LetLucia

                                                            First of all, I’m sorry for being MIA! I know everyone complains about this adulting thing and I won’t be an exception *straight face*. I’ve just been trying to sort myself out for some time and couldn’t get to writing articles. But, hey, I’m back now and I hope you missed me even though I know you didn’t *cries*. Okay, to the business of the day. Back then, in like high school, it was considered cool to be allergic to something. If you had an allergy, you were perceived to be an Ajebutter* (a Nigerian slang for ‘Fancy’ or having lived a pampered life) and the rest of us who didn’t even know what the word meant were considered Ajepako (…you guessed right, ‘not-fancy’! More like from tha ghetto-ish…you get the point). Then to be allergic to the sun or heat?? Hi Angel! Are we lucky to have you on earth or what?! Can I be your bestfriend?                                                            So, when my friend to

I’ve been there, done that, and have my gym clothes to show for it. There are times I have complained to my ever patient friends that I have gained weight, when in reality, I’m just bloated. There’s a difference between bloating and weight gain! Who knew? It’s not all the time that you gain actual weight, and by that, I mean fat. Weight gain could be caused by excess fat accumulating in various parts of the body, whereas, bloating is all in the tummy mostly caused by gas. And trust me, if it is weight gain, you’d know because it happens everywhere! Arms, face, thighs, even your eyes…just kidding. But yeah, everywhere because fat distributes evenly all over the body. You might suffer bloating if your sleeping habit changes (impeding metabolism), or you have a desk job where you have to sit for long hours. Also, you might notice your tummy swells after eating. No worries because that’s just you being satisfied (yum). But when it persists and even starts to hurt, that’s bloa

I read this article on lifehacker  website and just couldn’t stop laughing like a crazy person! From the article to the comments…hilarious! But hey, it made sense. Okay, call it gold digging or searching for treasures in this cave in your face, we can all at least agree that we are guilty of doing this (except me *flips hair*). Okay okay, maybe not in public (I see you, don’t lie…LOL), but at some point when you feel the snot or booger, or when your friend tells you ‘there’s a man in your nose’ (I just let out a trade secret! Ooops!), you stylishly reach for it to get it out so you can be freeee! (Feeling smart and stylish *grin*). The comfort is good but the likely effect probably isn’t. While trying to unhook the booger from the walls of your nose, you are likely to scratch the nasal cavity without realizing (that’s how small the abrasion can be) causing it to bleed. The blood could encourage the proliferation of organisms like Staph aureus which aren’t very friendly ger

I know there are a gazillion articles on the internet that scream the effects of smoking, and I know it seems rather unnecessary to add mine to the large pool. But that just shows how important it is to people who care that people who smoke know what they might be doing to themselves. I know that people smoke to relieve stress and feel good, but it really doesn’t help much. So, let me, Lucia (get it? Let Lucia...lol) tell you some facts about smoking I thought were interesting and hope that it changes someone’s mind. 1.        Nicotine is an insecticide! Ahhhh! *screams in horror* Seriously, it is. I would have said to google it, but I will give you the information right here, cos I am nice *wink wink*. Nicotine actually is a natural insecticide found in the tobacco plant. The amount of nicotine in a cigarette has been increased to heighten pleasure. Even worse is the fact that half the ingredients in a cigarette are things you would find disgusting on a normal day, such

                                                 It’s all fun and games till you meet a burn survivor. At Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas, it was fire safety awareness week last week, and we had two burn survivors as guest speakers. They survived an arson fire that happened in their dorm in Seton Hall University, New Jersey, in the year 2000. Their names are Alvaro and Shawn, and they were two eighteen year old college freshmen who were one of the 58 people to get burned that fateful morning. By God’s grace, they pulled through and lived to tell the story. 3 students died as a result of the incident, and 4 out of the 58 students and fire fighters were severely burned, including Alvaro and Shawn. You can read more about the story here . I decided to write an article on fire safety based on what I learned from Alvaro and Shawn’s story. They mentioned that if they had learned the exit routes a little better, they would have known to turn left to safety, instead

thefruitdoctor.com Cancer is a something that has affected me personally on 2 occasions, taking away people that meant a lot to me. If I could take back the hands of time, I would probably have started this blog earlier, but even then, the internet was not as popular as it is now, and I was too young to fully understand what cancer really meant. The truth about cancer is that a variety of risk factors can be associated with one type of cancer. For example, smoking, a bad diet, genes, and alcohol intake are all risk factors just for breast cancer, and there is more. Before we even go on, let me define cancer just so we know what we are talking about. It is the uncontrolled growth of a cell. Like I said on an earlier post about ugly bananas , cells are supposed to continuously divide. When they can no longer do this and continue to grow, they become cancerous and can spread that inability to other cells in the body. To defeat cancer, early detection is crucial, and of course,

Recyclepoints.com                                                           Yup, you can! Let us be honest, sometimes, doing things like recycling to keep the environment healthy and save the world could be a bit of a hassle and could be inconvenient, especially for people who have other things that they are passionate about. Am I kinda right? Sometimes, we do not see the need to do something if there isn’t an immediate reward and recycling could easily be one of those activities whose reward comes a little later than expected. Inconvenience is another huge downer when it comes to recycling. If the bin is too far away, it could really discourage a person. But do not listen to that voice! Don’t give up - Recycle Points is here to save the day! Yaay! So, there is a fantastic group currently running a venture in Lagos, Nigeria called Recycle Points that saw this problem and came up with a brilliant idea to incentivize recycling! Here is how it works: When consumers hand over rec

                                      Okay parents, now let’s get information *in Beyoncé’s voice*. The reason why this might just interest parents is because kids are the most vulnerable due to their cute small bodies, and because they are usually unable to explain what they are experiencing. Hence the job of the parents to be very vigilant after the child gets out of the pool. Now, don’t freak out! It is an extremely, extremely rare situation. They only cause about 2% of drowning. So, pump on the breaks a little. There is something called ‘ Dry drowning ’ and another thing called ‘ Secondary drowning ’ which typically occur up to 24 hours after a child has gotten out of a pool, and has probably even forgotten that they went swimming that day. Both situations occur when the child breathes in water when swimming. In the case of dry drowning, the water does not get to the lungs but instead, causes the vocal chords to become tighter creating difficulty in breathing. For secon

One of the safety signs at Laguna Beach, Orange County, California Sometime during the spring break, I visited California, and of course, I visited one of the beautiful beaches in the area, Laguna Beach to be precise. It was my first time on a beach in the US and I couldn’t help but notice the various safety signs and notifications around the beach. It was like I was in the CIA and taking mental notes of what was around me. I also noticed that lifeguards would come by in their vehicles at intervals to warn about the tide, especially when the sun began to go down and whenever they saw that you were going too far into the water. My best friend, whom I was visiting, told me to write about beach safety but I wasn’t sure what to write. I knew that there were a lot of safety concerns about the beach but I was just really blank. Sadly, I got news today that two ladies drowned at a beach back home in Nigeria and I felt terrible. The news pushed me to finally write an article on be

You would sometimes hear people say things like ‘I function better at night’ or ‘I am a morning person’. This is as a result of their body’s ‘circadian rhythm’ which is the natural functional pattern following the normal 24 hours where it knows to sleep at night, wake up when it is bright and even when to eat…all in the brain. It is what the body has come to know over time, and when that rhythm is disturbed, people may start to feel like they are not functioning right. This also gives an explanation for what happens when you travel to a different time zone and you say you are ‘jet lagged’. It is because your circadian rhythm has been disturbed and your body needs time to adjust to the new situation. Like every other ‘disturbance’ to the body, working night shifts and depriving your body of sleep has an effect over time if not properly managed. I have friends who work night shifts and I find myself worrying about their health. The most common problem with workin

Hi there! I know, I know, I have been MIA. I apologize. I have been trying to get this degree so that you  can trust the information that I render..LOL! In other words, I just graduated with a  Master’s in Public Health (Environmental and Occupational Health). Yaaay and thank you! Which brings  me to the reason for this post. So, there was this really cool idea by 3 really cool and extraordinary Engineers to promote STEM  (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) among young girls in Africa and they started an  NGO to help encourage women to be like Beyonce! (Just kidding)…But, yes, they decided to use the  platform to let girls know that they can be successful in the world of STEM and can use their knowledge  as equally as their male counterparts, who we appreciate and applaud.                                 So, as a lady in the STEM world, I gladly volunteered to join the team because I want to promote Environmental Health in  Nigeria and AFROT