learned why. In final part she documents how she searched for information about her roots.
      "At the villa, Evy had to sleep with a blanket pulled tight under her armpits, her arms ramrod straight by her sides, to insure that her hands couldn’t wander. Socializing was virtually forbidden. Nobody ever told her the reason for these rules."
• Perseverance: One Holocaust Survivor's Journey from Poland to America by Melvin Goldman and Lee Goldman Kikel. Also available, two history units on the Lodz Ghetto for use in classrooms, available through Teachers Pay Teachers
• No More Lies. My Grandfather Was a Nazi. (Silvia Foti, NY Times, 1-27-21) "On her deathbed in 2000, my mother asked me to take over writing a book about her father. I eagerly agreed. But as I sifted through the material, I came across a document with his signature from 1941 and everything changed. The story of my grandfather was much darker than I had known... In Lithuania, he was celebrated as a hero....I concluded that my grandfather was a man of paradoxes, just as Lithuania — a country caught between the Nazi and Communist occupations during World War II, then trapped behind the Iron Curtain for the next 50 years — is full of contradictions."
• We All Bleed Red: A Conversation with Heather Morris (Jane Ratcliffe, LA Review of Books, 1-30-22) Three sisters, Slovakian Jews, were carted off to Auschwitz. Their real-life story is captured in the gut-wrenching yet stubbornly hopeful novel Three Sisters. A Q&A interview, partly about abuse the women suffered in the camps. "You've got to acknowledge this! We allowed these women to go to their deaths 60 or 70 years later, carrying the shame of having been abused, when it was never their shame, it was ours."
• Cantor has one more lesson to share with his bar and bat mitzvah students: a personal look at the Holocaust (John Barry, St. Petersburg Times, 11-25-09)
• Cousins who survived Holocaust reunite in Broward after almost 70 years (Elinor Brecher, Miami Herald 3-11-12). The two men, who last saw each other in a concentration camp, fulfilled a dream Sunday in Tamarac as they met again, thanks to a memoir that one wrote.

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• Introduction to the Holocaust (Holocaust Encyclopedia, U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum)
---The Nazi Persecution of Black People in Germany
---African Americans in Nazi Germany
---The Nazi Olympics Berlin 1936: African American Voices and "Jim Crow" America
---What were some similarities between racism in Nazi Germany and in the United States, 1920s-1940s?
---The Reichstag Fire
---Nazi Party Platform
---Antisemitism
---Documenting Numbers of Victims of the Holocaust and Nazi Persecution
---The Nuremberg Race Laws
---Postwar Trials
---International Military Tribunal
---Subsequent Nuremberg Proceedings

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• Echos of Memory (United States Holocaust Memorial Museum) An ongoing collection of survivor reflections, memories, and testimonies, written by Holocaust survivors in their own words.
• Finding My Father’s Auschwitz File (Allen Hershkowitz, New York Review of Books, 1-25-19) A detailed account of what a long-term survivor of the Nazi concentration camps went through and how he survived.
• Found in Translation (Tyler Foggatt, New Yorker, 12-23-19) Lithuanian cartoonist and translator iglė Anušauskaitė travelled to New York to find missing sections of young Jews’ autobiographies, hidden in Vilnius during the Second World War. A contest for the “best Jewish youth autobiography,” open to young men and women, was interrupted by Germany's invasion of Poland in 1939. A group of Jews managed to smuggle out thousands of texts.

• A Trove of Yiddish Artifacts Rescued From the Nazis, and Oblivion (Joseph Berger, NY Times, 10-18-17) "Many of the items, the experts said, offer glimpses into the hardscrabble everyday lives of the Jews of Eastern Europe when the region, not Israel or the Lower East Side, was the center of the Jewish world."
• The Nazis took a precious kettle from a Jewish couple. Some 86 years later, their grandson in Maryland got it back.(Sydney Page, Washington Post, 10-16-2020)
• A family hid their Bible in an attic as Nazis invaded. Almost 80 years later, it was reunited with the family’s heirs. (Nicole Asbury, Washington Post, 8-24-21) Listen or read.

• The Louvre is showing Nazi-looted art in a bid to find its owners. Some wonder why it took so long.(McAuley, 2-2-18) 

•  A Paris exhibit of Nazi-looted art honors a Europe many fear is under threat again (James McAuley, WaPo, 2-28-17)

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• History Unfolded: US Newspapers and the Holocaust What did American newspapers report about Nazi persecution during the 1930s and 1940s? You can help the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum answer this question. "History Unfolded is a project of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC. It asks students, teachers, and history buffs throughout the United States what was possible for Americans to have known about the Holocaust as it was happening and how Americans responded. Participants look in local newspapers for news and opinion about 32 different Holocaust-era events that took place in the United States and Europe, and submit articles they find to a national database, as well as information about newspapers that did not cover events."
• 'He Was Sent by God to Take Care of Us': Inside the Real Story Behind Schindler's List (Olivia B. Waxman, Time, 12-7-18) Twenty-five years later, the film is seen as a realistic depiction of life during the Holocaust, in terms of the brutality of the Nazis and the lifestyles of those they persecuted, though it does stray from the real story in a few big ways.
• His father brought hundreds of Jewish tailors to Canada - now he's stitching together their stories (Ryan Patrick Jones, CBC, 4-17-18) When Max Enkin led a Canadian delegation to the displaced persons camps of Europe in 1948, he was looking for more than tailors. The Tailor Project — formally known as the "garment workers' scheme" — was an immigration program that brought around 2,000 displaced people from Europe to Canada to work in the clothing industry. More than half were Jewish. It was the first program that permitted large numbers of Jewish adults to immigrate to Canada following the Second World War. "It opened the doors," said Larry Enkin, 89, the son of Max Enkin. "Slowly but surely Canada began to accept Jews as part of the community."

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• Homecoming II (Henrietta Rose-Innes on the quiet secrets of her Cape Town home, Granta)
• Holocaust survivor breaks decades-long silence to share her horrific story (Buffalo News, 1-27-2018) For more than seven decades, Edith Fox kept her Holocaust story inside. To make sure people never forget the Holocaust, she finally told her story to Nina Trasoff, Fox’s “friendly visitor” through a Jewish Family and Children’s Services program in Tucson designed to keep Holocaust survivors active, and to family friend Sharon Price.
• Holocaust Survivor Reunites with the Family That Helped Hide Her from the Nazis After 73 Years (Lindsay Kimble, People magazine, 12-7-18) Charlotte Adelman, 86, was only 11 in 1943 when her Jewish family was separated, and her father orchestrated a daring escape to Eastern France, where she lived in hiding with the Quatrevilles for nearly two years. In November 2014, she received a message. The young boy whose family had hid her from the Nazis in a cellar for nine months during the Holocaust wanted to reconnect.
•The Holocaust Survivors Who Take Care of Their Own (Marina Kamenev, Narratively, 3-7-18) As the children of the war reach old age, one group of survivors is teaching nursing home workers how to treat a type of trauma that only they can understand. Australia has the largest per-capita survivor population outside of Israel, and those who were born during the Second World War are already in their seventies.
• Holocaust survivors will be able to share their stories after death thanks to a new project (video, Leslie Stahl, 60 Minutes, 4-5-2020) Survivors of the Holocaust now have the chance to preserve their stories in a way that allows them to directly answer future generations' questions about their experiences.