Past cautions about the use of cough medicine in children and antibacterial soap have recently turned into strong warnings to avoid these products due to harm and lack of benefit.

FDA: No Antibacterial Soap

At the beginning of the month, the FDA came out with a ban on marketing antibacterial soaps for consumer use. The popularity of these soaps has grown over the years with consumers thinking they are protecting themselves from dangerous germs. The FDA's report found no evidence of benefit from these antibacterial products over regular soap. Over time, there could be harm from using these products on a regular basis. Common antibacterial chemical triclosan has been found to accumulate in the body and has been linked to various health issues due to its interference with hormones.

AAP: No Codeine (Cough Medicine) for Children

Not much later, the American Academy of Pediatric released a report warning against the use of codeine in children (commonly found in cough syrup). The report confirmed prior studies that found an increased risk of harm to children under 18 when taking codeine products. Some children's bodies convert codeine into morphine so quickly that they effectively overdose, experiencing life-threatening breathing problems. The risk was especially high with those children who already have difficulty breathing before taking the medicine. Furthermore, research has found mixed pain-relieving benefit and no evidence of cough-relieving benefit to the medication - the main two reasons it's used.

With cold and flu season approaching, it's important to follow healthy habits to keep your family healthy. Regular hand washing with regular soap is a good idea, along with a healthy diet and activity levels. Supplements or herbs can also help minimize issues and support a healthy immune response, without the side effects and risks. And while a clean environment is good, an antiseptic/sterilized environment is not, so let the kids get dirty once and awhile.

What's really going on at the local farm you drive by at 55 mph? Or that farm thousands of miles away that produced the meat you're eating for dinner? The difference can be astounding, as explained in two books: The Meat Racket and Gaining Ground.

As doctors, we often discuss the negative health impacts of poor farming choices such as feeding cattle grain and antibiotics in confined feedlots, injecting them with hormones, and using muscle growing medications like Zilmax; using any means to produce more meat faster. These practices don't only occur at the expense of the animal and our health from eating it; there's an increasingly negative impact on the family farm. America's industrial farming system has caused a steady economic decline in rural America that will only be reversed when we consume more local, quality meat and produce.

Gaining Ground tells the story of a young farmer in the mid 1990s trying to find his way naturally raising livestock outside of the industrial farm system, while attempting to save the family farm. He blazes a trail for a new (but really old, traditional) way of farming in a world that has forgotten cattle are made to eat grass, not corn.  Forrest discovers that pigs aren't animals that like to live in filth. They are amazing soil tillers in search of bugs, roots, and anything edible, leaving behind the ingredients for a lush restored pasture once allowed to move on to a new patch of land.

Forrest's farming adventure is both funny and insightful. Mistakes are made and lessons are learned. His story allows us to appreciate our local farmers' endless (not always profitable) work to provide us with high quality, healthy food for our families. The increase in farmers' markets and local farms selling directly to customers is evidence of consumers demanding better and farmers answering the call. More farmers out there are trying to provide our families with food that contributes to our health rather than wreaking havoc on it. All we have to do is buy it.