As I take a break from the book of medicine, I'd like to suggest something that has probably helped my peace of mind and my health and even my energy level more than possibly anything I've done in the last seven years. It was a vacation to Hawaii. You won't find something like that in a medical book, but the concept of getting away from everything and relaxing is something that is widely recommended and historically has been recommended by many doctors. There's something special about Hawaii, however it is difficult to describe. About seven years ago I took a vacation to Hawaii and stayed in a beach condo. We rented a nice little place on the beach and stayed there for about 10 days. It was a fantastic experience. Just recovering from jet lag by sleeping in the beach breeze was an experience that I still haven't forgotten and probably never will. I learned to love mahi-mahi, I hiked up Diamond Head and several other small mountains in the area. Plus I went jogging several miles each day.

Oh and on my healthy Hawaiian vacation I also spent a lot of time in the water!

I am definitely going to go back to Hawaii someday soon. Knowing what I know today, I will probably try something a little different but stay focused on the same theme. I've been researching why Makena oceanfront condo and based on some of the pictures I've seen I think I'm definitely going to try them out.

Soaking up Ecotourism in Hawaii

While we were there the first time, we soaked up a lot of the local culture and the landscape. In retrospect that seems essential to the concept of having a healthy Hawaii vacation. after all it wouldn't be that healthy if we visited and harmed the environment or impaired the culture or did something damaging. It seems to me to be very important to visit a place and leave it as good as you found it and if possible maybe a little better. This kind of touches on the theme of ecotourism. Ecotourism is the concept of visiting a place, and helping the local ecosystem and the local culture and possibly the local economy. We did all those things when we visited, and that helped us make a longer lasting connection during our vacation. The last thing you want is to stay in some cold corporate hotel, the type of place that you can find anywhere in the world only to walk away from the vacation more drained than when you started. Kind of like eating at McDonalds. We soaked up the culture and the history and the beauty of the environment and that's what made our vacation special.

Additional Articles from the Book of Medicine:

• Cholera Infection
  
  

  Cholera Infection. — a few days after their return the same terrible disease rapidly attack other members of the household, so that, within a fortnight, and that one little circle, 11 person’s had been seized with cholera, including a mother, father, grandmother, two daughters, sons, doctor, serving lad, serving maid, labor and countrywoman, and of these 11 only three survived, namely, the Sun, a daughter and a serving lad. Later, in the countrywoman’s family, there was another fatal case. It cannot well be doubted, concluded Mr. Simon, but that the exciting cause of the succession of events was in some way or other the return of the parents from Weymouth-of the father with the remains of choleraic diarrhea upon him, of the mother with apparently the beginnings of the same complaint. But this is only part of the case, and the remainder teaches a most impressive lesson. All the drinking water used in the house came from a well beneath the floor of the scullery, and into that well there was habitual  soakage from the water closet.

  Now for some people reviewing 100 year old accounts of cholera epidemics might be about as exciting as reviewing marketing budgets and covering line items for promotional pens to insure that enough red pens versus blue pens have been ordered. That said this actually has some very interesting historical references in the next few sections so don’t miss them.

• Bed Bugs
  
  

  Bed Bugs.–The bedbug is a small but plainly visible ovoid-shaped bug, giving off a peculiar nauseous odor. It is of a reddish brown or rusty color with some discoloration on the abdomen and is furnished with a puncturing or sucking apparatus. The eggs are tiny white oval bodies. As many as 6 to 50 batches are laid in cracks of beds, furniture, picture frames, wall paper, crevices of woodwork, floors, etc. Each batch of eggs develops in from 6 to 11 weeks, and several batches may be hatched in a season. One generation succeeds another as long as the temperature remains sufficiently elevated.

  Not exactly the type of thing that many people worry about much in the twentieth century a hundred years after the writing of this article, but these pests are possible in modern times from foreign countries to Mediterranean cruises to homes and beds that are infested accidentally or through neglect.

  They hibernate during cold weather, during which season the insect is merely stupefied and renews its activities upon the return of warm surroundings. It is found in the dwellings of man, but other species of the same family have been found upon birds, as the common chimney swallow, pigeons and bats.

  The bedbug comes out at night and begins to bite and annoy. It conceals itself very cleverly and quickly in the day time or when surprised by a sudden light at night. It lives on the blood of man particularly, but can exist on food of other insects. It thrives best on filth and in old houses can keep alive without food for a year.

  Bedbugs are said to transmit smallpox. There is a possibility of their carrying the germs of typhoid fever and leprosy, but this fact has not been proven as yet. The bite is poisonous to some individuals, resulting in inflammation at the seat of the bite. This is supposed to be due to the same secretion which gives the characteristic nauseous odor.

• How to Eliminate the Breeding Places of Flies
  
  

  How to Eliminate the Breeding Places of Flies.-flies breed by laying Lara by or eggs which can be seen as maggots in all undisturbed till.  It requires eight days for the millions of eggs to grow.  Keep garbage can tightly covered, protect by screen so that flies cannot reach the garbage.  See the garbage is collected promptly and cleanly.  If you live in the country, burned or bury it.  Allowed no filth or decaying matter of any kind to accumulate in or near your premises.  Keep stable clean, placed in Newark, old straw, etc., in screened pits, vault, or in boxes or barrels which should be well covered.  Screen all previous, vault and openings to cesspools or drainage structures.  See that they do not overflow and use chloride of lying freely.  Pour kerosene into drains, keep drainage systems in good order and repair all leaks at once.  Destroy sawdust custom doors, they are unsanitary.  Clean custom doors daily and keep a 5% carbolic acid solution in them all the time.  Permit no dirt to accumulate in corners, behind doors, back of radiators, under still owes, et cetera.  If there is a nuisance in the neighborhood, notify the nearest health authority.

  Well pouring kerosene into water drains these days would definitely be something that the EPA would have a problem with.  But you can and must understand the naïve concepts if they had about protecting their homes and households from disease and other infectious things that could hurt them immediately and possibly have prevented them from seeing the long-term problems that might have come from contaminants going into water supply.  They can see the cause-and-effect problems of disease, but they could oversee the cause-and-effect relating to contamination of other items such as kerosene mixing with water supplies.  We are talking about serious issues keeping people healthy as opposed to coming up with tips on the best acne treatment for a teenager.