Just as oxidation causes iron to rust and brass to tarnish, it causes our cells to rust and tarnish, only figuratively and not literally…unless the Tin Man is part of the gene pool. When you get stressed out—and there’s a litany of reasons for that—your body makes oxidative chemicals that hasten aging, increase cardiovascular risk, and set the stage for myriad chronic and acute illnesses, including relatively benign things like colds.

Listen to a lie long enough and you’ll start to accept it as the truth. Didn’t the tobacco industry use images of physicians and athletes to sell cigarettes back in the last century? Babe Ruth hawked White Owl cigars and Raleigh cigarettes. William Bendix sold Chesterfield. The highly-trusted and unquestionably credible FDA had a meeting last March to discuss the properties of artificial food colorings and evaluate their relationship to hyperactivity in children.

Can there be too much of a good thing? Drinking too much water can dilute the electrolytes in the body and short circuit the wiring. It’s called water intoxication, and can lead to death. Though eating too much candy might not cause a person to die, the resultant stomach distress might bring on the wish to expire early.

Many people think that vitamin K is used by the body only to clot blood after getting a cut. That’s true, but this nutrient is much more complicated than that. Because it’s fat-soluble, it requires fat to be absorbed, but unlike some other fat-soluble vitamins, it doesn’t get stored anywhere in large amounts. Its name came from the German word koagulation in 1929, immediately after its newly discovered function.

If you’re among the susceptible, the first whack in the face by a giant pollen ball is enough to set you back. You get the runny nose, the watery eyes, the headaches and all the accessories. If they were temporary symptoms, you wouldn’t pay much attention. A handful of tissues and a couple of antihistamines, and you’re on your way.

There are too many things we take for granted. When it comes to health, if it doesn’t hurt, we don’t pay attention to it. This is the case with the solvents we use around the house, including the apparently harmless cleaners and the more aggressive degreasers and thinners. The solvents used at the workplace are considerably more powerful.

If mental health is defined as a state of emotional and psychological well-being in which an individual is able to use his or her cognitive and emotional capabilities, function in society, and meet the ordinary demands of everyday life, then we need to take care of the garage in which this vehicle is kept.

Ahh, yes, that state of rest for body and soul. It’s the time when will power and consciousness are suspended, and when body functions are mostly in neutral. Most sleep scientists agree that sleep has considerable value as a recuperative and adaptive function in humans.

A topic of considerable debate in recent days is alkalized water. From a chemical point of view this raises both eyebrows and evokes a grin. A review of the meaning of pH might help to explain the absurdity of alkaline—or acidic, for that matter—water. You remember that pH is a measure of acidity or alkalinity of a liquid using a scale that ranges from 0 to 14, with 7 being neutral.